Sneak Peek

You may remember the big Birthday Bash that is coming up over at If It's Groovy (if not, scroll down a few posts for full detail.) Well, I wanted to share a sneak peek of just a small part of the prize that I personally am offering up. You need to understand how cute this is...if I didn't have two of them this seriously would not be leaving my house!

Another Groovy Contest

As If It's Groovy heads into year two we really want to hear from you what you are looking for in blogging land :) Leave a comment over there and check back in with them because you will find yourself possibly being the next winner this month :)

And one more quick note regarding If It's Groovy:

If It's Groovy is in search of a Card Team Artist! Would you like to join the team? Send your online gallery link to groovydeb@yahoo.com and tell her what makes you a Groovy Chick! ;)

I realize I haven't posted a challenge this month but we all know how busy December is for families! So instead I'm just going to direct you to If It's Groovy where they have posted the perfect challenge for this month! I'll let you go there to read the details but I'll share here the layout that I did for the challenge just to give you a little tease and see if you can guess what the challenge is!


(By the way, this little cutie is my oldest daughter who is about to become a Mommy herself in the next several weeks!)

If you head over and haven't already done so be sure to click the button to become a follower of the blog and then send Deb a quick email to her know that Marci N. sent you!

I was challenged today to share a scrapbooking tip here on my blog...it is hard to choose just one because there are so many directions I could go. Should I be technical? Creative? Inspiring? Eenie meenie miney moe. How about one of each?

1. Technical - Use a visual triangle. Triangles are aesthetically pleasing to the human eye and can also serve to frame your focal point. Using three similar elements (especially similarly-colored) in three different spots on your page will draw the eye to the are in between them and create a resting place for the eye there.

2. Creative - Don't overthink! There are no mistakes and you won't stumble upon something amazing if you don't go out on a limb. Don't worry about perfection, just have fun with it.

3. Inspiring - Keep all or some of your supplies in a spot where you will see them frequently. This allows you to take advantage of those few minutes between other tasks to do even a little something, just to keep you in the zone.

Do YOU have a favorite tip you'd like to share? Leave a comment!

And while we wait for the birthday party...

...be sure to hop on over to IF IT'S GROOVY NOW to check out THIS month's challenge! I won't give away the surprise here, you will have to go there to check it out. But I will give you a couple of hints. #1 - this one REALLY challenged me, but I loved the result! #2 - here is the layout I did for the challenge.

Any ideas?

Birthday Party and YOU get the gift!

IF IT'S GROOVY turns 1 in January and just like all babies, a birthday party is right around the corner !!! Myself and other members of the team will be hosting challenges, complete with PRIZES, on our blogs.

Mark your calendars and start spreading the word, the crop will be January 4th-10th.

Switching gears from this month's challenge for a minute...if you ever peek over at the sidebar you will have noticed some of my favorite scrappy sites. One of them that I create a layout for almost every month is SCRAP THE BOYS and this month was no exception. Click on over to SCRAP THE BOYS and see what I did with this month's theme and see if they inspire you to create a layout of your own about the boys in your life!

Note: you may not be able to read the journaling but it ties into the title and says "Little girls grow up to be ladies...Little boys grow up to be BIG BOYS." The journaling around the border of the page is the words to the poem "What are Little Girls Made Of?"

Another gorgeous entry

Check out the beautiful leaf in this digital layout all the way from Alaska!

We already have some gorgeous inspiration for this month's challenge! Check out this fantastic mini-album:



Follow THIS LINK to see the complete album.

Keep the inspiration coming friends!

NOVEMBER CHALLENGE

Okay, then! My life seems to be settling down and I want to know if anyone is up for a new CHALLENGE!?

Fall is my favorite season and I want you to inspire me. This month I'd like to see any layout OR other project (mini-album, altered item, etc.) that celebrates autumn in some way. The only catch is that it can NOT be about Halloween or Thanksgiving or a birthday. I want to see something that celebrates fall itself. It can be very literal, such as a layout about things you love about fall, or maybe your color or embellishment choices will celebrate fall by highlighting the deep rich colors of the season. Be creative!

