Hey Stampers!
I did something really fun last night! My daughter and her good friend wanted to have a Girls' Night Out with some of their friends and thought making some Christmas cards sounded like fun. Other than my daughter, the rest of the crew were novice stampers and by most of their admissions, "not crafty at all"! I was excited to show them that stamping doesn't take a "crafty gene" and the only skills required are those you master in kindergarten like being a good listener, sharing supplies, gluing paper and having a really fun time with friends!
I knew I had to design a couple of cards that were not for avid stampers but I also didn't want them to stamp one thing and call it good. I was pretty sure that they would get the hang of stamping so why not design cards that feature plenty of stamping and leave all the other bells and whistles in my stamp room. Here are the cards I designed and I'll share below my thinking on each one.
This is the first card we did so they got their hands inky for the first time with the Peaceful Deer stamp set. We started with just the small Basic White card stock piece in front of them and stamped a starry background (retired stamps) and the sentiment. I then told them we are taking stamping to the next level and did a simple shadow stamping with the pine tree. By then, they were already amazed at what they had created! I sent around some scrap Basic White to stamp the deer, showed them how to use the coordinating punch, introduced the Stampin'Up' Seal tape runner and dimensionals while we put the card together with all the other elements. Adding a little bling here and there with the glimmer paper and rhinestones topped it off. This was a very simple card in principle but by the time they were done, they really were excited about what they had made.
This is the next card we made:
One of my favorite sets from the current Mini Catalog is the "Christmas Season" stamp set and dies. We didn't use any dies and I didn't even really talk about die cutting. I wanted to show them how to stamp with two-step stamping, use a background stamp and just do lots and lots of stamping on a simple Very Vanilla card stock background. This card introduced more color and shades of color, i.e. Shaded Spruce and Just Jade as well as Soft Suede and Early Espresso. After they were done stamping, I took them over to my Stampin'Up! Cut & Emboss machine and we embossed our stamped piece with the Tasteful Textile 3D folder. I wanted them to see how we can create texture with an embossing folder and make our paper now seem almost like parchment or fabric. Prior to putting on the sentiment, we spritzed our stamped pieces with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and Frost shimmer paint to give it a bit of a glow. All of these techniques were easy but quite mind-blowing to novice stampers. People have no idea what you can do with paper and ink until you show them and you don't have to display your whole arsenal of tools. My goal was to have fun with no stress and no sense of "I can't do this, it's too overwhelming" for anyone.
To finish out the night, I pulled out some retired tag kits and let them just play, eat from the plentiful food buffet and talk and chat to their hearts' content. What a fun night! Here's what I know about stamping and newbies:
1. It doesn't have to be complicated, it's better if it's not.
2. While the dies, embossing folders and all the techniques are essential for avid stampers, they can easily overwhelm newbies.
3. If you have to cut something, try to use a punch. They will love how it works and think the coordination with the stamp is amazing.
4. Fewer projects is better than too many.
5. End the time with some sort of "free for all" where they can create using some random stamps, paper, etc and keep trying out their new found stamping skills. Christmas tags for gifts were the perfect way to end this party.
6. Repeatedly assure them that what they have made is great just the way it is, including any flaws, stamping halos or crookedness that happened along the way. It's all part of learning and who doesn't want to be encouraged when they are brave enough to try something new!
7. Offer food and drink, music in the background and it always helps to have a friendly dog wandering around accepting love and hugs.
Here's a few pics from a super fun Girls' Night Out!
After a night like this I always think to myself "I should do this more often"!! And, that's my plan for 2022!
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