Evolutions & Hooked on Jessica Sprague Classes

I have mentioned Jessica Sprague many times recently and you can access her site from the list of my links on the right. She started a web site about 2 years ago in which she offers an array of online courses in Photoshop, photography & digital scrapbooking. Most are paid classes, but some are offered for free. She also sells digital supplies for scrapbooking - imagine digital buttons, ribbons & alphabet letters which once downloaded into your computer, can be used again and again.

Her classes are mainly video-based, and each lesson might have 5 or 6 parts to video. You watch the video and then go back and do the same tasks on your own software. Once you buy the class, you have access forever to those videos so if you need a quick review, you can always do so.

She seems to have a nice teaching nature and it is easy to follow her instructions. Her classes include lots of bonus materials as well. Think in-between lessons on file organization, bonus assignments for those who want extra practice, free downloads of digital supplies from her sponsors for use in the class, but then you own those digital supplies and can use them in other projects.

So, this was the first I had heard of digital buttons. Wow, and you can put a shadow behind them to make them look like you could just pluck them off the page. Of course, I have not gotten that far in my lessons, but I am currently taking my 3rd class offered by Jessica Sprague.

Currently, I am doing a self-paced course called Up & Running with Photoshop. I am also preparing for a course called Beautiful Evidence which starts on Monday of next week. I had to take and prepare over 80 photos for this course, so it has taken a lot of time to do this, but it was great practice for me to use my new camera and then to begin improving the photos in Photoshop before the real work begins next week. By the end of the class, I will have a 22-page digitally-scrapbooked album documenting our life as it is right now. If I did this project again in 10 years, think of how different the album would look.

Anyway, I am so addicted to her classes that I am currently signed up for 8 classes and waiting to sign up for more when they open up registration. Five of my classes are self-paced, and I have to admit that it is harder to stay on top of things because I don't feel as motivated. The live classes definitely force me to do stuff and get it up on the gallery before everyone moves on to the next assignment.

When I finish the Up & Running Class, I will post my first digital scrapbook pages here. I am so excited because I already did 2 pages, and the each took about 10 minutes!!! Granted, I was using already-made templates, but for people who don't have a lot of time or patience, this is the way to go! I know as I learn more about this subject, I will be able to make digital pages from scratch, but for now, I am just a beginner.

Okay, you are probably dying to see at least one page that I made so far. Here it is.




Amazing, right? It took me less than 10 minutes to make this page.