Mason Jar String & Nail Art

Happy Monday! And Happy May to you too! I am super excited to share with you all a series I have been working on for this month featuring one of my favorite things….mason jars!

Why do I love these jars so much? They are so very pretty…not just in plain glass either, but also coming in shades of blue, green, and even purple. They’re so very versatile, meaning you can use them from anything to basic kitchen canning, to gift giving, to storing things and crafting. And they’re so very country, and let’s face it, I will always be a country girl at heart.

So I thought I’d kick off this series with a project that screams country…a rustic mason jar inspired piece of art using some nails, string and real, authentic Wisconsin barn board.

When I first starting blogging, I wrote a post all about my great-grandmother, a woman whom I looked up to and admired from a young age.

She was the ultimate creative-minded crafter, seamstress, quilter and artist. And she was a farmer’s wife. Also a country girl at heart. If you want to read about her amazing life, you can do that here. 

One of the properties she lived in had a barn. A really beautiful red dairy barn with an authentic stone bottom and swallows that would swoop in and out all day long from the rafters.

Over the years, as many old farmstead properties do, it fell into disrepair and just a few years ago had to be torn down. But before it did, I remember taking our daughter there – she was 2 at the time – for one last memorable photo shoot. I had to capture some memories of that old red barn before it was laid to rest. It was our way of saying goodbye, but still holding onto something of the past.

Another really special way of holding onto the past was salvaging some of the wood leftover from the torn down barn. It seems as though authentic barn wood is as rare and sought after these days as a gold nugget. I know for me, it was really special to have a few pieces of this barn wood recently given to me by my grandfather.

I created a few pieces of art using this same barn wood and made them into these mason jar-inspired nail and string art boards.

Even if you don’t have any authentic barn wood lying around, really any ol’ piece of wood will do just fine for this project.

Here’s what I needed to create this piece:

• rectangle piece of wood (dimensions of mine were approx. 22″ x 12″)
• white string
• bright wire nails (I used 3/4″ size)
• faux flower stems
• a scissors
• a hammer
• a printout of a mason jar, preferably just the outline
• a leather strap & 2 screws for the handle (or some other study photo hanging hardware to mount to the back of wood)

As you can see, it doesn’t take a whole lot of fancy tools to create this project. It’s pretty simple! And I love projects like that the most!

Start by figuring out the proper placement for your printout image of the mason jar on your board. I wanted mine to allow enough room for the faux blossoms I was adding later, so I eye-balled it and did a quick check with my ruler to make sure I was even on both sides. Then I secured it in place using some blue painters tape.

Next I took my nails and started hammering them into the outline of the mason jar on my printout. I took the liberty of attaching a PDF printout of the mason jar I used here. But you could also find one yourself if you wanted a different look simply by Googling an image.

I spaced my nails out about 1/4″-1/2″ apart from each other along the entire perimeter of the mason jar printout. And I did not hammer them in more than half way into the wood. You want there to be enough of the nail’s head sticking out to still secure your string.

When you are all the way done nailing, remove your paper printout and get it completely off the board.

Once all my nails were in, I took the white string and tied one end of it to one of the nails on the board. I double knotted it and snipped off the end with a scissors close to the knot.

Then I started winding my string around each nail, following the outline of nails I created, and making sure to pull tightly as I wound. Follow along to create your outlined image of the mason jar and weave your way around to the starting place you first tied your string knot. This is where you’ll end and do the same as you did before. Tie a double knot and snip off the string. It’s a lot like connect the dots! When you’re done you’ll see the image of the mason jar.

Then you’ll want to add your handle. I had some leather straps with screw holes already pre-drilled in the ends that I wanted to use for these to hang. I simply measured the middle of the top of my board, and positioned the handle to the height I desired for hanging, then made two small pencil marks to indicate where to place my screws.

Once I had them screwed in place, my handle was secure and ready for hanging on the wall. However, you could also use a photo hanging kit and place a hanger on the top backside of the board as well. Just make sure it is substantial enough to hold a large, heavy board.

Once you are done with these steps, you can add a few stems of a faux flower arrangement – I got mine at the Dollar Store – and add them into your string mason jar, to create the look of a vase filled with blooms!

I couldn’t help but try out one of these boards on my own mantle at home to see how nice it looked next to my own arrangement of blue mason jars. I actually made a few of these to bring along to my recent craft show in March, and still have some left over for sale in my Shop. 

If you’re interested you can take a look and maybe bring one home already done and ready to enjoy. It’ll be like you’re owning a piece of the past! Or, you can take a stab at making one of these yourself and see just how fun mason jar art can be!