Saturday 19 May 2012

A day in the life of...Marleen (Creativity Club Prompt #14)

Today's blog prompt is - 
The day in the life of... This could be yourself or interview someone!! Have fun blogging and have fun discovering someone's typical day! How about getting a fellow Creativity Club member to guest post for your blog? Or do a call out for a docrafts demonstrator to write about their demonstration day?


Hi crafty friends,

I am handing today's blog over to a good friend of mine, Marleen, to tell us all about her demo. So over to you Marleen x


My Name is Marleen Gallagher. Im a stay at home mom to me 3 wonderful children and my motto is "before I'm anything else, I'm a mom". But every mom has to have a litlle slice of the cake just to herself. and for me, it's my crafting.

I started to craft when my eldest was born in 2003. I needed something quiet to do when she was sleeping as we lived in a very small bedsit at the time. Over the years, it became a "me-time" and then a passion. Now beside my family, it's my life.

I have a very busy crafting life. I work for several Design Teams, Including Debbie's Cards Galore.
But I have also been very lucky to have been offered to do craft demontrations for my local craft shop. And that is what I want to tell you about.

A Demo is planned weeks in advance. As soon as I get the goodies, the shop wants me to show case, I sit down with a cuppa and have a good look at it all. Not just with crafters eyes but with business eyes, if that makes any sense.

I'm very lucky as the shop I demo in, is an independant local business. It means my hands are a bit more free to do what I like. But bottom line is, that a demo in the shop, is for me to try and sell as much crafting goodies as I can on the day. And hopefully have them all coming back for more.
Now when I demo, thats not whats on my mind of course, cause I demo because I love to craft. But for the shop that is what I'm there for, and I have to keep that in mind when I plan my demo.

So with my cuppa in hand, I look through it all. The last demo I did, I got papers and toppers as my main items. I dont use many finished toppers personally so it was a brill challenge for me. The other main thing the shop asked me to show case was my big shot, as they sell that and dies.
So I simply sat down, made a list of what I wanted to do, with what items. It dont mean that I make the finished cards as I write them down, but it gives me a great idea of what to include. 

The hardest thing about a demo, is not the demo itself, it's all the planning that goes in before. So for this demo I decided to include some bunting, some cards made in shapes cut from the dies, and some very easy quick makes.


 
 And this is some of the samples I made for the day.

In my group of regulars, I have every level of crafters, We have everyting from a couple of girls just starting out, to girls that have been crafting longer then me, so I have to keep that in mind in my planning as well. I need to be prepare to show how to use the basic tools to something that can keep the seasoned crafters at my table.

A demo is really just me sitting at a table in the shop, crafting. I bring everything I need in my big tote so I have everything at hand. Packing the tote the night before is normally a nightmare. Trying to cover for any question, just in case.

Once Im at the table, I often start by making a scrappage. I dont plan my pages in advance, but always bring a kit so I have everything coordinating. It can be a bit slow in the shop in the morning and as scrapping takes longer, its a good start while people look around.

I then start making some cards. As this time was toppers, I whipped up a few easy onces to start with and that normally lead to questions, that lead to show a tecnics ect.

As much as I love planning my demo's and being prepared, you can never plan for it all. You can have a crowd that is really eager to see new things, asking loads of questions, or you can have a very quiet group that just wanna watch. All you can do is plan for both and hope for the best.
I can have anything from 5-6 people to 30-35 people in the shop at on time. The last demo I did, the last hour, It was only me and few of my very good crafting friends left, so we all sat and had a cuppa while we tried out a few new things.
At my first demo, I was mobbed pretty much the whole time and loads of people told me later that they had been to see me, but I was so busy I never saw them. You just never know..

This is the cover the local news paper did after my last demo. 

I love doing my demo's and would really love to do more. When my children are older I want to expand to do classes as well, but for now, I take things slow. It takes a lot of time to get ready for a demo, but I love every moment. I have meet so many fantastic people in my area, that I would never had meet otherwise. One day I would like to work full time with crafting, one way or another, but for now I enjoy my 5 min of fame now and again at my demo's.

I hope you enjoyed my story, and if you wish to see more of my work you can come and visit me on my blog : http://www.marleens-crafty-space.blogspot.com/. Also, you can join me on Facebook here.


BIG Hugs, Marleen xxx


From Drop Box

8 comments:

  1. This is brilliant Debbi and Marleen. So nice to hear about how my crafty friends do in the crafting world.

    Hugs
    Linda xxx

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  2. These are gorgeous toppers Marlene

    Joan x

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  3. What a lovely insight into your 'demo days'.......sounds like loads of people come along to see you craft, which must be very rewarding for you, and the shop of course. Well done, keep up the great work xx

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  4. Really interesting - enjoyed that!
    Kate
    xx

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  5. Wow.... that was most interesting x

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  6. Really good post as not many people realise how much prep. Goes into a demo. Often I get the box only a few days before hand! As I work full time too , I often start with a couple from the do crafts magazine , then add my own things as I get time .

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  7. Lovely work and loved reading about what you have been up too. My friend Heidi does demo days and also does some shows on create and craft so I sppreciate how much work goes into things.
    Keep up the excellent work.
    Love Lisa xxxxx

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