Registration Open For Yesterday & Today

One of my favorite experiences is coming around again.

Registration for my 12-week online workshop Yesterday & Today at Big Picture Classes is now open. Class begins December 30th.

This workshop originally ran the last three months of 2009. I'm thrilled to be bringing it back again and hope that any of you who were unable to participate last time will be able to during the first three months of 2011.

Here's a few things you should know about Yesterday & Today:

• This is a content-rich class focused on encouraging you to tell stories from your past, stories that compare past and present, and stories from your life right now. The original idea for this workshop is to begin the process of creating a 12x12 album about yourself, but many students in the last workshop adapted the content to tell stories of people other than themselves.


• This is a layout class. We will be making 12, 2-page layouts plus a cover page (one layout per week).


• This class is about taking a look at the way you tell stories. The why, the how, and the what if.


• This class details my process for incorporating old photos. You do not need to have old photos to participate.


• This class is appropriate for traditional or digital scrapbookers (or those like me that mix the two). Included in the content of the class are video tutorials in Photoshop Elements that walk you through the process of using the downloadable elements that will be added to your layouts. I've also included instructions in Word for those of you who are more comfortable working in that environment. For completely digital scrapbookers I've included layered templates for each of the paper layouts.

Read the full description for Yesterday & Today and sign up here.

SUPPORT FOR YESTERDAY & TODAY

Here's what students who've participated in the workshop have to say about the experience:

ALLISON : My favorite class ever. Why I Loved Yesterday & Today (David Letterman style, as it is past 3pm and I have lost all ability to form & join sentences):

1. It was the perfect mix of theory and technique. Of all of the creative classes I've taken, both online and throughout college, I think this is the thing that instructors continue to have the hardest time balancing. I like a mix. It keeps me interested. Too much of either one and I just get bored.


2. There was A LOT of content. Lots of bang for your buck.


3. It was super cheap therapy. See also #9. I'll take all of the "Take a deep breath"'s and "It's OK"'s that I can get.


4. It was inspiring. I've never felt more creatively energized.


5. It was practical. No crazy products or elaborate techniques. And real. A class made for people that don't live in perfect worlds or perfect families, and isn't that everyone?


6. I looked forward to it every week. It made me happy. And calm. And enthused.


7. The project layouts are classic, easily adaptable, and continue to be some of my all-time favorites. Seriously. I love to look at them and read the stories. Such a great foundation. I hate to use the 'I' word again, but they inspire me to make more meaningful pages.


8. The digital elements are timeless and versatile. And the templates are awesome! I've gotten a lot of miles out of them.


9. The driving philosophy is great for scrapbooking and life in general. Ali would make a good life coach.


10. It was truly a great class for anyone. Beginners. Advanced. Paper. Digital. Yesterdayers. Todayers.

PATTI : Last year's class was fabulous. I love love love the layouts I made during class. I love the way the class gets you thinking about what you wish you knew about your own parents & grandparents lives and how to get those things about your life documented for your own family.

PENNY : I loved the invitation to simply journey back into my story, my own self, bringing my memories to life. Learning to work with old photos and marry them with the innovative and creative possibilities of PhotoShop was truly life changing. When I began the class, I had never worked in PhotoShop and had never scanned an older photo, either. The hands on information and assistance from Ali was just amazing. Step by step tutorials were so easy to follow and highly rewarding! I loved learning that whole angle on the class. When I look back on all that I journaled about and remembered from my childhood, and combine it with the technology tools that I picked up, I am so thankful for Ali teaching this class and for Big Picture offering it. I regularly remind myself of Ali's philosophy: Photo + Words = Story. My scrapbooking is forever changed because of this class. I have a beautiful album on my shelf. This class led me, too, to do a December Daily '09 and Week in the Life April '10.

M : This class is more than I expected it to be and I just wanted to Thank You! Thank you for your thoughts, your insight, your creative-ness and everything that you are doing to make this a wonderful experience for all of us, especially learning more about digi scrappin!

S : I have been wanting to say something since I watched the first video and the tears rolled down my face with memories----not sad tears, just tears. Awareness tears maybe if there is such a thing. Your voice is a storytelling event all in itself, Ali.  I couldn't believe the wave of emotions it evoked.  I haven't got the work done but I am soaking up every word and thought.

BETSY : I really don't have the words to describe what this class did for me. The class is part Reminiscing (although you wouldn't have to), part clearing out old photos (although you wouldn't have to), part therapy (although you wouldn't have to), part reality check (although you wouldn't have to), part and introduction to digital scrapbooking (although you wouldn't have to) and ALL fabulous. This class came about at a time when I had just experienced some loss and I was ready to give up scrapbooking but thought I would give it another go round-whew am I glad I did. I was able to put down on paper some important events, feelings and especially details that would otherwise be lost forever. How I wish I had some of that information about my parents and grandparents. One layout comes to mind where I compare a picture of me camping with my husband, I am holding a cup of coffee in the Redwoods and a picture of my grandmother holding what I assume is a cup of coffee while she is apparently camping. I have to make assumptions about the picture of her because I could never imagine her camping and I have no idea if my love of coffee was inherited from her. If she had written something anything down I might now have that information and those important details about her life...Yesterday and Today exceeded my expectation and changed the way that I look at scrapbooking. I wish I had time to write more about my experience in the class because it literally changed the way I look at my life and what I want others to know about the details of my everyday.

