My trip

I've had such a busy last few weeks! I recently took a trip to Brisbane (across the other side of Australia) to complete my standard and intermediate Copic certifications (yay!) and to visit the Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Expo! I was soooo excited to go away for 8 whole nights AND soooo grateful to my husband for staying home and looking after our two little girls - isn't he the best??!!!

I had an awesome time at the Standard Copic certification on the Friday and was very excited to meet Kathy Jones in person (she taught the class) - I found her blog a few years back and she inspired me to invest in Copic markers - and I've been following her blog every since!

The Saturday was just as great with Sascha from X-Press Graph-X leading us in our intermediate Copic Certification.

Then on Sunday I got to visit the Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Expo - and that was so much fun! So many lovely goodies to buy, demonstrations to see and classes to take :-)

I ended up doing one class - 'Love This' Mixed Media Layout with Beck Beattie and it was awesome! I don't do a lot of scrapbooking and I had never used gelatos, whipped spackle or Tinby Metallic Melts before so I learnt a lot of new techniques and had great fun (some of the products can be bought here at Scrappy Chat Designs). I got all the essentials completed in class and finished the layout once I returned home. Here is what I made:

This is one of my little girls and I have blanked out some of the words I wrote to "protect" my little girl's privacy :-)

The backing card is KaiserCard - Coconut and the DP used are from Authentique - Seasons.

I popped some of the elements up on foam tape and others are raised using Helmar Scrap Dots.

You can see the whipped spackle (an aerated gesso and acts similar to texture paste (but dries quicker) on the left and the metallic melts in the middle and right of the photo. The colours (I used blue, yellow and grey on my layout) are the gelatos scribbled on the page and water added with stipple brushes.

My Mum (who was with me in Brisbane) and I then flew up to far north Queensland to visit my sister and her family for a few days before flying back home. Was really good to see them again (it's been a while).

I had so much fun - but now it's back to reality :-)

Thanks for looking!