Saturday, December 29, 2012

Colour Q finally!!!


So we had some technical difficulties with Colour Q last week.  But it's finally up, and I'm finally putting my sample up. 
 

I love this color combo.  I really miss bermuda bay.  And combined with the Pear Pizzaz and Basic Grey, I was in - LOOOO-VVEEE.  Anyway, I really wanted to scrap this Instagram'ed photo of my daughter, and I was feeling a bit tired of Christmas when I made this page.  I used tons and tons of overlays to make that cool background paper.  There's even an overlay in Pear Pizzaz if you look close enough.   Hop on over to the Colour Q and check out the fab samples from the Design Team.

Recovering Rapidly

Are you recovering rapidly???  From your turkey hangover I mean???
 Scroll down for the stamp that inspired my title if you're interested.
 
I am having so much fun playing with my new box of pre-order goodies.
I have tons to show you.  First off, check out these adorable pinwheels.
They're made with a new Sizlit.
 
 
I also thought I'd give you a little tutorial on how I sometimes matte my die cuts.
This works best with framelits.

 
Take your framelit and using your paper piercing tool, trace around.
You're scratching the outline. 
You should get something like the example below.
 
 
 
Notice that it's not perfect, but it's close.
 
 
Next, carefully cut out your scratched image.
Do you best, but don't worry too much about little imperfections.
 
 
After you cut it out, attach your die cut to the middle of your piece.
 
 
Then I distress the edges.  You can use sandpaper, or scissors to do this.
Once I put my card together, I decided that it needed more contrast, so I matted it again.
This time I cut it out freehand, so it was really imperfect.
That meant I had to REALLY distress the orange layer.
 
 
On this card I used the new patterned paper (DSP), embossing folder, and stamp set that you can earn free during Sale-a-bration.  I also pulled out my favourite framelits, and used the new pinwheel Sizlits from the new Spring Catalogue.


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #156

I hope you have had a fabulous holiday these past few days.
I know we have here at the Farrell household.
There's been a lot of overeating and general overindulgence,
along with a lot of very excited and exhausted children.
I love christmas through children's eye.
But I digress...
 
 
This week at Stampin' Royalty we have a Sketch Challenge for you.
Hop on over and check out the fabulous creations by the Design Team.
They have done a fabulous job this week, let me tell you.
 
 
For this challenge I opened up my box of pre-order goodies and got to work.
This adorable little stamp and die cut frame and paper flowers is from the upcoming Spring Mini Catalogue.
 
 
And the paper you can earn free during Saleabration next month.
 
 
I had so much fun putting this together that I didn't stop there.  Look for upcoming posts with  more sneak peek goodies in the next week or so.
 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas

 I hope Santa made a visit to your house last night.  We had a lot of excitement around here this morning I tell you!  Today I thought I'd share some cards I made for my children's teachers.  These were super, super, super easy to make.  I'm so sad that the stocking punch was retired last year.  These little stockings are so adorable. 






Monday, December 24, 2012

Simply Easy

Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope Santa makes a visit to your house tonight.  Don't forget the milk and cookies!!
 
I thought I'd share some more super easy cards using the Simply Scrappin' kit in the holiday mini catty 2012.
 




The images below really show the shimmer of the smooch spritz.



Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Spritz

 
These cards were soooooooooooooooo easy to make.  I stamped the image in Versa Mark and clear embossed them with  a heat gun.  Then I sprayed on some Green shimmer smooch spritz.  When it was dry I wiped down the card with a dry kleenex and all the spritz came off the words to reveal the sentiment.  Cool right?
 
I mounted them on a variety of card stock and patterned paper to come up with these variations.
I'm not sure who's getting the Santa and Underwear card yet, but I'm sure I can find someone.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Quick and Easy with Simply Scrappin'

When I went to Tacoma Regionals we saw many samples of quick and easy cards made with the Christmas Simply Scrappin' Kit.
 
 
 
 
I sprayed them all with Vanilla Smooch Spritz to add a festive touch.
 


 






Friday, December 21, 2012

Christmas Swap


I had so much fun making this card.  I was so overwhelmed with what to do with these hostess stamps.  Then I found THIS card from Connie Babert.  I basically copied her card and changed the colours up a bit.



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Snowflake Scramble

 
I really wanted to play with a challenge this week, and I had this new patterned paper I really wanted to try out.  When I saw that the Paper Players had a snowflake challenge, I pulled out my new snowflake die and some glimmer paper and went to work.
 
I'm also entering this into the Christmas challenge at Just Add Ink.
 
 I tried a variety of colour combinations. 
 I sponged the edges for an aged look.


 

 The white snowflakes are made with white card stock and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.
Here's all three together.  I really like the shimmer on this paper.
I tried to make them a bit funky by playing around with the positions of the snowflakes and the window frame die cuts.
 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #155

 
 Welcome to Wednesday and another challenge over at Stampin' Royalty. 
Hop over and visit the samples by the Design Team.
 
This week we have a colour Challenge for you.
 
 
I used these colours on my banner for my latest nephew's bedroom.
I admit I swapped out Midnight muse for Island Indigo because he  had navy blue curtains in his room and I wanted it to match.
Click here to see the matching baby card.
 
