Card classes at Wishing Spring
A handful of crafters gathered in the Wishing Spring Gallery’s top floor, cutting, painting and positioning bits of paper to make one-of-a-kind cards.
Rogers resident Jane Para, who hosts a class at the gallery on the second Friday of each month, from 3 to 5 p.m., said she’s been making paper crafts, including cards, for roughly 20 years.
Cards, in particular, are a great place to start with paper crafts because they’re relatively small and simple but something people tend to use — everyone knows someone with a birthday or another special occasion around the corner, she said.
It’s not hard to personalize these cards for their recipients, she added.
“It’s just a creative release,” Para said. “It’s a lost art.”
Family members seem to really appreciate the handmade cards, she said.
Her class costs $5 per card and allows attendees to make as many as three cards. Supplies are included in that price, she said, and this could put someone ahead of some store-bought cards.
A class is also the ideal spot to learn not only how to do the craft properly, but whether someone enjoys it.
“Go to a class, find out if you like the style,” she said.
Among the paper crafters working at the gallery was Deb Dakken, who said she started crafting with paper back in the 1990s.
She’s drawn to the hobby because it allows her to make a lot of wildly different pieces. “Everyone is unique,” she said. They’ve formed a paper crafting group that meets each Friday morning at the Rogers Adult Wellness Center, she said, and they’ve since been nicknamed “the grannies.”
The papercraft hobby is a great way to make new friends, Para added.
People form groups and work together, learn new techniques and share them and kick new ideas around, she said.
“It’s a very social hobby,” she said.