If It's Groovy is Taking a Mini Break...

WE here at IIG are taking a mini break until the end of 2012 to spend time with our families and prepare our blogs for a lot of excitement coming to you in January!!! We will be having a birthday blog hop where you are all invited of course! We will have special  birthday projects and other projects so get  signed up by email if you have not done so, You will not want to miss a thing :) Our Kid Designers will be back, our Groovy Chicks have loads and loads of things to show you too!

On another note, I am having a hysterectomy on Friday morning Dec 28 and need a break  from my job here at IIG for these few days so if you will, please send up a prayer on my behalf that the doctors and nurses have the hands and strength guided by God to help me get through all of this fast and back to setting up this blog each day :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Deb♥

What's on the Groovy Kids Wish Lists???

We have great Groovy Kid Designers here at IIG and some of them have a wishlist for Santa this year! Let's PEEK at what's on them :) Merry Christmas Kids!!!

Deb♥

Becky:
(Her Mom DT Member Michelle said this)
Since my kids are slowly moving away from TV Shows that are on Disney, Nick Jr. and Treehouse (Canadian version of Sprout). They have been seeing all those TV ads from this toy or that toy. So I have been hearing, "I want that" or "That's so cool! Can you get me that!" I hear myself saying ask Santa more often.
This year was the 1st year I noticed that Sears has a WishBook still. It has been at least 15 years since I seen one.
My has the wishlist grown for my two. So, as a cute and fun Santa List I took a picture using the opposite side of one of those over the door coloring rolls. I took some of them looking at the Sears Wishbook too! BUT you will have to wait to see them on a page in the future!
 



Katelyn: 

  




















Grant:

Jackson:

 

Carter:



Rosie:

What's in the Paper Bag?

Rochelle has made really cute Paper Bag Albums to  share with us. You'll love them! They make great last minute gifts!!!
Deb♥

Rochelle here to share with you a Winter/Christmas paper bag mini album I made about the time we went to Colorado and experienced a White Christmas for the first time ever!!.  This album was so fun to make because I decided to do a "Girls Craft Day" and had my 2 daughters and my niece (ages 13, 13, and 6) make albums too.  We had a wonderful time and their albums came out great!!!  I only helped them with the measurements and cutting of the papers, but they did all the rest, even the 6 year old!!!  :)

Winter of 2007 - Rochelle Spears
Best Friends - Tayah Richardson, age 13
New York 2012- Taylor Simon, age 13
2012 - Jaylah Spears, age 6

A Wonderful Advent Project

Christmas is almost here but it is never too early to work on an Advent Project for next yer. Here is one made by Wendy that looks like one we could really enjoy!
Deb♥



 From  Wendy:
I started making advent calendars for my kids 2 years ago using Karen Foster's boxes.  These are so fun and easy to make!  They each have 25 little drawers that I fill with little chocolates or toys for the kids.  This year, I am also putting little notes in some of the drawers with places we can go.  The drawers are too small to put gift cards or tickets into, so I am writing little promise notes to them....or maybe just a hint using a scrapbook sticker...hmm....
I used some different colors and patterns of scrapbook papers and miscellaneous stickers for the face of each drawer.  The set comes with the number stickers.  And the top was my favorite part!  This was just a little decoration I found at the dollar store that i just attached using some glue dots!

Have a great day!!!

Home Away From Home

Kelly! My ♥ is so filled with the story you have given us about the lake house! May there be many many blessings in that beautiful piece of the world :) Deb♥


 I wanted to feature a place that we visit many times a year since Mom passed and I know she would have loved it so much. My Dad made the choice to go ahead and build the lake house on the property they bought together in Christmas of 2008 before she left us in March of 2009. It was the best thing he ever did for himself and to share the love of Mom as well. Even though it is almost 4 hours away, we try to get away from the city life as much as school and sports will allow. The lake house has also become the Thanksgiving get away for our extended family as well and there has been no better place to call home away from home than here in God's country! I used the Echo Park For the Record 2 collection and a sketch from Page Maps. I hope this inspires you to scrap about a place you  love! :)


 

Special Delivery

My daughter Katelyn, aka Groovy Kid Designer Katelyn, always takes such pretty pictures for me and I just love it when I can capture the joy in her eyes as she looks forward to Santa Claus' arrival with her wishlists :) Here she was last year  as we dropped off her requests at Bass Pro Shoppe in Santa's special mailbox Deb♥

 

Visiting Toys R Us

Each year I take Groovy kid Designer, Katelyn, my youngest daughter over to the toy store and take pictures of things she wants  for Christmas. It makes  the Christmas wish list a lot easier to see  what they are looking for as gifts :) This was  on her wishlist last year. She just loves it when the wishlist book comes in the mail, but I think our trip to Toys R Us each year has become a fun tradition!
Deb♥

Scrooge!

