Spellbinders&Altenew class and bundle

Not impressed.

Not my cup of tea…..too floraly for me

Too many layered dies and also a very "folksy" style of floral that's not for me.

Plus, I have all kinds of things I need to use first,

The items aren't t my style, and I already have plenty of floral. Unless there's a complicated technique involved, I can usually copy a project from a photo so the class aspect isn't of big value to me.

I already have lots of florals plus I'm doing the Pinkfresh event which will have even more florals. It's a pass for me.

Not to encourage spending money lol, but while it seems sold out on Spellbinders, it appears to be still available on the Altenew site. Plus a video with more samples to show? Plus it looks like they throw in a free product or something. I didn't actually buy it so I can't verify that but there was something extra in the cart.

Edit:  Well, the first images appear to be the products - not sure what the video with the watercoloring of the die cuts is from.  Doesn't look like any product from the bundle.  

altenew.com/products/spellbinders-x-altenew-fun-with-florals-pick-n-play

A year ago, I didn't know Altenew existed. I do see that they have products in at least a couple general styles, but I have no idea how things have been changing through time. Can you describe a little more?

I wanted to add my review on this event just for general information. There are a lot of these virtual events going on and I’m always curious about them all.

First off, the communication at the start was thin at best. I purchased my kit through Spellbinders (you could order through Altenew or Spellbinders) and it was listed that the event would have two classes on Thursday, two Friday and a live event with two instructors on Saturday.

I got my box a couple weeks prior to the event. It was well packaged. We received:
- three kits from Spellbinders with paper (some smaller bits of paper but enough to die cut all that was needed & card bases
-Spellbinders Four Petal Bloom Reflection dies (large floral dies)
-Spellbinders Thanks Enclosed die set (large sentiment set with shadow and sentiment dies)
-Spellbinders 3D embossing folder 5.5 x 8.5
-Spellbinders sequins (full sized pack)
-Altenew 3D embossing folder many 5.5x5.5
-Altenew stamp, (2) coordinating die sets and stencil set Folk Art Flower *one die set is a stand alone set and the other cuts out the larger stamp image and also the 3D embossing folder image
-Altenew full pack enamel dots (163 pieces)
-Altenew set of Washi tape in three solid colors of red/pink

The week of the event, we got an invitation to sign into the Altenew classroom site. It had ALL the information—class supplies that you needed to provide, PDF’s for the 4 classes, etc., and that was also where you sign in to watch the four prerecorded classes. There is also a place for discussion and question/answer with the instructors and other participants. Loads of the questions were about what was in the box, because it seemed we had paper for some of the classes but not others. No homework or prep work was listed but I followed along with the PDF’s to do the die cutting and that helped.

The classes went live at midnight and they were not craft along with me, but showed all the steps, some were very sped up but you could start and stop the video, replay, etc. I have done three of four of the classes and enjoyed all of them. The cards are beautiful and useful to me. The instruction and instructors were very good.

The live was on Saturday and had two instructors. We got a zoom link and there was some sort of problem with the zoom. I got in and so did my friend, but there were people trying to get in who couldn’t, and they were texting their friends who were in the class, who were relaying there was an issue. So a little side-drama went on. No one was able to resolve that and this week, we got an apology email with two additional live classes that had been scheduled this upcoming week + a link to the replay of the original zoom. I felt like they had done as much as they could have done under the circumstances & appreciate the two extra sessions.

The original zoom had two instructors made one main card each (it was not a craft along because we didn’t get any instructions in advance) and showed several additional examples.

Spellbinders released the products to the public the day of the event. Altenew has not released the items that we received that I can find on their site. They have another set that has a similar name but it isn’t the same set we have.

I felt like we definitely got products worth the price of the event in the box. It was all floral and advertised as such prior to the event. I have three items in the box that I haven’t used yet. I was very satisfied with the event.

One thing that I did like was that it wasn’t as all-encompassing like the crop & create (which I also really like!!). It was a go at your own pace over a couple of days and one live. It didn’t require me to set aside a whole weekend, days off work, etc. to feel like I was “involved”. Of course, on the down side, it was a smaller event.