Live with Prima: April 19
April 05, 2010
I'm having a lot of fun putting together the kits for these Live with Prima broadcasts. It's an interesting process, so I thought I'd share:
1. I draw some designs to figure out what the project is and what kinds of stuff I will need in order to make it. Here's an example of what that looks like:
2. I pull through my Prima stash...
...to see what I have. (And yes, I sure do have a lot!) But then I have to check the inventory lists from Prima to make sure that their warehouse has enough of everything. Sometimes this is an easy step and sometimes everything I'm holding in my hands is backordered! And I have to figure out something new to use. That's such a pain.
3. Once my supplies are all gathered, I put together my project.
When I put together the project, I run a timer. And I talk myself
through the project. That way when I get on camera, talking and doing
come naturally. The timer is so that I know which parts take a long
time, and about how long the whole class will be. This photo canvas
class will be about an hour-and-a-half.
The thing that's scary/hard about this step is that I don't always know where I'm going. But with a project that you'll be teaching from a kit, you kind of have to have a serious road map. That's why step #1 (sketching) is so very important!
4. Pretty pictures. I photograph the project and make a little advertisement for the class in Photoshop.
Photographing can be tricky in my apartment. If the weather is nice and there's daylight I head out onto the terrace to take photos. More often, I put some pretty paper on my desk and place my Ott light directly over the project. (That's what I did for the photos above.)
5. I have to do my paperwork - the part I like the least, but perhaps the most important. Paperwork includes the following:
- Class Description: This is only a few sentences, but I still find it difficult. How do you get people excited about the project and accurately describe what they'll be learning at the same time? Plus you want it to stand out so that people will buy the kit!
- Kit Contents: I jot down everything I used that is a Prima product, search the Prima website for the "official name" and price, and include all the SKU numbers as well.
- Non-Kit Supplies: I jot down everything I used that isn't included in the kit, from a pencil to a rag to the exact colors of ink or mist.
- Basic Instructions: This is the one piece of paperwork that isn't required, but I think it makes things easier. It's anywhere from two weeks to one month before the class that I create the kit. My work is so technique heavy that it's easy for me to forget how I did something. So I try to draft up some quick instructions to keep myself straight. I can review them right before I go on camera to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
6. As a final step I put the project, all the leftovers from making it, and all the paperwork into a Ziploc bag. I want to make sure that if I don't get my kit in time for the broadcast, I can use some of the bits and pieces from the original supplies to pull together the project. I pin the Ziploc bag to my bulletin board and I'm officially done!
Whew!
It's a lot of work, but I enjoy the puzzle of figuring it all out.
Hope you enjoyed a peek at the process. And please join me on April 19, 2010 at 2pm EST (GMT -5)...
...for my free Photo Canvas Class at Live with Prima. Here's the official description:
Add a lovely piece of art to your walls that includes a favorite photograph. In less than an hour-and-a-half you’ll have finished a delightful photo canvas and learned how to create a cool collage background, how to accent your flowers with paint, how to remove the sticky from the back of Prima’s beautiful felt DeVines, and plenty more!
You can buy your kit here.
Thanks for stopping by!