Around Coley's Corner

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Real Noah


He may just look like a boy in a wheelchair to you but to those who have the privilege of knowing and loving him, Noah is so much more. 

He's a boy with a big heart, soul, thoughts, and fears.
He's a joy, a blessing, and an absolute handful! 



(click to see larger)


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Flower Pot Cards


I bought this flower pot cut file from the Silhouette store awhile back (Side note: One thing I love about the Silhouette store is how inexpensive all the cut files and often they have sales making them cheaper than the normal 99 cents.) and had been wanting to use it for something but hadn't created anything with it. 

Last week, I finally had times to craft for me since I had been pretty consumed with crafting for the BMB retreat and decided to create a few cards for my Mom for Mother's Day and a friend. I recalled the flower pot shape and decided to give it a try. It was pretty easy. I just selected different papers and cut them. 



The way the card is created the flower part slides down into the pot. You can write your sentiment below the flowers. 

I used different patterned papers to create the flowers. (I actually used some scraps - I'm on a mission to dwindle down my scrap pile this year!) 

I decided it needed something a little more and that's when I added the ribbon. I create a tag using a punch and a stamp.



I love how they turned out! 

I forgot how much fun card making is and I know I'll be sharing more cards soon!

(Linking to the parties listed in my sidebar)





Monday, May 13, 2013

{Girly} Super Hero Decor

Some of you may know that my BFF and I co-founded an organization called BirthMom Buds that provides support to birthmothers and each year, the weekend before Mother's Day we host a retreat and celebration in Charlotte, North Carolina. I really enjoy the task of decorating for the retreat. Each year, we choose a theme each year for the retreat and try to carry it out through out the whole weekend. This being our 9th event, we are starting to get a little more creative and out of the box with our themes and chose this year's theme to be (girly) Super Heroes. Our colors were pink, yellow, lavender, green, and light teal and we created one table in each color.

My Silhouette machine makes creating decor SO easy. I seriously wonder how I ever did this before I had a Silhouette! ha! 

My BFF created some amazing buildings out of cardboard boxes by painting them black and adding and cutting out little windows. Those were the main part of the centerpiece and then I created other things to go around the buildings.

The clock tower is my favorite part of the building. So cute!

To go around the buildings, I created several thing. First up, is the candle holders below. I spray painted them black. The masks are fabric and were made using a simple mask shape from the Silhouette store.


I also took glass vases and spray painted them black. I filled them with beans for weight and then silver shred. I created super hero bubbles (using this shape from the Silhouette store) with different words like "pow," "wow," and "bam." I created a colored bubble and then a slightly larger black bubbled and sandwiched two of the bubbles in between a small dowel rod that I painted black. I applied the letters with pop dots to give it a small bit of dimension.



I think my favorite part of the tables was the girls popping out of the building. This same girl is in the retreat logo. I traced the logo in the Silhouette software and cut just the girl out. She is on a small black dowel and is secured inside the building using floral foam. The initials BMB were cut from black vinyl.


I also printed some super hero themed quotes on colored card stock, framed those in frames we used in a previous year's decor, and placed them around the buildings as well.



The last thing I created for the tables was some table scatter/confetti to sprinkle around the centerpieces. The bubbles are the same shape from the Silhouette store. I used the print and cut feature to create a lot of these easily. Sometimes, creating mass quantities of something using the print and cut feature can be a little tedious so my tip is to print everything all at once and then use two mats. While the Silhouette is cutting, you can be peeling off and getting the next page ready to go in.


Lastly I created a banner using the tag line for the retreat, "Super Birthmoms Unite." I found some printable comic book pages online, then turned them into black and white prints in my photo editing software. Then I cut out triangles and letters in solid block using the Silhouette.



And now, here are some more pictures:





The BFF and I were super pleased at how it turned out!
There we are rocking our super hero attire at our Friday Night Mixer.

(I'm "C Kent" and she's wonder woman!)


This post is part of a monthly Silhouette challenge created by Lauren at The Thinking Closet. Check out the links below for more projects by some talented crafty ladies using their Silhouette machines.
Spring Hoop Home Decor - Daily Dwelling
Girly Superhero Decor - Coley's Corner


Interested in joining us for our group posting event next month?  We'd love to have you.  Simply contact Lauren from The Thinking Closet by email.

Linking to the link parties listed in my sidebar




Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Memory Jar for Mom

Since Mother's Day is this weekend, I thought I'd share a couple of easy DIY gifts I made for my Mom for past Mother's Day.


This memory jar was easy to make and it was fun for my brother and I to sit with my Mom and re-count some of our fond memories.

To create this gift, my brother and I each wrote about 10 memories of things our Mom did for us or with us from childhood to present day. I also asked Noah a few of his favorite Nana memories. I printed them on plain old white copy paper and cut them a part into strips. I rolled them up and tied mine with pink ribbon, Noah's memories with orange ribbon, and my brother's with purple ribbon so my Mom would know whose memory she was about to read just by looking at the color of the ribbon.

I created a tag explaining what was when the jar and what color each of our memories were tied up with. I put them all in the jar, decorated it with a few stickers, and ribbon.

My Mom loved it!

(Linking to the parties listed in my sidebar)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Weekend Wonders: Blog Planners

I was looking for a good blog planner to help me keep track of the multiple bloggers over at the BirthMom Buds blog which I manage and found some cute, free printable blog planners that I thought I'd share.












Do you use a blog planner?