Our daughter loves hearts and rainbows. We worked together to make something special that she could help with.
Materials
- Plywood (14” wide x 14” long x ½” thick) ($5)
- Nails with small heads ($5)
- Embroidery floss ($2)
- Black paint ($2)
- Paper for making outline of heart (50 cents)
Tools
- Hammer
- Drill with bit slightly smaller than width of the nail
- Table saw to cut plywood (if necessary)
- Ruler & pencil for marking locations of nails
- Paint brush
- Scissors
Read on for the process..
Process
We already had all of the materials for this project, so it was just a matter of planning. I cut the plywood. Then marked the wood ½” from all of the edges so I had a reference line where the perimeter of the nails would go. I measured & put tick marks .75” apart. That meant 19 nails per side.
Next, I taped together a few pieces of paper the same size as the wood. I folded the paper in half and drew half the heart, then cut it out. I unfolded the heart & centered it on the wood.
We got out a hand-drill so my daughter could pre-drill all the holes herself. I lined up each one and she turned the drill. There were lots of questions about why the drill looked like it going up instead of down into the wood. About 100 holes later, I gave her a mallet and held each nail for her and she pounded them in. Some were loose & needed some adult help.
With all of the nails in, we got out the paint & brushes. We decided on black because it would make the embroidery floss stand out more. Both the wood & nails got painted. An hour or so later, the paint was dry.
She picked out the colors of embroidery floss while the paint was drying. I tied the floss on the nails for her (she asked me to), but she picked the order. My wife helped with the design. It came out pretty nice!
For only a few bucks, this is a great project to give your kiddo something they made that can be hung in their room.