Back from Paris

We're all back from Paris, a tad tired but very happy. VersionScrap is an amazing show, held once a year in the Parc De Floral, Paris. It's the only show that I know of that hosts amazing classes for the duration of the show with international guest tutors as well as numerous make'n'takes on the stands. This show is busy,busy,busy and jam packed with all sorts of fabulous goodies to tempt you.

As usual, I was an idiot and really didn't take many photographs at all. If I wasn't working on the stand, I was busy shopping.....well it would have been very silly not to take advantage of all those pretty things on display, wouldn't it?

Leandra's stand looked amazing....you'll have to take my word for it as I don't have a piccie but it was busting at the seems with all the amazing new Hot Picks, Dies, Fresco Finish Paint, Pan Pastels, Crafters Workshop Stencils, Metal Embossing tools and packs of metal,  their new papers Crunchy & Smoothy papers......love these....take my word for it, you need these!!!! They also had a wonderful selection of wooden substrates and embellishments galore!!! Leandra and I demoed our little socks off for three and a half days and during that time, Leandra also taught two classes.....phew, no wonder we're a bit pooped. Now the upside of the hard work is that Mark and Leandra are fabulous at looking after their team of helpers and here we are sharing a laughter filled evening before heading home.

So from L to R we have Christian, Mark, Sally, me, Leandra, Madeleine and Dounia. I apologise now if I have spelt anyone's name incorrectly and I also have to add that Paul from GoCreate is missing from this picture.....he's behind the camera.

The food in this restaurant was truly amazing and it was one of the funniest evenings, we laughed so much, it reduced many of us to tears.

Here's my lovely friend and roomie, Sally making a purchase at Scrap buttons before the show opened. These guys had an amazing booth.....fabulous displays and unique products.......loved it and bought just one or two....ahem!!

So what else did I buy??????

Just one or two rolls of tape! I'm quite addicted to this stuff. Some of it is fabric but the rest is washi tape.

I needed to stock up on my flower stash....most of these are Prima.

More Prima goodness.

Some fabric and a few other bits'n'bobs.

Some printed felt....this stuff is to die for!!! A couple of fabric albums too.

Nice selection of buttons and charms. There is more but I'm sure I'm boring you now!!

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of a couple of things that I demoed at the show. The first is a mixture of techniques using Paperartsy Fresco Finish paint which is what I used to achieve that beautiful crackle effect, Pan Pastels as the background and a stamped metal butterfly on the top.

This one is just a background using Pan Pastels, Versamark with Paperartsy stamps, Crafters Workshop stencils and sealed with Fresco Finish Satin Glaze. Sorry it's only a background but I thought I'd show you as I love these colours.

Many people at the show were asking me about my blog and my techniques and I have promised that I will do another Pan Pastels tutorial soon, so if you missed the last one, hopefully it will be on here in a day or two.

OK, that's me for today, I'm off to cook tea.
Lin