String Heart Art

Love is in the nail with this Valentine’s Day wall art

BY KATIE HASSELL

Wood (we used a 10-by-10-inch finished wood plaque from the craft store)

Printer paper Permanent marker

1-inch nails (we used all-purpose wood nails)

Hammer

Scissors

Red yarn

Heart design drawn or printed on paper

1. First, decide the size of art you want to make. You can build your own plaque or purchase one already made from the craft store.

2. Make a heart-shaped stencil. Fold a piece of printer paper in half. Using a permanent marker draw half a heart on the folded edge. Flip the paper over and draw the other half of the heart by tracing the shape from the first side. We used an 8-by-8-inch square.

3. Position the paper stencil and use some tape to secure it on the plaque.

4. Grab your hammer and nails. Hammer the nails all around your heart stencil. Try and keep the spacing and height of the nails consistent. The closer the nails are together the tighter the yarn weave will be.

5. Peel off the paper stencil.

6. Grab your yarn. Start by tying the yarn to the nail that makes up the bottom point of the heart. Leave an inch or two of extra yarn.

7. Take the yarn all the way around the outside of the nails. When you get to the middle inside point, loop the yarn around the nail and continue around the outside of the shape back down to the bottom point.

8. Start weaving the yarn from one nail to the next. There’s no real pattern. Just make sure to get every nail and even coverage.

9. Once done weaving, bring the yarn back down to the bottom point nail and tie it off with the extra yarn left in the beginning. Once the yarn is secure, cut off the excess.