Packing. Packing. Packing.

This isn't my first time to teach. And it isn't my first time to teach in Paris. BUT, I swear I have more stuff to bring this time than ever before. And I've gone through my suitcase twice already. (I am now invading Bill's suitcase with artsy stuff. HAHA. He doesn't need that many clothes, right?) So, you lucky duck students are going to have a blast with everything I bring over!!

I am REALLY looking forward to teaching this week-end! It's one of my favorite things to do in the whole world. I love sharing my love for the hobby. I love meeting people and seeing their amazing creativity. I love experiencing new cultures. And I love French food! Version Scrap is a wonderful event to experience it all! (Isn't that Paris print gorgeous? You can find it on Etsy! I just might have to buy myself one!)

So here is a run-down for those who signed up for my classes and what to bring!

Custom Art Journal:

Photos are optional. You can add them easily later. If you want to include some in your art journal.  (About 6-8 2x3 and 4x6 photos in both orientations will work for the pages we will go over. There are lots of additional pages to finish at home.)

Supplies to bring:

Heat Gun (if possible)
Paper Trimmer
Fancy-Edged Scissors or Edge Punch
Adhesive for sequins, paper, and flowers (I use fabric liquid adhesive- Helmar or Fabri-Tac)
Crop-a-dile or small hole punch
Small paint brush for details
Gold Ink
Wet Wipes
Paper Towel or Towel
Class sponsors include Faber Castell, PanPastel, Prima

Family Mixed-Media Journal

You may bring 3x4 and 4x6 landscape photos, or add them at home. This book holds a lot of photos, but we will be concentrating on the page backgrounds.

Supplies Needed:

Heat Gun (if possible!)
Apron
Paper Trimmer or Scissors/ruler
Adhesive for fabric, flowers, paper, ribbon
Decorative scissors or paper edge punch
1 inch foam paintbrush
Water spray bottle
Wet wipes/paper towel
Black or Brown Permanent Ink (Ranger Archival or Staz On)

Class Sponsors: PanPastels, Faber Castell, Stampendous

Blush Project Life Album

Supplies to Bring:
Black Pen
Scissors
Paper Trimmer
Adhesive for paper
Photos (not required, but you can bring a variety of 4x6 inch (horizontal) & 3x4 inch (vertical) shots. Each page holds two-three photos. There are 40 pages in this album. We will go through 4-5 spreads.)
Sponsors Include: American Crafts, Becky Higgins, Simon Says Stamp

Life at Full Speed Ahead

That's how I feel right now...I've been running to and fro and have just been BUSY! (As you can tell by my poor blog!) First there was the CHA trade show in January held in sunny California. I love creating with new products! Here are a just a few of my projects. (Both feature my daughter Brittany's wedding pics...cause Miss Breanna's were not ready yet!)

This layout uses the new Free Spirit collection by Prima. It's bright and cheery and totally perfect for Britt's wedding pics.

Something Blue is another new collection by Prima and is made for wedding photos! (Like this gorgeous shot by Honey Heart Photography!)

Shortly after CHA Tami and I hopped over to Germany to work another trade show there. I wasn't sure what to expect, to be honest, as I had never been there before, but I LOVED Germany! CreativeWorld was fabulous. I love our distributors there. The people I met were just so amazing. And I LOVED the gals I was working with. 

Did I mention the weather? It was SO much warmer than I thought it would be (that's always a win-win in my book!) And the food???? Tami and I found a little restaurant right by our hotel that served authentic German food and we sort of PIGGED out a bit! Haha. We actually ate there three times in one week. Yeah. THAT good! One day after the show the train skipped our stop so we made friends with two other gals, while trying to figure out what to do, and then threw caution to the wind and ended up going shopping downtown with them! They were so fun...and we were quite lost, but it was a grand adventure!

I even found a Starbucks (behind us in the pic) and got my German mug...you know how important that is, Cari & Rommel!

