Upcoming Prima Tour!

So I am only a week away from leaving to embark on the Prima's Europe (and Israel) Tour!

Here are a few of the classes I am teaching there:

This Mixed Media Album class is FUN!

We will be playing with PanPastels, paint, ink, stamps, masks, watercolor stuff and more. This class is available in Israel, Barcelona, Madrid, Southern France, Switzerland, Norway and The Netherlands

Songbird Mini-Album
We are taking a plain canvas book and turning it in to this sing-song beauty! Lots of paper techniques with the Songbird Collection, canvas coloring, flowers, lace, and more delicious products! Class available only in Israel, Southern France, Norway, and Barcelona, Spain.

Almanac Layouts
This double layout class has LOADS of paper techniques that will add texture, dimension and a touch of fun to your pages. And the kit is loaded! Lots of left-overs to make even more pages! Available in Southern France only!

Heartstrings Album
This album is only available at My Punch in Israel (as we have sold out of so many of the products.) It is beautiful, feminine and a delight to make! Again-LOTS of fun Prima products in this kit as well.

If you are interested in taking any of these, or Cari's GORGEOUS classes, check out the links below!


March 15 & 16 - Tel Aviv, Israel

Store Name: My Punch
Store Address: Givatayim, Israel

Class Times / Dates:
1. March 15, 5pm - Mixed Media Journal with Sharon Laakkonen
2. March 16, 9:30am - Songbird Mini Book with Sharon Laakkonen
3. March 16, 1pm - Heartstrings Mini Book with Sharon Laakkonen
Website: My Punch
Email to sign up:info@mypunch.co.il
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March 17 - Barcelona, Spain

Store Name: Scraphouse

Address: Reus, 21, Barcelona
Class Dates:

   Las clases se impartirán el 17 de marzo (march 17)en la tienda

   El taller de Sharon será a las 13h Sharons Class 1 pm

   El taller de Cari sera a las 17h Cari’s class 5 pm

Contact: Para reservar lo mejor es llamar a la tienda al tel. +34 93 254 68 58 (store phone for reservations and details)
Email: scraphouse@hotmail.es

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March 19 & 20 - Draguignan, France


Store Name: Nature Perlée
Store address: 25 bd de la liberté - 83300 Draguignan
Class times/dates: 19 et 20 mars / 9h/12h -14h/17h
Class Names: Songbird Mini, Whimsical Art Album, Nature Garden Mini, Mixed Media Journal, Almanac Layouts
How can customers sign up for the classes with you? Please click on Store link for class sign-ups or email: natureperlee@orange.fr

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March 23 - Switzerland

Store Name: Baschtuegge
Store Address: Hauptstrasse 50 / 2557 Studen / Switzerland
Class times / dates: 23 march 2012 (times see below)
Class Names:
   12.30h - 15.30h Mixed Media Album from Sharon Laakkonen
   16.30h - 19.30h Whimsical Art Journal from Cari Fennell
How can customers sign up? Email: info@baschtuegge.ch
....................................................................................
March 24 - Madrid, Spain


Store Name: Bambola Casa Creative
Site: http://bambolacasacreativa.blogspot.com/
Email: bambolacasacreative@yahoo.es
Classes: Mixed Media Album, Whimsical Art Journal 
 ..................................................................................
March 25 - Barcelona, Spain

Store Name: Natural Scrap


Email: naturalscrap@hotmail.com


Address: C/ Barcelona 18 A  
         Castellar del Vallés 08211 (Barcelona)
Site: Natural Scrap
Classes: Nature's Garden Mini, Songbird Mini, Mixed Media Album
..................................................................................
March 26 & 27 - Norway


Store Name: Bikuben Hobby
Address: Strømsveien 76, 2010  Strømmen
Email: ellen@bikuben.com
Site: http://www.bikuben.com/
Classes: Sun Kiss Layouts, Songbird Mini-Album, Mixed Media Journal, Nature's Garden Mini-Album
..................................................................................
March 28 - The Netherlands


 Store: Creabest Scrapbooking en Stempelen


Address: Kerkstraat 8, 7731 CX Ommen (parking tips and directions are on our site: www.creabest.nl)


Telephone: 0031 (0)529 452451
Site: Creabest Workshops


Class dates:
   Mini-album Nature Garden with Cari: March 28th 14.00-17.00 hours,
   Mixed Media Album with Sharon: March 28th 19.00-22.00 hours.


We have place for 15 participants for each workshop, people can sign up through http://www.creabest.nl/workshops-en-crops.html

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After the tour I will be at Version Scrap in Paris from March 28-April 1st! Look for a girl with loads of Prima flowers around her! 

Canvas Resist "The Great Escape" Album

Thanks to everyone who came to the Live With Prima show tonight!

It is recorded if you missed it. Click here to watch it!

