Cherish 12 Layout Workshop

By Tessa Matthews
Close To My Heart Independent Consultant
TessMatthews@gmail.com
Create 24 Pages from a level 2 kit!
Consultant Workshop information
This workshop is designed to make maximum use of a level 2 paper packet and some
extra cardstock.

Files for reference:

Layout Info – This file shows all the layouts you will use, the page in Cherish you can
find the layout, what papers are used in the layout and what size and number of
pictures used in the layouts.
Kit Info – this file includes the colors of the current kits and how many pieces of
cardstock are needed. This will help you order cardstock and embellishments
efficiently. This file also includes pictures of the current kits that you can use on flyers.
The Extra Colors information is listed to help you select embellishments or additional
cardstock, if you choose to use it. Not all kits have additional colors listed.
Cherish Version 2 Flyer– this is a word document you can save and edit with your
information and kit selections. (Right click the link and select Save Target As)
Cherish version 2 complete PDF file – this is the big kahuna - The actual templates and
cutting guide. Right click and select Save Target As to save it to your computer. If you
have problems opening this file, update your Adobe Acrobat Reader program
(www.adobe.com)
Layout pictures
Default template – Right click and select Save Target As
Cherish Version 1 – the Original 7 layout workshop – Right click and select Save Target
As.

Use of this template

Deciding what to offer
Structure of the workshop
Figuring Cost
Embellishment Kits
Extra Cardstock
Picking your paper
Cutting the paper
Extra paper & assembling the pages
Creating Templates
Feedback

Use of this template

I request that you do not distribute this template electronically outside the consultant
circle. Use/distribution for your own business & your consultant team’s needs is fine. I
place no restrictions on whether to give this cutting guide to your customers. Use your
own business judgment to make that decision.

Deciding what to offer:

You can do a wide variety of things with this workshop.

1. 1. Give your customers an option to pick one kit to complete all 24 of their pages.
This will work well for a theme album, such as baby, wedding, or vacation.
2. 2. Let your customers get together in a small group of 2 or 3 and pick different kits.
At the end of the night, they can swap so they end up with pages from 2 or 3 different
kits.
3. 3. Create bundles of 2, 3 or 4 different paper packs, so that each bundle has different
patterns. I chose to bundle 3 different packs, so each person gets 4 double layouts of
each kit. Some suggestions:
a. a. Girly theme: Sugar & Spice, More to Adore, Sweet Harmony, Cutie Pie,
Sonata or any 3 girly themed paper packs
b. b. Boy theme: Snips & Snails, Rough & Tumble, School Zone, Building
Blocks, Rowdy, Lazy Days
c. c. Nature themed: Lazy Days, Rustic Trail, Discovery, Expedition
d. d. Heritage theme: Simple Pleasures, Heirloom & Vintage Travel
e. e. Little of This, Little of That: One girly kit, one boyish kit, & an extra
pretty neutral one for pictures of boys & girls
f. f. Travel Theme: Vintage Travel, Route 66 & Majestic Blue
g. g. Holiday theme: Abundance, Holly Days & Independence or Birthday
Bash
h. h. Summer 07 New kit Sampler: Let’s Get Together, Expedition, Majestic
Blue, Route 66 or Floral Tapestry – what a GREAT way to get all the new kits
in your customers’ hands! We all know the paper is so much prettier in
person.
i. i. Fall 07 New kit sampler:
2. 4. Create Add-ons to up sell your workshop. This also keeps the basic workshop
price low, so you can appeal to a wider range of customers. Some add-on ideas are:
a. a. Cherish (offer a bit of a discount for ordering it with the workshop, if you
like)
b. b. 2 or more coordinating colors of markers for journaling on their new
pages.
c. c. Coordinating Stickease
d. d. Page protectors
 e. e. Album
f. f. Embellishment kit
i. i. Ribbon or fibers
ii. ii. An assortment of coordinating My Accents
embellishments
iii. iii. Window charms, Clips, buttons, etc.
g. g. Journaling Jots, block and 1 or 2 coordinating ink colors
h. h. Adhesive
3. 5. Adhesive – I created 3 of these workshops at one time using Let’s Get Together,
Route 66 and Expedition. I used just over 3 rolls of the ATG adhesive. I highly
suggest you have your customers bring their own adhesive and have some on hand for
those that run out.
Back to the Top
Structure of the workshop
1 – Have customers CUT their pieces in one workshop session,
assemble basic pages in a second (and maybe a third, depending
on how fast they are) and embellish/add pictures in another session.

2 – Since there are 12 layouts, you could have them assemble one
or two layouts every month as part of a club project. For a hostess
club, you could have them order stickease or additional
embellishments or stamps that coordinate with the kits you are
using. You could also focus on a technique each time, and their
hostess club order might result from that.

