Brandy and I actually carved out some time to spend together in September to attend the Mesa Scrapbook Expo. This show is very like our traditional scrapbook show hosted by CK (which have abandoned the show format in favor of other activities). Many of the same vendors, a few new ones, but most fun in that we can set up for the crop at 8am, attend workshops and shop during the day or choose to sit and scrap. We did a mixture of all of the above on Friday and then on Saturday, I came back to work a couple of shifts. I ended up being assigned to the Art Anthology Mixed Media Layouts class. Stayce DeWid taught the course and she actually allowed me to play with some of the media as long as I helped the students when needed. I did and made this great two page layout. Not my most involved work, but done between handling out supplies and helping a grandma catch up with the class when she arrived a bit late. No problem! We got this! I inserted the pictures and embellishments after my arrival home.
The show is also known for the make-n-takes. This one is from the Art Impressions booth. I did pick up quite a few new stamps here and this card made with their adorable mice holding cheese. The image was precut and colored and we simply adhered to a patterned background. Great card!
Onto the workshops that Brandy and I attended. This first is by Krazy Kreations which is a Mixed Media Vintage Tag. These include those black outline stickers - the dressor and the fancy young lady. We adhered the dressor to some glitter paper and colored the image with Copic markers. Not a lot of subtle shading, but a lovely look nonetheless. The young lady was paper pieced onto different cardstocks - by laying the sticker on the paper and cutting around the portion that you want from that pattern. She's over some cream cardstock and so the arms and feet are simply uncolored cardstock. Simple, quick and beautiful result. This little gem will probably make it onto a card or as a tag for a gift bag.
Inside is a small waterfall album with more pattered papers and flaps for journaling and/or more pictures.
The entire album took less than 90 minutes to create, though I did add some embellishments when I arrived home, like glitter and sequins. The poppy papers are adorable, but they also look great as a backdrop. I purchased some more supplies in order to replicate this project and make more gifts for Christmas.
Our last class was also a Heartfelt Creations class, Delicate Vellum Florals cards. These were also easy to make, though we didn't have time to fully finish in class, everything was colored and simply needed to be glued in place once I had a bit more time. I love, love, love their Dogwood flowers and these are a delight. So delicate and appealing. They make a card beautiful with little effort.
The kit came with some extra patterned paper and so I added one piece to the inside of this lovely card as I thought the card too plain with the open windown into a white card base. The patterned paper added just the right touch and this goes into the stash to serve a purpose on the day when I need something quick.
I added the brown cardstock on the inside and the patterned paper was leftover in the kit so i used it on the inside of the card. It felt like the delicate edge on the card needed more contrast to pop. Love how this card turned out!
We'd both highly recommend the Expo and any of the classes you see here. There are many more good classes, one can only do so much in a two day weekend. If you haven't worked the event, but enjoy this kind of work, the time passes quickly and the money earned actually offset some of the great cost.