After the show we went sightseeing. It was so hard narrowing down where to go and what to see! Seriously, Germany has SO MANY cool things. Being the girly girls that we are we decided Neuschwanstein Castle was a MUST SEE. In America we have the famous Disney castle fashioned after this very castle...thus us poor girls, who cannot pronounce Neuschwanstein to save our lives, just called it Cinderella's castle the whole day. ha.

 Now getting UP to the castle is a whole 'nother story. pant. pant. You think you've paid for drop-at-the-door service and then the carriage actually drops you off WAY far away. With a steep mountain climb in front of you. So we run to make our ticket time. pant. pant, cough. run faster still.

 And we're there and they open the front door with 2 minutes to spare! (Still coughing, but we rocked it!) No pics were allowed INSIDE the castle, so I can't post those. (And I finally stopped coughing near the end of the tour!)  :)

But, isn't it gorgeous? It's so regal and HIGH up in the mountains. (The other side looks more like the Disney castle, but I couldn't GET a good pic of that.)

A few other highlights of the day: Buying Schneeballens

Visiting old cities...

Going down the autobahn at a break-neck speed (146 mph/234 kmh.) Go, Sharon! I videoed it just to show my guys at home, cause I knew they would never believe me. (Secretly I LOVED going that fast! The video proof is on Facebook!)

And, this might rank right up there with one of my most favorite surprises on a trip, our driver took us into Austria! 

I knew we were right on the border, but thought it would be too much to ask him to go off the route. Austria (and Bavaria) were so beautiful...snow-capped mountains and little villages in the valleys. I swear I heard the Sound of Music playing...

SEE?????

So jump forward. Every time I get home from a trip it's mass chaos catching up on everything work-related and family-related! This time my guys did such a fantastic job of cleaning the house. You couldn't REALLY tell they had been living in a man cave for over a week. My hubby & boys did a great job getting rid of the evidence! And I missed them so much! Homecomings are always so sweet.

Being back home meant focusing on the next adventure! All of February...and I mean almost every spare evening and week-end...has been spent working on my Version Scrap classes. 

Blush Project Life Class Peek

(I LOVED putting this colorful book together with the gorgeous kit! We also have some cool dies, sequins, and so many other embellies to add to the pages!)

Family Mixed-Media Journal Peek

(This class has the BIGGEST kit of all...and has many Mixed-Media pages and photo pages all mixed into one FUN journal! If you love playing with art supplies you will love this class! I even got a few NEW Color Bloom sprays & Nathalie Kalbach's new stamps for ya!)

Custom Art Journal Peek

(I love the colors of this kit, the wonderful selection of pages in the book, and the custom touches each technique will let you add to your art journal. Eeek...it's gonna be an artsy adventure!)

Whew. I am ALMOST done with everything! Hopefully all kits will ship out next week...and they are very FULL! The box weights this year have gone up from last year, so that means more goodies for those of you signed up for my classes! If you have not signed up HURRY UP!!!! Some dates are sold out already.

These are just some of my amazing sponsors. You are going to LOVE playing with their products!!!

American Crafts, Becky Higgin's Project Life, Faber Castell, PanPastel, Prima Marketing, Simon Says Stamp, and Stampendous!

Guess Who's Going To Paris?!?

Version Scrap is a fabulous event held each year in Paris...and I got invited to teach there again! It is a FABULOUS opportunity to take classes with a mix of so many talented teachers from all over.

I have three brand-new classes created just for this event! You can check them out right here!

Here are a few peeks of each of my classes!

Family Mixed Media Journal

Family Mixed Media Journal
by Sharon Laakkonen

Even if you have never played with Prima's NEW Color Bloom sprays, or other art mediums, you will LOVE this class. We will start by coloring our resist canvas covers (8 x 5 inches) with the newest art mediums on the market in your favorite colors. You'll love decorating the front with gorgeous embellishments including Prima flowers, crystals, banners, cheesecloth, and more! Inside the album is a FULL mixed media kit that includes tabbed pages, plastic sleeves, kraft pages, resist canvas sheets, watercolor papers, stickers, and more. Come prepared to learn new art techniques as we play with stencils, stamps, glitter PanPastels, Viva Inka Gold, watercolor paints, and more!

