Heartstrings - a Love Day Book Tutorial!


Remember how I talked about string art the other day? Well, that first one I've been working on has been taking FOREVER!!!! I'm still not done putting all the nails in it and my fingers hurt. Soooo... I decided to try another tack. Literally.

To make a string art heart you will need:
  • 1 book
  • 1 screwpunch (if you like)
  • pencil to draw design
  • enough tacks (GET IT? A different tack? Hi-LAR-ious) to space evenly in 1" intervals around your design I used 35, I think. Mine were also upholstery tacks because I had a few left and I'm *really* tired of all these bits and pieces of stuff around my house. Ugh.
  • Metallic crochet thread (or any darn thread you choose)

To begin...


Draw a heart (lightly) on the best cover of your book. This particular book was red (appropriate for V-day), but was icky on the front. I used the back. I'll say it's symbolic if anyone notices...

I then used my fancy dancy screwpunch to make little holes on the cover through the buckram. I spaced them about 1" apart, but I did not measure it - just eyeballed it. I started at the point on the bottom so I could make it centered. I use my screwpunch to take off the top layer of fabric. It makes it easier to stick the tacks in.



Put the pins in. Upholstery pins are pretty long so I could put them in snugly but still have them sticking up enough to wind thread around. Yes, there are two different textures of pins. It's symbolic.

See? They stick up a little
 

I chose silver metallic crochet thread to use. I bought it at Michael's a few months ago, thinking I could actually crochet with it. It's AWFUL for crocheting. I had to think of some way not to have wasted $6. This is perfect for using up weird threads.

Tie your thread on the bottom of your heart. I tied it twice (square knot). Then I used a dab of clear nail polish to make sure the knot didn't come out.



Start stringing your thread up to the center of the heart. I wound it around once all the way before going down to the next tack. Make sure you do the same type of winding around all the tacks so they don't look goofy (symbolic).


 

I took the string down from the top and wound it around the tack to the right of the bottom point. Around all the way and then...


... back up to the top, but to the LEFT of the point. I'm stringing in opposite directions from the center points. I'm going right on the bottom and left on the top. It makes the pattern. I suppose you could do it all chaotic and that, but that's not what I'm doing today. :)



Continue stringing in this way. Here I am about halfway done.


This is the end of stringing the silver thread. Carefully knot the string and dab a bit of nail polish on it. I left a tail which I taped down while the string dried. I do not think this is absolutely necessary, but I was nervous.

 
dab dab dab


Because I'm a fancy person, I decided to add another color of thread - metallic red! Again, I knotted my thread to the bottom point.



This time I wanted to give some definition to the heart shape so I wound the thread around the tacks right next to each other.



Continue all around the heart. When I got to the bottom point again, I did not knot the thread, but continued with this...



I took the thread up to a different point of the heart. Instead of going back down the tack right next to the one on the bottom, I decided to skip a tack and wind around every second tack. 



You can see how the next winding at the bottom is the second one up on the left . I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but this is such a fun adventure that I didn't really worry about it.


Continue winding up and down every other tack. When you get up to the top right, you will have to do something weird. In order to still wind around the top right curve of the heart and then go to the next tack on the opposite side of the heart, you will have to...



TUCK the thread under the tacks as you go around the curves. It works. Trust me.


Wind, wind, wind. All done!!! Tie off and dab with polish to secure. I only let it dry a moment before I cut off the tails of thread. I wasn't nervous anymore.


Next I hammered all the tacks in all the way. If you don't want to, no biggie.

VOILA!


Here it is, all done!!! Enjoy. :)

Comments

Lindsey said…
I just pinned this. :)
Unknown said…
Such a great idea. I haven't done string art in years. Your idea of doing it on a book is great. I am thinking how about a shelf full of books , where the string art is on the inside. In a hollow. Imagine browsing that shelf , with a surprise inside each book. Oh , my imagination was inspired by this one.
Anonymous said…
Excelente!. Beautiful work!.This is a great idea and well done.

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