Friends, we have a chance to get Karen Russell back for a THIRD visit to the Clubhouse. It's not easy to get Karen, partially because she lives in Oregon and partially because she's got four wonderful kids and a delightful husband that she must stay home for--and, and perhaps, more important, photograph. And a third part of the reason is that all over the country there are scrapbook stores craving her classes. But Karen's been here twice before and she really, really likes us, so we've got an unexpected chance to get her back.
If you don't already know who Karen is: let me give you a brief introduction. She is the designer of the Narratives line of products at Creative Imaginations--a charmingly elegant series perfectly adaptable to many, many scrapbooking stories.
Here are some of her newest papers, due into the Clubhouse any day now.
We're so excited to bring these papers to you, but we're sad, too, because this is Karen's last line for a while. Instead she is throwing her whole self into teaching photography, which is a subject she has a genius for. I know, because I've taken both her nine-week online course and her all-day seminar. (And about that online class . . . every time she offers it, the class has sold out in LESS than FIVE minutes of the start of online registration. I do not exaggerate!)
And Karen's a hoot. Her love of life and great sense of humor pop up everywhere in her scrapbooking and her photography. As a few of her photos will demonstrate:
Karen teaches a one-day workshop (and probably soon it will be a one-day-and-night workshop because every time she teaches it, she spends a little longer explaining things and answering your questions).
Part of the reason I want her here is that I want to take her seminar again. Another part of the reason is that if I get her here I think I may be able to get her to do a hands-on seminar as a follow-up to the workshop. She is such a generous teacher, so eager to help us make a difference in our photography by getting away from the automatic setting on our cameras. (And perish the thought that you'll ever need your flash again!) A third part of the reason is that it's just so delightful being in Karen's company.
What I need to discover is how much interest YOU have in seeing Karen back among us. She would be teaching her Photography Workshop again (it's an all-day class, covering soup to notes about photography. It's more information that you can digest in a single day, but the overview it gives you, and the understanding it gives you as a substrate for further learning are absolutely amazing.) And possibly this second seminar I've outlined. The workshop costs $125 (and is worth every penny, I promise you. I periodically took photography classes for years, but nothing really gelled for me until Karen took over my education). I don't know what the second seminar would cost as I haven't gotten Karen to devise it yet. But it would be a smaller figure, for sure.
Sooo--here's my question for you. Should we bring her back? Would you be interested in taking her workshop for the first time? Would you be interested in taking it for a second time? Although the workshop is not a minor expense, photography these days can be a particularly inexpensive pleasure. You can practice anything you learn to your heart's content for nothing. Want to learn how to nail a photo where the subject is in focus but nothing else is? Karen will teach you that and you can keep snapping those (free) digital images until the skill is well and truly your own.
Let me know how you feel with a comment here or in an email to me, and I'll get back to you soon with the results. And, of course, tell your friends!
P.S. Check out Karen's blog at karenrussell.typepad.com. You'll love it!
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