I had originally planned on making this post after my NEXT giant string art was done.  But the next one is still in the works and this one has a message that I felt was needed, especially this week.  So I’ll jump the gun a little bit today and  wait to show version 2, which is completely different from this one, some other day.

When I saw this I knew it would be perfect for my tween-aged, peace, love, and rock and roll, girls’ room.  She loves pink so the walls are still okay, if a little light, there’s the raspberry door and a big black and what dotted, lighted, peace sign over the bed so I thought this piece was a great fit for both her room ‘theme’ and her personality.

The plywood is 3/4″ thick and the helpful lowes employee cut it into a 3′ square so we didn’t have to break out the saw.

I thought it’d be much easier to trace a giant symmetrical heart than freehand one so I found a heart clipart, resized it to just under 3′, and opened it in paint.  I selected to print on multi papers and it spit out about 20 sheets for me to tape together.

Using small nails I tacked them in about 1/2″ apart around the heart and love word. Then ripped off all the papers!  Now it’s time to spray paint the whole kit and kaboodle.

Next came the fun part:  stringing.  I went along the edges with the string, to add definition to the design and also so the kids could go to town and not worry about covering up the words that are meant to stay empty,.  The kids had a fun, this is an easy come and go project that only took a couple of hours.

I painted the edges the same raspberry color as the door to tie it in with the room.  My edging was clearly not perfect, despite using the roll of tape to seal it down.  But all was not lost, this mishap led to a creative solution, ribbon!  Since mustaches are so popular right now and my girl thinks they rock, I took out the super stinky glue and stuck the ribbon down.

I sent T out for big d-hook hangers and he came home with this contraption, which works GREAT.  I feel totally good about the weight that it’s holding and it was a snap to make level!

And there you have it!  I big piece of personalized art, that shares a little love every day

-C