Thursday, July 11, 2013
Hello, Memory Bound friends!
In today's BTS post, I'm going to share with you a tiny bit of what goes into preparing kits for a class. I'm borrowing "BTS" (Behind the Scenes) from Tim Holtz, whose business manager Mario often does BTS posts to give us a glimpse into how everything happens in Tim's world. Now I'll say right off the bat that Katie and I are NOT QUITE Tim Holtz, but we do have a great time preparing for class! :)
Katie and I are teaching a Christmas Cards in July class twice this month, so we had lots of kits to make. We decided to be really ambitious and make all of the kits for both classes at the same time, so we knew it was going to be a busy day!
Busy day means COFFEE, right? I felt so organized that morning, having packed all of my tools and supplies the night before. I carried everything out to my SUV and pulled out of my driveway then...What was that CLUNK sound? OH, NO! I drove away with my coffee cup on my roof!! Things were not off to a good start! LOL
Katie, on the other hand, somehow managed to drive to Memory Bound WITHOUT A LID on her coffee, and she didn't spill a drop! Well, I'd venture to say if she'd put that coffee cup on the roof of her SUV, things would not have gone so well! LOL
Okay, back to the task at hand! Katie and I used 6x6 pads to design the 12 cards for this class. Normally, we would have split up the pad so that each of us worked with different sheets of paper...but for some reason we didn't do it that way this time. In fact, we used some of the same patterns for several different cards! This complicated our kit preparation exponentially!
First we had to figure out which patterns we had each used separately and which we had shared. Turns out we shared three of the same sheets. After teaching several classes together, Katie and I think we might be morphing into the same person...we now like the same patterns!
Then we had to figure out how to cut the paper in order to create the correct-sized pieces for the cards! We had to make a diagram for each sheet. This was more complicated than you'd think because each sheet is double-sided and some of the patterns have to be cut in a specific direction. Oh, my! I REALLY needed that coffee...
In today's BTS post, I'm going to share with you a tiny bit of what goes into preparing kits for a class. I'm borrowing "BTS" (Behind the Scenes) from Tim Holtz, whose business manager Mario often does BTS posts to give us a glimpse into how everything happens in Tim's world. Now I'll say right off the bat that Katie and I are NOT QUITE Tim Holtz, but we do have a great time preparing for class! :)
Katie and I are teaching a Christmas Cards in July class twice this month, so we had lots of kits to make. We decided to be really ambitious and make all of the kits for both classes at the same time, so we knew it was going to be a busy day!
Busy day means COFFEE, right? I felt so organized that morning, having packed all of my tools and supplies the night before. I carried everything out to my SUV and pulled out of my driveway then...What was that CLUNK sound? OH, NO! I drove away with my coffee cup on my roof!! Things were not off to a good start! LOL
Katie, on the other hand, somehow managed to drive to Memory Bound WITHOUT A LID on her coffee, and she didn't spill a drop! Well, I'd venture to say if she'd put that coffee cup on the roof of her SUV, things would not have gone so well! LOL
Okay, back to the task at hand! Katie and I used 6x6 pads to design the 12 cards for this class. Normally, we would have split up the pad so that each of us worked with different sheets of paper...but for some reason we didn't do it that way this time. In fact, we used some of the same patterns for several different cards! This complicated our kit preparation exponentially!
First we had to figure out which patterns we had each used separately and which we had shared. Turns out we shared three of the same sheets. After teaching several classes together, Katie and I think we might be morphing into the same person...we now like the same patterns!
Then we had to figure out how to cut the paper in order to create the correct-sized pieces for the cards! We had to make a diagram for each sheet. This was more complicated than you'd think because each sheet is double-sided and some of the patterns have to be cut in a specific direction. Oh, my! I REALLY needed that coffee...
Once we thought (and RE-THOUGHT!) through all of that, we cut the pads apart and stacked all of the like papers together in order to get ready to cut the papers we used for each card.
Then we re-stacked the extra papers for each kit!
By 11:33, it seemed like all we had done was stack...and re-stack...paper! LOL Then it was lunch time! We went to the HyVee salad bar, which was a lot more exciting for me than my usual yogurt and banana! Then Katie suggested we stop at Starbucks. Salad and caramel latte? Things were looking up! :)
It must have been the coffee because after lunch, we finally began making some visible progress! We started cutting all of the paper and die cuts for each of the 12 cards. We counted out buttons (and had a deep discussion about our button preferences!) and measured twine then by late afternoon, it was time to call it a day. We both left with homework...Katie with twine to cut (with 2 crafty cats at my house, I cannot take home twine!) and me with die cutting to finish.
DAY 2 started off much more smoothly for me at least, as I decided to leave my coffee at home! We had both finished our homework so we could hit the ground running. I packed all of the twine and tulle that Katie had cut into small bags while Katie finished cutting pieces for her cards.
When we make kits, we cut and pack all the materials for one card at a time. If we're making 50 kits, we prepare 50 of each card, then rubber band them together. By noon, we had finished all 12 cards! YAY!
Next, we created a stack of 12 cards for each kit starting with Card #12 on the bottom. We rubber banded each stack. Thank goodness for rubber bands!
Then we packed stickers, instructions, and twine bags, along with the stack of 12 cards, into each kit. We were ready to go! Completed kits...colorful and organized...are truly a thing of beauty!
We had a great group of ladies join us for our first day of class. It is so gratifying for us to see all of those completed cards...and smiling faces!
We hope you've enjoyed our first BTS post and can see how much fun we have getting ready for class! We have even MORE FUN in class, and we'd love to have you join us! Click HERE for more information, then give us a call at (515) 965-1102 to register.
Janet
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