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Library hosts card making classes
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Sue Gentile of Youngstown examined the paper she would use to make her card during the card making class at the Austintown library.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Shown are the finished products that were made during the card making class at the Austintown library.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Austintown library clerk Cindy Mawhinney displayed some of the many cards she's made during her card making class.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Austintown library clerk Cindy Mawhinney demonstrated the proper way to fold the paper during the card making class.
By TIM CLEVELAND
People who want to perhaps save some money as well as put a personal touch on cards they give to friends and relatives can attend a card making class at the Austintown library twice a month to learn how to make their own. The most recent class was Nov. 24.
The classes started in September. One class each month is in the morning and the other is in the evening.
“That way people who work can come to the evening ones and some people who aren’t available in the evenings, or the older people who don’t like to come out in the evenings, so we do it in the day,” said Austintown library clerk Cindy Mawhinney, who conducts the classes.
Mawhinney worked for Michaels craft store for 10 years, first as an event coordinator and later as a clerk, making her well-qualified to teach the classes.
“My supervisor [Linda Kucalaba] asked me because she knew I did this on my own,” she said of how the classes started. “I do my own card making classes. I’m a Stampin’ Up! [a stamp making company] demonstrator.”
The project for the Nov. 24 class was making Christmas cards and treat boxes. The supplies for the project included paper, stamps, punches, ink pads, paper cutter and cleaner.
Mawhinney said attendance for the classes has been OK but could be better.
“A lot of people sign up for it; fewer people actually come,” she said. “We need to get people who are going to come. I limit each class to eight because we have to share supplies.”
One of the attendees was Sue Gentile of Youngstown. She said saving money was a big advantage of making her own cards.
“Definitely save money; I save money doing my own cards,” she said. “She’s [Mawhinney] taught me a lot because I’ve been to other classes she’s had. I’ve taken every class I could find that was free that will give me a craft to try.”