Steam it Up!

I actually had a request for this blog post from a coworker, which makes me feel doubly guilty for my brief blogging hiatus. But here we are, and here it is!

A few weeks ago I put on a program for the teens called, "My Clockwork Valentine." The idea was for the teens to make steampunk and/or gothic themed valentines. You know... something outside the "norm."

My flier and bookmark adverts. They look better in person.

To be totally honest, the biggest part of this program was gathering the supplies! It's hard to plan for creativity; if that even makes sense. So I tried to pull from a variety of sources without breaking the bank. I brought some things from home (I had a bunch of stuff from when I made a friend's save the dates) and then went to Michael's and A.C. Moore and just used my best judgment. I had one teen ask if we would be able to use real gears, so even though they were pricier items, I felt compelled to get them.

I sent this as a teaser picture to our teens.

Here are some of my favorite buys/the teen's favorite supplies:

• Steampunk/vintage washi tape
• Shimmer spray
• Stamps
• Embossing powder/heat gun
• "Found" (metal steampunk) embellishments

Left: Supplies I bought; Right: Supplies from home

I bought the shimmer spray on a whim and it was a huge hit! I love it, the teens love it... just get some. You can thank me later. The embossing powder and tool I brought from home somewhat hesitantly. The powder can make a mess, and the tool can melt and burn if not used properly. However, I'm glad I did. It was a real learning experience for the teens and they were all thrilled to see it in action (which I'm pretty sure we all can relate to; it just looks so cool !).

Teen crafters in action!

One thing that I'm really glad I tried in this program was utilizing Pinterest. We have a number of iPad mini's for programming and I thought, "Why not use them!?" Id been pinning valentine ideas onto a board in my Pinterest account for a while (these will be moved to my programming folder eventually), so I set up an account for the iPads, then followed my own board through it. This meant that the teens could see the ideas I'd compiled for them on their home page and still search for other ideas on Pinterest. They even had the freedom of creating their own boards (although no one did). In the past I've made PowerPoints for craft programs and I just felt too much like I was lecturing them. This made it very personal and relaxed!

And here are some of their finished products! (I missed one boy who ran off before I got pictures of his valentine. He was quite the artist too!)

We had one day stay and make a card for his daughter. Aw!

How cool is this "doodle?" 

Some of the "found" pieces in action.

Love the creativity in the shapes and lettering!

This one's one of mine.

Probably our most elaborate card... front, inside, and back!

Another of mine.

As you saw from the cards, we did have one dad stay, even though it was a teen program. I don't know how to say, "I'm sorry sir, but this is a teen program... and you're not." But he was super cool and no one seemed to mind him. He said he was going to hang out on the computers during the program, but then he saw the supplies and had to stay.

I played part of the movie Hugo in the background. No one really watched it, but I like to have ambient noise, and crafting programs can get very VERY quiet. Besides, the movie fit in nicely. It has a good steampunk feel and a little romantic streak in it to boot!

All in all I'm happy with how the program went. Once again, I should have given them more time, but I planned this too far out to realize it. (Curse you deadlines!) I also had a little computer issue, so I wasn't able to get advertising out to all our branches, and that resulted in smaller attendance than I had hoped. But it was still good. Maybe even worth a revisit some day!