Cardorama @ WIC

I haven't posted about this before but:-

West Island College is a really lovely school whose philosophy fits so well with ours.
I go in to help out with Cardorama nights, which, I think of as a social club for the teenagers.  But the excuse is card-making.  The kids come in after school (3:15) and it is very very informal they stay till 8:30pm - clearly they enjoy it (and they get credits towards the awards system, house points and so on).

Bad-for-you snacks, pizza and a limited number of fizzy drinks are on hand at various times through the evening. The teacher arranges for a film to be projected on one wall about half way through the evening.
School pays for the materials and food.
The kids go home happy, socialized and having done a good job of making, perhaps, 200 cards in the evening and these sell for charity.

The designs for the cards are created by a few dedicated women who supply the students with kit bags with everything in there that they need to recreate a model card. Ready cut card stock, paper and bead accents, ribbons and cut out shapes...

The reasons for doing it this  in a controlled way are pragmatic... to ensure quality control and that the cards will sell.  Which they do.

However, I do have a slight problem with this as I believe the creativity ought to come, predominantly, from the students.  I create an idea for a card that allow for student creativity within a controlled framework.  I take in a few models and stencils for design areas that need to be filled,  and a ready made computer file for the cutting out of window mounts and that sort of thing.  I like to, at the very least, allow students to take ownership of colour choice/combinations.

Next week is Cardorama night and above are examples of the card I have modelled for the students to make.

This card involves using the Cricut machine to cut the card and window mount, embossing strips of recycled metal with designs, adding blended colours over the uneven surface using marker pens, tweaking with metallic markers, fitting metal strip behind window mount and affixing an inner lining paper to provide for writing area and to hide the metal which has sharp edges.
The version with the knotted threads also involves using the sewing machine to create holes but I think I might not go there this time around. KISS.

I think the students will particularly like messing about with the coloured markers on metal.