Design

Lenny had an opportunity to return to the classroom for a day in March.  Many years ago he did a stint as a full-time high school math teacher after subbing for a couple of years the first time he 'retired.'  It was a challenge to say the least.  "There were just so many things they didn't tell me before I took the job," he kept saying.  Yeah, no kidding.  If they had told him everything, he would have run for the hills.  Teachers are way underpaid. His recent return to the classroom was much different.  He did a session in a program called "Technology Talks" for a local college.  His segment was on the Nintendo Wii.  He explained how and why you might want to use the Wii for games and mostly for exercise.  I helped him out a little and one thing that was the same between this and high school classes - you sure are tired at the end of the day!  He did say he would do this one again, though. Project Notes The little Wii character (Mi...

Wood grain has been a big trend in scrapbooking.  There are a lot of chipboard letters out there in woodgrain looks.  I stumbled across this easy way to get a wood grain with undressed chipboard: Thin dark brown paint slightly - not too thin or your chipboard will warp.  Brush onto plain chipboard with a somewhat rough paintbrush - one that has been used a lot.  You'll get a nice grainy look. Old paintbrushes - that's another way scrapbooking let's you repurpose stuff! One quick project notes: The cork is leftover from my tumbled tile coaster projects.  It's just shelf liner from Lowes Hardware. My goal for this layout was to use some of my older stash.  I think everything on this layout except the ink is at least 2 or 3 years old.  Thanks for stopping by! Ingredients:  Stamps:  Polka Dot Punches, Office Accruement by SU! Ink:  Soft Suede DSP:  My Mind's Eye Embellishments:  Oriental Trading Chipboard:  Unk...

Happy Monday.  Thanks for joining me this week! One of my New Year's resolutions was to do a photo every day for Project 365.  With this effort, you commit to taking one photo per day and then scrapbooking them.  The idea is to capture the little stuff as well as the big events of a year.  I'm a quarter of the way through this project now and here are a few things I've learned: The world won't come to an end if you forget to take a photo.  I have resisted (without too much effort) the urge to leap out of bed at 11:00 p.m. and snap a photo when I realized I'd missed one that day.  It is sort of like dieting. If you slip one day, just start back the next.  OK, it is easier than dieting. Fortunately, I haven't missed too many days. I've also decided it is OK to capture two interesting things from the same day.  Particularly since it is Spring and so many things are changing in our yard and lives at this time of year, it is OK to snap quite a few...

Rarely do I do a layout with only one photo and no journaling.  I often see beautiful ones in galleries but I wonder what the story is.  For me, scrapbooking is all about telling the story, capturing the memories of what you were doing and how you felt.  This page will be the first of several I've already posted about the kids visit.  So the rest of the pages will really tell about our week together. The photo does tell one little piece of the story of that week.  See my scabby knees.  I fell on the day before the kids arrived for a week's visit and missed all the activities they did away from the house.   I'll always remember little Nai Nai saying each morning, "Will you be going with us today, Miss Lisa?"  I was just too swollen to walk very far.   Fortunately, we did several things around the house, like "Christmas in July," playing dress up, making ice cream, picking zucchini (Nai Nai is crazy about vegetables) and playing games...