Email me your project using the link on the sidebar and I will share it here to inspire everyone. If we have at least five entries I will use a random number generator to choose a winner for a small RAK so be sure to let your friends know as well!

Another shout-out today to a great, inspirational blog... Scrap the Girls! There is an awesome challenge every month with some delicious prizes up for grabs. If you click quickly you can see not only my layout from last month's challenge but the November challenge as well!

Any of you like a good challenge? I know that scrapping challenges get me very motivated, all the more so when there is a good prize involved. Well I want to make yet another plug today. This time I'm encouraging any of you who like a challenge to check out the ANYTHING GOES CHALLENGE for November at one of my favorite scrappy sites, Scrapbook.com. There are daily, weekly and monthly challenges and lots of fun and camaraderie. Go check it out and give it a whirl (and if you decide to play tell them Marci sent you!) I'm happy to answer any questions you may have!

Just want to put a plug in for a really fun challenge site for those of you who have boys in your lives (and your scrapbooks!) You will see a layout of mine here that I completed for the great ad-inspired challenge they have going on this month. But you better hurry; the month is almost over!

SCRAP THE BOYS

I'm still here and expecting to be fully back before too much longer! I've made it through the beautiful wedding and will be ordering pictures hopefully today...and if that doesn't force me to find time to scrap, nothing will!

In the meantime, I just want to put in a plug for PRE-PLANNING your pages. A couple weeks ago I took a day off and went to a crop. I took time the day before to pre-plan my pages. By that I mean I gathered a set of pictures I wanted to work with, selected a cardstock and some patterned papers I liked with it, and then some embellishments that I thought might work well. Then I tossed it all into a large ziploc bag. I did this for quite a few pages. When it was time to go to the crop I simply loaded these up as well as my "basics" and some additional embellishments that are easily portable (for example, all my ribbon is stored in one shoebox.) I added a couple of my newest things because that is always motivating, and with the addition of the vendor available at the crop (just in case) I had everything I needed to actually complete my pages with much less packing required. I've heard that this is a more efficient way of scrapping because the planning part uses a different part of your brain than the creating part. I'd have to agree because I completed 20 pages in 16 hours! Even when you add in the hours I spent on preplanning that is a pretty good pace for me!

Here are the rules for this award: To pick up the Circle of Friends Blog Award cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog. Nominate 5 other bloggers you feel have become part of your circle of friends.Link to your nominees within your blog post. Include these instructions on how to pick up the award in your blog post. Link back to the person who gave you the award in your blog post, to show your appreciation. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

My nominees:

Creating Sensations
Life Reflections of the Untamed Scrapper
The Scrappy Side of Me
Bits n' Pieces of Me
Sunshine Memories

Thanks to Linda at A Day in the Life of... for giving me this award; I hope you will go check out her charming blog as well!

I don't think I ever mentioned it here but I took a little move over at If It's Groovy and am now leading up the Faithbooking team! Our challenge this month was to create a layout based on Genesis 1:1. Check out If It's Groovy to see my layout as well as those of my teammates Vanessa and Anna. I would love to see your take on this challenge as well...email me if you do one and I will post it here!

Laura ready for her first day -- EVER -- of going off to school! (Either that or posing for a Sears catalog, still not quite sure.)

Happy September!

Just checkin' in! I am going to take a hiatus from posting challenges while I focus on getting back into the swing of the school routine and preparing for Julia's upcoming wedding, but I will still be scrapping, I'm sure, so I will still be dropping in to share. Hope you will stick around!

Okay, here is my take on the challenge this month, now let's see yours!

Over at If It's Groovy...

There is a new monthly challenge up at If It's Groovy and it is my favorite yet! I won't tell you what the challenge is; click on the link to find out for yourself! But, I will give you a small hint by showing you the layout that I did for it. Any guesses??

AUGUST CHALLENGE

I'm hoping that now you see how easy it is, more of you will want to play along!

I know that by now many of us have taken a vacation of some sort this summer, or are planning one. So I'd like to see vacation layouts!

You are free to use your creativity as to what the word "vacation" means to you. It could be a major trip or a visit to Grandma's house for the weekend, or just a "staycation" right at home. It can be from this summer or anytime past. Maybe you'd prefer to scrap a layout about a dream vacation you hope to take some day. The only requirement besides the vacation theme is that you have at least fifty words of journaling.

