Thursday 20 August 2015

Real Life Scrapbooking Classes & Workshops
Around Durban - Keeping me Busy!






I have been scrapbooking now for 12 years.  A LOT for many of those years too.  
However, I never thought I would enjoy teaching.  I have written & recorded
 many an article & tutorial but only FINALLY got started with real-life it this
 year, due to the insistence of someone who was desperate to have me
teach them & encouraged me to get up & running.


Starting teaching involved a lot of set-up work for me to be able to begin. I needed to
 convert our dining room into a space suitable for teaching, which required covering
 our large dining-room table with glass to protect it as well as buying & refurbishing 
 a couple of large "storage monster" units/cabinets to hold class stash & "for sale" 
products, as I needed to keep these separate from my own personal & DT stash.


The way things work here in South Africa is that the LSS {Little/Local Scrapbook
 Store} is owner run & the owner herself teaches the classes.  As there is not
a huge clientele this is a cost effective way of doing business,so teaching from
home was the only viable way for me to begin.  Well the surprise came in that
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO TEACH!  I decided to be adventurous & give it a go,
simply because it was something I hadn't done before, & EVERYONE always
asks me if I teach, so I thought I should try it out to see what it was like!


I now have weekly lessons at my home & recently was also invited to teach
a local workshop about an hour away from where I live, which was even
MORE fun due to having a lot more SPACE!  So it just goes to show
that you really need to try things out before writing them off as
"not for me" which is what I did in the past, when it came to teaching.


Now I only hope that I have plenty more teaching opportunities in my future :)




8 comments:

Lizzy Hill said...

ONYA Helen! I hope you go from teaching strength to strength!!!

Lynette Jacobs said...

Good for you Helen...empowering women to get their hands dirty xx

Kathy Bradley said...

You are a wonderful teacher - as shown in your Artists Live video - you did an amazing job, your so very well-spoken with a lovely accent which is easy to listen to; you have a wealth of knowledge and lots of wonderful techniques to share - and you will do an amazing job sharing your knowledge. I am happy for you and all the lucky ladies you will be teaching. (I do hope you'll be doing some more videos). Woo hoo for you Helen.

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

How exciting!! Looks like the students are ROCKING it!!!!!!!

Margaret Mifsud said...

Way to go Helen!! Don't know how you find the time to do it all .. you must be amazing at organisation. Can just imagine that your classes would be loads of fun. Good onya!!! xx

Helen Wallace said...

Bravo Helen - you spread your wings and soared. The students are lucky to have someone of your calibre to learn from. May you go from strength to strength .

Mitralee said...

Hugs Helen!

Here in the states we have Close to My Heart and Stamping Up which provides books, tutorials, etc, so lots of people here teach scrapbooking with those products. Some even have space in their house for it like you are talking about! I have to hand it to you to do it on your own tho! That is fantastic! I love your storage cabinet too, that is awesome! So this coming Sat. I go to a "lesson" where we sit around and eat...and work on pages...so it's a bit less of some teaching...but things are usually kinda precut for us...it's fun tho! Get all caught up on the gossip and maybe a page done!

Cherry said...

And you did such a great job of teaching us, that I'm now addicted! Roll on, the next class!