3 – Have a hostess find 5 friends to attend the workshop, and you

can submit as a gathering. Have each person pick a kit, and they
can swap pages at the end, or you can divide the pieces up so they
get 2 double layouts from each kit.

4 – This would be a GREAT retreat project. Complete an entire

album in one weekend.
Back to the Top

Figuring the cost:

I used my pricing guide excel file (right click and select Save Target As) to figure the
cost of individual items, such as cardstock sheets & embellishments. You can right click
and save this file to your computer. Don’t forget to change the tax rate for your area.
This file also figures tax based on the shipping charges added in, too. If you need to
change this, email me and I can tell you how to change that. I don’t have the items from
the summer catalog added in yet, so check back periodically to see if I have a newer
version out there.
You can buy bulk Colonial White or White Daisy on a supply order to save some money
on the cost of the workshop. For me, the cost of a sheet of bulk cardstock is .21. A
single sheet of single color cardstock is .45.

Don’t forget to add in the cost of the bags you use to store the items, and to add tax
and shipping onto the cost of your items!

This is how I figured my cost of $33.00 for the workshop:

• Level 2 kit is 14.85 (retail cost plus shipping & tax)

• Extra cardstock 14.50 (30 pieces x .45 = 13.50 plus rounding up to 14.50 for an
extra sheet or half sheet or two to be used, if needed. ) – You can reduce this cost
by using bulk WD or CW paper when you can.
• Bags for paper storage – 2.54
• A dollar or so for printing the template file
• My total cost 32.89 – rounding up to 33.00

Don’t forget to charge for items your customers will take home with them or use up
during the class – all paper, bags, a desk pad sheet to protect the work surface, drinks,
cups, snacks/meal, cutlery, napkins, & plates, etc. If you provide sanding tools, sponge
daubers or sponge pieces for inking, include those, too. Wipes for cleaning hands are
nice to have on hand. Remember to include the cost of your space, if you rent it.
Corporate rules say we cannot charge for our time, only for the cost of the consumable
items used during the workshop.
Back to the Top
Embellishment kits
I offered embellishment kits with Version 1 of this workshop. I did not have a single
person NOT buy it. I used a wide variety of items… ribbon, fibers, brads, buttons,
conchos, photo hangers and corners. I used my pricing guide file to estimate prices so I
made sure to keep the embellishment kit at the right price. I split My Accents tubes
between several customers, which worked quite well. I used the Cherish layouts as an
estimate of how many embellishments to include.

Extra Cardstock
I ordered WD and CW cardstock on supply orders. For the previous Cherish workshop I
created, I had enough of a stash to sell by the sheet. This time, though, with the
additional cardstock needed, I will just try to choose my kit combinations wisely, so that I
can split packages of single color cardstock between the kits and between the customers.
Back to the Top

How to pick your paper

Basically, you just lay your paper out and however it comes out of the package you will
mentally number the B&T from 1 to 6, and lay out the cardstock from lightest to darkest
(check the KitInfo file to see which cardstock is considered lightest to darkest, as some
were hard to define and I just assigned it). You will want to compare the papers with the
Layout Info in the PDF file to see if everything looks like it will visually work.

For example, the layout information tell us that Layout 1 uses B&T1 and 3 and Cardstock
2 and 3. If that looks like it will work, then move on to Layout 2, and check those papers
together. I physically remove the sheets from the stack and hold them together to see if I
like the look of it. If I don't (too much blue, too many stripes, etc) I will swap a page out
and see how that looks. Continue on until you have 'eyeballed' all 12 layouts and like
how they are going.

If you are using any paper that has a large, geometric print with a definite right side up
(like the patchwork paper in Snips & SNails, or Sugar and Spice), I recommend those
pages be assigned to one that has few small cuts (B&T 2 or 4 would be good choices in
that scenario).

Lazy Days has a LOT of green. Check to see that you aren’t using Lilac Mist cardstock
with only green patterned papers.

Giggles and Grins – the black B&T paper tends to blend in too much with the black
cardstock. Take a bit more time with this kit to make sure there won’t be too much black.

Simple Pleasures – this kit has so much brown that sometimes it seems overwhelming. It
will take some finesse to get this kit to work well with this workshop technique. You
might try adding more twilight cardstock, or doing some random stamping or sponging to
create another pattern to substitute some of the brownish cardstock or patterned papers.

I alternated any striped papers in the kit with other papers, so no 2

striped papers were together. I also put a patterned paper that
included all of the cardstock colors as paper number 6, because Layout
4 uses all 3 cardstock colors and just one patterned paper. It looks
best with a patterned piece that includes all 3 cardstock colors.

