I’ve always love crafting, as you know, but what I love even more is teaching others how to discover their love for crafting.  I’ve had the privilege of teaching knitting, sewing and paper crafting to people of all ages.  There are three aspects of teaching that bring me the greatest joy.

1.  When the light bulb goes on, the moment when they ‘get it’ and they start to embrace the craft for themselves.  It’s like opening a door to their creativity and imagination.

2.  When I can dispel the ‘difficulty’ of a craft. Reveal the secret that makes it look difficult when in reality it’s really easy.

3.  The imagination and creativity of each individual person from children to adults.  I love presenting the bones of a project and then seeing what each person creates out of their own imagination.

This past summer I was able to spend a few Friday’s with my 10-year-old niece working on crafts and showing her some paper crafting techniques.  She’s learned a lot of crafts at school, but we’ve worked on a few projects as well.  Not only is it a blast showing her how to do these things, it’s fun that she’s excited about the process.

For my birthday, she gave me a card that she designed and made herself.  I was so touched and impressed with her craftsmanship; she used techniques I hadn’t taught her.  The student had become the teacher!  She inspires me because she’s always telling how she goes on YouTube to learn all this stuff.  Often we’ll spend a Friday afternoon, ‘watching tutorials’ on YouTube at her request.  It’s amazing what you can learn how to do.  For example, making lip gloss with crayons.  Here we are showing off our work.

These flowers were originally white. She inked them to change the color. Brilliant!

She rolled paper to achieve the frame and used her decorative scissors to create the leaves. So clever!

Seeing the birthday card she made for my birthday cemented my idea for the 31 Cards in January.  It reminded me how much I enjoyed teaching as well as making cards myself.  Hopefully I’ll inspire others to handcraft cards for their family and friends and kindle the flame of creativity.

Getting excited for the new Year,

Hey we love it when you give us the ‘bones’ of a project, although, we don’t create much.  We just chew.