Sew Merry: String Wall Art

Well, here we are again. Christmastime! I love everything about Christmas including the crazy shopping. I look forward to this time all year long and so when it comes, I savor it. I also drag it out as long as possible. I usually start planning sometime in the summer by collecting ideas. But, I always wait until the day after Thanksgiving to actually put anything up in my home. So now we begin a journey for this next month with all things Christmas! Yay! This year, the theme is:

I had started gathering ideas and just couldn’t decide what I should call it. And then I realized that most of the stuff I was making used some sort of sewing supplies. Maybe not all of my projects will call for sewing stuff, but a bunch of them will. Ready? Here we go!

Many of you know that I not only decorate my own home, but I also decorate for our church. I love it because I get to do things on a large scale. The project I’m about to share with you has been on my mind for a couple of years. And I finally got to do it. It was worth the wait because it turned out so cool! Here it is, string art on the wall:

Like I said, I have seen string art in various forms and I have been wanting to do it on the wall for quite some time. But, I knew it would leave a million nail holes and my husband would never go for that. This year though, was the perfect year for it. We are getting ready to put up wood across the front wall in the sanctuary at church and so, since I knew it was my only chance, I asked Jason if we could delay the project so I could have my string art for Christmas. Then, afterward, we will take it all down and cover it up with wood. No harm done, right?! Here is how this whole project went down…

I had Jason snap a couple of photos of this in the works. First, I made an overhead transparency with the design I wanted. I just made a bunch of houses and trees and a church and printed on transparency. I didn’t really lay it out in order because I wasn’t sure how far it would cover. So I just did the layout as I was working on it. Once I had the first design in place, I started nailing in nails (they must have nail heads so the string won’t slip off) on the points of the design.

Once I had all of the nails in place, I started stringing along. I used cheap acrylic yarn and started wrapping around the nails, going from one to the next until they made the design. I kept the overhead projecting until I finished so I could see the design the whole time to know where to direct the string.

After I finished the first building, I just kept moving my overhead to a new spot until I got all of the trees and houses done. Then I added the Peace On Earth at the top. I love how it turned out! And, it was such an inexpensive project for such a large statement. The whole thing only cost about $10. Well, I guess if you have to fill in all those nail holes afterward it might cost you a bit more :)

A few close ups so you can see the construction of it :)

And here is the whole room with everything back in place. Don’t look too close or you will see all of the million unfinished projects I have left to do (lots of painting!).

Pretty cool huh?! I’m so glad I finally got to do this. Now I can move on to other projects that seem impossible for one reason or another :)

Do you have any Christmas projects in the works? If you have them posted anywhere, let me know in the comments. I would love to see them!

P.S. There is a new post on my photography blog. Check it out here!