Instructions (translated in French), color photos, and tips and techniques will be included with each kit. You may bring 3x4 and 4x6 landscape photos or add them at home.

Supplies Needed:
Apron
Paper Trimmer or Scissors/ruler
Adhesive for fabric, flowers, paper, ribbon
Decorative scissors or paper edge punch
1 inch foam paintbrush
Water spray bottle
Wet wipes/paper towel
Black or Brown Permanent Ink (Ranger Archival or Staz On)

Class Sponsors: Prima Marketing, PanPastels, Faber Castell, Stampendous



 Custom Art Journal

  

Category : ART JOURNAL

Custom Art Journal
by Sharon Laakkonen

Come decorate an art journal/mini-album that you will love to play in all year long! In this class we will play with a Finnabair 7x9 inch art journal to make it your very own. The very full kit includes a gorgeous journal, beautiful Delight papers by Prima, watercolor & kraft pages, pockets, a full set of Paintable cards, gold & crocheted doilies, sequins, wood letters, pearl arrows, flowers, bark shapes, custom accents by Blue Fern Studios, and die-cuts to customize your journal to fit your style! We will be playing with the latest and greatest art mediums which include Faber-Castell pencils and PanPastel’s new metallics!

Instructions (translated to French), color photos, extra page layout sketches, and other ideas will be included. Personalize this album to fit ANY subject you want. The kit includes a gorgeous color palette of peaches, soft blues, creams, browns, greens, but can be colored to fit what you love.

Supplies to bring:
Paper Trimmer
Fancy-Edged Scissors or Edge Punch
Adhesive for sequins, paper, and flowers (I use fabric liquid adhesive- Helmar or Fabri-Tac)
Crop-a-dile or small hole punch
Small paint brush for details
Gold Ink
Wet Wipes
Paper Towel or Towel

Class sponsors include Faber Castell, PanPastels



Blush Project Life

  


















Category : MINI ALBUM

Come create a gorgeous Project Life mini-album in this FUN class. Now’s your chance to find out how quick and easy this popular system by Becky Higgins really is! My very FULL kit includes a blush-colored Project Life mini-album (27 x 23 cm) with 20 pages, a Polka Dot Party Project Life Edition mini-kit (100 Dear Lizzy cards), along with an assortment of trendy embellishments to add that special touch to personalize your album! We will go over the Project Life concept, how to organize photos & cards, quickly put together pages, and add a few finishing touches to your pages if desired!

Instructions color photos, extra page layout sketches, and other ideas will be included. Personalize this album to fit ANY subject you want. The kit includes a gorgeous color palette of turquoise, blush, yellow, grey, white, mint, fuchsia, blue, etc.

Supplies to Bring:
Black Pen
Scissors
Paper Trimmer
Photos (not required)

Sponsors Include: American Crafts, Becky Higgins, Simon Says Stamp

Prima & Faber Castell!

Is there anything better than two companies combining their amazing products? Today I have a joint venture project by Prima Marketing and Faber-Castell! 

Not only do their products work perfectly together, but they provide wonderful platforms for inspiration and creativity! Both of the design teams were challenged to create projects combining products just for YOU! Hopefully this will get your creativity going too. (LOOK for prize details below!)

Faber-Castell's products are a perfect way to color many of Prima's Mixed-Media products! I used the above products to color a watercolor paper page in Prima's Mixed Media journal. (Have you tried the journals yet? They are AMAZING! They have 4 watercolor sheets, 4 canvas sheets, 4 resist canvas pages, 4 clear pages, multiple patterned paper sheets, 2 tags, and more inside!)

