School's Out For Summer!

I was reading Stacy's blog the other day and came across this:
"Smart people spend time alone. They don't fill their days with appointments from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., as many politicians and executives do. Great science does not emerge from hard logic and grinding hours. It comes from activities like chopping wood and raking leaves, preparing dinner and reading to the kids. These activities soften the rigid pace of the day's pursuits and allow all our God-given intuition to work its unlogical magic. Only then can we reach our fullest potentials. Only then can we leap from thinking to understanding." Philip K. Howard

The message really resonated with me as I have spent the past few months so busy I could barely breathe. My move is halfway over - and as we spend this summer working on a new permanent place to live - I find myself yearning to have some time to unwind and find the creative genius within that inspired this site in the first place! :)

So school is out for summer! Don't worry, we will still be popping in here with a few helpful things here and there, along with all of our current educational content remaining online... For those of you chomping at the bit to learn as much about digital as you can this summer, here are just a few of the hidden gems in this site along with a few of my favorite places to learn...

In 2008 I taught a four week class at Weber State University. I actually have all the class materials (free digital kits) and videos here on the site - they can be found in the Freshman Class Group. Here are the links:

Class Materials and Downloads

Week One - Creating Quick Pages in Photoshop

Week One Quick Photo Fixes

Week Two - Creating a Layout from Scratch in Photoshop Elements

Week Three - Using Templates for Layouts in PSE

Week Four - Advanced Templates in PSE

Another helpful video is DigiScrap101 - The VERY Basics - goes over the basics in Photoshops Elements - including layers, rotating and transforming layers, bringing new elements into a layout, etc.

You can also find lots of fun tutorials on here.

I also highly recommend these sites -

Scrappers Guide - Linda Sattgast has one of the best deals on education in the industry - her Premier Platinum Membership is $8.99 a month and you get over $30 worth of videos and materials each month with this price. The tutorials are not only downloadable videos but also include PDF manuals, meaning that you get written instructions for all the projects.

Another big plus if you like the FREE education on DigiScrap101.com, and want to learn more, Scrapper's Guide has committed to an affiliate relationship with Digiscrap101, meaning that when you support Scrapper's Guide you are also helping to support everything we have here on Digiscrap101.

Jessica Sprague - her Up & Running with Photoshop Class was a breakthrough for online education in the industry. I love her teaching style and her design sense is wonderful. She shares tips and ideas openly - helping her students grow not only in their Photoshop knowledge but also improving design skills - she is truly a gifted digital scrapbooking instructor with several fabulous classes on her site. On top of it all, she is really a nice person (and nice counts when one is frustrated with Photoshop!). ****Jessica also has a FREE Photo Editing Class coming up (register June 22-28 class begins July 6).*********

Renee Pearson also recently started her educational site where you can find free tutorials along with her newest class, Just The Basics, Ma'am. Renee has two wonderful books out on digital scrapbooking and with her new educational site you get unprecedented access to Renee to ask questions and learn digital. I learned so much from Renee while working with her at Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, I think her class is a fabulous opportunity for anyone wanting to learn digital. Renee is also one of the nicest and most gracious people I have ever met - you won't regret taking the opportunity to learn from her.

So there you have it! I hope you all have a wonderful summer filled with fabulous memory-making days. I hope you take the time to enjoy them fully. Perhaps that means taking off for an event and purposely forgetting the camera, allowing yourself the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the moments, taking time to just BE. Sometimes we do our best memory keeping without the photos, try it, you might find that you really like it!

See you in the fall!