Wedding Heart Specimen Art

My little sister just got married! We had a great time at her bridal shower and lots of fun prepping for her wedding. I wanted to make a gift that would be personal to her and her new husband so I decided to make some art for their new, cozy, little bungalow.
They met in upstate New York so I started with a map from the area. I cut a slew of hearts with my Cricut (the Create a Critter cartridge).

Then I created a text box in Publisher. I typed in the text I wanted (2 Bible verses: "For where you go, I will go... your people shall be my people, and your God, my God" Ruth 1:16  and "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." Song of Solomon 6:3) with some cool fonts. I like the juxtaposition of the more classic typewriter font with the scripty font.
I also inserted super tiny, super light gray dots in the textbox to be a template to place the hearts.
I printed my text on white cardstock and then trimmed them to fit the frames.

Next came the hard part.... picking the best hearts and placing them. On the 'beloved' print, I kept the hearts mostly white. I picked out the one of the town where they met and married, which just happens to be in the very green Adirondacks, and put that on as an accent.

The other print, I went with more of a mix of colors. Still very muted, lots of white, green, and a pinch of blue.

And that's about it. I wanted it to be nice so I didn't do my usual rush job. I actually took my time and was super picky about lining up the hearts and removing extra adhesive tape bits. I even washed the frame glass on both sides! :) I think they turned out pretty nice. I might have to make some for me!

Linking up to these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming; Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife;
Tuesday: One Project at a Time at A Bowl Full of Lemons; Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia;
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; It's Overflowing at Overflowing with Creativity; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts;
Home Decor & Organizing at Organize and Decorate Everything;
Thursday: Delightfully Inspiring Thursday at Delightful Order; Thrifty Thursday at Thrifty and Fabuless;  Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage;
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;