Scrapbook Convention

This weekend was a great weekend.  I managed a whole day to attend a Creating Keepsakes scrapbook convention.  Does it get any better than that?  I've taken pictures of the layouts even though they are not done.  I still need to add photos and titles and a bit more "stuff".

I signed up for 3 classes out of the many that they offered.  First class was 6 Pages in 60 minutes...  very fast pace, but so worth it.  I've taken this class a couple times and would recommend it to everyone.  It is not for the beginner scrapbooker because of the pace, but if you can speed scrap, it's for you.  They also give you detailed instructions to take with you, so if you don't get everything done, you can finish it as homework.  You think that if you were doing a page every 10 minutes, you would not have much detail on the page, but let me correct that thought.  These pages are well thought out and you would be amazed by what you get.  Oh, and did I mention the freebies?

Love these little pinwheel flowers.  So easy to make...  2 inch circle punch.  Cut them in half, ink the edges and glue 'em down.

This little butterfly is a sticker.  I learned that baby powder of corn starch will neutrilize the glue.  The picture doesn't show it justice, but you can make stickers appear 3-D by bending the edges up.  Neat technique.

The second class I took was Think Ink.  I thought that getting back to the basics of scrapbooking would be ideal.  We seem to forget about that with all the new products that come out on a daily basis.  So, it was nice to do some pages that were really just paper and ink.  They taught some new inking techniques including sponging.  So you sponge the ink instead of the direct ink to paper.  It creates a cloudiness around the edges.  So the process behind it really is quite simple.  Apply ink to sponge and apply in small circles.  The idea is to get more ink on the table than on the paper.  Love the effect of this.

Another cool technique...  take a stamp and place painters tape through the center of it.  Ink like normal.  Remove painter's tape and stamp.  Now you have location in the stamp to journal or put your title.  I used a clear sticker, but the image doesn't show it so clear.

The third class was Elegant to Whimsy.  This class was focused on using black and white paper.  We created just one layout and a card.  I, personally, would not recommend this class to the more advanced scrapbooker.  The pace was a bit slow and the layouts were not all that elaborate.  Kind of frustrating...  In this class, I took away some techniques to adhere transparancies without showing the glue.  In the card below, the transparancy is actually folded over the edge and glued on the back.

Here, the transparancy is held on by the rhinestones.

The only thing missing from this convention was a friend to share it with.  I highly recommend bringing along a friend, but all in all, it was a good time and would tell every scrapper that if you have a chance to go, do so.