Who doesn't love Scrooge? I think most of us who love Christmas time need to see whichever our favorite version is. Are you a fan of Reginald Owen or are you more enticed by Alastair Sim? We cannot forget that George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart on this role as well. I bet it would be the dream of an actor to play this part :) So, Michelle is here today sharing her trip to see Scrooge, the musical. That would be fantastic for all of us fans of the show!

Bah Humbug! Deb♥

Seeing Santa!!!

Last year I took Katelyn to see Santa Claus at Bass Pro Shop. They were so wonderfully  taking a picture with Santa for free. What was so cute too was that there was a mailbox for the kids to leave their letters for Santa as well. This was a neat experience!
Deb♥

Dear Santa,

I am SOOOO gonna steal this idea from Wendy! Smart girl ;) Deb♥


Here is what I put together for my kids to write their lists on this year. I used some oversized paper...these are 11.x 17 sheets. I cut out Santa hats from pieces of felt and added a bunch of cotton balls for the trim. Then I added each child's name using lots of Thickers letters. Good thing I stocked up on these! These will be hanging from their bedroom doors. It's easy for them to find and add to the list, and when family and friends stop by, the lists are right there for all to see, so they can start their shopping!

Christmas Gift Idea

Need to make a Christmas gift for anyone? This is a really good idea! Give it a try like Heather has done!
Deb♥

My girlfriend had this white letter G that she needed altered for her daughter's bedroom so I took on the challenge! Her bedroom is done in pinks, white and brown so I based my embellishing around that.

I first used alcohol inks to make the G a marbleized light pink. Then I picked out a variety of flowers to match the colors of her room. Layered them until I could get them how I liked, added some pearls to the insides and then some light pink pearl flourishes. Quick and easy!

Travelling with Rochelle :)

Right now Cozumel sounds really good! Hope you enjoy your  holiday travels!
Deb♥

Back in April, my hubby and I went to Cozumel for a week for R&R!  We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and even though we are not drinkers, we tried a drink called a "Dirty Monkey" (Pina Colada, Kahlua, and banana's)  that a lot of other people were drinking.  It was very delicious!

Bath Time at Heather's!

With a house full of boys I  bet Heather's bathroom is never free! Can you image them as teenagers?Prepare yourself Heather!!!
Deb♥


We just redone our bathroom!  It has been decorated with Mickey Mouse since we moved in over 7 years ago.  We left what the former owners had done.  But I was ready to move on.  So we tore out the MM border and painted the lower half of the wall teal with chocolate brown trim around doors and floorboards.  Added a chocolate brown chair rail and then put up some new decor.

However, in the process, I was trying to save some money!  So, I took some shoebox lids from my boys' new boots.  I covered it with scrapbook paper that matched.  I then cut the word "Bath" on my Cricut and adhered it to the bottom corner.  Set on a shelf in the corner of my half bath!

Could have bought a canvas and done the same thing, but why do that? I have shoebox lids that work the same way and costs nothing!  Hope this gives you an idea of how to recycle something that would normally end up in the trash!

Christmas Collage

I ♥ when Walgreens gives away free collages! This is one that I made months ago to share during this month with the very non-traditional  colors, but I felt they were happy :). Little did I know when I made this with my mom right in the center that we would not have her here this Christmas :( It makes this picture of her hugging on Groovy Kid Designer, Katelyn, her youngest grandchild, all that much sweeter :) Get lots of hugs this season!!! Deb♥

Serendipty Squares Christmas Style

One of our challenges here over the last few years was a Serendipity challenge. Serendipity squares are smaller bits of paper that are used to cover the area of your layout and basically you can do this as a wonderful way to use your scraps, always a great thing! Michelle has created this layout using this same system and i think it is another example of why this technique should be used often!!! Go down to our card catalog and look up other Serendipity Challenge ideas :) Deb♥

