Thanksgiving Wedding Gifts

Well, Monday (Thanksgiving for us) found us a part of our first *kids'* wedding (no not our children....please give me a good 10 years ;) ). You see, my husband and I are Youth Pastor's and we work with students from Junior High up through College age to us they are our *kids*. And though we've married some of our leaders who were college age....this was the first wedding of some of our former High School students. I will probably be this effected by all of these kids getting married - but these two being first ...are also very precious to us. We have walked through a lot of *life* together, and they are like an extension of our own family. Our youngest son said *Adam* before he said *Mama* ! (ask me how I felt about THAT! :) )

So, it was a 3 Kleenex ceremony for me. Really it's so powerful and touching to see these 2 and their hearts for each other, and their hearts for serving God together. They are just remarkable people, and we've felt very blessed to be a part of their lives. They leave in a few weeks to go to Scotland for a year to serve at a ministry there (what a first year of marriage hey?). I'll miss them so much! So I bawled like a baby! It was such a beautiful wedding! They looked beautiful and so very happy.

The groom's Dad performed the ceremony (his Dad is our Senior Pastor - can you imagine performing the wedding ceremony of your son? He did a very beautiful and touching job too), and we were blessed to be the emcee's at the reception. They were married at our camp, a very special place to them because they met there for the first time, and serve there every summer. The above picture is of the little chapel they were married in at the camp with the sunlight streaming through the trees (isn't it gorgeous?), there's a creek running in front of it and a rounded bridge off to the left. It's a really wonderful location...and God does amazing things in so many lives through this camp's ministry. I grew up going to this camp too and know what a special place it is first hand.

All that to say, my heart really wanted to create something special for these two students that would commemerate this day...and their faith in God and their future with such hope....

So, I made this framed piece of art for them. I started by stamping all of these leaves on watercolor paper with VersaMark and embossing with Gold EP. Then I took many hours and watercolored each of them in fall colors.

I really like a font that my husband has on his Mac so he printed a template of the words I wanted, and then painstakingly cut out the letters on paper and traced out all the larger words (the smaller words are handwritten). This really took a while and you have to be patient to then go back and re-sketch the letters to get it all to look right. The verse is from 2 Corinthians 9:15 and reads "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift"

I added a wash of More Mustard and Ruby Red on the main layer of watercolor paper....though the wash is really washed out by the pictures.

Then I colored in my letters using my Aqua Painter and SW Markers, then added the leaves with adhesive in a layout I thought would be most pleasing. The project probably took me about 10 - 12 hours, and I really love how it turned out.

These two pictures are out of the frame so you can see it without the glass. And here is a closer picture within the frame under the glass.

I also made a matching card using the same leaf technique. I used my Coluzzle to cut out the ovals in the 2 main layers, sponged and stamped the leaves on the Mustard layer, and added retired DP underneath with the Mr. & Mrs. stamped on it. I like how the & in both the card and artwork have that same flourished feel.
More of the leaves close up.
Recipe: Stamps: With Gratitude, Together Forever Ink: VersaMark (Card: More Mustard) Paper: Watercolor (Card: Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Retired DP), Accessories: Aqua Painter, SW Markers, Reinkers, Gold EP, (Card: Gold Brads, Chocolate Satin Ribbon, Gold Pen, Burgundy SW Marker, Dimensionals, Colluzzle Oval Cutter, Sponge)

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Thanksgiving Wedding Gifts