Scrapbook Expo was held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly this past Friday and Saturday. I was a little late leaving the house in the morning, and we barely got there in time for our first class. So much for the earlybird shopping! But the class was a great introduction to alcohol markers. I've never used them before, so it was fun to try them out and learn how to do shading with them. We made a little pansy picture with greens, yellows, and purple.
After our class, we got our things settled in the cropping area and hit the vendors. I bought more of the markers from Spectrum Noir--this time, I got the brights. Our teachers said that the pinks are fun and fairly easy to work with. So that's where I'm starting.
I was so proud of myself for not buying any paper. I usually go a little crazy for paper, but I just have so much that there is no reason to buy more. I got some stickers, some fun embellishments, and some new tools, including this system from Kiwi Lane Designs:
Using these plastic pieces, you lay out your pages and then "layer" the paper to create your pages. Here's an example (not mine!):
So you can see the papers that have already been traced and cut out and layered. And the white squares are showing where the photos will go. I started working on one page with this technique, and it is hard!! They make it look very easy, and I'm sure I'll get better at it the more I do it. They do a lot of distressing of the cut edges, which is really necessary until you get your cuts smooth.
After shopping, we cropped for a little bit, had a late lunch, and then shopped some more. Then we stayed until almost midnight cropping and doing make-n-takes. The make-n-takes were scheduled for every 1/2 hour, and they were pretty fun! Some of them weren't explained very well, which was frustrating, but some turned out pretty cool.
During cropping time, we took a second class, this time about a technique called "frosting." I'm not sure what to really think about it. I did not love it. We got these little jars of "frosting" and use the goo to decorate the paper--adding texture. My fingers got gross and I didn't think it looked all that great. We gooed up some leaves, snow, and sand. And I'm not even sure if it's safe for scrapbooking! No one mentioned anything about that...
Oh, I'm just too lazy to flip this photo. You can see the jars of frosting, the wet naps (you'll need lots of those!), paintbrushes (not sure what they're for, since we daubed with our fingers), and a cute box. As my frosted paper dried, it was curling up--how can that be good? Not a fan.
Overall, it was a great day and got me revved up to keep scrapbooking this summer. The even wasn't quite as big as GASC, but since all our LSS's have closed, it's nice to have this even fairly close by once a year (I do hope they come back!).
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