It Snowed at Heather's

Look what happened at Heather's :)Snow Day! Deb♥ Well, did you see my Trick or Treat candy corn blocks at Halloween? Remember where my girlfriends and I got the idea from? You got it . . . Pinterest! Well, this is where this snowman idea came from! And can I tell you that we made it for less than $5! That's right! Not a typo . . . $5 and some recycled plastic and cardboard! We bought the different sizes of grapevine wreaths at the Dollar Store. We sprayed them with a can of white spray paint ($1/can at Walmart). After these dried, we hot glued them together. The hat was made by using a butter dish that we cut in half. We then traced what would be the brim of the hat onto some Pepsi cases. Cut those out and hot glued to the butter dish. We then spray painted it black. When that was dry, we added some leftover ribbon to the hat for just a little extra touch. The scarf was found on clearance and we were able to cut it in half long ways to use 1 scarf on 2 snowmen! That's it! Really!!! Gotta love Pinterest just for the ideas . . . even if you don't follow the step by step directions provided.

Canadian Thanksgiving

I think we need to press "Aunt Kim"  for  a  recipe!
Deb♥

So, Thanksgiving in Canada came and when. I finally got to scrap some photos from last year Thanksgiving we had up at the Cabin. Luke (my son) & Conner (2nd Cousin)got to enjoy Aunt Kim's Marshmallow pops.
Using a Circle Punch I created the corners on the Green Diamond Pattern Paper. Same for the top of the Tag. Stamped the heart and fussy cut it out and popped it up with foam tape. I made the marshmallow embellishments using a layer of Liquid Applique and heated it up so it puffed up.

A Project for True XOXO

As much as I love operating the If It's Groovy and Scrap Our Stash blogs, sometimes I need some new challenges as well. So,  I joined the design team of True XOXO :) Here is the Christmas OTP (off the page)  project I completed for them  and what I had to say :) TFL!

I have altered some very inexpensive candles this year as teacher gifts for the teachers at the dance studio and my daughter's Girl Scout leader too. It was very simple to make strips of matching Christmas papers, wrap them around the candles with double stick tape. Add on a hand-cut tag and complete with some ribbon secured with Zots. I stamped a Christmas message and taped it on the top and added a Christmas candy to send along to them. Hope you try this very easy and cost cutting gift idea! Deb♥

A Christmas Carol

Earlier in the month we saw a scrapbook layout  created by Michelle about her visit to see Scrooge, the  musical. Last Christmas season my daughter Katelyn and my twin sister  and I posed at Violet Bank Museum inside the museum right around the time we were there to see the characters from A Christmas Carol, have hot apple cider, cookies and to listen to Christmas music performed by a local  group that performed music from  that time frame. They were playing a version of the show that night too. It was pretty cool and I think yet another tradition we will carry out.

Here is my layout:

I made a previous layout  here for one our challenges where I showed about Violet Bank which is a well known museum that was once the headquarters for Robert E. Lee. This place has a lot of history and I thought all of you might find it very interesting that one of the pictures I took that night had some ghosties oooooooo presenting themselves to me! Wanna see? Look to the left where a man is looking right through and closer to the middle there is a woman. See them too?

Design Your Own Paper: Kelly

When I first saw this challenge, I was a bit skeptical only because I am such a lover of patterned papers and really haven't jumped into the artistic backgrounds yet. However! I had purchased some fun misting stencils last summer at the Great American Scrapbook convention in Arlington, TX and it hit me that I had some recent winter photos printed. I first pulled out the Mr. Huey's white mist along with my stencil from TCW (thecraftersworkshop.com). I found a fun double layout sketch by S2S (sketches 2 scrapbook)and some small scraps of brown patterned paper. I created a quick tag and punched snowflakes out of the leftover white paper from the photo mats. I thought the American Crafts brown glitter tape would be fun as "ribbon" for the tag with all the sparkle. I was really pleased with the outcome and how fun it was to create my own background paper. Give it a try and have some fun. We'd LOVE to see yours! :)

DesignYour Own Paper: Brenda

Creating a background page was totally out of the box for me!   I struggle with “getting messy” so as you can see, I kept my technique simple. 
So here’s what I did:

1.  Punched all around a piece of 12 x 12 karft cardstock using a Recollections punch
2. Using Crafter’s Workshop 12 x 12 Reverse Chicken Wire template, I applied Gesso using a sponge paint brush.   And once it dried…
3. With the template still in place, I lightly misted the cardstock with Mister Huey’s “Passport” Coloring Mist.

