Art Nouveau Angel

On March 17th, 2012 I was working out in the yard with my husband when I got a call from a lady who was sitting with my next door neighbor. Delisa (my 47 yr old neighbor with metastatic bile duct cancer) had been put on hospice 3 days prior  and since I had been helping her husband, Bill, through this process and since I am a nurse I was the 1st person on the call list if there was a problem. There 2 sweet ladies had sent Bill and their 5 year old daughter, Alexis, to Chuck E Cheese for a break. I went next door and cleaned Delisa and the bed up (she had an accident) and showed the ladies how to roll her in bed so she wouldn't be hurt. Delisa had gone down hill pretty quickly in the last few days and was barely responsive at this point.

For whatever reason (maybe because I was trying to get out of lawn work?? or maybe it was a divine intervention) I stood there talking to the ladies for about an hour about the whole situation. The thing I remember most was that I had made a comment to Delisa and the ladies that between the church family and the neighborhood family I thought that Alexis would be well cared for. Delisa didn't respond to my comment but within 15 minutes Delisa passed from this world into a better place. A place where Angels praise God and there was no more pain and suffering.

There are days I remember why I don't work as a hospice nurse anymore, this was one of them....I worked as a hospice nurse for 7 years....and I thank God for those angels who do this on a daily basis.

After we got Bill and Alexis home and the hospice nurse (who is a wonderful friend of mine) got to the house and everyone had said their goodbyes to Delisa, I took Alexis to my house while we waited on the funeral home. It is my experience that NO ONE EVER needs to see their loved one leave the home on that stretcher, I even asked some of the church men to take Bill to the backyard during that process.

So we are at my house and Alexis is looking at all my "prettys" in my craftroom. She sat there staring at my angels and said that "her mommy is an angel now" and asked if I would make her one....This is what I made...

I started with a painter's canvas and I used different color Glimmer mist for the "rainbow" background that Alexis requested. I made the angel from Art Nouveau and hand cut her halo which I stickled gold. I used 4 layers of foam tape to build her up enough on the bottom half of her body and behind her head to go on top the wings. I only used one layer of foam tape for the parts of the body that would rest on top the wings.

The wings are from JoAnn's and I had to cut 2 holes in my canvas w an exacto knife to put the wires through. I then punched holes for the LED lights - by looking at the front and eyeballing where I wanted the lights to be. I didn't want the lightbulbs to show thru, just the light.

and poked them through

I duct taped everything down, then added the the saying "Angels are not only above us, they are also within us." which I made on my computer and printed on cardstock, star stickers and chipboard elements to the front, put her in a frame and she is done :)

I hope Alexis loves her!!!