Make it: String Art

I have been crushing on these string art pieces for a while now, the technique uses small nails and string weaved back and forth to create an image. I particularly like these U.S. State ones with the little heart in the area of the state where you are from or where you live. 

State string art

Of course I live in the UK, so I thought I would have a go at doing my own version with a map of the United Kingdom. Whilst I was painstakingly pushing nails in to foam-board I had an idea to do a set of three using three different techniques. I ended up doing one in thread, one in fabric and one in paper. Don't they look cute! I have put them  pride of place on the bookcase on our landing. 

I love how they look al together. Three is my lucky number, so I always like things in groups like this.

I started by printing off an image of the UK map that I then traced on to tissue paper.

For the thread version I laid it over two sheets of black foam-board, and pushed the nails in through the tissue paper and board together. When I had finished pushing the nails in all the way around, I gently tore away the tissue paper to leave just the nails in place. Then I took a reel of white thread and started winding back and forth from the nails. 

  

It was super tricky to thread the cotton back and forth without nudging the nails out of place and the thread kept coming un-hooked from the nails, but I finally got it reasonably neat, and really satisfying to see it grow as I worked.

 The second one I made was far easier, I just took my copy and rubbed pencil lead over the back of it then traced down onto three pages from an old book which I had stuck together with washi tape at the back. Once I had traced the map onto the pages I cut it out with scissors and glued it down to a blank sheet of card. I found the little red heart embellishment in my stash. 

I used the same technique for the fabric version too. Except I traced a little outside the lines so that my stitching would be more accurate to the coast line.  Once I had traced it, I cut it out with my fabric scissors and sprayed the back with fabric adhesive to hold it in place whilst I stitched it to the calico I was mounting it on with embroidery thread. For the heart I cut a small piece of red fabric and stitched it in place.

I had great fun creating these and they look lovely on our landing. I ended up getting the frames on three for two at Wilkinsons, they are great for low cost frames. 

Have you ever had a go at string art? If you have or if you give it a try, send us a picture, we would love to see what you create! 

Sammy xxx

Email photos or links to Flickr/Google plus/facebook of any of your crafting projects to Liveitloveitmakeit@gmail.com

We love to see what you guys are up to! #livelovemake

Make it. Embroidery hoop art

Last week we did our monthly Craft Club down at Norden Farm and this time it was all about Embroidery. We took our little group of participants through a few basic stitches and then showed them how to make their own artwork. We love embroidery, I (Sammy)  like free hand embroidery an H is partial to a bit of cross stitch. We thought we would show you some of the examples we showed our students last Thursday.

I really enjoy the freedom of free hand and the flexibility of using any fabric you like. Most of the designs I stitch I end up leaving in their hoops, but you can always take them out and frame them up too. 

 These are four of my favourite  pieces, they show a range of different stitches on different fabrics.

This stag picture is done in basic back stitch on teal taffeta with a gold metallic thread. Sometimes the simplest things make the best pictures.

This Hello beautiful is taken from an idea I saw on Pinterest , I used spot cotton fabric, chain stitch for hello and back stitch for beautiful.  For the love hearts I used lots of different stitches to appliqué some red fabric hearts and stitched love with chain stitch.

 This little guy is one of my favourites, I love using long and short stitch to give texture, it worked so well for this foxes fur. I used some fabric, a lovely blue and black tweed used to be part of  a jacket that was my Dads.

A few years ago my Mum gave me a great stitch leaflet she had kept from the seventies. It is falling apart but I still use it as a reference when I am stitching. I love the drawings that accompany the descriptions. Here are some of the basics from the leaflet.

As well as the leaflet, I have a few books that I use for ideas and for learning new techniques. These are my favourites, Adventures in Needlework by Jessica Aldred and Emily Peacock, Love Embroidery by Future Publishing (the guys behind Mollie Makes) and Doodle Stitching by Amiee Ray. 

Love Embroidery has great projects to use your embroidery on as well as taking you through the basics.

I adore this Brooch from Adventures in Needlework, I haven't made it as a brooch yet but I used the template to stitch a piece for a friend of mine as a birthday gift a couple of years ago.

Doodle Stitching has a great selection of cute templates and it comes with a DVD of all the images so you can upload them to your computer and print them any size you like. There are a few more books in this series to try out too.

We had such a fun time last week and all our ladies went home with the start of hopefully a fun new hobby.

Our next two Craft Club evenings will be released for booking shortly over on the Norden Farm website. We are making ribbon rose corsages at the end of May and creating Button Jewellery at the end of June. We will let you know more as soon as the booking goes live. 

Sammy xxx

Don't forget the closing date for the Company Magazine #StyleBlogAwards is this Saturday! 

So if you haven't already voted for us, Pretty please pop over and cast your vote now. We are up for Best Blogging Duo and Best Craft Blog. If you have voted, Thank you so much and keep your fingers crossed for us!