Thursday, June 28, 2012

Teacher Cards and a Smash Page

Today is the last day of school, and of course I didn't think to make cards (let alone gifts!) for my kids' teachers until yesterday.  Why do these things always sneak up on me?  Must have other things on my mind...  Anyway, I thought it best to keep my card design simple, but I also pre-ordered the new summer Distress Ink from Creative Accents and just got them yesterday - perfect time to play!  Here's what I came up with: 
Wow, I thought the spring release colours were fabulous, but I don't know, I think maybe Tim outdid himself with these!  Aren't they GORGEOUS?!?!  I quite like how the cards ended up, but I'm thinking maybe the "white space" is a little bit too empty?  I should have done some dry embossing or something... ah well, they're done and given away, too late to change anything now!  I used this sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping:


I haven't been doing a lot of smashing lately, and I think it's because I've been over thinking things a bit much.  I need to get away from the feeling that smashing is like scrapbooking, because they should feel totally different (at least, in my opinion).  Smashing should be more spontaneous and random, and so one night, I gathered up all my little souvenirs from the Fiesta crop in May and "smashed" them onto this page.  I think this is my favorite spread yet!  I also just grabbed some odds 'n' ends from my desk, like that silver shoelace in the bottom right, and stuck them on as well.  What do you think?

Close-up of the left side.  I've got my entry ticket, some draw tickets, a little title card from Simple Stories 6x6 Fabulous collection, and I die cut the wrapping paper from my door prize to make the flowers.

 And a close-up of the right.  The "Roxy" flag was my place marker, and the pocket was attached to the bottled water at my place setting.  Seeing Fiesta was a fundraiser for breast cancer, each pocket had the little pink ribbon clip attached - love that!  The silver paper is more of the wrapping paper from my door prize, and I embossed it on both sides using this tip I found on pinterest here.  The kraft paper that says "Fiesta" is actually part of our goodie bags - I just ripped it up and mod podged it onto the page.  I tucked a little journaling card into the pocket - it has my top 5 memories from the event.  And that's about it!
 Oh, you want to know about the photos, do you?  Haha, each table got together and put on these crazy glasses with the nose attached and had our photo taken.  Too fun!

Well, the kids are home now and summer's officially on!  Both Nolan and Ailis had wonderful report cards, I couldn't be more proud of their efforts!!!  Now what to do with them, eh?





9 comments:

  1. Love the cards they are just fine the way they are.. what a lovely idea for the smash book as well.. Have one myself and it just sits there have had several ideas pick up the book and then put it down again Like I don't want to spoil it or something.. I guess I am just going to have to do it.. take care Have a fun summer..

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  2. Great cards! Here are our parallel lives again ... I just posted MY thank you cards to my kids teachers today too! Sheesh! So ... a D Phi E, eh? We probably did cross paths. I was a Kappa from 92 - 96 ... maybe we met during Rush. :) Crazy small world!
    Love your Smash pages. If I feel mentally prepared enough (ah, summer ...) I may start the girls on their Smash projects tomorrow. Love sleeping in but having the kids all day ... not in love with that!! Christine had approximately a dozen melt downs today - she's not used to sharing with her sisters during the day! Sigh.

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  3. I agree with you on those new Distress colours! They're sooo awesome! I haven't had a chance to use them yet...but soon they will be used :) I like the way your cards turned out...the white space is perfect! I think the reason why I haven't even done ANY smashing yet is because I suck at not over thinking things...I just can't do it yet...it's something I'm working on...apparently I just wanted to buy 3 smash books and all the smashy stuff and not use it...what a dummy I am!~ lol Glad your kids got good report cards. Ethan is out of school and his was good too...now for the summer to start...what to do...it was the first day off today and the kids were already fighting like mad! Yikes! Well, off to scrap! Ciao!!

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  4. Fab work and how cool are your Smash pages!!! Very very fun! :D

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  5. I love your cards - they look quick and easy to knock up in a pinch (which will no doubt be my case as I always leave everything to the last minute!). Your Smash book pages look amazing - I love the fun of the photographs and all of the ephemera you've collected together. The 'fiesta' titling is so pretty and looks more 'freestyle' than a scrapbooking style of formal title. Awesome - thanks for sharing! :) x

    (Melanie Marshall - Smash*UK - Serial Smash Scrapbooker)

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  6. Fabulous cards ! I'm loving your Clean and Simple style with these and I don't think there's too much white space at all. You've made me NEED those new DI colours too - had resisted them up til now LOL

    Loving your SMASH pages too, how great to pull the memories of that day into the layouts. Both are wonderful and what fun to add the silver shoelace you found on your desk ! Great work.
    hugs
    wynneth
    x

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  7. Love the card design and great misting on that Smash layout!

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  8. Fantastic pages hun :D Loving the washi tape cards too!!

    Ger x
    SMASH* UK

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  9. Well done to Nolan and Ailis on their end of year report cards, and of course to their lovely Mummy for all the help and support she gives them during the year :)

    Great thank you cards, quick, clean and simple and just lovely.

    Now, about Smashing. As you know, I am a thinker. Can't help it. I need to think about my page (whether it be a Smash page or a Scrapbook page) before I commit any glue! I agree that Smashing and scrapping should feel different, but how are you meant to just ignore all that you know and be spontaneous and (heaven forbid) random??! I personally don't see what's wrong in bringing in a bit of scrapbooking to my smash book. For the book that I am working on now I am only using magazine cuttings and other ephemera rather than photographs, so for me, that feels different to scrapping ...

    Your page is great though! Love all the bits and bobs you have gathered up - makes for great memories!

    Hugs, Carole xxx

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