Dawn

Hey there everyone!
I'd like to have Marianne (DrGranma) step into the spotlight! Marianne is such a sweet person, and has traveled to many very awesome places, and has many beautiful scrapbook pages as a result!

Let's take a moment to get to know Marianne better:

I was born in, grew up in, and still live in the Chicago area. After marrying, having kids, going back to teaching and becoming a Brady Bunch family life stayed very busy. I have been involved in some form of education for my entire professional career. Starting out teaching in 4th, 5th and 6th grade classrooms till I left to raise a family. In 1969 I went back to teaching. I left the classroom and became a Learning Center Director – the library media center. Along the way I got hooked on computers and began as an adjunct in technology courses at National-Louis University (National College of Education then.) I loved teaching teachers and felt that I impacted more children by working with their teachers. Thus began a whole new second career in teaching and learning. I went back to school again and then became full time faculty in the Technology in Education department. It turned out to be the most exciting and wonderful 15 years of my professional life. I retired in June of 2004 and the roof fell in.
What to do? What to try? My colleagues were still busy in the field. I love to travel and I love to read but that cannot take all of your time. Where would I make new friends… finding folks with whom I had something in common? It was a difficult several years. One friend that I had worked with was into traditional scrapbooking. As a traveler and a grandmother that sounded like something I could try. But how would my love for the technology tools still be a part of my life? It all seemed to grow from there!
By the time I was working on my first scrapbook about my trip to China I was already doing some things on the computer. I had journal boxes, printed pictures on vellum, created pages in Word and a program called ComicLife. But all of those had to be pasted on 12 X 12 paper. Ii had a new camera and found an online course in Photography. It was offered through a digital scrapping site. I took a short course on PSE(earlynumber). I found myself moving to 8X8 and 8X10, only creating 12X12 for trip books and had the pages printed elsewhere. I probably was doing this for several years before I made by most influencing digital scrapping site ---- Hummie’s World! And here I am.

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I couldn't fit the photo in it's entirety in the above graphic, but I wanted to share it with you, because I think the expression on her husbands face is priceless!!

Let's get to know Marianne a little bit better!

Do you have a favorite technique that you find yourself using over and over again?

I really like using a picture for the background that fits with the main focus of the page. I like to change the opacity so it makes a soft background. I am not a qp lover but do like .psd templates where you get a great start but can make changes as fit the particular theme. Perhaps not a technique but I have moved away from the 12X12 pages. More and more I am doing either 8X8 or 8X10 and have them soft-cover published. In this way I can give one to the folks involved and also have a permanent copy for me. They make such wonderful gifts and are amazingly appreciated.

When you're not scrapping or hanging out in the forum, what do you spend time doing?

I have always been a book lover. I listen to books on CDs when I drive. I have a reserve list a mile long at the library and carry my Kindle with me when I train to Chicago or travel anywhere. Currently I am in 2 book clubs and love the different groups – such neat people to exchange ideas and discuss the books with.

I also try to spend some 1-on-1 time with grandchildren. They are getting so big it does not happen as often as in the past. Last week I was the Mystery Reader in the 3rd graders class. It was sad as this is the last grade for Mystery Readers and he is the youngest grandchild.

Currently I am the treasurer of my stock club and that takes a little time each month. And I am trying to be better about keeping up with my blog and, <grin> I LOVE to twitter about politics and education.

And, lastly, I have gotten hooked on family genealogy. My mom’s parents came from Romania and my dad came from another town in Romania when he was 16. He arrived with his mother and one sister. I am trying to put it all together for my own children and grandchildren to have some sense of their heritage.

I know that you love to travel. Where would you like to go next?

I have two travel dreams left. I hope I can do at least one of them. Traveling is not as easy as it used to be. My children range from 49 to 55 and that is the biggest clue you get. I would like to do a river trip through France from Normandy down to the south end of the river. The BIG dream is to go back to Australia. I was lucky enough to go in 1990 when I spoke at a conference but there is sooooo much more to see there.

I have a travel treat coming up this summer when the 9 year old and I will visit Indianapolis together. They have a fantastic children’s museum and an equally great zoo. I have had the same wonderful visit with several of the other grandchildren. Ron and I love trips that include art museums, botanic gardens and university bookstores. We hope to do some of that in the near future.

What would you consider your "scrapping style" to be?

I think that the style of my work is traditional. I am hoping that all the “tricks of the trade” I am learning will let me lend my experimenting to my pages. I love doing pages about my family and about traveling. As you know I am finishing up a family cookbook and that has taken HUGH amounts of time the last few years. When that is done I want to go back to my family story stuff.

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I asked Marianne to share with us some of her favorite layouts.

Locks of Love

This was special because I was so proud of my granddaughter. It was a two page spread originally. I made it a one page for this project.

The Grocery Store

I have become interested in family history and the need to have something to share with my children. This is one of the earlier ones and journaling -- telling our story, our history -- is going to be a focus of many future pages.

Mystery

One of my daughters bought a digital camera that allows her to create double exposures and other amazing things. I loved the effect -- In this case I duplicated a layer and and moved it just slightly to give the double exposure effect. I just love it!!

On The Shelf

This was the first extraction I was really proud of.

Gaudi's Dragon

This represented a whole new level of working with photos for me. Learning to use filters -- on purpose -- to create a particular effect -- made me realize how far I had come since my Course One with Hummie.

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Thank you, Marianne, for taking the time to allow us to get to know you better!

Let's honor Marianne this week by leaving her love in the gallery, and maybe even scraplifting her!

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