December 2017 – Just Measuring Up

My sister is sharing a cute little craft puzzle that she gave our little guy. Not just a puzzle, it had a sweet request for her upcoming wedding. Below she shares the details so you can make your own 🙂

I love a good excuse for crafting. With my busy schedule, I feel like I never have a reason to make fun things. So when an opportunity arises, I jump on it.

I recently got engaged to be married, and I could not pass up the opportunity to make some sentimental gifts for my immediate family members, who have always known they’d be included in our wedding.

Backtracking a few years, Eileen and Ash decided to announce their first pregnancy with a surprise photo puzzle. We all love puzzles and thought nothing of being given a puzzle to complete.

Totally clueless, we worked on the puzzle and were completely surprised and excited when we figured out it was a pregnancy announcement for our sweet little nephew.

Fast forward to present day, our nephew just loves completing jigsaw puzzles. He assembles 100-piece puzzles with ease and a lot of excitement, shocking the adults around him. If the puzzle has numbers or letters, he recites each, one-by-one.

It’s endearing and sweet and helped us decide exactly what we wanted to do to ask him to be our ring bearer – with a custom jigsaw puzzle!

How to Make a Custom Jigsaw Puzzle

I looked at various DIY puzzle products and wandered around the craft store for quite some time to decide on the best materials.

Then I found a pack of 9 plain, wooden puzzle pieces that were 2.5 inches – ready to decorate!

I grabbed two just in case and went looking for some letter stickers.

I decided on stickers from the scrapbooking section, about 1.25″ in height, in a very dark navy blue so they would be in a good contrast with whatever I decided to paint behind the letters.

Materials

Wooden puzzle
Acrylic Paints
Alphabet Stickers – like these
Xacto Knife
Sand paper
Paint brush
Scissors

Planning the Wedding Message

I anxiously assembled the puzzle pieces and was pleasantly surprised at how well they fit together out of the package. A few were snug but I knew I wanted to sand them down to be safer for my nephew’s hands.

I also couldn’t wait to test out the letters, so I cut out each letter of our intended message to place over the square puzzle before getting the sandpaper.

The three rows of pieces easily fit:

Will you

be our

RING

bearer?

I ran out of lowercase Rs, but I improvised.

As awesome as I thought it looked, it was really missing the personalization of all of our names!

Then I remembered I got a second set and I could easily add one more row of pieces.

So, I combined the two sets to make a larger puzzle.

Sanding the Rough Edges

These new pieces were not as easy to fit with the rest, but I was ready to get sanding!

I grabbed a sheet of sandpaper and smoothed each side and divet until each piece fit well with its adjacent piece and made sure each pair worked well whichever one was placed in on top.

Painting the Puzzle Background

While working on the letters, I decided to paint a landscape of a grassy hill on the pieces, just like our ceremony venue! I gathered my painting supplies and assembled the now 12-piece puzzle on a few layers of newspaper.

Then, I painted a cartoonish outdoor scene with colors overlapping the puzzle pieces so each looked unique.

I made sure to paint lightly to avoid getting excess paint in between the pieces. It was quick-drying acrylic paint, but I let it dry overnight before placing the stickers.

Next, I took the pieces apart and sanded some of the pieces again as needed for one final run before placing the stickers.

I cut more of the excess white off the back of each sticker for a better idea of the background before calling it a finished picture.

Attaching the Letters

Ready to go, I grabbed a book slightly larger than the puzzle for easy transport later. Then I pulled off the backing of the first letter and not entirely to my surprise, the outline was much thicker than I thought.

I immediately pushed all of the letters closer to the center of their row then placed the first letter more to the right than planned.

After adding the letters, I placed another hardcover book on top and put the two books on a table puzzle-side down. For good measure, I added another stack of books on top and let it sit overnight.

Making the Puzzle Piece Letter Cuts

Next, I grabbed an x-acto knife to carefully slice the stickers between puzzle pieces. This was a daunting task, but I was very happy at the level of sanding I had done.

I originally thought I would have to turn the puzzle over and run through each, but it was not necessary!

(first row omitted from pic)

To secure it once more, I put the pieces unassembled under a stack of books again. I left it for a day while I decided how to box up these pieces!

If you’re looking for a unique gift idea for your wedding (like us) or just a simple craft to make for the kids, these custom-made jigsaw puzzles are cute as can be and very simple to make 🙂

This Christmas I haven’t done any projects with the nativity scene, which is what Christmas is all about. So of course, I wanted to incorporate a nativity scene into my holiday DIY this week.

This week is the conclusion of our holiday blog hop – Deck the Home, which is a five-week series of amazing Christmas DIY projects of the home. Hundreds of projects have been shared by 25 very talented DIY bloggers. Be sure to scroll to the end of the post to check out everyone’s home decor. And even though the hop is ending, we have quite a few weeks before Christmas, giving you plenty of time to work on some of your favorites.

So back to the nativity scene project. I wanted to create a giant nativity scene for the yard, but my hubby insisted on a simple reindeer and Santa sleigh instead. Since it was the last week of the hop, it was final chance to incorporate the nativity.

I had also been wanting to try DIY string art because I’ve seen so many cool designs. Therefore, I decided to try my hand at creating a DIY string art nativity scene.

How to Make a String Art Nativity Scene

Here are the steps I took to create the DIY string art nativity scene. Since this was my first time doing string art, I hope you find all the string art tips and tricks for beginners helpful.