 
I used the pennant die for the big shot to make most of this puppy.
The letters are some old chipboard ones that I coloured with Midnight Muse ink.
It was super easy to do with the new ink pads.
 
 
Most of the paper comes from the Comfort Cafe suite, but some of it is from an In Colour paper pack.
 
 
And if you look at the 'a' above, you will see a bit of the Comfort Cafe fabric which I glued down and then die cut.
 
 
Here's another look at that fabric. 
Also, the sailboats came from MDS2.
I stamped the images, then coloured parts of them with the challenge colours.
Then I printed them out and carefully cut them out and popped them up.
 
 
And here's a final look at that banner.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Colour Q Challenge #168



 
This week we have a beautiful, simple, colour combo over at the Colour Q.
I made this page with My Digital Studio.  I used instagram for the cool photo effect.
The ribbon was created by layering and rotating 3 different satin bows.
I used Cherry Cobbler for ribbons, Ruby Red for the title, and Bashful Blue in the date, brad, and bakers twine bow.  I pulled in Kraft (or Crumb Cake) by using a texture stamp for the overlay.
 

Saturday, December 15, 2012

I am so sad...

I am so sad . . .
 
I try to be so upbeat in my daily life, especially around my class and my own children.  (That's a photo of my daughter above.)  Twenty years ago, I was a student teacher who was desperately trying to establish control over an unruly class, and failing miserably, and my school advisor said to me, “What’s wrong with the sound of children laughing?”  And I stopped, took a breath, and considered what she said.
 
“What’s wrong with the sound of children laughing?”
 
There’s nothing wrong with the sound of children laughing.  Children WANT to laugh.  They WANT to have fun and enjoy life.  They are little people, designed to learn and absorb knowledge, and they want to have FUN while they do this.
 
My personal quote on Teachers Pay Teachers is “There’s nothing more special than the sound of children laughing.”   And I hold this statement close to my heart.
 
When I’m having a terrible day,  when  I’m exhausted and my class is goofing around when I want to teach, I try to take a big  breath and slow down my thinking.  What’s the point of getting all stressed out about something you can’t control?   So the kids are a bit squirrelly today, go with the flow.  Think of the laughter.  As long as the laughter is not mocking, it must be genuine.  It must be worth something.  It must be precious.
 
I am so sad because . . . 
 
Twenty children died yesterday.   
 
In their school
 
In their classroom
 
In the place they feel safe
 
They DIED!
 
Violently!
 
They will never laugh again.
 
I know that there are probably  terrible things happening to children all over the world right now.
And I know that more than 20 children probably died today in other countries, all over the world.
 
But our children are supposed to be safe at school.
 
I remember school massacre in Dunblaine Scotland.  I was a young teacher, with only a few years of experience, and I was teaching kindergarten in a tough, inner-city area in an isolated portable classroom.  And then I heard about the shootings in Dunblane, and I was shocked.   A gunman went into a kindergarten class in Scotland and killed 15 children and their teacher.  That day I sat, whenever I had a free moment, and I watched my students.  Everything in their lives revolved around learning and laughter.  They wanted to have fun, and innately they were driven to learn.  School was a safe haven in their lives.
 
We spend so much time planning, and organizing our classrooms to make them safe places for children.  If you work with needy children, like I sometimes do, then you truly understand that school can be the only organized and happy place that they experience in a day.
 
So when I hear about something like the tragedy yesterday, I need to stop
 
 breathe,
 
and cry.
 
Those children will never laugh again.
 
For a brief period of time, those souls were on this earth.  It was too brief. . .
 
Do you remember your own kindergarten?  
 
When I started teaching kindergarten, I spent a lot of time trying to remember what happened in my own childhood Kindergarten.  Early on in my career I was substituting and got called to my old elementary school, and spent a day in my old Kindergarten classroom.  
 
My first thought was, “wow, it’s so much smaller than I remember.”
 
My second thought was more organic.  It was more of a feeling, than a thought.  I remember being thrown back in time and remembering the room from my 5 year old perspective, and got a warm feeling in my belly.  I felt comfort, and I felt safe.
 
At the school I teach at,  we practice Lockdown drills a few times a year, and during the drill I spend most of the time trying to stop my children from giggling because they just LOVE to laugh.
 
And why shouldn’t they want to laugh?
 
They should feel safe.
 
School should be a safe place.
 
Why do these tragedies happen?
 
And how can we prevent them from happening again, and again, and again?
 
I’ll think about this in the next while, when I hear my students laugh.
I’ll try to remember those who will never laugh again. . .

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #154

This week we have a Christmas Theme Challenge for you.
Please show us your Christmas or Winter projects.
Hop on to Stampin' Royalty to check out the fabulous work of the Design Team.
 
 
I was completely inspired by this fabulous card by Teneale Williams.  Click here to check out her blog.


So I started with the Blue Ribbon stamp set and the Storytime DSP.  Then I pulled out the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit and got to work.

I pretty much copied the layout of Teneale's card.  I really tried to age the paper and add that vintage touch.


I stamped the Santa image several times.  Then I carefully cut out the image and layered it and popped them up on dimensionals.




Colour Q Challenge #167



A little late, but I got this post up only a day late.  This week's Colour Q challenge is very festive.  What's more Christmasy than Red and Green right?  Hop on over to Colour Q and check out the fabulous work of the design team.