Hi there! This is Ali Edwards for Big Picture Classes. I am totally beyond excited to be kicking off the 4 Experts series for 2011, and wanted to talk with you a bit today about what my portion of the year is going to entail, what you can expect in this workshop, and why I really care about the topics we're going to be covering.

This class has two main focuses, yesterday and today. In the case of this class, yesterday doesn't mean the present past as in, "I went to the store yesterday", but it actually means farther back. During the first six weeks, we're going to be exploring and compiling personal stories from our own history. The educational emphasis is going to be on how to tell stories from the past, working with older photos, addressing challenging stories, and layouts without photos. In addition to the main handout each week, there is also going to be a video presentation, digital downloads and video tutorials for working with those printable digital elements. You don't need to know anything about digital scrapbooking to participate in this class, but I am offering additional instruction to get you started if you're interested in learning more. If you are a completely digital scrapbooker, I've included Photoshop layered templates for each week's layout.

Now in this class we're going to be starting a three-ring 12" x 12" album with pages that are all about you and your story. Many times when I teach classes that are "all about you" and meet some reluctance and questions such as, "Isn't it too selfish to create something about myself?" or "I barely have time to scrapbook about my kids, why would I do something about me?" or "Who is really going to care about my story?". I also hear, "My childhood was horrible, why would I want to document it?" or "I don't have any photos of myself as a child." Each of these questions and concerns is valid and will be addressed in class. Here's the deal - it is not selfish to tell your own story. Your story is important. You are important. No one else can tell your story in your own authentic voice but you. Telling some of the tales from your own personal experience has the potential to make a huge difference in the life of someone you love, as well as in your own life. It is worth the risk. Let me say that again…it is worth the risk. Our main goal in this class is to create an ongoing, self-affirming, life project that celebrates you as an individual.

The second six weeks of this class will focus on today and the life you're living right now. Scrapbooking our everyday lives is probably my most favorite sort of documentation. My life is different because of this emphasis on the every day. I find that I am more aware, more open, and overall enjoy my life more through the process of taking a look at the lives we are living each and every day.

Educational emphasis during this second six weeks will include documenting stories of change in growth, establishing a past perspective, documenting a day in your life, documenting the imperfect details of your life, and using pop culture in storytelling. One of the big questions we will be tackling during this portion of the class is what stories are really going to matter 10, 20 or 30 years from now, and how do we go about telling them creatively. These two topics, yesterday and today, are really at the heart of my scrapbooking. I want to create pages that are meaningful and substantive and give a clear picture, both literally and figuratively, about who I am, how I became this person, and what sort of life my family leads today.

I really hope you can join me on this reflective and inspirational journey. In the end, I sincerely believe that you will find that taking the time to focus on yesterday and today could have a really big impact on tomorrow.