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

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

(inter)National Scrapbooking Day!

 

Today is National Scrapbooking Day in the states and Prima is having an AMAZING blog hop! So if you are working your way down their list, welcome! You are at the right place! (Make sure you scroll all the way down for the blog list and a GIVE-AWAY!)

Prima also has a wonderful line-up of LIVE classes, including my layout class shown here at 9 AM eastern time!

Here is a direct link to the Prima ustream channel. Hop on over and watch a class or two today. The classes go ALL day long. There will be prizes and lots of fun to be had on the chats.

  .....................................

The layouts shown above don't have a lot of my normal feminine touches. And that's cool. Since I have a few older boys I thought I would play around with some of our newest metals, stencils, gesso, stamps, and so on. (My boys REALLY appreciate me NOT adding flowers to their layouts. Imagine that!)

I love the cleaner graphic & bright effect on this layout of Billy using Lady Bird.  It totally fits his personality and his photo!

You can achieve this bright look with PanPastels and a stencil! (Use a neutral backdrop paper like this one in the Lady Bird line so your attention is on the photo and techniques.)

Just set the stencil on the paper (I use washi tape on the sides to help secure it to the paper. When you are done coloring you can pull it up easily and it will not tear your paper.)

Start with the lightest color of PanPastel first, then work your way through to the darkest color.

(Just make sure you seal it once you are happy with the colors. I use SpectraFix which is safe to spray inside and has no nasty fumes.)

Next add a photo mat with foam squares, chipboard shapes, stickers and crystals. Add the photo with foam adhesive to pop it up off the page a bit.


Staple some twine to the page with a Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to mimic the chevron pattern for a nice GUY touch.

Create a banner flag with our stickers (and a toothpick!) and tuck it under the photo.

Stamp all your important dates and sayings on the stickers with these cool roller stamps by Smash and Dear Lizzy! I use them ALL the time.

 That's it!


My other layout is about my 16 year old,  Brayden. It definitely has a different look than the first layout.  You can see the whole layout created in my class so check it out! (All shows are recorded in case you cannot catch them live.)

Prima Supplies

• 922375, 922351 DD Art Stencil
• 891671, 891633 Tiny Junkyard Findings
• 562861, 562908 Alphas
• 890995, 891003, 891015 Comfort Craft Chalk Fluid Edgers
• 960353, 960261 Mechanicals by Finnabair
• 960124 Clear Stamp- Sunrise, Sunset
• 564377 Washi Tape Stamp
• 563042 Clear Stamp-Engraver
• 564896 Lifetime Washi Tape

Other:

• Fiskars Star Punch
• Ranger Studio Gesso
• Ranger Archival Black & Brown Ink
• shipping tag
• orange twine
• Color Shine: BlackVelvet
• Glimmer Mist: Dark Denim
• Fabri-Tac by Beacon

Here's the video!



Video streaming by Ustream


So what do you think? Ready to try a few of these techniques on your next project? Leave me a comment and I will pick one person to win this fabulous prize on May 13th. Open to all countries.

.....................................

Here is the list for the blog hop!

Prima Blog
Sharon Laakkonen (You are here!)

Cari Fennell
Jamie Dougherty 
Frank Garcia 
Nic Howard
Janine Koczwara  
Heidi Kelley 
Brit Sviggum
Trina McClune 
Gerry van Gent
Lene Bjornerud 
Magda Bolinska  
Anna Dabrowska
Maiko Kosugi  
Felicity Wilson  
Larissa Albernaz 
Marie-Nicolas Alliot 
Louise Nelson  
Juliana Montoya  
Steph Devlin
Stephanie Miller
Solange Marques
Lea Lawson

Mixed Media Baby Album

One week-end I was playing around with a new resist canvas mini-album, new pastel chalk edgers and wood icons...

 ...and decided to make a whole album it for my daughter to put all the baby stuff in once she has her little girl due in June!

 The colors are soft and sweet and totally PERFECT for a new baby girl! 

(You could definitely customize this to fit a boy too.) 

First color the cover with chalk edgers. Then spritz lightly with water and blend with a wet-wipe.

I used the following products:

PanPastels, SpectraFix (for sealing the PanPastels-you can spray it inside!), Ranger embossing ink, Prima Chalk Edgers, Fabri-Tac adhesive, doilies, stamps, Hello, Pastel papers and a bunch of fun Prima stuff. See bottom for list of Prima stuff, video of class and Friday Freebie link!



Here are some of the inside pages!

 

The inside flap is colored with Comfort Craft Chalk Edgers with a Prima Newsprint Mini Frame.

Page 1 -showcasing colored resist canvas shapes

Page 2-cover up the package printing with patterned paper

Page 3-Watercolor Paper-use a stencil and Prima Chalk Inks

Page 3-Close-up of frame

Page 4-Other side of watercolor paper

Page 4-close-up

Page 5-insert sheet using a Friday Freebie print-out and Prima papers

sorry for the lousy pictures of the insert sheets!

