I am May Flaum and I am hiding out here in my batcave/studio, recording this message for you about my latest adventure - adventure in scrapbooking that is. We are going hybrid here at Big Pictures Scrapbooking. Now first of all I need to know are you a digital goddess one of the elite few who knows all the buttons and commands in Photoshop and all the shortcuts and you got the newest top of the line everything under a software et cetera for digital scrapbooking? If so, you might want to turn the audio off right now because I am your exact opposite and I would not want to make you scream with all the stuff I do.

I fumbled my way to digital creating using a highly scientific method I like to call trial and error - in other words I am the paper scrapbook girl, I am not a digital girl. So why you might be wondering would I be teaching this class on digital scrapbooking… and that is because it is very important you understand this is not a digital scrapbooking class. This is a hybrid scrapbooking class, I am taking digital ideas and then when ready printing out, combining with fun paper stuff, making layouts. Yes, we are definitely going to look at some cool digital tricks in Photoshop and in Microsoft Word and we are going to have some tutorials, and we are going to walk through it, but I am also going to show you some handmade flowers, some stitching, some inking, layered and funky fun stuff; and anything else you would expect to see in my traditional layouts.

Now on the other end of the spectrum - if you are a strictly paper girl and thinking I don't know May I really don't want to go to that dark side that is digital scrapbooking. Well, stop for a minute because you kind of already do, you got a digital camera and you are uploading on your computer and doing stuff or having them printed… yeah… if you are using your computer for journaling. Also, you might want to know, if you don't already… many… heck… most of the scrapbook supplies that you enjoy today were designed on the computer and then printed by the manufacturer.

News flash… probably already hybrid like, you might as well come on over and have a good time and see what else you can do; and you know that is my goal in class ultimately - have a good time, challenge you and I am challenging myself and you to stretch what you can do with the digital products in your paper world; and each week you are going to see a different focus such as templates or journaling tools, papers, fonts, all kinds of stuff… as many of the things I could think of… and you are going to get a small specific assignment to get you started and you are going to see layout examples… I am going to encourage you to take things further if time allows for you.

And before I could sign off and go back to hiding from the digital police… I want to share a list with you - I call it, 'Things you need to know about class before you sign up." You do not have to own Photoshop Elements or Photoshop, I will be showing options in Microsoft Word and you can totally party over there, the whole entire class if you like. Now, obviously it would be optimal for you to have Elements or full Photoshop, it is not a requirement, it is totally optional. I do have a wide format printer, however, for the sake of class, for the sake of keeping it real - I am printing on 8-1/2" x 11" for say 99% of everything. I am not going to print on 12" x 12" because I want you to be able to play along.

Also, I am doing 12" x 12" layouts - these are my real photos, my real stories, I am a reality teacher. I do not believe in making up stories or re-scraping photos for the purpose of the perfect page setup. I feel like you learn more from me, and my ideas are more useful because they are real. That is my style, that is how I roll; and also you should know, I will be using lots of pre-printed 4" x 6" from Costco photos, okay? My real pictures that is how I print out pictures, we use a lot of them. Yes, we will look at things you can do digitally with your photos, we will look at printing out photo collages or page samples that kind of thing. However, that is not going to be in most of the class, that is just one part of class. So, there is a whole lot, if you got a lot of photos already printed and you want to get them used up, you are definitely in the right place - we have got lots for you to do that way; and you should know I am going to show a variety of layouts from quick and easy to more time intensive; and I plot a lot of real stuff. We are going to have a lot of fun.

I have some interviews with amazing designers, every Monday delivered to your email inbox, seriously great girls who are not known for their digital work but do use their computer and totally rock it out. I will also - every week, you get to download something, it's really cool… about 6 different digital goddess, awesome awesome designers have consented to let us all in class download something of theirs. Maybe it's a paper, maybe it's a WordArt of some kind, maybe it's a tag, maybe it's a couple of papers, maybe it's a template. You are just going to have to wait and see, there would be something different… something from someone, different every week of class, and I will show you how I use it.

And you should know, I am all about the fun, if you cannot tell from this audio file, I am all about having good times, enjoying yourself; getting more into your hybrid pages, getting the most out of your supplies… and let's just have a good time, okay? I hope you are going to join me in class, I will be hiding… hmm… not so much, I will be posting sneak peaks, new hybrid layouts and fun stuff over on my blog during registration. So if you want to get more ideas about me, or ask me questions, anything like that you can find me at mayflaum.wordpress.com, I hope you come and visit and of course I hope to see you in class.