diy: state nail art

So, I've been meaning to post this DIY since October, when I completed it.  I even had a post started, but for some reason I never finished it. Nothing like a day snowed-in to prompt me to finally share my state nail art decor! :)

The Midwest was slammed today buy a lovely February snow storm. It has snowed all. day. long. Seriously, all day. The dog and I just ventured out to discover it is now snowing icy flakes, making it look like glitter is raining down from the twilight sky - which made this glitter & Ke$ha loving girl's night! However, I digress, that is not the reason for this post!

I had seen these state nail art designs on Pinterest and decided it was something that I could do. Since I have considered 3 states home, I wanted to represent each state and city in my new apartment. 

My finished products!

Here's what you need:

• A piece of wood (the size I used is 14"x14")
• Wire nails (5/8" x 18)
• Cotton twine
• Printed outline of state
• Needle-nose pliers
• Hammer
• Picture hanging wire
• Construction paper/glitter (optional)
• Paint or stain for wood (optional)

A picture of my nails so you know what to look for at Lowes! :)

1. Decide if you want your board stained or painted. You will obviously want to do this before you start nailing into it. Luckily my Dad had 3 spare boards in his shop that he was able to cut to size for me, which I then stained to match some of my other furniture.

2. Cut out your state outline and tape to the center of your board. 

3. Start hammering! You will want to nail around the outline of your state. I found it easiest to use my needle-nose pliers to hold the nail in place and straight, as well as to help me with my spacing - it also prevented me from whacking my fingers with the hammer :) Tip: One mistake I made, that I later had to go back and fix, was positioning my nails to close together. It is okay to leave some distance between them, and it will actually make your life easier when you start with the string. Don't worry - you will still achieve your look! 

  

4. >optional<  If you decide to have a heart representing a certain city, now is the time to nail that in. I cut a heart out of construction paper and taped it to the location on my state, then hammered the nails in just like step 3. Tip: Unlike the outline, the more nails you can fit into the heart outline, the better. You will pull the string from the outline to the heart and the more nails you have in the heart to wrap the string around, the better.

5. Once you have your nail outline finished, you can carefully remove your paper outline. You may have to use some tweezers to get tiny pieces of paper that might have been nailed through.

Outline complete!

6. String time! Pick your starting place and tie off your twine. For me, I started in the upper right hand corner and worked from the outline of my state to the outline of the heart and back. This part honestly just takes practice - I had to restart my stringing multiple times. You will need to strategize in order to evenly distribute your string connections among the heart nails. Also, try to wrap in the same direction on each nail, just to keep the look consistent. Tip: If your state has weird areas, do whatever you need to do to make it work. In the bootheel of Missouri I ended up cutting my string, going between the state outlines, and then starting fresh in a new section. There are going to be some areas of your state where you need to take your string outline to outline, rather than outline to heart. As long as you like the look of it, then it's a-okay.

7. Because I like glitter (as we covered earlier), I decided I wanted to spruce up my heart area of my state and really make it stand out. I took the same piece of construction paper I used to make my heart outline, covered it glue, sprinkled on some glitter and then wedged it back between the nail outline. I did not affix it to the board in anyway, the construction paper sits nicely wedged between the heart nail outline. (Sorry, I get too excited with glitter to take a picture!)

8. Lastly, install some picture hanging wire to the back and admire your craft! :) 

I have gotten several compliments on these and am really proud of how they turned out. I was also pleasantly surprised that this was a fairly easy project to complete. I was able to complete all 3 of mine in an evening while catching up on my DVR recordings!