One of my long-time customers asked if I would do a class for herself and her two daughters, who are entering 1st and 3rd grades. I was happy to! Here’s what we made:
 |  |
This design was strongly influenced by Sue Wdowik. On an earlier visit to my craft room the girls had picked out this set, No Bones About It, along with the next two, as one they wanted to use. When designing/selecting cards for these ages I try to make them interesting, but yet reasonably forgiving if stamping isn’t 100% precise. It turns out it’s much easier to stamp the skeletons and then overlay the solid colors, so the girls did a great job. The footprints, leaves and dots were placed a bit more freeform, which was perfect. They totally giggled about the birthday hat on the inside stegosaurus (and totally knew the names of each type of dinosaur).
They also picked out the Bear Hugs set as being “really cute.” We had fun making this card as a bear version of their family – mom, dad and 2 girls. Since the bears, skirt and bows were stamped and then cut our with the coordinating Framelits, it was easy for the girls to get good results. They also enjoyed punching out the girl bears’ dresses (Owl Builder Punch) and the little red wagon (Decorative Label Punch, Owl Builder punch for the wheels). Fortunately they weren’t too upset when I told them they’d have to snip off one of mom bear’s arms to layer in front of dad bear, LOL!
Finally, they’d requested butterflies for their third card. Since we were going to do this one last, I really wanted it to be something quick, easy and the most free-form. I gave them this one as an example, but the placement of the Work of Art (and one Timeless Textures stamp – can you figure out which one?) stamps didn’t have to conform strictly to where I did. In fact, one girl mixed up a couple of colors, and with a quick stamp cleaning we just changed which color went with which stamp and it was just as beautiful. I had pre-cut the Butterfly Thinlits image, and to make placing the gold sequins easier I had pre-mounted them on a strip of Mini Glue Dots. “This was quick and easy!” the girls said, happy to be going home to lunch!
The 3 cards seemed to be just the right amount for the attention span and patience of these girls. They enjoyed it so much we picked out another 3 stamp sets to use in our next class!
If you are interested in a private class for your small group (friends, family, co-workers, bridal parties, etc.) just drop me a line and we can discuss the possibilities!
