Wednesday 18 June 2014

"Memories are Timeless Treasures of the Heart" Real-Life Workshop Page







Hello all!  Here is the full reveal of the Real-Life Class page I prepared recently.  
Actually it took about 3 months to prepare as it involved sourcing the bulk of 
the materials myself to prepare 60 KITS, counting, measuring & cutting!  

I used up every bag I'd saved in the last 4 years on the packing too!!

 Everything except the gold doily was locally sourced. 
I bought the gold doilies from a regular overseas source of mine because 
I thought it would be fun for the ladies to have a little imported treat to
 work with too {I have never seen them here}.


Each teacher was given a very tight budget of only R100 per kit {$9.32 & with the
 buying power of less as often we pay more here for products as they are either
 imported, the raw materials for it are, or locally made products work out not
 very competitive because they are not mass produced}, so it took time &
ingenuity to fit everything into the budget but I succeeded with room
to spare thanks to various local donations from KCraft, Fabscraps,
Enmarc, RSE, Sylko & Colorful Creations.  


Despite none of us getting paid anything for our extensive time & efforts & this
 little "venture" taking up every spare minute of my weekends & evenings for
 months, it was still exciting to plan & put together a page designed to be
 taught to scrapbookers of all levels, from beginners to advanced. 

 Until I did it myself I had no idea how hard that actually is!


Here is a little bit of my thinking behind preparing a workshop & what I learned
 about the design process {this being my 4th page as the other 3 were just 
becoming too complicated to be able to explain to others}.  


Here in South Africa people apparently want to learn techniques {are VERY technique 
orientated} so I started off with a patchwork border full of different textures, also
 some spraying techniques, some masking, how to recolour your embellishments &
 I also showed how to deconstruct cheap  store bought flowers & put them back
 together customised as well as how to create a photo stack from top to bottom, 
how to make a really sturdy page & how to cluster elements & layer textures.


I spray painted 360 of those tiny roses gold as I could only get them over 3 colour 
ways!  They were sponsored for my workshop by my lovely friend Svetlana Austin 
who has a beautiful blog HERE & a lovely little boutique online store HERE.


That gorgeous burlap bloom was also sponsored by FABSCRAPS, our only
{as far as I know} local scrapbooking company that exports it's products.


Simple things like faux-stitching & adding gauze under your flowers are things I 
included to show that there is a lot you can do to zhoosh up your pages for next to nothing 

{as the concept of scrapbooking here being exhorbitantly expensive irritates me & 
in my opinion comes from the way that people approach it with pomp & ceremony 
at get togethers instead of simple artistic gatherings where people get together to 
really learn & feed their creativity}.

Well I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my page!

Anyone who missed the event where it was taught can contact me if they would
 like me to put together a kit for them as I have a few bits & pieces left over & have comprehensive notes & a very detailed step-by-step photo tutorial to accompany them.

I do hope you are enjoying a bit of creative time amidst this week!

Ooooh and Happy Hump Day!!



19 comments:

Desire Fourie said...

A stunning design Helen and going by Facebook, the ladies really enjoyed the design.
Hugs Desíre {Doing Life}

Denise Price said...

Cool page, Helen! I particularly like the touches of gold and the photo of your whole family.

Congratulations on your first real life teaching experience, and also on being selected as a guest designer for Prima. :)

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

This is sooooooo gorgeous! I love love love those flowers!!!!

Lizzy Hill said...

Fabulous page...I really like the border & it sounds like despite the work you really enjoyed this experience:):)

Helen Wallace said...

Goodness, what a stunning page you created with such a limited budget. You are a kind and generous artist to share your skills without reimbursement :D

Adriana B said...

Wow love this page, love the flower textures and clusters under the photo, :)

Lizzyc said...

Your page is so beautiful and I am sure the girls who you taught would have had a wonderful time creating it too!

Val-Belle said...

A stunning layout and I am sure that the local ladies were more than delighted. I love the colours on this one and the patchwork background looks fabulous. I am glad that you enjoyed it.

Diane said...

What a gorgeous layout.

Hugs Diane

KarenB said...

Beautiful page - and your local ladies are very blessed to have someone with your dedication to prepare such a wonderful kit. What a huge project for you - congratulations on seeing through to such a successful outcome :)

Svetlana Austin said...

Stunning page, Helen! a lot of textures and interesting ideas on it!
thank you very much for some advertising for me :-)

Margaret Mifsud said...

This is awesome Helen!! You did an absolutely amazing job getting this all done and on a budget too! Wow!! As always the colours and textures on this page are amazing. A stunning project that I am sure the ladies in your class will treasure forever!! Love it!! ox

Annie Claxton said...

Wow Helen what a gorgeous page, and those lucky ladies must have really enjoyed your workshop. Sounds like an awful lot of work to put together but must have been very rewarding in the end. Hey congrats on being a guest designer at Prima too! :o)xxx

yyam said...

What a pretty page. Glad the ladies got a lot of goodies on their layouts. Great job on the sourcing of supplies!

Eila Sandberg said...

My gosh Helen! you did a mammoth job getting all the products for this kit on such an incredibly tight budget. I say well done! I really really like your page, the different subtle textures and colours. Such beautiful job! gorgeous Fabscrap bloom. xoxo

Mrs Frizz said...

have to say that is a stunning layout ...

Denise van Deventer said...

Gorgeous page...it really is a stunner! You actually were so great at acquiring materials and goodies...I think you did a waaaay better job than I did! On FB Hanlie Swart shared her version of your page and she really did a greaty job. I tried to share in on your page, but it would not allow me! Your page really was a big hit! x

Marilyn said...

It is a beautiful page!!! and oh my...how much you worked for your classes... love the borders you did with all the textures. And with that low budget my friend you made wonder. I hope you had a great experience teaching. Awesome work!!!xo

Mitralee said...

I used to make kits for smaller gatherings and it took forever! I did enjoy the process of making it all work, but yes, you are totally correct, it takes TIME! Very nice job on this page and contributing to teach peeps how to scrap. I am sure this will be THE NICEST page in some of their books! ;-)