DIY Tutorial : Nail & String Home Décor

Hi, blogbots! [I mean that in a most endearing way]

I, along with a lot of you, occasionally troll Pinterest. When I do, it's usually to re-pin copious amounts of mouthwatering recipes or a rustic living room built into the side of a mountain itself.. and everything in between. Every once in a while, I manage to download an idea off the web and actually do it. This was one of those times.

So I thought I'd share. I'm not much of a tutorial kinda girl, but I'll do my best.

So you've decided you want to do string/nail art, and have managed to sort through the bajillion examples on Pinterest. You've even managed to select your specific design, color schemes and boards. We'll start with the basics:

*****

Here we go. Nail & String Art, the unofficially official tutorial, by yours truly.

SUPPLIES:

- A BASE. Decide what kind of base you want to use. Your options here are nearly limitless, just make sure you don't choose something too thin [or you'll have nails poking out on the other side], too pliable [ply wood for example would be a bad choice] or too soft [like, foamboard or something]. Really, I'd recommend solid wood. I bought some plain craft plaques at Michael's for a couple bucks each. They even had beveled edges already, so aesthetically I was off to a good start.
- PAINT. If you want a solid color, I would recommend a primer. I didn't use one because I wanted some of the woodgrain to show, but that's up to you. I also used an aerosol paint because the project was so small.
- NAILS. Keep in mind I've only done this ONE time now, so do some research on the right nails based on the size and intensity of your project. I found 5/8" wire nails at the hardware store and they worked just fine. Make sure you buy enough (:
- STRING. Another Michael's purchase.  I used Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread [size 10]; it's thin and coarse enough to not unravel, but soft enough to maneuver.
- HAMMER. You will need this.

HOW-I-DID-THIS:

*This is just how I did this. If you like the way these turned out, feel free to follow along! If you know you'd like to adapt it to your own liking, well... that is what I love about crafts. We can do whatever we want! I hope this is at least helpful!*

1 | Paint the bases. I chose a brick red color, because it matches the rest of our living room. I also used aerosol. Be smart, and use a well-ventilated area.

spray paint.
4 coats, each dried in about 5 minutes

2 | Cut out your designs. For ours, I used an online font generator and chose the letters I needed, then chose 6 or 7 different font styles. You can search for the letters and state outlines anywhere on the web and hopefully find what you need.

snip.. snip snip snip (:

3 | Grab your hammer! Prepare yourself to drive tiny nails into boards about nine thousand times. I used iiiiitty bitty pieces of scotch tape to hold the design down, but I would probably recommend painters tape if you're using any sort of gloss or matte medium, so to not peel off any of your paint.


here... we.. go.

I wouldn't drive the nails in further than a few good smacks. If they're a little uneven, you can always level them out when you've got them all in. Nail around the outline of whatever shape you're using. For tiny details, I would recommend exaggerating just a little bit; it might look silly at first but will compensate when you start working with the string. 

nails nails nails.

4 | Peel up your paper. Use your fingers, pliers, the hammer, whatever.. to gently fidget around any nails that went in a little crooked or are wobbly when you take the paper up.

paper.... no paper.

I realized immediately that my letter C looked more like a shriveled lima bean than a letter, which taught me that I should've made the letter a bit bigger. [You'll notice on the 2nd state I did, the letter is more pronounced.]

5 | String It Up. This was, for me, the easiest part of it, and a bit therapeutic if I'm being honest. A hint I realized after I finished the first state: To get an evenly-distributed look of the strings, count how many nails go around the outline. Then divide that by the number of nails of the smaller, inner outline. That will give you approximately how many times you'll have to use each inner nail for loops around the outer nails. For example, if you used 85 nails around the large outline, and 20 around the small outline, then you would need to use each inner nail about 4 to 5 times. (85 divided by 20 = 4.25). Once you get all the way around, tie a knot off on the original starting nail.

I'm one of those people who firmly believes in singeing edges. I've been doing it to shoelaces, hoodie ties and random strings for years. Since this string doesn't have any waxy component, just be sure to cut off enough to give some slack and don't burn it too close. Otherwise, your knot will come loose and good luck getting that back together without re-doing the whole thing.

playing with fire... be careful!

ta.... da!!!

^ (You'll notice there's a small gap in the strings around the top of the C; this is from my not counting out how many times I would have to use each nail... rookie mistake. Woops.

6 | Rinse & Repeat! I went ahead and did the rest of my letters, the other state [Illinois] and spared myself from taking pictures of every single one of those, too. It's basically the same process over and over again.

paper.. and nails.. and string.. (:

My apologies in advance for the grainy quality of these pictures; I promise I'll get better ones here soon. Anyway, this is what the finished products looked like: strung up & hung up!

♥!

If you have any questions, please ask! Like I said, this was a learning experience for me, too... so if you have any tips or tricks to share, I'm open to those, too (: This was a fun little project, and perhaps with bigger nails in a more simple design, thicker string [maybe elastic of some sort?], I'm sure the kiddos could have some fun with this too.

Happy crafting... & Happy SATURDAY!!

xo | cmd

Recipe Hack : Chicken Alfredo!

Hiiiii, blogbots!

I was in exceptionally good spirits today, partly due to the fact that it's becoming clear that our months and months of working towards the goal of Rob moving to, living in and working in Cincinnati have all come to fruition... but also because I had my heart set on sticking to the menu we planned out over the weekend. Tonight was decidedly Alfredo, and I wasted no time trying out a new, easier way to make it. I will be the first to say that this is DEFINITELY a good hack! No, it's probably not the healthiest way to do it, but if you're planning to eat Chicken Alfredo, you're probably not overly concerned with your carb or calorie count... at least not at this sitting ;)

Anywho.. This barely took any time at all, and was delicious. I'm adding this to the books of must-makes for company and for Sydni, when she's here, too.

Here's what I used. Feel free to alter based on your time & preference!:

* 1 lb chicken
* 1 box Linguine noodles.
* 1 can cream of chicken soup (or mushroom, if you're into that kinda thing) - I used Campbell's.
* 1 bag of frozen broccoli florets (the kind that steam in the bag in the microwave work great!)
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated, shredded, pulverized in the plastic can, whatever)
* 2 tbsp butter
* Salt & pepper

HOW TO:

1. Cook pasta according to directions. It takes about 10 minutes or so. Add some salt and just a LITTLE oil to the water if you'd like, to season and help the noodles from sticking together, respectively. Microwave your frozen broccoli. If you use fresh broccoli, the recipe I have said to add it to the last 4-5 minutes of boil time for the pasta. I don't know if/how that turns out. Drain pasta when cooked and set aside.

2. Heat a flat pan over medium heat. Add butter, then chicken. Brown it on both sides, until cooked through. Don't be impatient; let it cook at medium heat!

3. Once chicken is cooked, start stirring in milk, cheese and cream of chicken soup. Stir it gently until it mixes down together. Add in noodles.

Honestly, that's it. Serve with bread or whatever side you'd like!

nom nom nom!

Rob has promised he'll try this one next time [making, that is; there was no problem eating.. haha]. I certainly won't complain if this dish hits our house again.

We are still plugging away at this house-settling thing... hopefully by the end of this week we'll have decided on a couch for the living room. The rest has all fallen into place, so I'm not too worried.

Stay tuned ;)

xo | cmd