You have until the end of the month to complete the challenge, and again I will randomly draw a winner for a small RAK. Just post your layout in any online gallery or email it to me with the link on the right.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for Playing!

I'm happy to see that some of you got some inspiration from the challenge last month and I am sure others got inspiration from seeing your entries! First, I would like to announce the RAK winner...we've randomly drawn from among the entrants...and the winner is...KAREN!! Karen, email me via the link on the right and give me your mailing address so I can get a RAK out to you!

More awesome entries into the challenge, see how easy it is?! You still have all day today and tomorrow, let's see what you got!

Cricut Fun

As much as I love my Cricut I've been pretty lazy about taking advantage of a lot of it's features. Yesterday I finally took the time and trouble to create a paper piecing using the different layer features and I will be doing a lot more of this. I am just ridiculously tickled about how this ice cream cone turned out! What do you think?

July Challenge Entry

Only one entry so far but isn't it a CUTE one?? Thanks, Deborah, for playing!
There are still a few days left if YOU have something to add!

Fun new goodies and DT call

I did a little scrappy shopping yesterday. Some great clearance stuff at Michael's and a different kind of luck at Joann's. The sale was unfortunate...not enough of a discount to make anything a real bargain but enough things on sale that there wasn't much to use my coupons on. However...I found some DCWV stacks that I guess are brand new...I wanted to share links or pictures but amazingly I cannot find ANYthing online. They are called "The Mod-Retro" stack and "The Doodlin' Around" stack. )There was also a new one called something like "crafty" and I saw a magazine ad for some "hippie" line. Can't wait to see that one in person!) And fortunately this is one of the things that WAS on a good sale!

Also, want to remind you all that I would LOVE to put up a slide show of any and all fun VACATION layouts. These do not need to be new, I would just like to share some inspiration! So if you have any you'd be willing to share, leave me a comment or drop me an email.

Also, the time has come to see some new faces around If It's Groovy! Are you the face of the future? We are currently looking to add to several of the design teams and that person might be You! It is not mandatory or preferred that you will have been published prior to this call. Fresh faces are something I love in scrapbooking! Send three of your favorite layouts along with a picture of yourself and answer this: "I know I am a Groovy Chick/Dude because______________________." to groovydeb@yahoo.com by July 31 to be considered for the next term beginning August 1!!!

I almost forgot to share the layout I did for the If It's Groovy blog this month! We had a sketch to use and a challenge to use paint on the layout. I decided to use the paint to distress the black cardstock. It was fun to really grunge up this layout and use lots of different textures to fit the theme of the pictures!

I'm back and feeling refreshed and very scrappy! Will be checkinb in with more fun later!

Just popping in real fast to say that we will be out of town for a week or so, so if you share a layout or ask a question and don't hear back right away, that is why. Chat at you soon!

Did some more scrapping today. First I wanted to share a neat technique for getting a lot of photos on one page. This one has five photos (trimmed to 2 7/8" x 2 7/8" each) but could easily have included a couple more by replacing more of the blocks with photos rather than paper, or putting the title directly into one of the patterned paper areas, creating more available blocks.



I wanted to show this one as well because working with a photo this large (the one in my example is 8x10)can be tough. One of my favorite techniques is to make parts of the photograph work for you rather than against you by putting your title or embellishments right on it.



If you try out either of these ideas I'd love to see what you come up with and would be happy to share it here!

Well, today was a great day. In addition to lots of other fun things, I got to scrap a TON! I completed a total of seven pages! One of my favorites...



And one I did a couple weeks ago for this month's challenge over at ...



Did you notice anything unusual about this one? There are no ANGLES. Everything is soft, rounded edges. It's true, look again!

JULY CHALLENGE

Okay, my crazy week is over! This blog has been neglected, we are starting a new month, and I know there are a handful of you following along, so I think it is time for a CHALLENGE!

I am crazy about kraft paper and would love to see what you can do with it. So here is your challenge...

Create a layout which meets the following criteria.

