String Art Heartbeat on Thrifted Wooden Hearts

by Angie @ Ambient Wares

19 Materials

Easy

I found 2 wooden heart shapes at the thrift store and figured I'd paint them like candy hearts with those popular phrases. Be mine. I love you. That thought was dashed when I came up with the idea of creating a heartbeat in string art going across the front of both. It was my first time trying it and I may have caught the string art bug.

string art heartbeat on thrifted wooden hearts, crafts, repurposing upcycling

I removed the hanging hardware and sanded all the way down to the wood.

I filled some of the holes but, didn't worry about there being imperfect indentations which there were even after letting it dry and sanding more.

I used wood conditioner before staining mainly because I had it on hand.

I stained them using red oak stain followed by wipe on poly. The edges did not take the stain too well on one of the hearts so I touched it up with some brown chalk paint.

I searched for normal heartbeat and found some clip art I printed off. I taped two pieces of paper together since it wasn't long enough to cover the fronts of each heart.

I taped the image down and tapped slightly where I would want the nails. In total, I used 46 nails on one and 47 on the other because I added an unnecessary nail at one of the ends.

When done, I pulled the paper up to make sure I could see each hole.

Then, I proceeded to tap in all the nails.

I started at the end nail and tied a knot. I would wrap around each nail head one full rotation and continued to the other end. Then I went back the other way weaving the opposite direction of what I had just done creating the double threaded look.

I kept the image of the heartbeat close to make sure I was going the right way.

The pink thread I used was a brand new pack of embroidery floss. Having cut it in half, I had to use 2 pieces total on one heart. Each piece though went the entire length, I just couldn't double back with it.

Here they are and I'm in love! I think these would be a great gift for anyone in the medical field and they certainly aren't just for Valentine's Day. So, try a little string he(art) today ;)

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You can do it! Saved to your projects

Wooden Hearts
Sander & Paper
Lid Opener for Cans
Gloves
Lint Free Cloth
Wood Conditioner
Stain
Paintbrush (you probably won't need)
Paint (you probably won't need)
Poly
Clip Art
Printer
Copy Paper
Tape
Scissors/Paper Cutter
Picture Hangers
Small Hammer
Nails
Embroidery Floss

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3 of 12 comments

J on Feb 12, 2020

Love it!!!!! I use to work for at a travel agency called HeartBeat travel and they did a heart beat pattern around the walls as a chair railing. This would have fit in perfectly!!

1 Reply
Ardena Viles on Mar 08, 2020

I would love to do one of my mother’s last heart beat!! Really nice work!

3 Reply
- Angie @ Ambient Wares on Mar 09, 2020
  
  Thank you so much, Ardena
  
  Like