Home Ec Class

 A couple weeks ago I did a short Bible study on being an encourager along with a cardmaking class for our homeschool group's 'Home Ec' class. I had eight girls, aged 10-14, over along with some of their moms and big sisters. I did my best to channel my 'inner Margaret' (best demo ever!!!) as I showed the girls some cardmaking basics and, boy oh boy, did we have fun! Such a creative group of girls - I really loved watching them take the skills/ideas I showed them and then seeing them put their own spin on things. Since I knew some of the girls would be new to stamping and didn't want them to feel like they needed to own a huge arsenal of supplies to create cards, I created 2 projects using simple craft/recycled supplies.

The first card used small circles cut or punched from paper scraps and a simple sentiment. I encouraged the girls to use things like old magazines, kleenex boxes or pretty packaging instead of buying patterned paper. For my example card, I used scraps I had from My Minds Eye Dilly Dally collection. I love being able to use the smallest of scraps to make a great card like this!

For the second card I used my kids' poster paint and dipped the eraser from a plain old pencil into the paints to make the coloured dots. So fun!! Can you imagine all the awesome colour combos and designs you could do with this? The sentiment panel was a happy accident - I had originally stamped the sentiment directly on the card base...but smudged it. So in order to cover it up, I  re-stamped and embossed it on the turquoise cardstock and then taped it on with some washi tape that was sitting out on my desk. Love it!! Some of the girls even stamped the sentiment using paint, which looked a-ma-zing!
 Anyways, it was super fun doing this class with the girls - and the cleaning, organizing and prep I had to do totally got me back into stamping mode!! Double bonus :) Anyways, I'm hoping I won't lose my momentum and will keep making time to create cards and encourage others. A simple card is such an easy way to let someone know you are thinking of them, praying for them or grateful for something they've done. I think cardmaking is such a great hobby because as we enjoy creating cards we can also bless others as we give them away. So simple and yet so cool. I'm working on a set of cards to give to some older widows in our church whom I know have a hard time with these long, dark, winter days. A little bit of sunshine in an envelope :) Maybe you know someone that could use a little pick-me-up? Send them a card! Happy stamping!
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thess.5:11