Christmas Card Classes

The Fincastle Library has asked me to orchestrate some activities in the meeting room.  Library usage is down all over and a slight drop in a small library is a big deal.  I have been trying to come up with some things to do during the day to get in the adult crowd.  My father and my grandfather both used to do slide presentations of their various travels.  Travelogues were big events and they could fill an auditorium at Pasadena City College back in the day. My father was the school Psychologist and my grandfather was on the Board Of Trustees, so maybe they came to avoid losing funding or getting psychoanalyzed .  My brother kindly, and with ancient slide-type technology,  put some of them on DVDs and I may try that.

 Our good friend from New Zealand, Grant Foster, used to travel around the United States presenting travelogues of many interesting counties including New Zealand, Greece and Portugal with witty dialogue and glorious scenery.  I have thought of using some of them, assuming I can get the rights.  The question I have is whether people would come out for a travelogue, or is the National Geographic Channel in a La-Z-Boy all they want?

In the meantime, I thought I might offer some card making classes.  Without assistance I can probably teach about 10 people at a time and if we can fill the room with crafty adults they might just check out a book on the way out.  Maybe they will check out a book on card making and teach ME the next week. 

I decided to start with a Christmas Card.  I won't be able to get the room scheduled and the class advertised earlier than that.  If it goes over well I can do one more class before Christmas and then maybe Valentine's Cards?  Who knows.  Maybe some generic cards would work.  I guess I will ask the attendees what they want to do.

In the meantime I have been practicing a simple embossed card with a handmade envelope.  I may need to make a trip to Michael's or Jo-Ann's craft stores to get more ideas and an idea of costs.  I want them to be able to make two cards and envelopes and to keep the classes under $5. I also want them elaborate enough to be a challenge, yet easy enough to teach a room full of people to do in under 2 hours.

   

First I cut the card stock in half.  I may do that before the class...a bit worried about X-acto blades and distracted crafters.  Just fold it in half and then open it to see where to stamp.

   

I tried white and colored stock and different placements.  After stamping, I embossed with gold embossing powder and colored the card.  I covered the ribbon with matching glitter glue for a nice effect.  I like the gold on the green card, but the colors are hard to see.  Gotta rethink that.  Maybe I should use a lighter color.

   

I had the idea to use Christmas paper to make the envelopes.  This probably wouldn't work with cards to be mailed, but hand delivered cards could be pretty.  I have an template that is easy to use and makes the right size envelope for these cards.   I also made one using card stock. It would hold up for mailing.   I learned some lessons about gluing them together that I am thankful to have figured out before the class.

   

So here are a few ideas that I may use.  I'm hoping a "field trip" to some stores will give me more ideas so that each card can be embellished to suit the "artist".  I'm kind of excited about the whole thing.