Tools and Materials for DIY String Art Nativity

- Piece of wood
- Saw to trim wood (if necessary)
- Stain – I used my homemade natural stain
- Nails – This scene used over 100 nails. I used silver nails, which made the scene look lit up 🙂
- Hammer
- Embroidery floss string – white
- Template – Free download below

Drawing the Nativity Template

First, I drew the nativity scene on a piece of card stock. I figured the 8.5×11 paper was about the size that I wanted the nativity. You could draw the design out yourself or you could use the one I drew.

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Marking the Nail Holes

The next thing I did on my DIY string art project was I marked my nail holes with a black pen. You want your nails to be about 3/4″ apart. The more consistent, the better because then you can make more even/symmetrical patterns. In fact, you could even use a spacer (grab a drinking straw and cut it down to 3/4″) to be consistent.

In Hindsight: Some of my nails were marked way too close. I did this to try to get the curves of Mary and Joseph and a tight outline of the manger. But it makes your string harder to tie – and the pattern more confusing to follow.

Also, I ended up leaving the hand off of Mary because there wasn’t enough space in between her and baby Jesus to give a nice outline. When you are drawing and marking your nail holes, be sure to have a nice clean outline of your shapes or people.

Tapping the Nail Holes

After I marked the nail holes, I taped my picture to a piece of wood. Then I took one nail and started tapping it through the paper into the wood, to mark the hole.

I used the same nail and continued to do this for all of the holes.

When I removed the paper, I had each of my holes marked for the string art.

If you look at the below picture, you will see that my holes are marked too closely between Mary and baby Jesus. Again, you want to make sure that each area has a clean outline. It shouldn’t be hard to decipher, like this part.

Trimming the Wood to Size

Next, I used my table saw to trim off the top of the wood. I sanded down this side and any rough areas too.

Stain the Wood

After my nativity scene pattern was on and my wood was trimmed, it was time to stain the wood. I used a homemade natural stain for this – which I absolutely love.

Hammering in the Nails

After the stain on the nativity scene dried, I then hammered in all of the nails into the wood. It took about a little over 100 nails. Here are the results:

Wrapping the String

I did a lot of research to learn how to wrap the string around the nails to create beautiful string art. However, everybody the same thing – there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Although true, I like a little more guidance than that, so here are my DIY string art tips for beginners:

First Things First

Decide you want to use the positive space or the negative space. I went with the negative space – which means instead of filling Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the star, etc in with string, I left them blank. Instead I filled the space around them with the string. When you are thinking about positive and negative space, think of using a cookie cutter in dough. The actual cook is the positive space and the scraps around where the cookie cutter went are the negative space.
Take your string and start in a corner. Wrap your string around the nail and tie it a couple of times. Be sure to leave a tail on your string so you can hide it later.
If you are starting with a busy scene or design, such as this nativity scene, then start with an outline of your scene. It will help you see your pattern and go from there. Here I am using my pattern to making an outline with my string.

Here is the finished outline of the nativity string art. I’m sorry for poor pictures – I get most of my projects done at night when the kids are sleeping. 🙂

How to Wrap the String

To wrap your string, you can use a variety of different ways.
- You can weave the string around the nail holes in an almost zig-zag pattern – like if you were running an obstacle course lined with cones.
- You can wrap the string around each nail hole in a loop. This is good for keeping a straight line or for anchoring your string once in a while.
- You can make patterns – such as lines coming out from one point, zig zags back and forth, or up and down hills with the string, making almost triangular mountains.

Basically, you can wrap your string any way you want it.

Once you have your outline, bring your string over to where you want to start “filling in” the nativity scene.
To bring back your string, you just keep wrapping it or weaving it around the nails until you are in the desired place.
Then, start “filling in” the nativity scene using one of the ways above – or using your own way to wrap the string.
Be careful not to cross the string over any areas you don’t want filled in. I did that waaaaay too many times.

Below is a picture of me starting to do a zig-zag pattern with the string art, working my way around the picture.

You’ll keep wrapping your string and filling in your picture until you are content with it. I used a ton of string and kept wrapping and weaving in all sorts of patterns to get a filled in look.

More String Art Tips

If you feel like you are losing the shape of any of the things in your nativity scene, then work your string to the point and outline it with the string again. To do this, just work your string around the perimeter of your shape. I did this with the star – I had so much string everywhere and I had only outlined the star once, that I felt that the star got lost.Then, I just worked my way around its perimeter again and again until I was happy with how it looked. I also went around the perimeter of the stable a few times too, to give it a nice clean outline.

Finishing your DIY String Art

Once you are satisfied with your string art scene, then bring your string back to your starting point. (Do this by weaving or wrapping it until you are in the desired place).
Then, take your ends and tie them together.
With the tails, you can either weave them through your string art (easiest way is by using an embroidery needle). Or you can just hide it underneath.

Here is my finished string art nativity scene. Not bad for my first time with string art!?

Here is a close-up of the star:

Time and Cost

It was a little time-consuming to hammer all the nails and to wrap the strings. However, wrapping the string was very therapeutic. Like doing a puzzle or coloring. Of course, you had to pay attention to your outlines – but overall it was a very calming activity.

As far as total time, I would say maybe about 3-4 hours total. The cost for me was just the string, which I bought for a buck or two. The nails and wood we had – and I made the stain with ingredients from my pantry.

Also, factor in whether you are going to add hanging hardware to back. I think I’ll keep ours leaning on the wall.

If you are looking for a fun, calming holiday DIY project that you can decorate your home with or give as a gift, definitely try string art. There’s no fancy skills involved!

Just you and some string 🙂

That’s it for our holiday Deck the Home DIY projects. If you missed any, check out all of the 2018 Deck the Home holiday projects.

Archives for December 2017

How to Create a Custom Jigsaw Puzzle