As promised here are the additional shots of the inside pages that I have done SO FAR. (Oy-I have many more to do.) This is honestly one of my favorite projects. I have just really enjoyed making it...maybe because the photos bring back so many good memories? :)

Here is the cover. I used PanPastels-Turquoise Tint, Turquoise, and Turquoise Shade, Orange Tint, Orange, and Orange Shade to color it. Just go light to dark and blend it in! Then seal with a touch of hairspray or Krylon Fixative spray. (Prima Resist Canvas Journal #557973)

Page 1 measures 5 inches x 8.5 inches and uses new Songbird papers, alphas, flowers, and stamp.

Page 2 is the flip-side of page one. See that adorable Frond punch by Martha Stewart? LOVE it!

Page 3 measures 6.75 x 9 inches (no page is the same size! haha) and shows off that Recollections scallop punch! It works perfectly with our patterned paper circles.

Page 4-flip of page 3

Page 5 is a cute little pocket page measuring 6.75 x 9 to hold all your travel brochures. The pocket is glued down on the sides and bottom only. Then staple with Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher for extra hold on the sides.

Page 6  shows off an extra large pic of the Eiffel Tower and has some scallop punches, stamping and that stinking cute frond punch again!

Okay-that's ALL I have done for now, but I cannot wait to scrap more of my travels soon and fill this book up!

Some of you asked which colors were in my PanPastel tray from the show. Here ya go!

Turquoise Tint, Turquoise, Turquoise Shade and Turquoise Extra Dark
Magenta Tint, Magenta, Magenta Shade and Magenta Extra Dark
Orange Tint, Orange, Orange Shade and Orange Extra Dark
Permanent Red Tint, Bright Yellow Green Shade, Raw Umber Shade, Burnt Sienna Extra Dark
Titanium White, Paynes Grey Tint, Natural Grey Shade and Black

Thanks for watching and stopping by!

:) Sharon

Live With Prima!

Tonight I will be showing you how to color and decorate Prima's newest mixed-media album!

The album comes in a stark white, but has a cool resist technique on it. Just apply an art medium (I will use PanPastels by Colorfin) and the design magically appears!

Once we color the album we will move on to decorating it with the latest and greatest products from our recent release including stamps, vines, crystals, canvas resist shapes and FLOWERS!!

If we have time we will take a peek at a few of the inside travel pages made with the gorgeous Songbird Collection. This paper collection has the most beautiful colors and patterns in it!

Here's a peek:

So stop on by class and see how to make this album!

Hop over to ustream.com and look for Prima Flowers! It starts at 6:30 PT (9:30 Eastern time for my fellow east coasters!) and should last a bit over an hour.

Live With Prima Show


See you there!
:) Sharon

I'm Still Alive

I promise I am. But life has a way of just sweeping by and before you know it your blog has not been updated in a while. More like a few months. Gulp.

So in a nutshell...after Rome my hubby and I continued our trip to Capri,

and back to Rome, and then on to Paris!

 (more pics to come)

Then we flew back home! haha. It was an amazing trip together. We vowed to start doing this more often...you know...leave the kids behind and take off together. It was like being 19 again. :)

Then I had a tour in Australia and New Zealand....that was absolutely amazing. I LOVE both countries. The trip was long...and exhausting by the end, but the people I met and the places I saw made it all worth it. Really cliche, but oh so true.

Then Christmas hit like a tidal wave. However, I got a tree up, made truffles (well, the kids did), decorated gingerbread houses and got all the gifts bought on time. Christmas was wonderful (except my mom not being there. That was hard.)

Then we had a week of birthdays. Seriously...who planned this out? Who has kids born the week of Christmas? Haha. Happy Birthday to Billy (18) and Bethany (24)!

Then CHA hit! CHA is our big trade show for revealing our newest line of products. Prima always has a HUGE release and that kept me swamped all of January. The show itself was only 4 days, but it turned into a 9 day trip to California because of set-up, etc. I won't bore you with details. :) You know what is so cool about CHA? Seeing everyone again...and meeting new people. I love it. It makes it all worth it.

And did I mention our new booth? Our Creative Director is simply A M A Z I N G!!

Shortly after CHA I headed off to Paris to teach at Pour l'Amour du Scrap.

Hubby came along to eat French food and see the sights. I think he secretly LOVES hanging out with crafty ladies. While I was teaching he was chatting with my friends and adding them on facebook. Oh my. Did I mention that my hubby is on Facebook now? Yeah. Now I have to behave.

I'm home from Paris now and catching up on work...which includes a TON of prep for the Europe Tour taking place in March! YES, did you see our flyer? It's pretty cool.

And I know Israel is not in Europe...but they wanted to have us come in before the tour and I am more than happy to oblige people. :)

Here's hoping I don't wait another three months to update.

Creative Jumpstart in 2012!

Nathalie Kalbach approached me a few weeks ago and asked me to be a part of this AMAZING venture! Go check it out!

