Our wedding venue is so beautiful that it really doesn’t need much decor. But, we wanted a few pieces around to make it extra personalized.
One of our favorite projects that we have ever done is the XL Ampersand string art hanging above our bed. Classic Pinterest? Perhaps, but it looks so good and was a snap to make. Plus, it’s a super inexpensive project.
So, we decided to recreate it for our wedding, but instead to feature our wedding hashtag. Sean is very into social media (it’s what he does for a living, plus he loves live tweeting Panthers games). So, it’s pretty fitting that we push the hashtag on our guests a little bit.
Sean started out by picking up a 10 inch x 8 foot by 1 inch piece of pine wood. We also grabbed 3 packs of 1 inch white panel board nails and an XL spool of cotton string in white.
He started by tracing the letters that he wanted onto scrap paper and cutting them out. He then laid them on the board, measured how long it needed to be, and marked the board.
He used his saw to trim the board and then sanded the newly cut edge until it was smooth.
We used our go to stain, Rustoleum dark walnut, to give the board a nice color. It took two coats of paint on, wipe off, to get it just right. If you haven’t stained wood before, click here for some tips!
Then Sean cut out more precise letters out of scrap paper, using a ruler this time. I think he got some hand cramps in the process.
Next, we laid out the letters and used a ruler to get perfect spacing between them. Sean has more attention to detail than I do, so he took over this job. Once they were perfect, we used tape to hold them in place.
Next comes all the hammering, sorry neighbors! We hammered nails in all around the border of each letter. We started by putting a nail in each corner, and then filled in the lines in between. We didn’t measure in between nails, but it’s about every 1/2 an inch.
Finally, it was time to do the string. Start by tying a square knot on one nail. Trim the tail to be short.
First, wrap a border around the whole outside of the letter along the bottom. Alternate/zig zag between the nails. So, go on the outside of one, then the inside of the next, then the outside of the next, etc. You might have to loop around some nails on corners or for curved letters. Make sure you outline any “holes” in the letters – such as inside the A or the D.
Now, criss cross time! Make diagonals across the letter. Just loop the string and move on. I like to sort of do patterns at first but always end up going crazy filling in “blank” areas.
Bear helped.
When that’s as full as you like it, do one final border around the whole letter, just to give it a finished look.
Repeat to finish all your letters, and there you have it!
I think we are going to display this near our dance floor, but it’s not all decided yet! Either way it was a fun and inexpensive way to draw attention to our hashtag!
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Hello, I’m Morgan, half of the creative force behind CharlestonCrafted.com! With a passion for DIY that dates back to 2012, I’ve transformed three homes and now I’m dedicated to helping others craft their dream spaces. Let’s turn your house into a home together!