One thing I forgot ...

MASQUPEN - I heard about this on a blog and was definitely wanting to check it out. Happily, I found their booth. A small one tucked away. I imagine it was not visited by a lot of people, but as word gets out about this neat product, I think they could become a scrapper's-household name.

So a little history about it first. It's been around for many years. It's original purpose was to allow water colorists to keep desired portions of their paper white while painting over it. Basically you paint it on (it has a fine tip brush) to your surface (good on any surface). Then ink, paint, sand blast, etch, etc. over it. When done and your project is dry, simply rub the masquepen off with your finger and voila! Whatever was under the masquepen is left untouched.

Here Irene Tan makes a distressed background using it. Here she uses it to ink in layers. Here she masks using it.

One of the cool samples we saw in the booth was of a hollowed out egg decorated using Tim Holtz alcohol inks. The artist painted the masquepen in swirly designs, let it dry, inked the egg, let it dry, then rubbed the masquepen off leaving a beautiful design.

I am thinking I will try this technique on acrylic or acetate and apply it to my scrapbooking projects. You can also use it to mask off certain areas and ink over it with distress ink. Or what about painting over it. Seriously the product can withstand anything it sounds like.

I am so glad I stopped by this booth. It appears to be a difficult product to locate but their website has a link to retailers. I was hoping my local Michael's carried it in their painting section, but no luck. :( I should write them a letter.