January is approaching–a month that is full with promises, resolutions and intentions. A month that for many is following lots of holiday celebrations, family gatherings and other end-of-the-year events.
It’s also time to start creating again. But suddenly there it is for some of us: that lost feeling on how to start. Here is the cure
A group of wonderful, inspiring and creative women from around the globe in the scrapbooking and mixed media fields have joined together for the Creative Jump Start Summit 2012. We are coming together to tell you how we get back into the creative groove and how we get our creative juices flowing. We want to share with you to help you jump start your creativity in 2012.
Let me show you who is participating:






Here’s how it works:

• 1. Throughout January we will share videos, audio or pictures to inspire you –
• 2. You sign up for a newsletter HERE and, in January 2012, you will receive a link and the password to unlock the view of the daily materials as soon as they go live
• 3. You watch the presentations and you will be hopefully inspired to be more creative—all for FREE!

So come on—get inspiration from some of the most creative people in the community
What are you waiting for? (Did I mention it’s FREE?)

Christmas Mini and Matching Tag

Last night's class was a lot of fun!

First I want to show you the recorded version so you can play along! (Scroll all the way down and stop the music player FIRST...so you can hear, okay?)

There were so many things that went wrong behind the scenes...if only you could have seen them. (But since you can't, I am going to tell you about them!)

• first the netbook I was using to follow the chat shut down...like out of the blue. Done. Poof.
• then the ipad I logged on to couldn't pull the chat up. (That one really got me. I mean, it's by Apple. I love Apple products. How could they let me down like that?)
• then the laptop Billy got going kept giving me the black screen of death every. single. time.  I bumped it. (I learned to scrap and not bump things on the right side of the table lickety split!)
•  somewhere in the midst of the computer problems one of my stage lights on the left side burned out. POP. 
• then 20 minutes later the light on the right side burned out. POP. Seriously?

By this time I was just doing frantic hand signals to Billy (who was busy texting and not paying attention. Go figure.) to get the lamp on my desk and set it up. He eventually got the signal and once he figured out the bulb screws off first, and THEN the shade can come off...we were good to go.  :)

The rest of the class went really smoothly...until I cut the gold vine apart and the top popped off, flying across the room. 

I kinda needed the vine top to finish my project so I asked Billy to find it. 

Just picture a 17 year old boy crawling all over the floor under the cords for the 4 lights, 3 computers, a webcam, and 2 extension cords trying to find a gold vine top. Did I mention he had no clue what he was looking for AND was trying to get me to laugh out loud on the show? 

Yeah. I figure God's just trying to see if I have a sense of humor or not. (There's no stress going on a live show and teaching...why not throw a few little problems Sharon's way?!?)

All in all I finished and I THINK*HOPE*PRAY it was okay!

Here are a few shots of the tag I made with left-overs. This is the packaging from the white Gillian flowers (snowballs!)

Both ribbons by Prima are colored with PanPastels! (see colors used in product list at end)

So fun. So easy!

Love these gilded roses....

and check out the sculpted North Country print flowers. sigh...so gorgeous!

The main class was this adorable North Country Mini based on Prima packaging!

I love getting products for free...and that's what you get every time you buy from Prima! 

Did I mention how easy the inside pages are to put together?

The background papers are all 4x6. The other measurements are stated on the video! YES, you have to watch it!

Cheapo tip: Use pieces of cardboard to pop your tags off the page (FREE and you always have it around your house!)

Color Prima's cream ribbons with PanPastels for a custom look!

Buy one gold Prima vine and cut it apart for a unified look through-out the book.

Cut apart a Say It In Crystals leaf branch for touches of bling here and there..and to stretch out your $$!

Cover all paper seams with a touch of creamy Prima ribbon. (There's that gold vine top I needed, btw!)

Okay-I did go over the 90 minutes a bit, but we got it done! And there was a prize. Oh yeah, Prima always gives a prize out to some lucky winner on every LWP show! Go check them out!

North Country Up-Cycled Mini Album:

• 552589 north country flowers
• 553289 nc coventry roses
• 552473 avon roses
• 553456 vine-gold
• 553418 holiday crimson-christmas flowers
• 550127 alphas
• 549992-branch- siic
• 930073 or 930011 vintage trinket or milk glass bauble
• 550516 cream trim
• 550479 cream print trim
• 550523 blue fringe trim
• 552923 melody bird/flower set
• 553036 gillian white flower
• 553593 splendor leaves-green
• 843243, 843274, 843311, 843281, 843267, 843250,  nc papers
• Prima distressing tool-Comfort Craft
• Prima Packaging-5 sheets

Other:

• PanPastels- bright yellow-green shade (26803), turquoise (25805), Turquoise tint (25808), Turquoise shade (25803)
• foam tape
• Ranger distress stain or ink-crushed olive
• metal ring
• paper edger/punch
• tan seam binding

Live With Prima Class!

Life is crazy busy right now...lots of teaching, working, and family things to do...which leaves my poor blog a tad bit neglected!

However I am teaching a very fun Christmas Mini Album, Thursday, December 8th, on Live with Prima. (6:30 EST, 7:30 MST, 8:30 CST, 9:30 EST, and for our folks Down Under-Dec 9th-1:30 pm Sydney)

You can watch right on ustream (live) here! If that link does not work just go to www.ustream.com and look for Prima Marketing.

 

See you there!!