Background
One day in June 2018 I was randomly surfing Youtube. By chance I came across a video of someone creating cards and decided to take a gander. After watching a few videos I thought to myself, hey that looks fun and relaxing. One of the videos featured products from a company name Altenew.
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After watching how beautifully Altenew’s products worked I decided to visit their site and purchase a few stamps. By the time I’d made a few cards with their products I fell in love! I know it sounds corny but it’s true. The next time I visited Altenew’s site, I noticed that they offered card making classes so of course I signed up. It was then that I also noticed that Altenew offers a Certification program. My first thought was I would be crazy to try to get into this program. At this time I’d only been making cards for maybe two and a half months, but something inside me said go for it and I did. I submitted my application in late September and received my acceptance notification on November 7, 2018.
Since then I have taken over 20 courses via Altenew Academy and completed the first two levels (with a final exam of sorts). This journey has been chronicled here on my blog. The final step in this journey was to teach a craft/cardmaking class! Let me tell you I was super nervous. I am an introvert by nature but there is something about crafting that helps me break out of my shell just a bit. I love sharing what I’ve learned with others. I think that crafting is a beautiful way to spread love, joy and kindness.
The Challenge and The Plan
For the final challenge I was charged with developing a plan to teach a craft/cardmaking class. After giving it a lot of thought I came up with a plan that would not only allow me to get my feet wet, but also something that would be fun to execute (and fun for the participants – of course). The photos below are the designs that I settled on. Students would be taught basic stamping, ink blending, die cutting, image layering, embossing and envelope making.
Class
Framed sample for students to reference during class.
The big day finally arrived! Saturday August 17, 2019. I was very nervous but excited at the same time. Because my class consisted of all beginners, I decided to walk them through each and every process step by step. It took longer than I anticipated but in the end I believe my students (and I) enjoyed themselves and learned a lot!
The class began with a small discussion on the importance of using good quality products including card stock. Students were guided through trimming card stock down to 7.5 in x 7.5 inches to create the base of their wall art. Once the panels were trimmed, I gave a short demonstration on ink blending. My students were really intrigued by the process and loved that they could control how much color was added (giving them many options to personalize and match their home decor).
Helping student with ink blending.
Students choosing floral images for wall art and note cards.
Next up, students were walked through the process of using a wreath builder template and stamp platform to build their images.
Explaining proper stamp alignment and repeat stamping using stamp platform.
After blending and stamping, students were guided through adding color to their projects using Altenew Artist Markers.
After adding color to their floral images students were guided through the process of stamping and die cutting their chosen sentiment. Each student die cut their chosen sentiment three times for a 3D effect.
After die cutting, images were stacked and glued to each other.
Adding final bit of adhesive to large sentiment.
Lessons Learned
I learned so much from teaching this class. The first thing is don’t freak out if things don’t go according to plan. For example, eight people signed up for the class but only four attended. Second, preparation is key. One thing I would definitely do differently is having more stamp platforms available. The wall art project would have flowed much more smoothly and quickly if I’d had at least one more large platform available. Third, is always no matter what remember that crafting is supposed to be FUN!! So take a deep breath, relax and have fun (LOL). Lastly, and pretty important for me is to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. That one step could lead to something absolutely beautiful. I truly appreciate the patience and attentiveness of my students. Seeing the smiles on their faces both during and after the class made all the jitters and anxiety worth it.
This is been an amazing journey. I am so happy to have been exposed to Altenew and the wonderful coordinators of the Altenew Certification program.
As always, thank you so much for stopping by. There will be more crafts, cards and classes in the future. In the meantime, I hope that you have seen something here that inspires you to create your own work of art (and step out of your comfort zone).
Until next time, don’t forget to spread kindness! – Ouma!
Supplies
Need to find the products used to create this card? Most are listed below. Click on the icon below each picture to learn more. (This is NOT a sponsored post). All products were paid for by me. The post does however contain compensated affiliate links which can be used at no cost to you. Thank you so much for support!
I am amazed that you are a new cardmaker. I don’t think I could have pulled this off within a year of cardmaking! Kudos to you! I know you were nervous, I could tell because I get nervous too but take it from me, it does get better. You will look back and ask yourself “why was I even worried back then, this is so easy”. You did a good job. We will go in detail over the email on things you can change and improve, that will be helpful to you in the future 🙂 Your samples were great, you did a great job at explaining everything to non-crafters. I had a good time. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!
Thank you Erum. I appreciate your feedback and encouragement. You are right I was definitely nervous. The next time around will be much better and a lot easier. 😊
Hello Takisha, I am so proud of you and that you are able to do this workshop in such a short time span (from card-making to taking all the courses). You worked hard and persevered! I love your project and it was great to see how you taught a class. Big thanks to your participants for attending this workshop. Thanks so much for entering your beautiful work in Altenew AECP assignment Gallery. Beautiful colors and design. Well done! I will have more feedback in my e-mail!
Thank you Virginia. I truly appreciate all of your support over the last few months. It was a challenge but I am so happy that I decided to give it a try.