The Creative Change Makers Zoom Calls

April 1: Resistance Toys: Fortune Tellers & Cootie Catchers

At our Wednesday, April 1 call we’re going to make old-fashioned cootie catcher toys with political messages of resistance.

Or maybe you knew them as fortune tellers? Either way, they are fun, super low tech, and they took me back to my childhood.

Our guest co-teacher is Amelia Williams—a published poet who wraps her writing inside these interactive toys and puts them out in the world. I took one look and knew I wanted to have her help lead a Creative Change Makers meeting where we can all make these fun and surprising paper resistance toys together.

Check out these beauties on a writing journal website called Anomaly. (And don’t worry, we’ll do something simpler in the workshop—more like our tiny signs.)

Here’s an overview of how the 90 minute call will work:

  • Everyone who registers will receive a few fun templates in an email to print out for the class and also use in the future.
    (I will do this early enough so those of you who need to print them elsewhere will have time to do so!)

  • I’ll introduce Amelia, we’ll look at her work, and she’ll share some of her processes and challenges in creating cootie catchers in these new and unexpected ways.

  • Amelia and I will then show off our “resistance cootie catchers” and discuss ways a Cootie Catcher can be like a zine, a tiny sign, or both!

  • I’ll then walk everyone through folding the completed “Broligarchy” cootie catcher (see photo above) that you printed out from the email I sent. You can then use this completed cootie catcher as a template or print more and put them wherever.

  • We’ll then create a second cootie catcher from scratch.

    • I’ll explain an easy way to think about each step of the process to help you more easily bring an idea to fruition.

    • If you don’t have an idea for this step, DON’T WORRY because I will provide ALL the content for this second cootie catcher too if you need it—and you can also customize it in any way you want. (This second catcher content will be an Inspiring Women of Resistance cootie catcher—as a kind of antidote to the Broligarchs.

  • Mostly, we’ll be chatting and creating and Amelia and I will answer any questions along the way. We’ll also discuss the upcoming Fall of Freedom event on May 1, and see if we can, as a dispersed group, participate as a unit in a quick and easy way.

  • At the end, we’ll all share what we made and discuss where we might put our new creations.

  • This zoom call will be ninety minutes rather than our usual sixty because it will take us more time to create catchers, but feel free to leave whenever you need to.

  • Supplies: You’ll need the following:

    • Print outs of the templates.

    • Several blank sheets of paper.

    • A pair of scissors, a pencil, markers, colored pencils or any other art materials that suit your fancy.

    • Consider bringing crayons (you can buy them very cheaply at the grocery store) because they will add to a child-like feel to the toys that will give their subversive message more power!

It’s okay to come even if you don’t feel creative or are just curious.

This call is FREE for paid subscribers of The Pink Teacup.

An annual paid subscription to The Pink Teacup is only 36.00/year right now. You can also sign up for a single month if you prefer.

If you are a paid subscriber and you need the link to register, please email me at bush.sarahATgmail.com.

If you are not yet a paid subscriber but would like to join us, Click here to learn more.

Once you sign up, the welcome email will have a link for you to register for the zoom call.

I look forward to seeing you!

Questions? Email Sarah at bush.sarahATgmail.com

SCHEDULE OF ZOOM CALLS

The calls are now on the first Wednesday of each month at 9am Pacific, 10am Mountain, 11am Central, and Noon Eastern.

Here’s the schedule for the next several calls:

  • Wednesday, February 4, 2026.

  • Wednesday, March 4, 2026.

  • Wednesday April 1, 2026

  • Wednesday May 6, 2026

  • Wednesday June 3, 2026

Click HERE to download the Resistance Bunnies toolkit.

Creative Change Makers: What Is It All About?

The one hour monthly Creative Change Makers Zoom calls are life-affirming containers where we explore do-able ways of being creative in our resistance to rising authoritarianism and to claim our agency through creative action. To find a bit of joy and connection through the pro-activity of making.

Some calls might feel like a quilting bee or a “stitch and bitch” session where we bring our individual creative resistance projects to the zoom and keep each other company as we create. On others, I might share a simple technique or walk you through how to fold a different type of zine using a template I send via email.

(Click here and here to see some of the fun and effective “tiny signs” we’ve made in the past and stuck in oddball spots like the produce section of the grocery store. )

At the end of each call, we’ll also take time to talk about where and how we’ll put our creative resistance creations out in the world. To figure out how to weave frequency and regularity into our creative acts of resistance so they can be effective.

We’ll consciously develop our creative resistance habit—each unique to ourselves while having the group energy to lean on and help us be accountable.

But most importantly, the Creative Change Makers calls will always be a place to ask questions or get re-inspired. A place to rest with fellow creative resisters so you can continue to weave your thread.

—————————IN THE MEANTIME —————————

Here’s a list of other potential ideas for creative change-making to spark your imagination:

  • Print, paint, or sew a flag of resistance or solidarity that hangs outside your house or apartment window.

  • Write a zine about vote suppression that you casually leave on coffee shops tables.

  • Bake blue and yellow iced Ukrainian flag cookies that you bring to work for your right-wing coworkers to enjoy unbeknownst.

  • Make “did you know” single-fact flyers that you stick on car windshields in a grocery store parking lot.

  • Design a saucy bumper sticker, a righteous pin, or an audacious t-shirt that you share with like-minded souls.

  • Weave nature crowns or construct witches hats to wear with friends at your next protest—or plan a crown-making party where you’ll invite your local friends to come to your place to create them with you.

  • Paint handmade signs that are funny or wacky or graphic or gorgeous to bring to protests and share with folks who showed up without one.

  • Order custom “democracy” M&Ms or “Rule of Law” conversation heart candies and put them out at your PTA meeting or church coffee hour.

  • Choreograph a public dance project that celebrates reproductive rights.

  • Stitch a quilt to auction at a fundraiser for the displaced.

  • Make tiny protest messages that show up in unexpected places in your community—perhaps left in a grocery store shopping basket or taped to a bathroom stall at a rest stop or the gas station mini mart.

There is no wrong, no too small, no too wacky no too mundane. If it excites you, or feels fun, or, if you’re like me, it makes you involuntarily raise your eyebrows while you smile mysteriously and twirl your invisible mustache, that’s all that matters.