Shimelle's Scrapping Weekend - Add to the Story Challenge

Some of you may just have noticed a leeeeetle bit of fun going on, over at the fab Shimelle's blog?  
For those who have been sleeping too much since last Friday, Shimelle was hosting an Online Scrapbooking Weekend, with lots of Challenges, Tutorials, Sketches, Layouts.. oh, just fun really!

So, I thought I would have a go at some of the challenges, seeing as it was our Scrap Club weekend and I needed a break from all the book-binding and laundry!!

This is a page I made in June (using the prize kit that I also used for this layout), about a lovely afternoon out, that we shared with my niece and the little ones (blogged about here)

As well as the journalling on the left-hand side, there is now some "hidden" journalling, which I added after reading Shimelle's post for the "Add to the Story Challenge".  I had left a "pocket" behind the photo, where I thought I might add some notes... But then I didn't know what to write, as it was about feelings... you know, the things we tend to ignore and try not to journal about, in case anyone reads it...  

So, I got brave, found a matching journalling card and wrote down my secret message. 

Which, of course, I will not show you... because it is secret!

But please take the evidence of the journalling card, complete with matching inked edging, peeping out of the pocket, as proof that I did join in the challenge?  You will, won't you - 'cos you know I don't fib?

It was really nice to get the courage to do this.. I am grateful to Shimelle for the challenge.

And now I'm going to publish my post and put the link on Shimelle's Challenge Post - see you there!

The Story behind the Socks!

Hello All!

This should have been posted last night, but it was dark and I couldn't get a decent photo of the layout - pink does not photograph well in artificial light!

I made it at Scrap Club yesterday. It was partly for a Challenge on Shimelle's blog, for (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day, but also because I have wanted to scrap this photo since the end of March, when it was taken.

This layout is really about the reason for the photo, rather than the photo's content.  The picture shows 11 of the Sock Creatures created by my lovely group of girls, on 26th March, when I taught a day-long workshop on creating Sock Creatures. 

However, the story-behind-the-photo is more than that.  For a start, this was my First workshop. It was the first time I have planned and taught a class of this kind to children.  I've taught adults before, as part of my job; I also helped in school for 5 years, while DS was younger, assisting with general maths, English etc, hearing and supporting the children's reading, helping in the "Design & Technology" lessons - anything from sewing to building models with pieces of wood etc, etc...  But this was my first children's workshop, thought up, planned and executed entirely by myself!  I feel rather proud of that - so this page is partly to document that fact.

The other half of the story, though, is about the students.  They were a great bunch of girls, ranging in age from 9 to 14.  Their skills varied enormously, with a couple of the older girls being pretty accomplished needle-workers, whereas two or three of the others struggled - one girl in particular.  However, with one exception, all the children took home at least one completed Creature, with several having a part-completed one, to take home and finish.  The "exception" did struggle a lot; her sewing ability was very limited and she had problems with planning and visualising the process of creating her creature.  She made a fairly major mistake, which I helped her to work round and rectify.  She had to unpick and re-stitch (I helped a bit with that too).  However, I was so impressed by her determination and effort - she may have struggled, but she persevered.  I sent her home with several pieces of model, drawings to help her attach head, limbs etc and sufficient bits & pieces to make it look nice.  She said her parents would be able to help her - I so hope they did! 

So, I was proud of me, but also of my students.  One young lady found a striped sock and turned it into a fabulous bumble bee; another made a cute monster, with a bow on its ear; there were several rabbits - all starting with the same design, but all so different and all so cute!

It was just a wonderful day and I really wanted to record it. 

I'm going to print this Post out and stick it to the back of the page, as I didn't have room to journal all this on the front - the journalling just says "My first Workshop Day, teaching 9-14 year-olds to make Sock Creatures. It was a great success and the 11 students completed 13 creatures betwen them, with two or three more taken home, to be completed there.  We had Fun!"  - that's all true, but I want to record the whole story for ever!