OH - IO!!

Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, I will forever have a special place in my heart for where I grew up.  Not that I've moved far from the tiny town I called home for 23 years; I'm a big city girl now though. ;)

Another project I threw together last week was a piece of string art I had seen floating around the internet lately.  Etsy is full of them, asking at least $65 a pop.  While I can understand the reality of charging for a unique piece of art, I can make it for way less!

Just a few supplies, cost came in at less than $2.  Yep, 2 smackaroos!

Here's whatcha need:

-rubber mallet/small hammer
-wooden board
-large outline of the state of your choice
-small nails
-string

That's it.  Nothing extensive.  In fact, I used a hardwood floor sample I pilfered from work's dumpster (it was discontinued, I'm not gonna lose my job or anything) so I didn't even need to buy that.  I just printed the OHIO shape out from Google images and bought a small box of white nails (make sure they have heads on them so the string doesn't slide right off).

Tape the state to the wood board and outline it with a row of nails.  Get them as close together as you can because it will make the overall image look better.  Remove the state and make a heart shape in the city of your choice with the nails.

Now, I skipped a couple of steps - just the part where I go around and around and around the nails with white sewing string.  Basically, you start at one nail and tie it off, then wrap the string from the outside nail to a nail in the heart and back again.  Granted, you will have more wraps on the heart than you will on the outline because of the amount of nails.

See what I mean?  Kinda heavy on the string in the middle as opposed to the outside edges.   I suppose if I lived in central Ohio, it might have been easier, but oh well.

Next step, find a studly man to cut the board down to size.  I understand it would have been easier to do this prior to the nails and string, but my studly man was at work when I started and I'm impatient.

Excellent product placement with the Craftsman toolbox in the picture.  Craftsman Execs, if you're reading this, we need to talk.

Because I forced his engineering head to cut without measuring (he notably scoffed at the concept), the cuts were slightly out of square.  Easy fix.

We had some wood shims lying around that were just the ticket. I cut them down to size on the band saw and attached them with hot glue to the outer edges of the wood board.

They were knotted and rustic enough to be a great contrast with the dark brown wood.  Plus, they hid the crooked cut - way to drop the ball on that one, Dan! ;)

Ain't it great?!  Looks even better sittin' atop my Ohio brick.  Not that it's staying outside by the tree, but for photo-taking purposes, it serves it well.  Dan has since requested a New York one, complete with Long Island.  Now that is a challenge!