Thank you again to all who swapped with me... I only wish I had more time to do so because I came home with only half the amount swapped..... BECAUSE.....
I had an new experience this year.... It all started when I was contacted from head office and asked a week before regionals if I would be able to do a Workshop WOW... a presentation space had become available and someone suggested that I might be able to do something... Oh my GOODNESS!!!! The Pressure... What do you teach a room full of wonderfully creative and talented women and a few men???? While I stressed for a day or 2 about what I would teach.... I finished off my swaps.... Being that my time slot was a mere 5 minutes to present something of worth... Well it was not that I was worried about the talking... I could do that in a pinch.. but I really wanted to do something that might be of use to our demonstrators... After discussing my ideas with Liz we came to the conclusion that what I had done for my swaps was original and put a bit of a slant on something that most people might already know about... but just takes it that one step further into the creative realms...
So with that in mind I opened my presentation with the line.... "Hello everyone.. Today I am going to teach you all something that every crafter needs to have in their crafting diet.... How to de-stress and break up the fibers... ".. This was supposed to receive a decent amount of laughter.. but I fear people may have been asleep... or maybe my delivery was poor.. or too quick... anyway with no laughter forthcoming I decided to chuck a mini wobbly and pout and say "That was supposed to be funny... You were supposed to laugh...." Then came a few very forced laughs... Phew.. Thank goodness...
I then proceeded with my first demo of "how you can break up the fibers with a bone folder to create a flower with the scallop circle punch.... but if one was being "lazy" (what I meant to say was productive and time conscious....) you can use your crimper to break up the fibers in the card stock to pull the layers apart.."
While turning the handle of the crimper I made a creaky noise of the paper going backwards and forwards.. This did get laughs... and it was totally unintentional.... But apparently a highlight... heheh
(I didn't take a photo of this project.. but it is similar to ones I have made in the past..you can look at in on This blog Link)
Then I went on to say that just because you have broken the fibers in the paper you do not have to separate it totally.. you can separate portions of your embellishments to create more dimension and texture in your projects...
I held up this butterfly card and said in your workshop you could have your customers simply punch out the butterflies but in your demo you could show how you have stepped it up with distressing and breaking up the fibers and putting a bit of bling on to dress it up a little...I also showed my Swap card... the top one.. because it used the partial distressing and breaking up fibers technique...
This little project... Which was designed a week before regionls.... in the absence of customers at a display that Kate and I were doing.... (Apparently we should get board more often!! heheh)
And lastly a Scrapbook page where the leaves on the vine were distressed...
And at the end I added that we need to become more like little children and not over analise what we do... We need to relax and become more free with our creativity.... That way we will come up with some wonderful ideas.. Just play and have fun... Then there is no limit to your creativity!!!
Liz and Bec Presented at this regional also... and despite how nervous we all felt our presentations went quite well...
The other presentation highlights for me was a fantastic paper rose made from a circle punch... Some wonderful water colouring techniques... The shimmer paints and how to use them... and then some other way to use all your inkers and change colours etc...
I am hanging out to try some of these techniques and products and to recreate some of the wonderful swaps that I received at Regionals.... It's all so exciting!!!
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