After attending Scrapfest over the weekend and having my first experience with Make n Takes, I learned a few things for future reference in case I ever am in charge of doing some Make n Takes of my own.
Photo by Superhua on Flickr
1. It’s important to make sure that everyone “running” the Make n Takes are fully informed about all the details so that they can explain how to do it and answer anyone’s questions. It’s all well and good to rope your family members into helping out but please train them beforehand.
2. Make careful lists of all the materials and quantities needed for each Make n Take and use this as a checklist when packing for the event. It’s very frustrating to get to a Make n Take only to be told that they have run out of some of the needed supplies because they forgot to pack them.
3. When doing a very basic and simplistic project, it is a good idea to have some extra supplies (different papers, punches, stamps, embellishments) that will allow those who are a bit more advanced to add to their projects over and above the sample. Many had prepackaged “kits” of all the supplies needed for their project (which were great in terms of keeping things organized) but the ones that then had containers of extras that you could add to your kit were most appealing.
4. When people come up to do your Make n Take, please greet them warmly, show them the sample, and then explain the process (and perhaps how to use some of the tools) to them. The participants shouldn’t have to practically beg for information.
5. No matter how fabulous the project may be, any project that’s going to take more than 10 minutes or so is not such a great idea. There is nothing more frustrating than to see an amazing Make n Take, wait for HOURS for your turn, and then not even get a turn because the event ends before you get your chance. Make n Takes, I think, should be quickies. If needed, you may need to find a gentle way of prodding participants and moving them along if they choose to sit there for 45 minutes obsessing over their projects.
6. Make n Takes that use products, even super fun products, requiring you to carry them around for quite a while until they dry or that have dimensional items on them that will get squished and ruined if flattened are not terribly convenient. You need something that can be thrown down into a totebag for ease of carrying it around.
7. I found the Make n Takes that taught me a specific technique or allowed me to try out certain tools or products (in particular new ones or ones I wasn’t likely to have tried before) were far more interesting to me than the ones that were a bunch of precut pieces that simply needed to be glued together according to the sample provided, no matter how adorable the resulting greeting cards were.
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