Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention 2013

I went to the Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention for the first time this long weekend! For any international readers, this is the only expo in Australia which is solely for scrapbooking and there are a huge amount of classes taught by fantastic tutors on each of the three days. I had avoided it in the past as there are less exhibitors for shopping and I thought $55 for a class was a bit steep. In my true spirit of not doing anything by halves and to fulfil one of my 2013 scrapping goals of attending more classes, I decided this was the year to go. I was also asked to help out at the Scrapmatts stand at the show so I ended up attending for the whole three days!

 

Sofie sent me out a couple of the brand new pieces designed for release at the show to play with and make some samples. I had a lot of fun working with these but it meant I didn't get a chance to create the OTP Memory Cabinent I was sent a couple of months ago. I will get around to that one, once life slows down a bit. Anyway, this beautiful Australian Federation Tray 05 was of the pieces I was sent. I was initially scared to start on this, as it was so pretty even without me doing anything to it. I have ended up with a beautiful piece showcasing a photo from my Aunt's wedding. The roses and typewriter letters are also new releases.

 

 

I just had to share some detail shots because there is quite a bit going on in this piece. You can see the depth of the tray in the photo on the left, as well as the blue roses. They are beautiful pieces and I have backed mine with cardstock, filled them in with microbeads and glitter, coated the whole thing with dimensional magic and them sprinkled a bit more glitter over the top while it was still wet. I was really happy with the way the crackle effect worked on this piece too. It has a brown undercoat with a cream top coat.

 

 

Scrapmatts chipboard used: CB7013 Australian Federarion Tray 05; CB1188 Birds 06; CB1206 Scrap Words 09; CB1202 Roses 02; CB2007 Page Borders 06; CB2020 Vines 01.

 

 

Another new release are these cute owls, available in two different sizes. The head pieces have holes pre-cut so you can thread them with string or twine to hang them. I would advise you to thread them prior to putting the beak facepiece on, as they then become a lot harder to thread (speaking from experience here). If you are planning on hanging them, keep in mind they will spin around so decorate the backs too. I hung mine on a stick from the garden and added some banners, clouds and vine ribbon for a bit of extra detail.

 

As you can see in the close ups, I used patterned paper to cover these owls and then some texture paste on the branches to make them look a bit more realistic. The second detail shot shows the number of layers in the kit.

 

Scrapmatts chipboard used: CB5103 Flags 03; CB5110 Layered Owls 02; CB5109 Layers Owl 1. (Total cost of this chipboard is $13 - perfect for a present for a young child!)

 

 

Sofie and Andrew also create a number of extra owl bodies available at the show with funny saying on them so I whipped up another two owls to wear as badges on Saturday night after getting back from watching the football (Go Suns!). You can see I've used acrylic paint on these ones instead of paper, along with some perfect pearls, glitter and acrylic paint. As cute as the owls are, I spent almost 8 hours on Sunday making them on the demonstrators table so I'm happy to take a break from them now. :)

 

 

Sofie was kind enough to let me have Monday off so I booked in for three classes. It is exhausting doing three classes in the one day, with only 30 minutes break between each one. I still have little touches to add to each LO so I will share the full view once each one is finished (whenever that may happen, I still have a LO from the March expo to finish!).

 

Look - it's me with an exhibitor badge!!! It was such a delight to attend the expo and the Scrapmatts team is filled with amazing people. I had such a fun time working with them and taking Angela's class. We also all went out for dinner on the Sunday night and had a great game of Simon Says after the show. I would totally recommend the experience to anyone if they get the opportunity.