Classes Taken

 One of the things I've learned to do in my lifetime is to keep myself busy so that I don't have time to feel depressed or lonely. I do this with reading or scrapbooking or bible study.  I usually have so many things that I want to get done in a day that I just can't seem to find the time to do them all. I determined when I first married that I would try to learn something new every year. I would find a craft class to take or joined homemakers clubs to learn from other women. I'm so glad that I've kept up with this because I have found much happiness in my creative life.

Now that the kids are grown and on their own, I find that I have more time to myself than ever so the challenge is ever before me to find happiness in my life.  My scrapbook hobby has been the one hobby that I've stuck with consistently for the longest. It was a total match for my crafting needs. I love words, I love photos, I love pretty paper and glue, I love memories, I love history and preserving it. Scrapbooking has opened up to so many other avenues of crafting that I now consider myself a memory keeper. I try to keep current with all the latest trends and am always trying something new. Some have been fun to try but nothing I would continue doing and others are things that grab ahold and keep me intrigued enough to keep learning more about them. Art Journaling has been one of those things for me this year. I've delved into watching videos on You Tube of other artists creating pages and it has inspired me to try my hand at it as well. Oh how I'm loving getting messy with art supplies. I've found I have an inner artist in there waiting to come out and once again find there just aren't enough hours in a day to do it all.

The most exciting thing within the scrapbooking industry in that past 6 years has been the growing number of classes online. People are making good money teaching scrapbook classes online. One of my friends from the UK, Shimelle Laine, was one of the first to start them and it has snowballed into a big business this time. I try to take classes from Shimelle whenever I can to support her. She does an excellent job of inspiring many. I'm thankful I got to meet her in person as a friend in our early UK scrapping years. She's a dear sweet lady and it's exciting for me to see her success in the business. Currently I'm in her "Learn Something New Class" for the 6th year in a row. I still love looking at my book from several years ago. I don't always do the project but I love reading how she's changed her book each year.

This year I challenged myself to take 52 new classes. I have quite a few classes in my files that I have paid for and not completed so I hoped to get through some of them this year but so far have only done a few from my already paid classes. I have taken quite a few classes though since it's almost become an addiction to me to join into new classes whenever they look interesting. I don't even want to know how much money I have spent on them but there's a little voice inside of me that says I'm always happy to support good people trying to make money doing good things. My most common places to take classes are through either Shimelle, Big Picture Classes or Jessica Sprague. I've taken a few classes from Two Peas in a Bucket and a few at Get it Scrapped and Renee Pearson. I can always count on Shim, Stacy and Jessica to give good value to the classes they promote so I tend to stick with them. At the end of the challenge year I will post a list of the classes I've taken this year. I don't think I'll make it to 52 but I will finish quite a few before the year is up. I think I am at 26 so far. It doesn't really matter if I hit 52 or not....I'm learning and growing and that's what is important after all. May I never stop learning within my lifetime.