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How to Host a Workshop with Your Silhouette Cameo

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I’ve written a few posts about ways to make money with your Silhouette Cameo that don’t include selling products online. These ideas include selling digital designs to other crafters and working with local businesses. Another trendy way to make money with your Silhouette or Cricut is to host a workshop where you teach others how to complete a project using the Silhouette or Cricut. The idea is that they sign up for the class, show up with nothing, and leave with a completed project. You may be familiar with this style of workshop is you’ve attended a painting or pottery night out.

What You’ll Need to Plan to Host a Workshop

Location – You’ll need to have a place to offer the workshop. The number of people in the workshop will determine how large of a space that you’ll need.

  • Hold the workshop in your home – a great option if you know the participants.
  • Rent a space for an evening from a church, local small business, virtual office, or conference room at a local hotel.
  • Lease a space and set up a permanent workshop storefront.

Supplies – As the host, you’ll need to provide all the supplies for each participant to complete their project. You will also need to provide a workspace for each participant. When hosting my own classes (an aside: do you know that I used to teach crafting classes at Michaels Arts and Crafts stores?), I used these tables and put two to three crafters at each table. Your supplies will vary depending on the project, but could include precut wood, basic power tools, vinyl, cardstock, measuring tapes, weeding tools, paint, paint supplies, aprons for participants, and basic art supplies like scissors, measuring tapes, and pencils.

Project Ideas – Pinterest is a great source of project ideas! Here is my list of projects that lend themselves well to workshops:

  • Wooden home decor – You can either choose to have the wood sanded and painted, or you can invest in power tools and have the participants cut and/or sand the wood before painting it. You can then distribute precut vinyl designs to each participant and they can weed and apply it after you teach the technique. If participants are painting their own wood, you need to account for drying time and may have to do a two part workshop.
  • Floating frames – The participants choose a design before arriving and you have it precut and ready to weed. After weeding the design, participants are shown how to apply the design to their frame and they apply it.
  • Anything holiday related – Classes that are related to the closest upcoming holiday are always popular. For example, consider teaching how to make vinyled Christmas ornaments in December, a football themed project in the fall, or a gift for their sweetheart in February.
  • T-Shirts – T-shirts are quick and easy projects to demonstrate during workshops. You’ll need to be sure to have at least one heat press for participants to use.

Class Day and Length – You’ll need to consider the length of the class when choosing projects. Most people have various commitments, so I’d suggest limiting the time to between an hour or two on a weekday evening.

Sign Up and Payments – Generally, when you advertise the class, you’ll advertise for a specific project and you’ll offer between 2 and 4 different design options. The participant signing up for the class will choose their design when they pay for the class. If you have more than 4 people attending the workshop, I would precut the designs using your die cutter before they arrive (or invest in several die cutting machines.) Otherwise, waiting for the machine to cut each design becomes quite time consuming. All participants should prepay for the workshop before attending. A reasonable workshop price is between $30 and $60. To determine your price you’ll need to take into account the cost of the space, all project materials, wear and tear on your machines, and the cost of your time – including set up and clean up.

Finally, at the end of the workshop, be sure to give participants information on the next workshop. Then, take photos of the participants with their projects. You can use these for future advertising and social media! If you aren’t ready to find a space to hold workshops with your Silhouette or Cricut, have you considered hosting in-home parties? We will look at that tomorrow on Cutting for Business.

How to Host a Workshop with Your Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com

Rachelle

Thursday 6th of June 2019

Hi I'm interested in hosting a class. I was planning on requiring everyone to bring their silhouette cameo and host the class in a computer lab where I teach how to start using the cameo and working on a few beginner projects. Do you think that this idea would work? Just looking for a little advice since this will be my first time hosting a class. Thank you so much!

Christine, Cutting for Business

Wednesday 3rd of July 2019

Yes, this would work. I would have some machines available to rent in case someone doesn't have a machine. Be sure there is enough room next to each machine to accommodate crafting.

Mary C Goforth

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

I'm opening a vinyl storefront in September and wanted to find out how to get my business listed on your map for businesses.

Christine

Monday 7th of August 2017

Information can be found in this post: https://cuttingforbusiness.com/2017/02/15/map-craft-vinyl-stores/

Cindy

Tuesday 1st of September 2015

Thank you so much for all of this information. I also read about the in home party ideas. This will be right up my alley and the ticket to retiring sooner. I am already transitioning from my day job as a stylist to part-time crafter doing 4-5 craft fairs each year. I want to be able to craft full time but have not been able to "dive in" to my Silhouette business and therefore not making enough to quit the salon. It's tough doing 2 jobs and having done home party businesses before, really feel like this is it!! My heart started beating faster and I even got emotional reading it, an answer to prayer. Thanks again. I love all your posts and appreciate all the work you put into them.

Christine

Tuesday 1st of September 2015

Hi Cindy! I'm so glad to hear your business is going well, and I'm touched by your heartfelt words. I wish you the earliest retirement possible!