Page 5-close-up

Page 6-showcasing a butterfly clip and vintage trinket

Page 7- using PanPastels, embossing ink and stamps

Page 7-close-up

Page 8

Page 9-tabbed paper

Page 9-close-up

Page 10-tabbed sheet

Page 10-close-up

Page 11-canvas resist sheet and chalk edgers

Page 11-close-up

Page 12-use packaging as a photo mat

Page 12-close-up

So, what do you think? You can see the video of my class right here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Prima Products:

• 563721 MM Resist Canvas Cover-Small
• 563752 Mixed Media Page Kit
• 563875 Wood Embellishments
• 563868 Wood Embellishments
• 563899-Wood Embellishments
• 891725 -Pastel Chalk Edgers-Pink
• 891701- Pastel Chalk Edgers-Green
• 891756- Pastel Chalk Edgers-Peach
• 891732-Pastel Chalk Edgers -Purple
• 891688- Pastel Chalk Edgers-Yellow
• 563561 Hello Pastel Trinkets
• 565442 Hello Pastel Butterflies
• 563967 Hello Pastel SIIC Swirls
• 845636 Hello Pastel 6x6 paper pad
• 845247 Hello Pastel 12x12 paper
• 845278 Hello Pastel 12x12 paper
• 563295 Hello Pastel Alphas
• 564643 Fairy Rhyme Butterfly Clips
• 563486 Hello Pastel Stickers
• 562946 Hello Pastel Alphas
• 563394 Decorative Frames
• 564940 Wood Buttons
• 566364 Tatiana Flowers
• 565787 Frost Flowers
• 564070 Resist Canvas Shapes
• 920772 Leaves Pocket Book Collection
• 565428 Hello Pastel flowers
• Friday Freebie Download 

Version Scrap!!!

Yes!!! Version Scrap is sneaking up on us!

I am going to be teaching three brand-new, FAB classes, available ONLY in Paris on April 5, 6 & 7th! (You can register right here!)

Want to see them??


1. Journey Tag Mini-Album 

Come and create a fabulous tag mini-album filled with fun paper crafting techniques. We will use brand-new, just released Engraver papers, stickers, canvas, wood embellishments, crystals, flowers, ribbon and so many fun touches to make this album one of a kind! Perfect for travel, vacation, wedding, birthday, everyday photos, and more. This kit is sweet!

Photographs:: Fits five vertical photos sized 2x3 inches or smaller, plus room for journaling. Extra tags will be included to play with the left-over products from your kit!

Supplies Needed:

• paper trimmer
• decorative scissors
• foam adhesive (tape or mini-squares)
• black ink
• date stamp
• hole punch
• adhesive for paper, flowers and ribbon
• scissors

My Amazing Sponsors:

2. Sunshine Mixed Media Album 

This customizable art-filled class is perfect for beginners, to advanced, mixed-media scrappers and will put a smile on your face! We will play with resist canvas, watercolor paper, Color Shine sprays, PanPastels, Ranger products including gesso & Perfect Pearls, stencils, and a whole bunch of other art mediums and techniques. Customize the cover and inside page colors to fit your personality! You will have extra pages to work on after the class too. Sharon is packing a TON into this mixed-media class so sign-up fast! Your book will be the colors YOU love!

Supplies Needed:

• 1 inch foam brush
• wet wipes
• paper towels
• apron
• water sprayer or mini-mister
• favorite script stamp
• Archival brown or black ink for stamping
• Ranger clear embossing ink
• scissors
• fabric adhesive for flowers, ribbon, paper

My Amazing Sponsors:

3. Time to Celebrate Chipboard Mini-Album

Love to celebrate? Then come join ME in this Divine class using thick chipboard pages,  NEW Prima papers & wood icons, Ranger's Liquid Pearls and more! You will have loads of fun while you complete a delightfully FULL chipboard mini-album by Bo Bunny, filled with sweet touches through-out, making this album extra special. Perfect for a wide variety of themes: birthday party, vacation, girl’s night out, children’s photos, wedding, etc. You're going to LOVE the kit.

Photographs: Fits six photos sized 2x3 inches (or 3x2) with pockets for more!

Supplies Needed:

• date stamp
• gold ink pad for edges of papers
• Archival black ink pad for stamping
• edge punch or decorative scissors
• Therm-O-Web foam tape and/or squares
• liquid or paper adhesive
• stapler
• scissors
• hole punch
• paper trimmer

My Amazing Sponsors:

Even though I know a teensy bit of French I will have an interpreter for each class...and I am getting REALLY good at teaching no matter what language people speak! haha! 

PLUS:



I have a lot of VERY cool sponsors for my classes...which means LOTS of cool products to play with!!!



So come on and join in the fun and visit Paris in April!!!