1. Kraft paper background. (Kraft "colored" or kraft "styled"...does not have to be ACTUAL kraft paper.)
2. Leave a significant amount of negative space.
3. Use any BRIGHT color(s) as accents.

Here is an example from me, based on a sketch from 52 Sketches 52 Weeks.



Leave a comment on this post with a link to your layout, or email it to me, by July 31, and I will put your name in a hat for a RAK.

Be sure to share with your friends; I'd love to see lots of inspiration!

Two blogs for you to check out today, and if you have read here before I doubt either of them are new to you.

First, check out If It's Groovy. The two-page layouts from the design team are up and I'd love for you to see the awesome sketch we used and see what inspiration YOU can draw from it. (Also, note the fun folded flower technique that we all tried out this month!)

Here is mine, but seriously, hop over there and check out the original and the layouts done by the rest of the team so you can see how many different ways you can go with the same inspiration.




Secondly, take a peek over at Scrap the Boys where you will notice a familiar layout called "Go Ahead and Jump." While you are there check out all the other fun layouts made from their monthly prompt "Boys and Their Toys" and see what you can come up with!

Happy Scrappin'!

Just wanted to share a pretty simple layout I finished tonight. I have had this sitting on my desk for a few days trying to decide what to do with it but I believe that sometimes simpler is better. The flow of the action is what I really wanted to capture in this layout and so I want to keep the viewer's eye moving along the line of photos. I highlighted my favorite photo of the bunch with red and raised both it and one of my title letters up to fit the theme of jumping rope. There is a lightly patterned black paper for just a bit of visual interest and some buttons and voila, there you have it!

Doing some cleaning today and I have a bunch of page kits that I won't be using. I am offering them for $5 including shipping. (If you are local the price of the kit only is just $2!) I will describe in general terms; leave me a comment if you would like a photo. First come, first serve! (U.S. only please.)

Spotlight Kits include:
2 sheets textured cardstock 12x12
2 sheets coordinating patterned paper 12x12
1 6x6 sheet of coordinating chipboard embellishments

There are two themes available.

"Remember" includes black cardstock and paper in shades of olive, gold and burgundy. The chipboard is accented with gold foil.

"Travel" includes tan cardstock and paper in shades of brown, olive and blue. The chipboard includes flocked accents.

Hot Fudge Kits include:
2 sheets textured cardstock 12x12
2 sheets coordinating patterned paper 12x12
1 12x12 sheet die-cut accents including quotes, border strips, journaling box and more

Availabe themes are:

"Baby Boy" in pale blue and yellow
"Big Boy Toys" in black, gray, brown and olive
"Boys" in blue, green and orange
"Expecting" in pink, pale green and pale blue
"Firsts - Baby Boy" in pale blue, yellow and green
"Firsts - Girl" in pink and yellow
"Gone But Not Forgotten" in brown, tan and blue
"Mom" in lavender, green and yellow
"Wedding" in black, gray and white
"Zoo" in brown, tan, blue and green
"Travelin' '' in green, blue, dark red and gold

With all the excitement of the blog hop the last couple of weeks, I want to make sure you haven't forgotten about the monthly challenge at If It's Groovy, because it is a SWEET one! Go check it out! Here is the layout I did for the monthly prompt:

Okay, I gave an extra day in case anyone had computer issues or whatever, so I am announcing the challenge winner TODAY!

I had my boys put all the entries in a hat (literally!) and draw a number and the winner is #7....JEN!

Jen, be on the lookout, and I hope you enjoy your prize!!!!

I want to thank EVERYONE who submitted entries for this or any of the challenges in the first ever

If It's Groovy

blog hop, and if you haven't been able to finish your layout, please go ahead and share it with us when you do!

Today is IT. The last day to turn in your creations for a chance to wiin the RAK pictured below. Let's see what you got!!

Inspire Me!

Okay, I have TONS of vacation pictures on my computer now and need inspiration. Send me the favorite vacation layout you have created (or two or three!) so I can make a slide show here!

And don't forget about the monthly challenge! I am hoping to work on mine this weekend!

