The (Mini) REVolution Event

On Saturday I spent a fantastic day with Revlie Schuit, who had organised a day full of craft classes up in The Netherlands.

There was a great, cute mini album made from fabric and felt, and a Tattered Angels workshop by Birgit which was just amazing.

my workspace before things got messy

I am so glad I went - what an inspiring, creative day! I brought home so much from it - ideas, knowledge, a warm heart, a smile, new friends, some random Dutch vocab... not to mention two projects that are so far from being finished yet that I can't even show you!

Thanks, Revlie - I'll see you next time for sure!

Taking Over

Christmas certainly seems to be taking over. This is my first real Christmas in the blogging world, and wow, is it filling my screen and my ears and my thoughts. Everyone is so excited and creative at this time of year.

I have a little project to show. It's a decoration that you can hang on the wall or lean on the mantelpiece. I actually used this one as the project for my Christmas craft class at the end of November. With the youngest student being 7 years old, I was a little worried that it would be too fiddly, but I was amazed at everyone's creativity, patience and skill.

My Christmas shadow box:

Sneak Peek: Door Hangers for Kids

This weekend my crafty friend Chocodeline and I will be giving a craft class to some kids - all of whom are under 9 and most of whom are under 6. We might be a little crazy... actually, I know that at least one of them is a very talented blossoming young artist - my fiance's 7-year-old niece. So it shouldn't be a problem getting them to create.

But what should we do? We settled on door hangers, which are personalisable and provide a large (but not too large!) enough canvas for the kids to decorate.

Here is the example I have created quickly from scraps and leftovers. Chocodeline kindly painted it (check out her awesome style in the pic lower down):

I used up shapes to make animals, the theme we're going to work with:

And used up some spare Cricut shapes:

And this is the awesome paint job by Chocodeline. She said she did what she thought a child would do, but I think it looks very stylish :-)

So, here's looking forward to Saturday's class... it is taking place in the afternoon, after an early morning trip to a craft show, don't you know!

Craft Classes: Success!

So, yes, they were a success, and I got to teach words the students'll be able to surprise their teachers with - like 'bling', 'squidgy', and 'glimmer' :-).

Just to recap, the aim was to make a 30x30cm piece of paper into a folded mini-album, like this one:


After initial shyness on the first day, I began to see a lot of creative cogs moving in the girls' minds, and considering most of them said they hadn't done anything like this before, it was very rewarding. The work they produced was outstanding! Here they are, hard at work:


A number of the girls also came out of their shell and spoke a lot more English to me as the week progressed. The two who were the most shy in the beginning were quit chatty at the end, and produced some really good work:


And this is everyone with their finished mini-albums:


I had a great time, and learned A LOT about giving classes, both in terms of crafting and language teaching. It was really fun! I'm pretty sure they all felt the same! Thanks girls, and thank you, Susan, for giving me the opportunity to give these classes! Here's to more in the future... Once more, for posterity:

Craft Classes: Test Run

I've been busy planning my craft classes today! I've worked out all the timings for the 4 days I'll be giving classes, and what we'll get done on each day. I have 4 to 6 hours in total per class, which should be plenty of time, taking into account the fact that I'll be teaching vocabulary as we go along (it's a summer school for kids who are learning English).

I've also carried out the test run, using only the materials which I'll be providing to the girls, and this is the result:





I actually found it oddly liberating to have strict boundaries on what I could and couldn't use: for a project I do usually collect all the paper, ribbon, buttons, bling, stamps and so on I'm going to use and put it in a box before starting, but inevitably find myself running back to my main stash and grabbing other bits and pieces, or not using everything I've selected. The boundaries forced me to find more creative ways to use the things at my disposal.


I am going to showcase elements that seem to be quite in fashion at the moment - tags, flags and edge-inking - and will take them through the steps to making their own flower, amongst other things. Really looking forward to it now!



Just a few last preparations to do!

Craft Classes: Prep, Prep, Prep!

Hello all! As I mentioned a few posts ago I'm giving some craft classes next week as part of a summer school. I've found out now my class will consists of 8 girls (yay - makes things much easier!) from 12 to 14. I've been toiling away putting their kits together and reckon (fingers crossed) I'll just about have them all ready on time:


I've been cutting the paper (from Toga's du Papier à Gogo collection) into squares ready for our project:

I've also used the Cricut ALOT and cut out various shapes (tags and arrows are shown here) and a set of alphas for each girl (MUCH cheaper than buying them!).


I'm off to make the test run project now, then back to prep, prep, prep tomorrow!