A Square Meal in Bite-Sized Pieces

My Photoshop Friday series is a bite-sized approach to learning Photoshop. With each project, I'll show you a truly useful Photoshop technique, and we'll practice it in the context of a cool digital scrapbook page. You'll receive all the materials (yay digital scrapbook supplies!) a 10-15 minute video lesson, and a downloadable PDF walkthrough for the technique itself (idea: print those babies out and make a binder).

Achieve Awesome, 30 Minutes at a Time

With each mini-class, you'll learn gorgeous and useful techniques that cover the whole range of the digital scrapbooking craft, including photos, type, pattern, and embellishment. Best part? You can complete an entire page in half an hour (unless you spend the first 25 minutes looking for a photograph, in which case all bets are off).

So that's the achievement. Now how about the awesome? The thing is, there are plenty of ways to learn Photoshop. You could follow tutorials that teach you how to make text look like it's on fire (not gonna link that one). Or how to swap your boss' head with the body of a barnyard animal (definitely not gonna link that one). Great fun! Not so useful. BUT, by joining Photoshop Friday Forever, you'll get the opportunity to learn real-world techniques you can adapt and re-use over and over again, across all the areas of your life! Plus as part of Team Forever, you'll be able to get inspiration for additional projects based on the techniques in the mini-classes, so you can see them in action!

With Photoshop Friday, you can incorporate a little learning, a little memory-keeping, and a LOT of fun into your week, and get access to all the courses you might have missed.

So, Why Make Scrapbook Pages?

This question is an obvious one to memory-keepers (insert eyeroll). But to those who haven't seen the light? Well, sometimes when I talk about scrapbooking, people give me that face. You know the one? That turns regular people into judgy-pants and instantly sends you on the defensive trying to explain how it's not about puffy stickers and alligator scissors, or a font with letters shaped like a picket fence. But scrapbookers know. We know the good stuff. We savor and save the good stuff. And all anyone has to do is try it, right? Like veggies. And above all else, I've found that Photoshop is easiest to learn when it's easy to apply. That's why I make such a big deal about real-world techniques.

There's a quote I like to use in the classes I teach, that really evokes the power of recording our stories.

We Write to Taste Life Twice: Once in the moment, and once in retrospection. -Anais Nin

Memories aren't little things. The stories of your life are the sum of all you've experienced, and where the true VALUE of your life can be measured. By focusing on recording our stories, you'll get THREE benefits:

One: Get Happy.

Studies have shown that people who regularly think about their own life stories are happier. More mindful. More appreciative. More resilient. And more amazing (this last one isn't really an official result, but it's definitely unofficially true)

Two: Make Them Happy.

Other studies have shown that children who live in homes with photographs of themselves are happier and better adjusted, because of the sense of belonging that brings. Reading the stories you've told about the people who love you is a precious experience, and it's your way to show your own love in a way that lasts forever.

Three: Become a Photoshop Ninja.

You'll be amazed (seriously) at how many other areas of your life become easier when you learn Photoshop. That poster for your kid's school? The cover for that report at work? Decor for your empty walls? Gifts for one and all? Boom. Done.

We scrapbook to taste life twice. And we scrapbook digitally to taste life twice and also secretly become Photoshop ninjas.

What You'll Get

Right now, I post a new Photoshop Friday course that's free each weekend, from Friday through Sunday. After that, the course is gone! But when you subscribe to the Photoshop Friday Group, you'll get continuing access to all of the Photoshop Friday mini-classes, both past and present! Each course comes with all the materials you'll need, including a starter digital template, patterned papers and embellishments. All you'll need is a few photos! In addition, you'll get continuing access to my Photoshop Friday LIVE courses on the first Friday of every month, as well as the PDF walkthroughs for those techniques. And that isn't even all: You'll get an invitation to join the PSF Facebook Group, where you can ask and answer questions, share projects, and exchange ideas for how to remix the techniques into all kinds of projects!

p.s. If you need to learn the super-basics of Photoshop, my course for beginners is included in the library!

Here, Let Me Show You.

I say that all the time. And I also say "awesome" all the time. I can't help either one of those, because professionally speaking, I'm a teacher first, and everything else (author, designer, businessperson) second. And also, I think a lot of things are awesome. I'm SUPER GOOD at relishing things. Awesome. (See?)

Join me for Photoshop Friday Forever, and I'll see YOU in class. You ninja.