Introduction: Sports Team Yarn Plaque

By
About: Student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Class of 2020. Currently studying to earn my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

When you want to add a little creative flair to either a man-cave or even as a regular decoration in your home. You can use this guide to create a wooden plaque displaying your favorite team's logo using a unique and clever design using nails and yarn.

This project is fun and a great challenge that anyone can accomplish. If you have some free time, or you're looking for something creative to do, check out this wonderful custom team wall art.

Step 1: Materials and Equipment

To start off, the materials for this project are very simple, possibly even found at home!

Materials:

  • Wood Plaque
    • The base is really up to you, for my project I used an oval shaped wooden plaque that is roughly 8 1/2" by 11 1/2". The thickness is 3/4".
  • Yarn
    • I use medium size white yarn. You can choose the appropriate color for your team or design, the amount depends on how big the image is.
  • Glue
    • I am using Gorilla Glue to hold certain areas of the yarn in place.
  • Nails
    • I wanted to use white nails on the plaque to blend with the yarn as to not make the nails stand out.
    • These are 1" panel board nails.
  • Spray Paint
    • The Milwaukee Bucks rock a nice darker green in the logo. I decided on a semi-gloss hunter green from Rust-Oleum, this color provided the matte green look that is very similar to the organization's logo.
  • Picture Frame Mount/Hook
    • To make this better for decorating your man cave or a simple piece in your home, a mount is added to the back such that it can be hung on a wall with a nail.

Equipment:

  • Hammer
  • 12" Ruler (OPTIONAL)
  • Marker/Sharpie (OPTIONAL)
  • Exacto Knife (OPTIONAL)
  • Printer (Or really good at free-hand drawing)

Step 2: Spray Painting

It's probably in your favor to begin this process by painting the wood first. I did this so I could complete other steps while the woodenplaque is drying. Using my Rust-Oleum semi-gloss hunter green paint, I applied 3 coats with about 20-30 minutes in between.

If you are able to find something that is pre-painted, this makes the process easier and cleaner.

Step 3: Logo Outline

After you gather the materials and your equipment, it's time to hop onto the computer to find your favorite sports team's logo. In my case, I used the Milwaukee Bucks main logo to put on my plaque.

I am an avid Photoshop user, so I already had access to an image editing software. GIMP is a free alternative that should suffice, although I have no experience with it so unfortunately I can't help using the software. Picking a logo is rough. The easiest logos to give an outline to are the ones that are simple, flat, and preferably two-color. Try to make the logo in a black outline as pictured above. Once you have your logo and it's sized appropriately, print this out. To make things more simple for myself. I used a pen to roughly color in the areas that are going to not be covered by the yarn. Once this is done, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Step 4: Initial Nail Outline

Using the Logo Outline that was made in step 3, position your paper on your plaque in the position of your choosing. Using one of your panel nails and a hammer, go along your outline and hammer the nail with about 2-3 good hits so the wood retains the beginning of the hole. You can do this right through the paper!

After the long process of outlining the logo is complete, you can take the paper off. Be careful because the paper may stick to the wood and leave behind pieces of the paper. Using a small exacto knife, I removed these pieces.

Step 5: Inserting the Nails

Using the 1" White Panel Nails, start hammering in each nail to each hole. Since my board is 3/4" thick, I hammered the nails half way in or 1/2" into the plaque. This is a very tedious step, but once you complete it, you can move on to the next part.

Step 6: Yarn

This is the most tedious step you will encounter, even more than the nails. During this process I discovered some difficulties when actually creating the image. Originally, I had the name also included on the plaque, but when I started the process of putting the yarn on it, it didn't work well. I scrapped the idea and filled in the section instead, which in my opinion, looks better.

Adding the yarn is in the hands of the creator. However you desire to fill in the white space is your choice. I started by outlining the entire logo before filling in space. This took me the longest and left me somewhat discouraged at some points due to either messing up in the beginning and having to take all of the yarn off or having the yarn slip off the nails. The glue was very vital in the whole process because it held together the yarn so the yarn wouldn't unravel due to the tension of the yarn. This is a complex design so I wasn't expecting it to be a walk in the park.

I also added some thick red yarn around the lofted section between the face and the back of the wood plaque. to add some more "pop" to the image. This is completely optional.

Step 7: Wall Mount

You will probably need some sort of drill for this step, depending on your wall mount. I simply used a ruler to find the place of my choosing that centered the mount. I made sure to have screws that would not poke out through the front of the board. Once it's attached, the project is complete!