hope and honey: gifts from the heart, nicole from deliajude

i am delighted to introduce you to nicole from deliajude as today's guest. when we met last year, i felt a near instant connection. when she writes i feel like she plucked the thoughts out of my head - phrasings, word choices and all. it is very neat when that happens. although we share many interests, our lives are very different. yet i continuously feel a solidarity in our journeys as wives, mamas and followers of Jesus. there is a lot more i could say here, but i think you should go read her stuff and see what i mean. here is a sampling of places to start: non-resolutions, today's letters, scientific seventh birthday, and deafness.

now let's see what goodness nicole has for us today. . .

What a honor to be here today. Isn't this a fantastic series...so many new blogs to read and tutorials to try. I suppose I ought to tell you all where I met Annalea... about a year ago over on SCL, I read a comment she made in which I linked to ourhartbeat and the rest, they say, is history. Web connections can create amazing friendships and communities for which I am grateful. Thank you Annalea for counting me in your number for this series.

Okay, let me start by saying, I love garlands, buntings, pennants, basically all things festive banner like. Lately I have been thinking about the bible verse "His banner over me is love" and how I can tie that verse into my garland love. In fact, I pondered long and hard about how I can incorporate those ideas. This is what I came up with...a mini piece of art with a banner.

First, I used my handy dandy heart punch (fiskars) and punched out 10 hearts from this gorgeous pink glitter paper (found at paper-source).

Then, I stitched the hearts together through my sewing machine.

I tried to create this project with what I have on hand...which is a surprisingly large stash for an alarmingly small storage area (my son's closet).

Using an 8x10 canvas and painted it with a chocolate color acrylic paint...a really thick and swirly layer of paint to create a textural effect on the canvas.

While the canvas was still wet I gently placed the sewn heart garland over the paint and pushed it down with my fingers...using the paint as the glue.

Of course the paint needed extra time to dry due to the thick swirls...which gave me more time to think about how to add the scripture.

The next day I printed out the bible verse from Song of Solomon 2 v4 "His banner over me is Love"...a cool font always helps!

Using a sharp knife and ruler, I trimmed the quote down to reasonable banner size and shape.

Using a super strong double stick tape I adhered the banner to the canvas...If I had been prepared ahead of time I would have attached the banner the same way I did with the glittered heart garland, using the wet paint as a glue....which is what you should do if you recreate this craft.

The final look is textural, unfussy and a daily reminder. A perfect gift.

In fact I think I will send it to my mom...she is not a hanging garland kind of mom but she loves handmade gifts, especially ones from the heart.

dear nicole, thank you for clicking over to my blog last year and introducing yourself. thank you for your friendship this year. thank you for this guest post and sharing your gift from the heart. ~a

did i mention you can find nicole on etsy at deliajude the shoppe? she makes the sweetest garlands and cards from found materials, as well as selling supplies for your crafting needs.

nicole would like to offer one of you a three month subscription to her garland of the month club. isn't that sweet?

the winner is. . .