AECP Final Workshop (Part 2)

Alhamdulilah…With the greatest blessing from the almighty…..

Well…. I finally did it! I am very happy and proud that I managed to organize the final workshop, which is a kind of exam for the Altenew instructor (Altenew Educator Certification Program). I held my workshop with a friend of mine and 3 lovely students to hopefully achieve my goal of being a Certified Altenew Accredited Educator. My crafting journey has benefited greatly from this course, which has enabled me to advance my card-making abilities. From the time I was enrolled into the Altenew Educators program until now, I have gathered a lot of knowledge from all the courses and the incredibly gifted instructors. Every course was well thought out and presented. These lessons gave me the inspiration to start thinking creatively and making cards that were outside of my comfort zone. I am very grateful of the encouragement I received from Erum, Virginia, and everyone in the crafty community, since this kept me going even when finding creative energy was challenging. All of my participants were complete beginners in the world of paper crafting, We were accompanied by Virginia Lu and Erum Tasneem via zoom.

Let’s get started and see how I set up my workshop. For the final workshop I had to

• teach in a 2-hour classroom setting/practice workshop
• 4-10 students in this workshop
• Pre-workshop (via email): planning and details of the workshop
• During the workshop: Zoom or Google Hangout/ Facebook Live (with selected participants) with Altenew team members
• Post-Workshop (via email/blog post): a report of the workshop, classroom projects and reflection on the class.

 My workshop had to be held at evening here which was night for Erum in Pakistan and early morning for Virginia in Canada. Few days before the appointment date, I had sent an email to my instructors with detailed plans, photos and a list of necessities, as well as a ZOOM link. When designing workshops, there are a ton of factors to take into account. The list of factors includes time, materials, talent levels, time zones, internet connectivity, sound, and on and on. Not that this should discourage anyone from giving it a try in any way. Trust me it’s sooo much fun, As we begin the session, I showed the students, the inspiration products that I made during the creation of my work plan. Then I presented the basic techniques and tricks for using washi tapes, embossing folders, etc. and then we tackled combinations with coloring stencils, artistic markers etc. I also showed what can go wrong and how to use these mistakes to your advantage.

I held my workshop in my dining room. I had prepared a set for each participants. They had their own stamping mat, washi tapes, mini crisp die inks,  build a garden stamp sets, stencils, dies etc along with a pack of precut die cuts and cardstocks. I had my supplies arranged on a table near me for the different projects. We practiced trimming, scoring ,stamping, stencil Coloring, embossing, coloring with artistic markers and lot more. The participants had lot of fun using washi tapes. The majority of my participants had never done anything similar before, and I adore how they welcomed being thrown into the deep end. They were astonished beyond belief at what they had created and had a great time!

I want to thank Virginia, Erum and the attendees for a wonderful evening where we shared fresh ideas and had a lot of fun. I’m glad that I could prove that paper crafting is not just for adults but also for our younger generations. Many of participants asked if I could plan another workshop with different interactive cards and techniques. It literally made my day.

Here are the incredible works done by my participants

And Here I am, with my last post of my AECP program….

Alhamdulilah… I simply want to say thank you to Virginia and Erum for their encouragement and support. They both attending my first Zoom workshop was great. Their helpful criticism has been much welcomed, and it has undoubtedly advanced my skill. I’m excited to investigate and learn new applications for the new items Altenew is creating.
I also must not forget to thank my husband and my daughter who has always been my biggest support system. Without them I wouldn’t have reached where i am.

Thank you for being a part of my Journey.