Sharing and learning

It's funny, but when I first signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I thought it would just be for the discount for myself -- I really didn't think I was good enough to be a demonstrator for others. But then I did my first workshop demo and liked it and I found that the more workshops I did the more comfortable I felt and the more I enjoyed them. I just love sharing this craft with others, and workshops are he best way to introduce new people to stamping.

Of course, the sharing doesn't just go one-way, and yesterday's workshop was the perfect example. The hostess was my friend Carol, and the guests were her mom and MIL, her daughters, sisters and niece. There were eight guests in all and none of them had ever stamped or been invited to a Stampin' Up! workshop before. Considering the number of demonstrators in the Chicago land area this is difficult to believe, but then again it wasn't so long ago when I was in the same position. In any case, these first time stampers not only enjoyed themselves, a couple of them actually created their own card designs which turned out so cute I just had to CASE them and post them here.

You might recall from my weekend post that I was going to give the guests a choice of two cards, which I did. both cards used the Silly Sealife and Loads of Love accessories sets. I store the loads of love accessories and loads of love set together, so I brought both of these with me to the workshop along with silly sealife. Once the ladies saw the stamps, some of them decided to get creative and modify my design. So grandma M decided to use the octopus instead of the whale, and gave him two bundles of birthday presents to deliver. I stamped the card shown here, but it's totally a copy of her design. Super cute, right?

Carol's daughter Mallory decided to avoid sealife altogether and instead she stamped a pure loads of love card for her honey. They will be celebrating their first anniversary soon, and she thought this would be a cute card for him. She did a great job watercoloring and used the brocade blue Watercolor wonder crayon on the windows of the truck to make it look like real glass. Now remember, both she and her grandma were first time stampers, and already they're designing cards like pros, with limited supplies to boot! How awesome is that?

And so what I love most about demonstrating at workshops is that I sometimes learn as much as the guests. Ladies, if you're reading this I love both of your designs and will use them in the future!