I can’t believe how fast this weekend has gone past. It was just over a month ago that Revlie asked me if I would consider going to Finland on her behalf… And now Intohimona Skräppäys 2012 is already over!

I had a hard time imagining what it would be like before hand… I really had no clue what to expect! Thanks to Mira, Riikka and Minna from Amalia Askartelu, all the wonderful students and my lovely travel companion Birgit, I’m glad to say that I loved every little bit of my flying visit to Finland!

It all started on Friday at noon, when I met Birgit at Schiphol Airport. We first had to fly to Helsinki and there we had to get on the next plane to Jyväskylä. This plane had a delay and I think we arrived at the Jyväskylä airport around 20.00 hours. Riikka and Minna were there to pick us up and drove us to the Peurunka Spa Hotel, where we were welcomed by Mira from Amelia Askartelu.

After settling in, we had nice diner with Elina, ‘Creomi‘ and Riikka. We had an interesting tasting dessert: Dill marinated pineapple, raspberry sorbet and licorice…

On Saturday it was workshop time! Birgit kicked off with her ‘Blossoms of Color’ layout workshop and I followed with Revlie’s ‘Hello goal’ layout workshop:

Loads of great colour combinations going on! I don’t think any of the lay outs were completed before the end of the workshop (there were more details on Revlie’s example than noticeable at first glance…), but I did spy some of the finished projects online :-D.

Here’s Emmo showing her version of the layout to me (and Revlie, who was following everything via Instagram):

In the evening Birgit taught her ‘For the love of Masking’ mini album workshop, jam-packed with masking techniques. There was a lot of misting action going on in this class!

After Birgit’s class, we went to the Areena, where all the cropping tables were. Riikka was there to give us an big, beautiful handmade bag full of awesome Finnish presents! (You can get a closer look at the bags here)

I even got to do some art journaling at the crop! It was bedtime before we knew it… because on Sunday we had to rise early for another wonderful day of workshops!

The weather turned for the better on Sunday and we were fortunate to see this beautiful view first thing in the morning:

And then, after breakfast, I had this view of students stitching felt and fabric during Revlie’s ‘Rev it up’ mini album workshop:

I loved the relaxed atmosphere, the Finnish chatter and I especially loved seeing all the little personalized details that made every take on the project different and unique!

In the afternoon it was time to eat, pack a couple of things and then teach our last workshops for the weekend. Birgit taught her ‘Home is wherever with you’ mini album workshop and I taught Revlie’s ‘Today’ mini album workshop:

There was even more relaxed stitching going on, a little bit of misting and a couple of funny Finnish stories were told (Minna kindly translated for me).

And after that, it was time to really pack our things, check out, eat a lakritsi ice cream, say our goodbyes to Mira and then… hit the road! Minna drove us from Peurunka all the way back to Helsinki… and told us all kinds of things about the places we passed along the way (like the Panda licorice factory) and about Finland in general.

This is the place where we paused while on the road. Look at that blue sky!

We got to the hotel just before midnight and after we said our goodbyes to Minna too, we checked in for a very, very short night… Because Birgit and I had our minds set on doing just one more thing before we got on the plane back home :-).