A Great You Tube Channel- How to ADHD

I have ADHD.  I didn't find out that I had ADHD until I was in my mid-twenties.  When I finished the checklist and realised that I had lived with this neurological condition, my life suddenly made sense!  All the trouble I had concentrating, focusing, remembering, maintaining relationships, managing my emotions and all the rest of it, finally had a real reason behind it.  I also had the privilege of working with some awesome adults with ADHD and they showed me that my mind is brilliant and I should be proud of what I had already achieved.  They helped me understand that I had already developed some great strategies for success in the classroom and life.  They had developed some great strategies too and we shared them.  It was so liberating for me to realise all this.  

I'm not sure how I found How to ADHD... I probably fell down a You Tube rabbit hole.. but I only watched one or two videos and before long, I was hooked! The host, Jessica, is an amazing woman!  She has ADHD and (for various reasons) she created this amazing You Tube Channel. I think she can explain it far better than me.  Check out her About Page on You Tube here.  

If you have ADHD you will find some well researched and entertaining videos at How to ADHD which, I promise, will help you.  The channel will help you see that you are not alone and while it can be hard to have ADHD, there are also some great advantages.  Check out this video which explains the basics of ADHD and how it can impact a person's life.  The videos can give you some great tips for studying, organising your life, getting stuff done, understanding your ADHD and how it impacts all aspects of your life, fidgets that will help you focus, medication, therapy, looking after yourself and so much more.  

If you are a parent, teacher, employer, husband, wife or friend of someone who has ADHD, you should also check out How to ADHD.  The videos will help you to understand the person you know who has ADHD.  You may start to realise that what your employee, student, child or partner is doing is actually out of their control.  You might learn a bit more about them and how you can help them or even help yourself live with them.  

I love How to ADHD and I have found it very educational, for me as a person with ADHD and as a teacher of students with ADHD.  I am a better person and I am a better teacher just from watching some videos and that's AWESOME! So, Jessica- if you ever read this- THANK YOU! 

So, stop counting how many times ADHD appears in this blog post and go check it out! 

PS. I'm not affiliated with How to ADHD in any way.  I have not been, and will not be, compensated for this blog post.  My comments are my own! 

Book Week

It's that time of year again!
Australia's Book Council celebrates Book Week this week!

The winners have been announced!  Check out the list.

It's the time we all celebrate the children's authors we have in Australia and we promote the joy of reading.  My favourite week of the year.  Almost.

Authors included on the short list include the highly accomplished Mem Fox,
Emily Rodda and Alison Lester.  All of whom have won in previous years.
The book I can't wait to read is the winner of the Eve Pownall Award for 2018: Don't Lick This Book! written by Idan Ben-Barak, Illustrated by Julian Frost and published by Allen and Unwin.

A book about microbes!  I can't wait to check it out. 

This time of year can be rather stressful for some parents!  You see, most primary schools will have extensive Book Week celebrations to promote reading.  There will be book fairs (buy a book, Mum), costume parades (dress up as your favourite book character), reading challenges, competitions and so on.
Earlier this week, we received a text message from my sister.  Ms 6 year old asked her mother "Mum, what will I wear to the book week parade? I need a costume, tomorrow!"
Stress Attack!
After questioning some of the older children and rummaging through the school bags, Sis found a note explaining that Book Week celebrations would culminate in a special assembly on Friday.  All the children were encouraged to dress up as their favourite character from a book they have read.  So, Sis (true to form) texted her Mother.  Also my Mother.

"What am I going to do about that?"

My mother, (also true to form) went into her sewing room and found a red hooded cape.  The same red hooded cape that I wore when I was about 6 or 7 years old and Sis wore when she was about 6 or 7.  You see, schools have been having these dress up days for about 70 years (as long as Book Week has existed)! So, Book Week has tortured parents for more than half a century.

Dear Parents, You're not alone.

So, Ms 6 is going to school as Little Red Riding Hood.  I wonder if she has read that book?

Anyway, Happy Book Week!

Card Creation Technique of the Month

I still haven't used up all my patterned paper!  I needed a break from it though.  I had some fun with a technique that is so simple and the last thing I ever would have thought to do with my supplies if I hadn't seen the You Tube videos.  

Here's how it works.  

1. Choose a colour palette of dye inks.  (I started with blues and greens)

2. Swipe the ink pads on some cardstock or water colour paper (each will give you different looks).

3. Have fun.... Try lots of different ways to touch the ink pads to the paper.  You can sit it straight on, like a potato print, swipe it softly or press down as you move it across the card stock.    

