String Art Signs for Teachers

We have another teacher in the family! My niece graduates from college with her teaching degree this weekend and so I made her this String Art Sign as a gift for her classroom. 

(It would also make a great end of year/teacher appreciation gift for your favorite teachers!)

Here's how we made it:

In preparation of this project, I enlisted my husband to cut, sand and stain a board for me. 

While he was busy in the garage, I got to work on the computer and printed out a template. She will be teaching elementary grades, so I chose an easy to read, non-cursive font. After printing, we took a ruler and marked every few centimeters along the letters, so that we would know where to put the nails. Once the stain was dry, (like a day later) we used painters tape to secure the template and then used a drill with an ity-bity drill bit to pre-drill the nail holes.

We then removed the template and carefully nailed the nails into the pre-drilled holes.

Here's the stained, nailed board ready for the string.

I used a variety of embroidery thread in bright, bold colors. All you do is simply tie a knot around the head of one of the nail heads and then outline your letter.  Next, zigzag the thread randomly across the letters. When I was done, I made one last outline of each letter for a more finished look. TIPS: The only hints I can offer are to not pull too tight (the nails can bend toward the center if you do) and to try not get the thread knotted as you go. it's a pain to fix.