Festival of Learning #LovetoLearn - Card Class for Beginners

Hello everyone! It is fully 9 months since I have posted on this blog and there have been good reasons for that, as an awful lot (and a lot that's awful) has happened during that time ... last year I only posted once due to my dear dad being very ill, and sadly he passed away on November 12th.

I miss him greatly, but have been kept very busy what with running backwards and forwards (a 4 hour round trip!) sorting out his affairs and house, and dealing with my own house, husband and job! Over the past couple of months we have also started some much neglected home improvements .. and that's likely to keep me pretty busy for the rest of the year!

It would be fair to say that my crafting mojo had pretty much taken a battering due to all this, and I haven't made a card in all this time.  It is also true that the longer you leave it the harder it is to start again ... will I still be able to colour??  Will I have lost my eye for composition??

I decided to test things out when I was asked by my HR department to take part in the national Festival of Learning

This is a national celebration of lifelong learning, with 'Have a Go' learning events taking place during May and June. 

Warrington Borough Council where I work is holding a month-long Festival during June, with employees giving of their time to impart knowledge and skills to colleagues in the lunch hour on a variety of themes including Digital, Craft, Culture and Wellbeing.

This Tuesday was Craft Tuesday, so I agreed to host a card making class for beginners .... my first!!

There were two timeslots of an hour each, and I decided to give a 10 minute presentation on why card making is a good idea (artistic expression, inspiration, make friends on social media, give something unique..) followed by a simple card project that would take about 40 minutes. This required quite a bit of planning, but I decided to go with showcasing rubber stamping of a large sentiment, punching of butterflies, and assembly of a card with patterned paper and embellishments.  The goal was to create a card that looked something like one of these ...

... using one of the project packs I made up like this ...

I also compiled a "resource pack" giving a bit further info on common techniques such as rubber stamping, dry and heat embossing and die cutting - all with links to further web-based information and tutorials; plus some info on basic equipment and supplies, and a few links to sources of ideas and inspiration (including this blog :-) )

All in all I did a lot of preparation, though quite a bit of it would be re-useable for  future events.

I really enjoyed my class, and the ladies who attended also gave kind comments and seemed to enjoy themselves - they both managed to produce cards they were happy to take away. Sadly there were not many attendees  .. there were several other interesting crafty topics on offer the same day such as jewellery making, gift tags, pottery making .. and local government employees are all so stretched nowadays that finding an hour is difficult. However it was a great learning exercise for me, and I am hoping to repeat my class at a future public Festival of Learning event in Warrington.

A big shout out should go to my crafty friend Clare, who lent me a few ink pads and some extra sentiment stamps in case I had a large take up for my class.

I had a variety of large sentiment stamps available, and during the class I made this card .. which I added some extra flowers to afterwards to make it a bit more special. I think my friend Clare may well cop for this when I take her stash back tomorrow :-)

Stamps: Penny  Black "To You..." (2908F) and "friends matter" (2073F); Great Impressions #D228 (If friends were flowers ..);

Papers: Melissa Frances;

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls and twine from my stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch; X-Cut small butterfly punch.

For the first time in a very long time I would like to enter my efforts into a few challenges ...

Penny Black Saturday (June) - Birthdays

Penny Black & More (June) - Flower Power

Dream Valley #133 - Vintage

Frillie & Funky - Pastels & Pearls

Crafty Inspirations #317 - Tic Tac Toe (sentiment/punch/pearls)

ABC - J is for Just As You Like

The Ribbon Girl (June) - Anything Goes

Craft your Passion #316 - Always Anything Goes

Penny's Paper Crafty #282 - Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons #156 - Anything Goes

That's all from me for today ... 'til next time.

Hugs,