4. Spray the card stock with water and watch your inks react with the water.  

5. Lay a stencil over top and spray water onto it OR use an ink blending tool to add another layer of ink.  

6. You can use the same colour ink to create a tone-on-tone style or change up the colour.  

7. Choose some small stamps to stamp over the top in the same colours (more tone-on-tone).

8. All this works best if you let your card stock dry between layers (or you can use a heat tool). 

9. HAVE FUN with this technique.  

If you want to, use Wink of Stella, gold/silver pigment ink or just plain glitter to add some shine.  You can use the same direct to paper techniques with the pigment ink that you used with the dye inks in step 2 or, choose a graphic stamp to give it some real shape.  

I went a little nuts with this.  The beauty is, you can have heaps of fun with it because no two card panels will look the same.  So, just relax and keep playing until you love it! 

I cut down some of my panels into card front size.  A few I used to die cut some greetings like "happy birthday" or geometric shapes.  Die cutting some words meant that I could make multiple cards using the same panel.

I cut the others into strips of various widths to add to cards (like patterned paper).  Check out some of the other cards I made.  

All the ink colours are from Catherine Pooler Designs Party Collection, Sentiments are a selection from Kaisercraft, Catherine Pooler Designs and Avery Elle. These links are not affiliate and I get no compensation if you click through. :)

Have fun!

Happy Birthday, Mum!

This Sunday is my Mum's birthday.

She has decided that she wants to spend it with her mother.  I'm not feeling unloved or anything.

In past years, I have dedicated a blog post to Mum on her birthday.  One year, I shared with you how she is NOT tech savvy.  Another year, I told you all about the other people who were born the same year as my mum.  There was the year that I decided I wasn't buying her anymore presents... then the time it wasn't Mum's birthday, but I said some stuff about her that was really nice.

Despite the fact that my Mum asks really stupid questions (I mean, they are the next level of stupid!) and says things that are really obvious (I mean, REALLY obvious!) I love her very much. I'm so glad that she is my mum.  She's not your mum; she's MY MUM!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Mu-um!
Happy Birthday to you!

Have an awesome weekend, people!
Eat some cake!  Somebody should.


Luv ya Mum!

Creating With Patterned Paper!

If you are a scrap booker or stamper, card maker or paper crafter you probably own a couple of pads of patterned paper.  You might even own a LOT of patterned paper pads.  You probably have far more than you need and it's possible you don't use it that often, because it's just too pretty to cut into it.  You might not use it because the patterns don't quite co-ordinate with your card stock.  Maybe you don't know how to put the patterns together.  Maybe you just don't know what to do with it.  Or it's just more fun to play with everything else in your craft stash.  

The fact is, while you can create your own patterned paper, having some on hand can help you to make some cards quickly and easily.  There are also some great techniques with patterned paper that can be used to create some amazing cards that have great effect and make you look very clever.  I have stuck with simple designs to make as many cards as I can.  

I have a couple of paper pads and sheets left over from big packs.  I am determined to use them all.  No more patterned paper hoarding! Check out some cards I have made lately using my patterned paper stash. 

A classic and simple layout, which doesn't use that much patterned paper. 

I used nesting rectangle dies for the sentiment to make it easy. 

I just used a stitched rectangle die to cut this pattern, 

then I used my alphabet dies from Lawn Fawn to cut out the 

word: ENJOY.  

The Congrats sentiment is so gorgeous!  

It's from the 'you did it' stamp set by Catherine Pooler.

I used the same size rounded rectangle dies from Kaisercraft 

to cut the patterned paper and the gold paper. A strip of gold on the side and done. 

The stamps on this card are from Catherine Pooler

The hat and cake from the Woo Hoo Stamp Set (from a Stamp of Approval)

The sentiment from the Good Things Stamp Set.

I used dies to do all the cutting.  :) 

This set of cards was created using a set of nesting dies 

from Poppy Crafts, I can't find a link anywhere.  

The sentiment was from the Young at Heart Stamp Set by CAS-ual Fridays.

I have shown this card before, but I wanted to show it again! 

You can use paper as a whole background or for border accent. 

This card uses both.  The Sentiment was created using 

an alphabet stamp set (I don't have the source for it, sorry).

That's that then.
Happy Crafting, My Friends!