It's a Birthday Party and YOU get the gift!

IF IT'S GROOVY turns 1 this January and what would a birthday girl do but celebrate with a party? Myself and other members of the If It’s Groovy Design 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.

Stop by If It's Groovy for lots of inspiration, games, and challenges and don't forget to come back here to check out my challenge for the hop. You'll want to drop by each of If It's Groovy Design Team Members' blogs to see their challenges too! There will be lots of fun, crafting, and prizes all week long, so join us in celebrating and wishing If It's Groovy a very happy birthday.

Time for a Spunky Sketch and a Nerdy Prompt

 Check out this great new sketch from Spunky Scrappers! Putting together a page for this sketch went so easy for me and I know you will find it easy too!

My little grandson was born in the tropics and moved to a cooler climate last year. He saw snow for the first time in January and he looks like he really enjoyed it! The sketch challenge runs through Dec 15, so give it a go and be sure to upload your finished project to Spunky Scrappers!

And if you are looking for inspiration for something to scrap about, try this week's prompt at Spunky Scrappers - Nerds! We all know one ... and sometimes we are all one! As soon as I heard the prompt I knew I had a reason to scrap these silly photos of my husband and I trying on goofy hats and glasses in the store in Japan. I just wish I had bought those Christmas Tree glasses for my upcoming office party!

Show me your nerdy side- upload your Nerdy LO to the Spunky Scrappers gallery and tag it sc16. See you there!

Quick- you can do it!

This time of year we are all pressed for time. There's the shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, and the volunteer work - not to mention the boss still wants us to show up for work! But we scrappers still have the need to get in that scrapping time. And if you are like me, you are making many of your gifts and time is running short!

That is where the prompt at this month's If It's Groovy came in handy for me. Groovy Deb recognized the need to do some scrapbook pages in 30 minutes or less and I jumped at the chance to get a page done with this in mind.

 I'm making a scrapbook for my Daughter-in-Law with her photos from throughout the year and still had some pages to fill. I loved the photos she sent me of my grandson trying to belly-ride his skateboard. I took some SEI Play Day patterened paper, cut some of the animal shapes out of it and pop-dotted them for a quick and easy embellishment. The DCWV cardstock was run through my Fiskars crimper to give it some dimension. Add a few sticker alphas and the page is done is less than 30 minutes!

Check out If It's Groovy to see what other folks have created in 30 minutes and you will find lots of inspiration to keep scrapping during this busy time of year.

And once the holidays are over and you are ready to let more of your creativity show, join us at If It's Groovy for our online crop Jan 4 - 10. We'll have challenges, games, prizes and fun!fun!fun! See you there and be sure to tell Groovy Deb that Theresa sent you.

One Page - Two Chances to Win!

Do you want two chances to win a prize with just one LO? Come and join our Slice of Life challenge at Memories Always - Forever and If It's Groovy! All you have to do is slice up a photo or chop it up into bits if you want. In my sample above, I used just one large photo and sliced it up. I love how the slices add more motion to the ocean!

Check out Groovy Deb's page! She chopped up her photos and arranged them into small blocks for a stunning look.

And here is my sister Kathy's page. She chopped her photos into one-inch squares and arranged them on Mosaic Moments Grid Paper. This look is so gorgeous!

So what are you waiting for? We all love to win and the odds are in your favor. Enter the Slice of Life Challenge at Memories Always - Forever and If It's Groovy for two great chances to win!

Paper Paradise - Kyoto's Morita Wagami

This past week I hopped on Japan's famous Shinkansen (bullet train) with my hubby to hang out for a few wonderful days in Kyoto. We saw many beautiful temples, ate many delicious meals and met many interesting people. But the highlight of any scrapbooker's trip is of course, the trip to the paper store!

My guidebook says, "The Japanese had paper in production for over 500 years before the Moors opened the first paper mill in Spain in the 12th century ... Paper has been aborbing mankind's mistakes and schemes, ideas and feelings, images and dreams for centuries. And no where more beautifully than in Japan." I was intrigued by the romanticism of that statement. But the truth is that visitors to Japan soon learn that the Japanese use paper for lanterns, doors, windows, fans, umbrellas and the list goes on. A trip to any Japanese paper store is a treat, but Morita Wagami sounded devine. The guidebook shows that Morita Wagami deals in over 800 kinds of handmade Japanese washi paper and as it turns out, was not far from our hotel.

So one fine morning, we went walking in search of this store. We meandered through some temple gardens and down a narrow side street before stumbling upon the shop. Once inside it was like heaven on earth! The colors! The designs! The textures! I immediately began to make piles of the papers I wanted. My favorite was a soft blue Yuzen. Yuzen paper is only allowed to be sold in cities which are artistic centers for kimono production as they use the same designs and colors as kimonos.

Next came the Kin Washi - a machine made paper from manila fiber. It's smooth on one side and textured on the other. I chose a soft green. Other papers in my collection included Uzen and Kaga Chiri (Chiri is handmade from long kozo fibers with imbedments of small pieces of bark) and Chiyogami (a highly decorative silkscreened Japanese paper).  I also chose some tissue paper flowers and a tiny folding fan. My purchases were all rolled into a handy tube and we left with Mr. Morita's email address in our pockets. He assured me that if I forgot which papers were which, I could just email him and he would be happy to help.

Take a look at some of the paper art on dispay at Morita Wagami.

Want to win some of my stash? Keep an eye out for the next Funday Monday challenge at MAF for a chance to win the items below!

Show Me the Orange!

The warm tones of the autumn harvest provide an inspiring palette for our fall pages, but no color represents fall more to me than the color Orange. Join the Fall Festival Online Crop at MAF to enter this and many other challenges - there's lots of great chances to win prizes. Check below to see what you can win by entering the Show Me the Orange challenge.

Did you know that Orange is a power color, and it also stimulated enthusiasm and imagination?

The color Orange can:

• Spice things up when you feel time is dragging.
• Entice you to become more involved in something.
• Bring you relief when life becomes too serious.
• Increase your creativity!

There is no better time of year to use the color Orange. Show me your creativity! Show me the Orange!

(You must be registered on MAF to play and win. Go here to register now. This challenge ends Tuesday at midnight)

Look what you can win!

 An autographed copy of Mathew Bamberg’s newest book "101 Quick and Easy Secrets for Using Your Digital Photographs".

This book provides dozens of tips on photo editing, posting to blogs, creating scrapbooks and other crafts, selling photos, and much more.

I'm a Sketchy Thursdays Fave!

Have you discovered Sketchy Thursdays blog yet? Each Thursday Diana and Heidi put up a new sketch and you have one week to complete the sketch. You can upload your LO to any gallery you wish and then use Mr. Linky to point them to your creation. The sketches are simply the best and each time I use one my page just seems to fall together so easily! This week they chose my Karate LO as a Fave, but you really need to stop and by and see the other LOs. I am absolutely in love with the spider page by Silvana!

While you are there be sure to check out the new Sketchy Thursdays sketch for inspiration. I can't wait to see your interpretation!