Designers Sweet Spot: The Faith, Hope, Love Project

A year ago our church started a challenged called Eat This Book. It was a challenge to read scripture daily and make it through the Bible in one year. What a year it has been! It's quite an eye opening experience to be on an intensive reading program like that......you can read more in my previous post on the challenge here.

So recently, the church issued another challenge. This one was to put what you learned in reading your Bible all year, into a visual format. Wow, talk about mind boggling! But, I have persevered and finally finished my project.

I had lots of design changes along the way, but I do like how it turned out. There is a little surprise you will see at the end of this post, so stick with me, okay?

It's kind of an involved story. I started by finding this great ugly box in the free pile at Habitat for Humanity. Apparently it was too ugly even for them..........I didn't know what I was going to do with it, just that it had to come home with me. Free is good after all........

I grabbed this leftover beige paint from the basement and gave the box a couple of coats. I knew I wanted to make some sort of sign so I picked up some letters in different fonts and materials from Hobby Lobby.

I also got some craft paints in different shades of off white, grey and black. Plus, a couple different sizes of stencils. And a surprise for the end. Don't for get the surprise at the end of this blog!

I wanted each of the words on the sign to stand out in it's own way. The wooden letters of the word faith were painted with off white paint, then Tacky Glue, and glittered with ivory glitter. They are average size, about 5" high.

"Faith moves mountains..........."

The word hope was made with larger paper mache' letters. I painted them with two coats of grey paint, and then decided they needed a little something extra. I rummaged around in my junk drawer and came up with these little metal snowflakes that I use to sprinkle on the table at the holidays, they are getting old and are beginning to rust. I glued them on randomly with more Tacky Glue.

"Hope that we shall see God face to face......."

The word love was harder. I wanted larger letters, and ended up with these press wood letters. Those I painted with two coats of black paint. Don't forget the surprise!

"And the greatest of these is love........."

I played around with different arrangements in the box until I found one that I liked. Then I began to stencil in the appropriate verses in the box. I used these 1" stencils with a sticky backing for the verses.

They were easy to fill in with black paint and a brush.

While the stencils were drying, I began working on the large letters. Have you seen what the surprise is yet? The large letters have lights in them. I bought a string of 10 battery operated LED Christmas lights at the dollar store for each letter.

Once the letters were painted, I drilled the holes for the lights with a large bit.

The letters had to stand out from the back of the box in order to accommodate the wires for the lights, so my dear husband cut up a 1/2 dowel we had laying around to make risers for them. They were then randomly glued onto the back in between the holes for the lights.

Are you still with me? I told you this was a rather long story.

Then the lights were fitted into the holes on the back of the letters.

The letters were glued on and allowed to dry for several days. They are each to switch on and off, the little battery packs are hidden behind each letter. Surprise! I also added a wool heart I stitched from some scraps. The finishing touch was a couple of decorative buttons. Here's the original verse that inspired me:

If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.