Thursday, November 1, 2012

Online Scrapbook Classes and how I see it.

I LOVE to take scrapbook classes and would take them at my LSS as often as I could sometimes doing 5 or 6 a month. I loved the camaraderie and what I would learn. I miss having them and jumped into the online classes with both feet. I have experienced really wonderful classes and some not so good. I am going to review the wonderful.

Shimelle.com is a wonderful resource for paper and glue scrapping. Shimelle presents classes in a logical and cohesive manner with a lot of fun and encouragement. She explains her concepts, shows examples and STRESSES not to stress over the hobby and to let go and have fun. I have used so much of my "stash" watching her videos and have managed to create more layouts in a week than in 3 years of hiatus and before.  In fact it was her cohort Glitter Girl that got me scrapping again.....just too much fun for me to miss out on. 
What makes her classes impactful are the PDF's accompanied by videos of her own and inspiration from outside sources that she willingly shares.Her classes are priced so well that I can afford to take them often.  She truly loves this craft and would do it happily even if she weren't such a great instructor and that kind of authenticity can't be beat.

JessicaSprague.com is the first online course I have ever done and it was because she offered a free class that was advertised on 2peas. It peaked my interest and I signed up. This is the most professional of video websites out there and Jessica makes it easy to understand the world of digital scrapping. I had Adobe Elements loaded on my computer and opened the program only to stare at it in fear and trepidation. It was only in taking these courses that I was able to understand how to preserve my memories digitally. Class kits and pdf's along with video lessons for each step accompany some of the most reasonably priced classes in the market. She offers both digital and non digital scrapping classes as well as photo editing, photography, and silhouette instruction. They are definitely value packed.

ReneePearson.com is another digital online course that is one of the industry leaders for this genre. I love the classes there given by Renee Pearson, Tiffany Tillman, and one I took from Anna Aspnes. The content was well thought out with PDF's accompanying video plus a couple of chats per class. The kits offered were beautiful and the information given was some I had not gotten anywhere else, coming at this from a different angle. I look forward to taking another class in the middle of this month with Tiffany. Once again it is value for the money. 

OnlineCardClasses.com was a class that I won from AliEdwards.com website. I am not much of a card maker but once again we have value packed classes given by Jennifer Mcguire and Kristine Werner. PDFs along with videos made for wonderful classes. They would give their own spin on a topic and then they invited along experts in the field to do a video to accompany their own. It was cool getting several ideas on one subject. I would like to do another class there soon. 

All of these websites offer value for the price charged per class. They have an active community there to answer any questions and are sites that are not offering classes in conjunction with selling product. That I think truly make them education websites. That's not to say that  you can't purchase product on some of these websites or in the case of others links are offered, but the primary purpose that I can see is the desire to share their expertise in this craft we love. 

Thanks to all of them for enriching my life.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with Shimelle's classes & Jessica Sprague's also. I haven't tried the others you mentioned. I have taken quite a few classes from Big Picture Classes, and have been happy with them. But sometimes like you said, you never know what your going to get when you sign up. I've been happy with about 95% of the ones I've taken at Big Picture. That's pretty good odds.

    ReplyDelete