This DIY Wedding? Gift I made for my son, Jonathan’s, wedding in January of this year. I used the colors of the rainbow because it was the theme of their wedding.

You could certainly do this in any other wedding theme colors as well. This gift was inspired by the heart painted stone, in the center with the rainbow-colored dots, given to me by my sons partner, David.

My supplies for this project: I purchased three bags of black stones at a Dollar Tree store. I did not use all the stones, but I needed different shapes and sizes to fit together and this gave me more choices. I also purchased a bag of a mixture of small pebbles, that I found the small black pebbles to use for hyphens and fill in between large stones. I went to Hobby Lobby to buy the wooden “J” & “D” and a bag of numbers. I had the 18 x 20 inch canvas on hand in my art studio. You could buy the canvas at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn’s Fabric’s. I purchased the following at Wal-Mart: Arlene’s All-Purpose Glue to attach everything, black gloss acrylic spray paint to paint the numbers and letters, Sharpie pens, acrylic paints, brushes and clear gloss acrylic spray paint.

I started with the inspiration stone from David, then laid out the letters on top and the date at the bottom. The reason for placing the letters & numbers is to keep the stone heart design in proper proportion on the canvas. The next step is fun laying out all the stones. This step is like putting together a puzzle and takes a good bit of time because of the shapes and sizes of the stones. I placed small black pebbles in between the large stones for fillers. Now it’s time to start gluing. This takes a good bit of time and patience, because the stones not glued want to move when you’re picking up a stone. After gluing I set a small table fan out for the canvas to dry the glue for 24 hours.

After all the stones are glued tight, spray paint the letters and numbers with black gloss acrylic spray paint. Then glue them all in place and add the tiny black pebbles as hyphens. Again, I used the small fan to dry all glued items.

Now the fun part of painting? all those dots! This is a time-consuming step and by the time you finish you’ll see colorful dots in your sleep!!! ?

AND the next night all you’ll see is colorful jagged lines in you sleep! ? This is another time-consuming step! Keep your thoughts on the special couple you are preparing it for!

Then it’s time to use your fine point black Sharpie to write words and phrases of encouragement and inspiration like I did here.

Allow the ink to dry. Next use your clear gloss acrylic spray to spray over the canvas, not too heavy in any one spot or you will make the Sharpie ink bleed. Just do several lite coats to get the desired shine. Allow to dry well overnight. Now you have a piece of artwork that is your labor of ❤️ love from you to the newlyweds! ? I felt blessed and I hope they were as well!

Ideas ?you could consider … ?omitting the jagged lines and encouraging thoughts and use the canvas as a wedding registry OR allow guests to write notes to the newlyweds for them to enjoy for years to come of their special day. ?You could decide to paint the canvas first in a wedding theme color and put the accent color on the stones; ?change the color of the stones, letters and numbers; and ? use the last name of the couple in place of initials. Okay, now here’s another ? idea…. you could easily do this for a Graduation ?‍? gift as well!

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I have a lot going on in my life. I do truly appreciate those of you who have subscribed to my blog. Thank you for checking out my post! Until the next time….God Bless You!