Hello everyone! I am here today with my last post for my Altenew Educator Certification Program. Because this was a class that I held at my home, this is a very photo heavy post! If you want to watch the video of my class, You'll have to watch it on my Facebook Live
HERE. Class actually starts at 13:41 if you want to skip the chit-chat.
Virginia Lu and Nicole Picadura joined our Facebook live so they could observe me in a class environment. Nicole is the Operations Manager for Altenew and Virginia is in charge of the Altenew Educator Certification Program.
For my final assignment, I held a class at my home for 6 friends - new friends and longtime friends. All but one of the ladies who is a neighbor in our new subdivision, my friends traveled anywhere from 45 miles to as many as 78 miles to be here! Since we moved back to Texas this year, I don't know a lot of people in our new town but some of my longtime friends, (Jenica, Gloria, and Diane), drove a long way to see me and join me for the class. I treasure these ladies and could never express in words how much it meant to me that they were here and came to support me. I also got the chance to meet a fellow card maker, Carol Hintermeier, and get to meet her in person. Carol is also doing the AECP so it was a chance for her to observe and see what it was like to hold a class when she gets to the final stage of her program. We know each other from working in the same industry and we follow each other on Instagram so it was awesome to get to meet in person. Gloria brought her friend Paula and although Gloria talks about Paula, we hadn't ever met before so it was great to put a face with the name. Paula is pretty crafty and she was a natural for this class. While I have met Trisha because we live in the same subdivision, we hadn't gotten to speak more than a few minutes for a few times. Everyone has been busy moving and unpacking. It was nice to get to know her a little more.
In order to prepare for the class, I did quite a bit of work ahead of time to make things go smoother for the actual class. I prepared a simple outline to follow along to try to keep from rambling and the class taking too long. We finished in about an hour and a half so that was great!
My outline consisted of a little bit about how the company got started in 2014 and then moved on to the basic products that we would be using for the class. I talked about the beautiful layering stamps that Altenew has, their inks and some basic supplies that are needed if you want to make cards. I kept the outline to one sheet of paper so I would be able to tuck it into my student packets so they could refer back to it later.
I also created three sample cards to show them what we would be making. I die cut all of the elements for them and set up my MISTI's using the negatives as a place holder for the actual stamping. I wanted my participants to be able to see how easy it is to stamp multi-layered images in this way and also be able to see how to mass produce several cards with the same design.
This was by far the best way to do this. And it meant that I only had to change the stamp once for each MISTI. Right now, I have the Original and the Mini MISTI, so I used the larger MISTI for the blooms and the Mini MISTI for the leaves.
In the student packets, I included a picture of the sample card and a small copy of the layering guide, a half sheet that showed a picture of the card we would be making with simple, step by step instructions, and a small copy of the stamp set image that we would be using. I stamped all of the sentiment strips in advance and included one in each packet.
Here you can see the contents of the packets which included a card base, an envelope, the layering guide, the image of the stamp set we would be using, the die cut pieces we would be stamping, and the sentiment strip all ready to go for them.
We talked quite a bit about the MISTI and how it changed the stamping world. Carol and I both commented that we really didn't care for stamping until the MISTI hit the market and how we would never go back to stamping without one for the multi-layered images or really, any stamping. I used to make cards using die cuts only so the MISTI changed my cardmaking skills dramatically! Jenica actually gave me all of her old stamping stuff and I inherited her Stamp-a-majig. What a pain that thing was! The MISTI is superior to that in every imaginable way!
 |
| Trisha, Diane, Me, Jenica, Carol, and Paula. Gloria was behind the lens! |
 |
| Jenica, Paula, & Carol |
We were able to get down to the stamping pretty quickly after that. I talked about ink pad sizes and why I have a preference for ink cubes over regular sized ink pads, but how both options were available. I can't count the number of times I've dropped a full-sized ink pad on my nearly finished project! Because I have MS, it affects my balance and coordination so I stick with the ink cubes rather than the full sized pads. Plus, as a bonus, I can have more colors that way! You definitely need to have the reinkers if you use the ink cubes and stamp as much as I do.
 |
| Diane |
 |
| Trisha |
The ladies all loved the whole concept of and the actual process of stamping using the MISTI! Carol and I agreed that it was the thing that converted us to stamping - that ability to line things up and have them crisp, clean images. It can be really frustrating trying to use an acrylic block for layering stamps and once you use a MISTI, you just get used to using it for everything.
Seriously, how did we survive before the invention of that? I know that until I got one, I wasted a lot of premium cardstock. There was also really no way to mass produce cards in an easy way and it was too frustrating to try.
 |
| Carol |
Once all the stamping was done, I had the ladies arrange their card front how they wanted. Each person has their own spin on things and I wanted them to do it how they wanted it; it didn't have to be like mine. I forgot to get a picture of Gloria's and Paula's Cards when they were finished, but they do show them during the LIVE class toward the end.
 |
| Jenica's Card |
 |
| Trisha's Card |
 |
| Diane's Card |
 |
| Carol's Card |
Paula's and Gloria's cards were probably the most unusual because they added distressing to their sentiment strips and Gloria did a Horizontal rather than a Vertical orientation card.
As far as my thoughts on the class, I feel I was very well prepared. I gave them enough information about Altenew to interest them, but not so much as to overwhelm them. I kept anything I thought might be needed nearby for quick and easy access (tweezers). The one thing I would change would be to go back and wear quieter shoes. My boots made a lot of racket on the hardwood floors but hopefully, no one besides me noticed that. I would have liked to have everyone at the same table, but that just wasn't possible.
Now, I just have to wait for feedback from Altenew and then I will be a fully certified Altenew Educator. Wish me luck!
Hello all! I'm back with this week's guest post for The Color Throwdown Challenge #525, which is my last post as the January 2019 Guest Designer. This week's colors are Aqua, Yellow Saffron, and Brown. 
