Wood String State Art

Not sure what wood string state art is? I wasn't sure either until I saw this post by The Harpster Home and wanted to give it a try. If you have wood, string, nails, a hammer, and a printer, you too can also make this unique piece of art! You don't have to do a state, either. I've seen some people on Pinterest and Etsy do reindeer, snowmen, polar bears... or you could spend $50 on one like this but making one is MUCH cheaper!

The original post called for a 12" x 12" piece of wood but I went with a 9" x 12" and focused on the lower peninsula of Michigan (sorry Yoopers!). Make sure you have a LOT of nails and a LOT of string before you even get started. I didn't have enough string so I ended up using sewing thread, which worked fine but was pretty thin.

So using scotch tape (or painters tape, as the original post called for), tape down whatever it is you're going to outline with nails so it doesn't move around the wood. Then, one nail at a time, nail down around the edges of the design. When you're done, remove the paper design.

Take your string, tie it around one nail, and start going back and forth between the border nails and the heart nails, just zig-zagging back and forth. Be sure to pop in a podcast or music because this will be as boring as the hammering part.

One big mistake I made? The heart around my hometown wasn't fully nailed into the piece of wood, so the nails got pulled in all directions, making the heart look sloppy:

Once your'e done, though, you'll have a unique piece of art that didn't cost much and would make a great holiday gift!

TOTAL COSTS: About $17 (MUCH cheaper than the $50 piece on Etsy!)
$9.99 for the wood from Michael's
$2.19 for thread from Vons
$5.20 for 4 packs of nails from Home Depot (be sure to go with the nails with heads on top - I ended up using 15 nails for the heart and 125 around the state)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Almost an hour
35 minutes to go around the state with hammer and nails
20 minutes to go around with string

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The hardest part is just making sure the nails are far enough into the wood so that they won't move - don't make the same mistake I made!