I love Mother’s Day not only because I’m a mother and I get to relax for the day (wink, wink) but because I love a day that appreciates all mothers. Single mothers, step mothers, grandmothers even single fathers who are mom and dad to their kids. With that said I am very excited to share this awesome DIY Mother’s Day Gift that you can make with less than $20!
I do strongly believe that you should always show your mothers appreciation year round but especially more on Mother’s day. The inspiration for this project came after I saw this beautiful DIY Mothers Day gift on Pinterest. Hope you enjoy my take on this awesome project and hopefully give it a try.
Supplies
Wood or Shelve (12” x 30”)
Nails (1¼” in length with big nail heads so the yarn can go around)
Hammer
Yarn (color of choice)
Mini-clothespins
E-6000 Glue
Small pics (I cut down to size)
Command mounting strips (love these things)
Optional
Stain/ Paint
Floral accents
I purchased my shelf from Lowes for less than $4. I did not mind that it was a shelf and not a wood piece. If you want that rustic wood look I recommend buying an actual wood piece and cutting down to size. I just fell in love with the price and couldn’t pass this up.
I also purchased my nails from Lowes and got the nails with the biggest heads I could find. If I would have found nails with even bigger heads it would have been easier but I made it happen with what I got.
Start by sanding your shelf or wood piece this will help your surface be smooth and help avoid getting splinters. I mostly concentrated on the corners since these were more jagged.
Having a printable outline for this project is very important, so you know where to put the nails. I used the same printable from the Pinterest inspiration tutorial. She has the whole alphabet as well as additional shapes.
Tip: If you want a completely different design I would recommend Canva as well as they have many shapes and fonts.
Make sure to leave the negative space around the letters this will indicate the placement of your letters and make sure they are straight. See my pic above I used the edges of the papers to line up my design the way I wanted it.
Once you have your design in the place you want, it’s time to start hammering!
TIP: Be very careful when hammering the nails as you do not want them to go completely through. I did this on my craft table so I was very careful not to go all the way through so it would not damage my table.
TIP: Since I was using a longer shelf I got my husband to cut down using a circular saw. I measured the length from the edge to one M and made sure that the other side was identical and marked it before cutting.
I started on the edges of the Ms and placed another nail as parallel and straight as I could. Think connect the dots. Mine was not perfect so don’t worry about it being absolutely perfect. Remember there is no right or wrong in crafts just fails (JK) but seriously take your time and you should be okay.
Here is one of my Ms completed and the second pic shows the placement on the last M. I made sure each line had the same amount of nails so it would look as seamless as possible.
As I said previously be careful when hammering these nails, here are some of mine that bent when I was hammering, but no worries just grabbed another one and kept going.
Once you are done hammering all your nails, tear away the paper and you are left with just the nails. Take your yarn and tie a knot on one of the nails and start by outlining your letters
Once you have completely outlined your letter it’s time to start filling in with the yarn.
There is no rhyme or reason to this, just fill out the negative space by threading the yarn around to different nails. When finished, tie the yarn in a knot using the other threads in the letter. See my picture below to get an idea of what I am talking about.
Continue the same process for the remaining shapes. After you are done with all your letters and shapes make sure to trim off any extra yarn.
Lay out all your pics where you would like them to be above your design and use this as a guide to know where to glue your mini clothespins. Using the E6000 glue and a toothpick glue your clothespins above the design evenly spaced out. Let dry for 24 hours before clipping your pics on them.
I purchased these beautiful fake flower embellishments at Joann’s Fabric for half off! Again this is optional but since I did not stain or paint my shelf I wanted to add some embellishments to add more character and a fun design.
I was able to cut these with scissors but depending on the thickness of the stem I would also recommend wire cutters if scissors are not cutting through.
Using my hot glue gun I added glue to the tips of the flowers and glued them in the specific way that I wanted them to lay.
Once you have all your flowers glued down, add your mounting strips and mount wherever Mom wants!
My favorite thing about this project was that it looks beautiful but cost me less than $20! Such a cool and inexpensive way to give a very personalized gift to anyone!
Let me know in the comments below who you would make this awesome handmade gift for? And don’t forget to share with your friends and family (sharing is caring 🤗💖) Like projects like this make sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook so you don’t miss a thing!
See you soon crafting beauties,
