C.R.A.F.T. Package Pals

I was so excited to be able to participate in Package Pal's this past month on C.R.A.F.T. Creating Really Awesome Free Things! We are paired with someone, get to know them, and send each other a package based on the things that they like (or that we think they will like). My #PP was Coley, from Coley's Corner. If your haven't met Coley, you definitely want to stop by, and check out her adorable blog!

One of the wonderful things that I have come to know about Coley, is that she is a very special mom to a very special boy, Noah. He is 16 (just had is sweet 16!), and has Cerebral Palsy. We as moms all have trying days...it's just a fact. I don't have any clue what it is like to take care of kids with special needs. I mean, I freaked out (more than you will ever know), when my son puked for the first time (right Coley? HA). So I can only imagine the stress that a mom feels when she has a child that needs multiple surgeries, and things like that. I had said to Coley in one of our conversations, that God mad her for Noah. In her response back, she told me of her motto "You we made for this", and directed me to this page. And you can find more post about that here. So the first thing that I knew for sure I wanted to make for Coley, was this cuff...

On her post, she said that the verse that came to mind, was Jeremiah 29:11, I know the plans I have for you. On the inside of the cuff, I added that verse...

God made her for Noah, so I added that as well...

I hope you like it Coley!

 I made the cuff right away, but was sure what else to make. I wanted to make sure that (1) she would like it, and (2) it would be something that would go with her decor, whether it be something for her house or to add to her holiday decorations. So late one night, while stalking glancing over no...definitely stalking, Today's Fabulous Finds, I came across these AH-MAZING ornaments made out of paint sticks...

Paint sticks!! Aren't those SO SO cute?!? She has a wonderful tutorial for you to make your own. The possibilities are endless on this project! Definitely not limited to just Christmas or even ornaments for that matter! This is what I made...

Before I share the rest of the ornaments I made for her, I wanted to share a bit of her story. As you can read on her about me page, Noah is not her only child. She is the birthmom to a son named Charlie, who she place for adoption to a wonderful local family. The adoption is an open adoption, which means that she gets pictures, phone calls and visits. Charlie knows that Coley is his birthmom and that Noah is his birth brother.
She also has an angel baby, named Darcy. Darcy didn't make it to this earth, but is a very special part of Coley's life. I wanted to make sure to make an ornament for the entire family.

Here are all of the ornaments...

 My friends dog thought they were pretty great too!

I loved making these, and I hope Coley enjoy's them as well! I'm so glad that I was picked to participate in October's Package Pal! Thanks Jamie for pairing me with such a special gal!


I would just like to add, since I'm not going to post a tutorial for this, a few tips if you want to make your own:

• In the tutorial, it says to print on plain paper and then photocopy onto stock paper (unless you have a laser printer). That is so that the ink from your printer doesn't smear when you apply the Mod Podge.  Instead, after you print your image, spray the paper with hair spray (aerosol  hair spray) and let the hair spray dry or dry the paper with a hair dryer. Works great!
• I wanted to customize the colors of the ornaments, so I uploaded the pdf file to Inkscape. There I was able to change the color of any area. I was also able to make the personalized ones the same way.
• The tutorial says to Mod Podge the cardstock to the stick, but I thought that would take to long to dry. So I used spray adhesive. Love that stuff! 

Those were the only things I did different :)

Once I was finished with these, I checked out Coley's Pinterest, where I saw that she had this project pinned!! I guess that means she would like them!