DIY Nail and String Art

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What do you give someone who has nearly everything already? Like your parents. They’re so incredibly hard to pick out gifts for. Well, if they’re  a die-hard Tennessee fan and you’re doing a homemade Christmas you give them Tennessee Power T nail and string art.

I mean, obviously.

Mr. Mike is the perfect example of that. He’s really hard in my head to gift give. The truth is though, he loves anything he gets. At least he is gracious enough to pretend. This year when we gave him his Power T he seemed genuinely excited for it.

This little project was super fun and it was a team effort between TJ and I, so it was double the fun. TJ planes down an old barn wood plank and made a cute little frame for it. Then he printed me out the T and cut it and I got to hammering.

The hammering was surprisingly therapeutic. Not because I have aggression or anything, just because it felt very productive. Every nail that was hammered got closer to making a picture and then it was like a race against myself. I kept thinking, “how fast can I get all these nails in?”

I am anxious to try more difficult images and designs, but really glad I started with something easy like the T. When I first sent TJ the picture of it before I had trimmed and glued the ends he was teasing me and wrote back, “NAILED IT!”

A few days before Christmas, TJ surprised me with his own nail and string art for my birthday. It made my day. He got creative with the embroidery floss and used all the Mardi Grass colors. Be still my little heart. He’s so sweet.

Yes, his does look far superior to mine. He has beautiful craftsmanship. It comes from years of working alongside his diy-er parents with power tools and many other tools. I am still learning.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• a piece of wood to nail to (if you want to paint it, don’t forget to do that before hand. ;p)

• a hammer

• a stencil of your choice – I printed out the power T for University of Tennessee, TJ used the state of Louisiana

• nails – I used

•embroidery floss – I used all the strands to wrap

•glue gun and glue stick – to secure/reinforce the tied off ends