Wintery String Art Photo Frame

Turn Festive Works of String Art Into Picture Frames

by A.V. Bautista, production designer and kooky Klutz crafter

‘Tis the season to be stringin’ and it’s excitingly easy!

There are so many awesome string art projects in the String Art book from KLUTZ. 

Once you’ve given a couple projects a try, you’ll be eager to venture out on your own to make any string art you can imagine.

Inspired by the holidays, I thought it would be crazy cool to make a snowflake string frame. And to keep in the spirit of giving and sharing, here’s how I did it.

What you’ll need:

• Pins (from the STRING ART book)
• Pinning tool (from the STRING ART book)
• String (from the STRING ART book or any of your own)
• Glue
• Tape
• Cardboard boxes
• Wrapping paper
• Art to trace and turn into string art
• A photo to place in the center 

Step 1

Get cardboard boxes and cut them up to whatever size you want for your art. My boxes aren’t big enough so I’m sticking multiple pieces together to make a larger piece.

Step 2

Glue three cardboard sheets together in a stack. The goal is to make cardboard that’s as thick as the pieces included in the STRING ART book. The thick cardboard will help hold the pins up. 

Step 3

Get wrapping paper that would make a good background for your art. For my snowflake string art design, I’ll be using a wintery snowflake wrapping paper background. Make sure to cut your wrapping paper to a size slightly bigger than your cardboard base (about 1 ½ inches around the edges). 

Step 4 

Wrap and tape wrapping paper over your cardboard base. Make sure it covers one side completely.

Step 5

Print or draw a design on paper to use as a stencil for your string art frame. At the center of my shimmering snowflake I’ve left a hole for a photo. The center could be any shape: a circle, a rectangle, a heart perhaps for a valentine? Whatever you can think of. Place it right in the center.

Step 6

Pin all around the perimeter of your shape. Be sure to use the pinning tool from String Art. This will make your pinning go faster, keep all of the pins the same height (and straight!), and will protect your fingers from getting strained and tired. This tool is also great because it has an end that lets you pull the pins out if you make a mistake.

Step 7

After pinning around your center shape, rip off the paper with your traced or printed design. Thinner paper will rip off easier. My paper was thick, so I had to rip it off little by little.

Step 8

It’s stringin’ time! Wrap string around your pins to create your design. If you’re wondering how to string, the book has several marvelous methods that can help with your super-stylish string art. 

Step 9

Cut a photo to fit inside the size and shape of your frame.

Step 10

Tape or glue your photo.

Step 11

Ta-da! Stringin’ like you’ve never seen before! Now find a nice spot to display your masterpiece or wrap it up for someone special.

 

String Art Made Me a Better Cook!

by Rachele Harmuth—a salesperson by trade, a crafter by choice, and a somewhat acceptable cook by necessity. 
 

Surround me with glue and paper and pom-poms and I’m in my element. Instinct sets in, creative juices flow, and all is right with the world. 

Surround me with veggies, knives, and a cutting board, and well . . . let’s just say there is no “instinct” and certainly no creative juices. To my credit though, when I have enough focused, uninterrupted time and a good recipe, I can create a pretty decent meal. Did you see the key words? “Focused, uninterrupted time.” HA! You see, I have three fabulous kiddos and every night at dinner prep time at least one of them seems to have a total mommy-I-need-you-this-moment-or-my-life-is-over meltdown. This becomes the hour when there’s “nothing to do.” They’ve done everything, played with everything, and oddly they are never excited by my suggestion that they could always clean their rooms.

On a recent night, while I was determined to have a “real” meal of roasted chicken and potatoes, it was my 7-year-old who couldn’t find anything to do. Dragging herself into the kitchen, she flopped into a chair and declared that there was NOTHING to do because everyone was on vacation except us! Knowing what was coming, I darted into my office to see if there was anything new that might hold her attention. And that’s when I grabbed String Art.

Now, I’ll be honest, I assumed String Art would be pretty hard. I imagined that the next hour would involve me bopping back and forth between her and the chicken as she declared every two minutes that she needed help, and we’d end up eating burned chicken at midnight. But hey, it was better than listening to the “I’m bored” speech. I figured we’d give it a try.

OMG. Best. Kit. Ever. 

The designs were SO cute. She wanted to do all of them. The instructions were so simple. I literally helped for about five minutes before the “Mom, I’ve got this” comment. So I stepped back into the kitchen. I kept peeking over at her but she was totally engrossed. Each step was laid out in such an accessible way. There were so many designs to choose from and she loved picking them out. She completed every step herself, from tracing to placing the pins. The special tool included with the kit took all the frustrating parts out by making each pin exactly the same height. As I glanced at her occasionally over the chicken, I noticed a really cool art piece forming under her hands. I have to say it really looked great! 

The Last Gifts on My List (with String Art from Klutz)

I like food and fashion as much as the next person, but my favourite thing to create is home décor. My apartment is an ever-rotating collage of prints, pictures, plants and knick-knacks. I switch them to match the year, the season, and sometimes even my mood. It's not terribly practical, but it sure is fun! 

When deciding what to gift to the last few people on my Christmas list, I turned to Klutz's coolest new kit, String Art, to make some new art pieces they can add to their collections.

You might recognize the idea for this fun craft from those old math class activities, but Klutz has turned that on its head to make DIY art instead! With more than 20 trendy designs, six colours of strings and 14 colourful sheets of paper to choose from, you can customize your pieces for each person on your gift list. And, I know what you're thinking, it looks totally complex... But with Klutz’s exclusive pin-pushing tool, you'll have the perfectly-placed pins you need to go wild and scribble, fan and loop some seriously cool string doodles. Make a series to hang together or print some text to make your piece complete; the possibilities are endless! I modeled one after my very favourite mug, and it's so darn cute that I just might make another to gift to myself.

 

And so, with the wrap of this last gift, my Christmas crafting is complete. Now it's time to eat, drink, be merry and share the spoils of my Klutz gift-making with my friends and family.

Merry Christmas to all!

See you in the new year!

Christmas Crafting Season Begins (with Loop Loom Bracelets from Klutz)

The moment November hits, you can already see the first signs of the holiday season ahead. Stores swap Halloween for Christmas decorations, Starbucks releases those familiar red cups and, in Toronto, The Bay reveals their stunning holiday window displays. 

There are many who lament this early start to the Christmas spirit. As a warm weather girl and a November baby who likes her birthday to have its space, I can relate. But the crafty gift giver in me is grateful for the reminder that it's time to start my Christmas crafting. If I want to go DIY with decorations and gifts for all the people on my Christmas list, I've got to get busy!

I popped over here to choose an exciting new Klutz kit  (or an old favourite) to start with. It was a tough choice -- and I can't wait to share my other projects in the coming weeks -- but in the end this girly girl went straight for the jewelry!

Loop Loom Bracelets is Klutz’s take on the rubber band bracelet trend, with one big change. Seven colours of stretchy cord are the medium of choice in this kit, so you can bead-dazzled your bracelets to your heart's content without any danger of them falling apart if one link breaks!

I was looping up a colourful stack of bracelets for my favourite cousin when inspiration struck... These stretchy bands would make great gift-wrapping ribbon too! So I’m making as many pretty beaded ribbons as I can, and boy am I glad I got my early start! This Christmas, my presents are going to be just as pretty on the outside!