THIS is the place to be to check out all the wonderful layouts that have been created for this challenge! There is still plenty of time to get your layout added here. Just leave me a comment with a link to where you have the layout posted, or if you don't have a place to post it, just leave me a comment letting me know where to contact you with my email address so I can have you email it to me! I will add it as soon as I can AND get you in the drawing for the super cool prize! Just check out the post below for all the details.

Woo hoo, the big day is finally here! The first ever

IF IT'S GROOVY

cybercrop/blog hop!

I hope you had a BLAST with Amy's "hair" challenge, I know I did! (And if you missed it, click HERE to check it out!)

So, do you want to know what is next?? Of course you do!! Read on...



John Hughes was HUGELY popular in the 1980s. He is responsible for movies such as:

Sixteen Candles
The Breakfast Club
Weird Science
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Some Kind of Wonderful

My challenge for you is to create a layout using the title of one of these five movies as the title of your layout.

You have until June 14 to leave a comment on this post with a link to your layout. I will add the layout here and put your name in the drawing for a prize. Would you like to see what you could win?

You could win this darling "ADORE" word book, and just to make it more fun, I will throw in these groovy alpha stickers...that just happen to perfectly fit the letters on the book! You can use them easily together...or if you have other ideas, you can use them seperately, too. As long as you use them! ~grin~

A little inspiration from yours truly...



Can't wait to see your work! Be sure to keep checking back right here to see all the creative layouts that you share!

Now, take a deep breath and put your 'walking boots' back on to head over to

Scrapgurl

to pick up your next challenge!

Ta ta for now!

The RAK winner for signing on as a follower before the start of the crop hop has been drawn....JEN! Jen, please email me with your address, and also let me know if another follower here referred you to the site!

Now, ladies, let's get busy with those layouts, shall we??

And one last sneak peek!



Finally, remember Wednesday is the LAST day to sign on as a follower (see button on your right) to be eligible for the RAK.

Peek in later to see the prize up for grabs for completing the challenge posted right here during the If It's Groovy cybercrop June 4-14!

And another teaser for you...

Want a little sneak peek of one of the many challenges while you wait?

Have you jumped on the clear album bandwagon yet? I was so hesitant because they look complicated, but having a couple under my belt I can tell you that the beauty of them is that they are not! The layering simply takes care of itself and lends so much depth to any project. Take a look!








And don't forget, if you haven't signed on as a follower yet, there is still time to get in on a chance for a freebie!

RAK ALERT!

I figure what is a better way to kick this blog off with a bang than to give away some FREE goodies! So here is what I'm going to do...I will randomly draw a name from everyone who signs on as a follower before the
IF IT'S GROOVY cybercrop begins on June 4. That lucky person will receive a RAK from me!

And how about another chance to win? I will contact the winner and ask them who referred them. If it is YOU, you will win a RAK as well!

So...if you are not already following the blog, sign up over at the right, and then go tell your scrappy friends to sign on as well and increase your chances of winning!

One other thing...I've been going through a little scrapping withdrawl as I've had very little time to craft this month but I did steal a few minutes tonight and create this using the Die Cuts With a View Green Stack. It was a simple layout that came together quickly with the really quirky paper and a sketch from 52 Weeks 52 Sketches. Sometimes it is nice to take short cuts and the result can still be a lot of fun.



I also want to note that not all 2-pagers need to be created together! I plan on displaying "Bad Tacos" as the companion page to this layout which I put together weeks ago.

Some 2-pagers really are a single unit but sometimes, like with these, each can stand alone as well.

Okay, scrappers, who among you likes a good challenge?

Who among you loves a great cybercrop?

Yeah, I thought so. So do I!

That is why I'm spending the days between June 4 and June 14 over at
If It's Groovy. Yes, you read that right, TEN WHOLE days of cropping fun with challenges and games galore!

You thought we were groovy before, just you wait!!

I've decided that to cater to the interests of two different groups of people it is better to separate my family life blog from my scrappy blog. I hope this isn't too inconvenient for those of you interested in both! Anyway...welcome to Marci's Scrapping Spot!

Just to get things started right off, here is a layout I did today. I hadn't scrapped a layout in over a week and I could feel the stress just melt away when I finally sat down to work on this. I used some old Making Memories paper. I'm really liking the way pastels look against white these days.