Create

Creating things has always been one of my passions. I love taking something that is ugly and making it beautiful, giving something useless a purpose and combining items to make something new. When I was young my parents always encouraged my creativity. I had colored sand, play-doh, paper beads, sewing supplies, embroidery, paints, coloring books, mosaic puzzles and probably more. If I was ever bored, my mom would remind me of a craft I could do.

This desire to create served me well while teaching. Nearly half of my time was spent creating lessons, materials and activities to engage my students. But it seemed that over the years, with the hectic pace of life, I had let large portions of my creativity slip away. Frankly, I realized in January that it had been too long since I'd allowed myself to relax by having a hobby. And no, making ESL materials or reading a book for work or school does not count as relaxing (I really had to remind myself).

This said, I'm forcing myself to re-discover my passion to create, in some old ways and some new. I plan on sharing some of the results on here.

My first projects have come from learning to use the Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 software. I purchase it during a special last year, so I can make a wedding album for my best friend. I've been pretty happy with the software so far, and was even able to use it to make a newsletter for our work with refugees. I also used it to create the header for this blog (see the top). Here are a few pictures of other things I've designed while learning to use the software.

(P.S.) If anyone ever needs photo cards, scrapbooking pages or announcements designed, let me know!