Make & Take Classes

Corporate Seminar Conference Team Collaboration Concept

Hosting make-and-take classes is a great way to teach about essential oils and how they can be used. It is also a great way to get the guests involved while creating something to take home with them that will serve as a reminder of what they learned. Make-and-take classes may seem like an ordeal, but they can be fun! This post offers tips on how you can have a successful make-and-take class.

When planning for a class, you will need to do the following:

• Plan a convenient date, place, and time for those you want to attend.
• Invite people, and send them a reminder a few days before the class.
• Order your materials. Abundant Health has a lot of ingredients and containers that are great for essential oil DIY projects.
• Gather your materials. Print any instructions, handouts, and labels as needed for your make-and-take project.

After you’ve gathered your supplies for the make-and-take portion of the class, prepare a short lesson. Keep your lesson to less than 30 minutes; you should leave enough time for questions and your make-and-take project. Here are a few ideas for lesson topics:

• the basics of essential oils
• how essential oils support a specific body system
• the most common essential oils and how to use them
• essential oils for specific purposes

Use the Reference Guide for Essential Oils for ideas and information to share with your class.

 

These are a few other things you will need to consider when preparing for your class:

• Decide if you want to keep the lesson education-based or open up the discussion for business opportunities. If you want to market a specific essential oil company, be careful not to make any health claims about the essential oils, but speak in general about possible health benefits.
• Decide if and how you want to charge for the make-and-take project. Some charge a flat fee for their classes; others give their attendees 1 free item and charge for extras; and some provide (or charge for) materials but not the essential oils.
• You may want to prepare a sample ahead of time so you can show the finished product.
• Figure out how to set up your make-and-take stations. Make sure to have at least 1 station and arrange it so the attendees can either all make the project at the same time or walk down a line to put together their item depending on the kind of project you have chosen.
• Other optional suggestions include holding a drawing to get contact information, offering refreshments, and providing additional handouts or prizes.

Check out some of these Abundant Health Essential Ideas for topics and class ideas.

Class Idea: Scented Wood Slice Ornaments

Would you like to hold a fun and easy make-and-take essential oil class? Though we call these ornaments, you could use this same idea and make wood slices to decorate any time of the year! You can even use larger wood slices and make drink coasters (if you use them with hot drinks, the oils will diffuse even better!). We also think these make fun gift tags, decorative labels, car diffusers, etc. The ideas are endless!

Here’s what you need for the class:

• A short lesson on whatever essential oil–related topic you desire. You can find many good ideas and information in the Reference Guide for Essential Oils.
• Wood slices. These can be ordered pre-cut (and even pre-drilled) online, purchased at a craft store, or made from a good tree branch. If you do make your own, you may want to sand them a little too.
• A drill. This is for adding a hole that you can use to string up your ornament. If you are doing a different kind of decoration, you may not need a drill.
• Decoration supplies. We chose to use a wood-burning tool to decorate our wood slices. You can also do a similar idea with string art using a hammer, small nails, and string/thread. If you are going to hang your wood as ornaments, you will also need ribbon or string.
• Essential oils. You may want to have little sample bottles available along with a few holiday-scented blend recipes and allow your guests to choose what oils to add to their sample bottle to take home with their ornament.

When doing this as a class, you may want to set up the make-and-take portion as a line of stations that your guests can go through. Here is how you could set it up:

• The first station could be a drilling station where someone is available with a drill to help your guests drill their wood slices. You can also have the wood slices pre-drilled, but doing the drilling at the class could allow your guests to choose whether they want to make an ornament or some other decoration.
• The second station could be a drawing station with pencils, scratch paper, and a few simple ideas (to help people get started).
• The third station could be a wood-burning station with a couple of wood-burning tools set up and plugged in.
  
• The fourth station could be the ribbon station with a variety of thin ribbons, a ruler, and scissors for your guests to cut a strip about 5–6 inches (13–15 cm) long.
• The fifth station could be the essential oil station where you could include a small selection of essential oils with a few holiday-scented blend ideas and small sample bottles for the guests to put their chosen essential oil or blend in. You may also want to include some dispensing tools (such as these 1 ml syringes and Adapta-caps™) to help with the transfer of essential oils to the sample bottles. You can even use these blank labels to make labels for the sample bottles.

Wood Slice Ornaments

• Time: 5–15 minutes active
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• Wood slices (cut and sanded, if needed)
• Power drill
• Pencils
• Wood-burning tool
• Ribbon
• Essential oil(s)

Instructions:

1. Drill a hole (at least 1/4″ or 1/2 cm from the edge) in each wood slice. If you are doing this with a class, you may want to pre-drill all the wood slices. (If you are making a decoration other than ornaments, you can skip this step.)
2. Draw an image (such as a snowflake) on the wood slice with a pencil.
3. Use the wood-burning tool to trace your pencil drawing. Be very careful not to touch the tip of your wood-burning tool, as it is very hot.
4. Cut a ribbon strip about 5–6 inches (13–15 cm) long, place it through the hole in the wood slice, and tie the ends together.
5. Add a few drops of essential oil to the wood slice, and hang your ornament on your Christmas tree (or wherever else you want to decorate). Add more oil when needed.

Extra Ideas:

• Use these as gift tags, car diffusers, decorative labels, drink coasters, or any other decoration!
• You can convert this idea into a child’s craft project by doing string art rather than wood-burning art. To do string art, just hammer small nails into the wood slices, and wrap string (or thread) around the nails to form an image. Easy ideas include stars, Christmas trees, snowflakes, etc.
• You can also paint one side of a wood slice with chalkboard paint and decorate it with chalk. Use the other side as a diffuser by adding essential oil to the wood.

Lime Cheesecake Shooters

Next time you host a party or teach an essential oil class, consider making this dessert for a refreshment. It’s the perfect size for small individual servings and allows each guest to experience the essential oils. Your guests can even take home the shot glass as a little souvenir to remind them of your event! These cute shot glasses are pretty inexpensive and can be used for a lot of different things! You can even print out this pdf of 15 Unique Ways to Use a Shot Glass.

• Servings: 16–20
• Time: 20 minutes active
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Crust:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup vanilla wafers, crushed (approx 20 wafers)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Press mixture into the bottoms of the shot glasses. Distribute evenly—about a tablespoon per glass.

Filling:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 drops lime essential oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 cup (1/2 pint) heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

1. Whip together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
2. Once well blended, add lime essential oil and lime juice. (Note: If the lime is added with the other ingredients, the mixture will curdle.)
3. Whip cream separately until it gets thick (be careful not to over whip!); then fold into cheese mixture.
4. Pour into individual shot glasses, and chill.

Brown Sugar Peppermint Scrub

After a long day at home or at the office, treat yourself to a relaxing foot or hand bath with this Brown Sugar Peppermint Scrub! The scrub is so easy to make, and it makes a great gift for friends and family members or a great project for a make-and-take essential oils class.

• Servings: Yield=1 cup of scrub
• Time: 10 minutes active
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup virgin organic coconut oil (melted)
• 10 drops peppermint essential oil

Instructions:

1. Using a spoon and then your hands, mix together the brown sugar, coconut oil, and essential oil in a glass bowl. The mixture should have a sand-like consistency.
2. Pour the sugar scrub into a salve jar to store.

 

To use the scrub, first wet your hands or feet, and then rub a small amount of the scrub all over the desired area in circular motions. Rinse with water, and enjoy the feel of soft, smooth skin!