P : Thank you ever so much for the gift of legacy that you have given all of us! I got my mother (who is not a scrapper) to watch the vidoes with me. It has been a wonderful thing for us to talk about the themes and ideas in your classes...and she was so impressed with your generousity...though she's not too thrilled with how much creativity it's brought to the livingroom! (My scrapbook spot has almost taken over the whole house! LOL!) You have given us the gift of your time and of your self. I'll be forever grateful for that!

KATHY : I took Yesterday & Today last fall, and it was much more than a scrapbooking class, it was a class in life lessons.  Your journaling prompts brought up some deeply buried thoughts and emotions about the darker side of life that we all experience as well as helping me to remember the joyous times, the times filled with laughter, love and hope.  It was also a healing journey for me, letting go of some negative experiences and feelings after writing about them and completing the pages, I can now look at these memories without the emotion attached as I once had.  It was also about making peace and coming to terms with some dreams I had that aren’t going to happen now.  What I have found though, is that there are other dreams there, just as big to take their place.  Life goes in stages and phases, and I think as I get older, I’m able to go with the flow a little better than I did when I was younger.

K : I have really really enjoyed the class, the different ideas, the making me shift out of my comfort zone and the forum - where i have also learnt heaps. i am going to really miss going online each thursday to see what is next...thanks so much Ali.

A : I just have to thank Ali for all the digital help we received. I had been putting off learning Elements because it seemed overwhelming. This class gave me the push I needed to learn the program because there were stories that I desperately wanted and needed  to tell. I am now so comfortable using it and I owe it all to the tutorials. Also Ali was so helpful and prompt about answering any questions. I now have the start of what will be a most treasured album and also the skills I need to fill that album.

SHAUNA : I debated taking your class last year and then signed up close to the last minute because I pretty much trust anything you teach! I was not disappointed, it was a life-changing experience for me. I realize that sounds a bit dramatic, but there you have it. I loved telling the little, and big, stories of my life. I loved spending time thinking about my life and my stories and what matters to me.  I loved choosing what I felt would be most significant to my posterity as they take time to learn about me. I found each of the assignments to be meaningful. I was blown away by the lessons you taught us each week. You gave us so much to mentally chew on and I've revisited my notebook with your handouts many times. I appreciate how you walked us through the digital aspects of what we did. This was a pretty big step for me and I'm happy to say I am now comfortable in the digital world (although I'm still a paper-person!) I didn't know what to expect from this class, but I'll tell you that I learned and felt and grew in ways that surprised me! It was one of the best journeys I've taken in a long time. I talked about this class often with a couple of friends as I was going through the process, and I'm hoping that I can talk them into taking your next session, just because it was that good.

JENNY : I have been scrapbooking for more than 15 years, so I was looking for a class that would push me to scrapbook regularly. I liked the idea of having tasks at certain times because I knew that (being pregnant at the time) I wouldn't have too much time to just sit down to scrapbook. I had to schedule some time for myself. So I took this class as a gift from my husband. I asked for it for Christmas last year. Little did I know that this was the perfect time to be taking this particular class. It was far more than pen and paper and photos. It really addressed who I am as a person. It allowed me to explore who I am today and who I want to become. I spoke with my parents in ways I hadn't before. I asked them questions that had never come up until this class. Also, I talked with my husband about things we'd never talked about. Even after 10+ years of being together. It brought up ideas and concepts that I'd always thought about, but never thought to put down on paper. Having it in writing really made me think about how I would solidify these concepts for my future child. This class was emotionally intense at times, but always beneficial and wonderful. To be honest, it still moves me when I think about some of the assignments we'd done. Even a year later. Going into the class, I was thinking it would just be for me to stay on task and keep scrapbooking. But it ended up being so much more.

K : I want to thank you for all of your hard work and input to our many questions!  This class has been beyond awesome!  You have made me dig a little deeper into the story and accept imperfect pictures...THIS IS GOOD!  I'm thrilled to also accept that I DON'T need pictures to tell the story!

MELINDA : For me, this class was perfection.  It has provided me with some very simple ‘jumping off’ points to get the story told, the old ones and the new ones. It left me with a couple of challenges and sent me thinking in a few directions.  Together with Project Life I feel like I’ve got a great little bag of tricks for capturing the story and working out what the story is with those great photos that at first look don’t seem to have one – as well as telling those stories that don’t have a picture.

LISA : Sometimes, when life has dealt you a few blows, it can be difficult to remember that it wasn't always hard. Y&T helped me remember good times, hard times, long ago times, funny times, sad times and meaningful times. By the end of the class, I realized that I had gotten to know myself as an adult just a little bit better. Thank you for that! It was evident from the very first day how much thought and time you put into this class. Every lesson was well thought out and complete from A to Z. There was not one lesson that felt rushed or disjointed. I looked forward to each week and unlike other classes I've taken, the pace of Y&T was perfect to the weekly format that BPC is designed around. And then there were the digi products! The amount of digital templates and supplies that you gave to the class at no extra charge more than made up for the price that we paid for the class. Even if I hadn't gotten so much out of the content, I would have felt I got my money's worth just from the digital products alone!

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Consider yourself invited.

Read the full description for Yesterday & Today and sign up here.