FREE Online Digital Photo Editing Class

photoed2-150ad It’s not often I get to promote a class in which everyone around the globe can participate. If you take digital pictures, this online class is for you. Even better? It’s FREE.

Register for scrapbooking celebrity Jessica Sprague’s online class, Photo Editing: Frame-ups & Special Effects, starting today, June 22 through Sunday, June 28 on her Web site. Class begins July 6 and you can follow along at your leisure. Don’t have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? No worries. You can download a free trial copy here.

In this brand-new class, Jessica will show you dozens of awesome techniques you can use to add effects to your photos, including:

Brushes
Frames
Masks
Textures
Blending modes
Filters
and more!

You will love learning how to add beautiful frames, brushes, and edges to your photos, and giving them specific looks: dreamy, vintage, cross-processed, soft light, and LOTS MORE. You’re in for the educational experience that only JessicaSprague.com has to offer: screencast video, a private gallery to post your work, a forum to answer your questions, daily emails from Jessica, and a GORGEOUS free kit courtesy of her friends at House of 3. Register now!

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?