Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Now I'm Ready

This fall I've been invited to be one of the presenters for the ScrapGirls Convention held in Salt Lake City. I'm supposed to teach a class, a unique class, something special, and something I'm good at. Talk about pressure! They at first suggested that I teach something about digital scrapbooking brushes since I have my Mastering Brushes Ebook about how to use brushes in digital scrapbooking. That made me cringe as I have gotten burned out of brushes from writing the books and teaching the class. I begged them to let me do anything else... so they left it up to me. I've been stewing over it for months now, wracking my brain as to what unique thing I have that I can teach that anyone would even care to learn. I've come up empty.

Finally after asking other designers for some ideas we came up with one direction that would be fairly easy. A technique that I'm asked about all the time from members on the boards, but I've been trying to figure out how to do it differently since I've written similar tutorials about the topic. I've been struggling this last week writing the class and it hasn't been happening. Talk about FRUSTRATING! Being a teacher I really believe to have to know and love your materials to really be able to teach it. I was not feeling this at all.


This morning I had an idea. I tried it out. It worked and I'm completely excited about it. Ironically it still has to do with brushes, but I've switched my mentality about it to the brushes that really excite me! So now I'm back to first base... rewriting the class materials... but now I'm on a roll. It's part of my passion which my former art teacher used to tell me, "If you love it and your passionate about it, then it's easy to teach it." Now I'm ready. I'll see you all in October. I hope your ready to get messy!

Supplies used in this layout: Overlayed Collection, Fall Watercolors Collection Mini, Smattering Collection, Dynamic Brushes: Paintstroke 5401, Dynamic Brushes: Splattered 4901.

3 comments:

Launa said...

Your class sounds awesome Shalae! I am so bummed that I'm not going to be able to make it! Just a little to far for me. Your a great teacher....so really don't worry about it!! :D Hey.....I'll be your guinea pig if you want me to! ;)

Mandy said...

Of course this looks amazing. I had no doubt you'd come up with something incredible. It's in your blood. :)

Caroline said...

This looks terrific Shalae. Now I'm curious to hear more about your class. I loved your book, it was my first step into creative scrapbooking. I'm sure you are an amazing teacher!