Kathy Schroeder, or kschro4545 as she’s known on the Forum, has been a Premier member since last year, shortly after she began her digital scrapping journey.

“I purchased Photoshop Elements 8 and there was a copy of Linda’s Learn Digital Scrapbooking with Elements 8 DVD included,” Kathy said. “I went through each of the lessons with total amazement of what you could do, and I was sold on the idea of digital scrapping!”

It has been a lot of fun to watch the progress she has made! Take a look for yourself.

This is one of Kathy’s very first posts:

Right off the bat, you can see that she’s a talented photographer. This pages focuses on her grandson, Jonah, who played baseball for the Toros.

Kathy quickly became a prolific poster in the Forum and Gallery, creating pages and entire albums featuring her family adventures. Then, when Digital Scrapper began offering online classes, Kathy jumped right in.

She signed up for our inaugural Let’s Scrap! class (which is now called Learn Digital Scrapbooking). After mastering all the basics of using the program, she went on to the Easy Page Design class, which really helped her identify and define her own scrapping style. The Easy Page Design class also helped Kathy refine and enhance her layouts in new and surprising ways.

“Wow, there was just so much you learn!” she said. “I think some of the coolest things were the use of actions, shortcuts for the tools, what makes a page ‘pleasing’ to look at, yet something that grabs the eye, and all the little tricks, techniques, and tips! Some of my biggest ‘Aha!’ moments were in the self-discovery area… learning what I’m drawn to – whether it’s colors, types of backgrounds, arrangements of photos and elements.”

Here’s one of the pages Kathy created during Week 2 of the Easy Page Design class:

There’s Jonah again, playing baseball… but look how far Kathy has come with her design skills! She lets the awesome photo tell the story, with just a bit of journaling on the side. She’s created a playful title with the stitched alpha and her composition is clean and powerful.

In addition to raising the bar on her design skills, Kathy says she scraps more quickly now. The Easy Page Design class taught her how to identify the types of designs that appeal to her, which really helps to speed up the creative process.

“By learning what I like and making templates for various grids or layouts, with the knowledge of the short-cuts and use of actions, I scrap much faster now,” Kathy said.

And with her extra time, she can now focus in on adding one or two special touches on each page, such as the title font, background, an element cluster, or framing. Kathy also learned how to quickly overcome “scrapper’s block,” and find sources of inspiration quickly and easily — all around her.

Here’s another one of Kathy’s recent layouts:

She loves photographing old, rusting cars and trucks, and her Gallery is filling up with all sorts of creative images that Kathy puts her own unique touches to, including textures and overlays.

The Easy Page Design class, says Kathy, is just that… easy!

“The format with the videos and manuals is easy to understand. I like to open the videos on one part of my computer screen and open up Photoshop (I moved up to CS 5 right before the class!) on the other side and do each step with the video. If I need to, I can stop the video and replay a step or two, until I feel comfortable in doing it,” she said. “I thought that first Scrapper’s Guide’s training DVD was great, but the “Easy Page Design” and “Let’s Scrap” classes were amazing! I was in the educational field for 30 years and the crew at Digital Scrapper are excellent teachers!”

What’s next for Kathy? She’s going to continue her digital journey.

“I want to challenge myself to grow and learn more as a photographer and scrapper. To try new ideas and to create my own unique style.”

We’d say she’s well on her way! She’s currently working on a wonderful series of layouts for an album about California’s historic piers. Here’s an example:

Great photos, wonderful composition, and hey… take a look at those custom shadows!

Be sure to stop by Kathy’s Digital Scrapper Gallery and browse her entire collection! Pick up a little inspiration, leave a little love… and who knows… you might come away with a scraplift or two!

The Easy Page Design class is now open for registration. Come join us, and like Kathy, see what a difference it can make in your pages!