Preparations for teaching a scrapbooking class depend a little on whether you plan to teach independently or if you are teaching through a scrapbook store. The difference is that, typically the scrapbook store will set the price of the class, help you with the supplies needed, and advertise. However, this is not always true. And if you are going to be teaching independently, those are all things you have to do.
Location
This is important. If you are teaching for a scrapbook store, than it is more than likely, not a concern. Because a scrapbook store will offer up their crop room for the class. However, if you are doing it alone, you will need to find a location to host your class. Church basements, community centers and libraries are very popular places to hold scrapbook workshops and classes, and will often bring new people to your classes. If you have the space, you can host the class at your home, especially if you have a lot of supplies to lug with you. But you will have to step up the advertising a lot.
Dates and Times
While I cannot tell you when to have your class, or even when it is going to work best, I can give you a few pieces of advice. First, avoid holiday weekends. Your advertising efforts will not be worth it, if everyone is on vacation. But the biggest piece of advice, I learned the hard way, is to offer your class on more than one night. Do not limit yourself to offering a different class each time you teach. Repeat your classes, over and over. The only thing you will have to do to prepare for a class at that point, is to possibly concoct a whole new page kit for them to complete. You will get repeat customers who are just looking for a night out, or some time to get good feedback from an expert. These scrapbookers will want to do a different layout each time they come, but other class preparations should already be in place. You will already have your handouts, etc.
For class times, you will want to keep your classes somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Anything beyond that, is too long, and anything less than that, is often lacking for the attendee. If it is a workshop or crop, then your time is lengthened quite a bit. A later article will discuss that.
More terrific articles on teaching scrapbooking classes coming soon! Bookmark the scrapbooking blog.