For those of you who have not tried art journaling YOU NEED TO TRY IT! Just jump in and swim. You will love it. (My journal is actually half scrapbook, half artsy stuff. I decided to do what I like...and I like to do both...so there you go. It's okay. No one is going to open your book and judge you for what's inside!)

First I colored my resist canvas shapes because I like everything DRY when I put it all together. Try coloring them with FC gelatos. Use like a crayon to color the canvas; then wet slightly to slide that gorgeous color all over.  Dry. Tip: You can layer canvas shapes with other items for more dimension.

Next you want to create the background. After coloring directly on the Prima stamps with gelatos (mix colors for a great effect); mist the stamp with a touch of water; then stamp directly on the water-color paper. After it is dry, brush on a thin layer of gesso over the middle section to tone it down a bit; dry, and stamp all over again with your favorite clear stamps by Prima and brown chalk inks (pick a few different shades) for a distressed effect.

To finish off the page I added glass bead gel. Once the gel dried a glitzy touch of gold gelato was rubbed over the glass bead gel. (Rub some of the gold gelato across the page with your finger for even more pizazz.) 

Embellish your page with crystal swirls, your sentiment, seam binding, canvas shapes and sculpture flowers to finish the page!

Prima Products:

• 557942 Mixed Media Journal Pages
• 554743 Resist Canvas Flowers
• 554699 Canvas Resist Butterfly
• 558253 Mid-Release Butterflies
• 544683 SIIC Swirl
• 921736 Peonies & Poppies Sculpture Flower
• 550776 Vintage Button
• 891008, 891169, 891183 Chalk Inks
• 550929, 542016, 536411 Stamps

Faber Castell Products:

• Metallic Gelatos
• Color Gelatos-blue, green
• Stamper's Big Brush Pen
• Textural Accents: Gesso

Other: Ranger Inks, Tulle, Seam Binding, Glass Bead Gel


How about prize? 
This selection of gorgeous Prima products is just for YOU from me! Open to all countries. Simply leave a comment here on my blog and I will randomly choose a winner by May 22nd. Good Luck!

............................................................................................................................................................
Prima/Faber- Castell Prize Details:

Prima and Faber Castell have also included a chance to win some of their products. Hop around to the other talented design team blogs and leave a comment on each of their blogs. Once you are done, go  back to the PRIMA and Faber Castell blogs and let them know your favorite technique. They will pick a random winner on the Prima blog May 30th! Faber Castell will also have a prize so make sure you go to their blog for details on how to win!
  
Ready for the fun to start?

Ready, set, GO!

Blog Links for Prima:

• Prima Marketing Blog: www.prima.typepad.com/prima
• Sharon Laakkonen:   http://sharonlaakkonen.blogspot.com/  YOU ARE HERE!!
• Heidi Kelley:  http://seesterk.blogspot.com/
• Marie-Nicolas Alliot:  http://ma-ni.creation.over-blog.com 
• Maiko Kosugi:  http://maimaipiano.blogspot.jp/
• Stacey Young: www.staceyeyoung.blogspot.com
  
• Emeline Seet: http://scrapvilla.blogspot.com
• Leslie Ashe:  www.leslieashe.blogspot.com
• Jamie Dougherty:  http://www.jaylynnscraps.com
• Anna-Marie Mondro:  http://annamarie-mondro.blogspot.com/
• Anna-Maria Wolniak:  http://annamariawolniak.wordpress.com/
• Anna Dabrowska: http://tworzysko.blogspot.com
• Cari Fennell: http://meandmymaryjanes.blogspot.com/

Blog Links for Faber-Castell:

• Faber-Castell: http://designmemorycraft.typepad.com/design-memory-craft/
• Jill Foster:  http://stampinginspiredby.blogspot.com/
• Jennifer Matott:  http://arttalk-sigmagirl.blogspot.com/
• Rita Barakat:  http://letsembellish.blogspot.com/
• Mou Saha:  http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.com/
• Tiffany Johnson:  http://iheartartblog.com/