Textured cardstock looks GREAT as base page, if you want to include it

(don’t forget to charge the textured cardstock price!)

Customers that choose kits that have quite a bit of distressing, such as
More to Adore, will want to distress most or all of their pieces before
assembling their layouts, if they want it to look evenly distressed. I
tend to want the distress to match, so they will need to ink distress or
sand their cardstock before assembling. Have them lay the pieces out
and see how they look before adhering.
Back to the Top
Cutting the paper
Whether you cut or they cut, be sure to have enough room to spread out and put the
pieces in 12 separate piles. Don’t forget to write on the back the layout number and
letter. I just use 1A for layout 1 piece A. Trying to puzzle piece the layouts together
without this info is frustrating!

I used a clear bags 12 x 12 cellophane envelope for each layout. This gave me enough
room to store the paper pieces without crushing them, and they are inexpensive. I used
these: 12 1/4" x 12 1/4" (311x311) Crystal Clear Plastic Bags with Adhesive Strip
on the Flap #B1212. Up to 700 bags are .17 cents each. Well worth it to be able to
sort the pages nicely, and it gives customers a place to store the finished layouts, as well.

You can also use Ziploc bags, manila envelopes, or even a folder to hold the layout
pieces. Don’t forget to label!!

This will take a LONG time to precut, but there is so little room for error on this
workshop that you might want to consider it. I chose to precut and save myself the hassle
of telling someone they screwed it up and can't fix it.

If you select kits where you have bulk papers or a partial kit on hand, this can give you a
bit of security when you cut… I was freaked out the first time I cut, because I was so
worried I’d mess up!

Back to the Top

Extra paper for mistakes or embellishing

If a customer (or you) makes a mistake in cutting, there is a bit of leftover that can help.
There are some ½ inch or 1 inch strips that can help cover an area that is cut crooked, and
there is a bit of extra cardstock for additional matting, or titles, journal boxes, etc. B&T
4-B has the most leftover, so if you need to use it, that can help.

Assembling the pages:

I placed the appropriate base pages and all layout pieces into a clear 12x12 bag and
labeled the front with the kit name and layout number. I found it easiest to dump out all
the pieces, open Cherish to the appropriate page, and then lay out my base pages. I
placed the pieces for the left page on top of the left base page, and the pieces for the right
on the right. Then, moved the right page out of the way and started on the left, referring
to Cherish to assemble the page. Complete that one, and then do the right page. Don’t
forget to ink or sand the pages where necessary. When complete, you might want to
write the layout number or name on the back, so you can find it again in Cherish, if you
need to.
Back to the Top
Base Pages:
You can random stamp or otherwise decorate the neutral base pages used for some of the
layouts. The one I specified to distress or RS is the one that shows the most of the neutral
page that is not covered by layout pieces. This would be a good technique learning
opportunity.

Cherish:
I highly recommend customers have Cherish in order to do this workshop. If you have a
couple on hand to loan out, that’s great. I did scan the pages for the previous workshop I
created, but copying the pages of the book is a copyright violation, which is why I did not
include the scans in this workshop. Most of my customers have Cherish now, anyway.

How long did it take?

I estimate this might take about 3-4 hours to assemble the pages, no embellishments, or
pictures. Some might choose to ink distress or sand their pieces.

Flyer Pictures:
The pictures on the flyer and in the KitInfo file are taken from the Order Entry system.
Simply right click the pictures while you are in the Order Entry system and select Copy.
Then paste into a Word document. I used a table to make it look a bit prettier. You can
resize the pictures as needed by clicking on the picture and using the corner sizing handle
(the dots that appear at the corners when you click the picture). You can also double
click on the picture and go to the size tab and change the percentage listed to resize the
picture.
Back to the Top

Creating templates
I used Microsoft Word to create a table that was 24 columns by 24 rows. My default
page margins were a 1.25" margin on the left and right, leaving 6 inches of space. This
means that my table autosized to 6 inches, and each of my squares was representative of
1/2 inch.

Then, if I needed to create a space that was 3 inches by 6 inches, I would highlight and
select 6 rows by 12 columns, right click and select Merge. Then, I would simply type
into the space what the label should be for that piece.

I have created a file called BasicTemplate.doc that you can use to play with your own
template creation. Simply highlight, copy and paste this blank grid over and over to get
as many pages as you need.

You can also use PowerPoint to create templates, and that is sometimes easier for people,
because you can drag and move your boxes around. Since my templates are first created
on paper and then transferred to the computer, I find this works for me.
Feedback
If you have comments or suggestions for improvement on this workshop, please let me
know! I especially need people to tell me if they find errors in the diagrams or
measurements. You can email me at tessmatthews@gmail.com.

Back to the Top