I was going to add a few drops of red paint, but chickened out!   LOL   After getting the background completed I went on a hunt for a sketch to create my page.
 
My layout design was inspired by a sketch by Em at PageDrafts .  AND.... I was able to use up some old scraps from Echo Park and Jillibean Soup!!!

I am looking forward to seeing all of your takes on this challenge! 

Happy Holidays!!!

Design Your Own Paper: Rochelle

When I started on this project of designing my paper, I was really scared! LOL I don't do this much and was not sure what I was going to do that would look right. So, I started with a brick mask and textured paint that I had been wanting to try out. Then after it dried, I added some wash tape (because I am sooo in love with it right now) and then gave it some sprays of glitter mist. To add a little more color to the background, I added pink and black drops of paint. Once I added my paper, photo and embellishments, it all came together and I love how it came out!!!

 

Design Your Own Paper: Lindsey

Day 1 * Grade 4 by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Making Memories, Brads: Making Memories, ZvaCreative.com, Snaps: Making Memories, Ribbon: Jenni Bowlin, Scenic Route Paper Co., Letters: Making Memories, Marker: Sharpie, Chalk: Inkadinkado, Ink: StazOn by Tsukineko, Template: Creative Memories, Other: star buttons, paper flower, latches.

Design your own paper! Last time I tried this technique, I scanned my favorite bag, printed it out 8"-1/2x11", and used its pattern as background paper - it was a huge success! This time, I tried a few different methods. First, I extracted color from my son's shorts and designed my own plaid paper in PhotoShop. It was just a matter of creating lines in different widths and colors and layering and relayering until I got the plaid effect I liked. I printed it, cut it, inked it and pasted it. The second method I used was to trace and edge of a Creative Memories Storyline Guideline template and ran brads, buttons and snaps along the traced line. This creates a pattern, some color, and a frame for otherwise plain cardstock. The third and last thing I did was a little light doodling. I didn't go too crazy because the page called for clean lines and subtle movement, so I drew stitching and chalked the corners. The possibilities and combinations for creating your own paper are endless, go for it!

Design Your Own Paper: Michelle

After pulling out my son's 3rd Birthday pictures. I liked the look of the black cardstock showing around his photos instead of the white. I was planning to random stamp on the white. So, I cut out the space around the photos so the black cardstock would show through. For my background paper I did some random stamping using a bunch of images, groupings & alpha/number stamps in the color of the designs on the star die-cut. I grouped together three images to represent his 3rd birthday and used the number 3/words three. Pulling in the deep purple background color of the star die-cut I placed some Peachy Keen Faces in deep purple around the page. I fussy cut out the word birthday and popped it up using double-sided foam tape. Sanded the edges of the black cardstock and attached everything together. 

Design Your own Paper: Jean

I opted to change the background of a piece of scrapbook paper for a layout. First I grabbed a  bunch of unused chipboard alphas and glued them to the paper. Then I washed a light color of paint of over the letters and over the paper. Next I used a Distress ink to add color to the letters and the background. This is a great way to add dimension and to alter the background.

Design Your Own Paper: Wendy

I decided to make a mess of my desk....I mean, use flocking powder to design my own flocked winter paper. I used a little Tacky Glue across the bottom of the page and around the edges. i spread it around with my finger and then...very carefully, sprinkled some flocking powder onto the glue. Well, apparently, I wasn't careful enough. Of course, it ended up everywhere! To make the tiny falling snowflakes, I stuck a few micro glue dots onto the page and sprinkled a little more powder. This was so fun to make, but a bit messy. But anyone who has used glitter on their projects, would have just as much mess, I mean, FUN using flocking powder. Have a great day!!



 

Design Your Own Paper: Heather

My sister-in-law commissioned me to make a scrapbook of all my nephews sports pictures. He graduates this coming spring and so you can imagine, I have 12 plus years of sports pictures . . . three sports per year! I have been trying to keep this album fairly simple and I was at a creative block for all these pics. Because of team photos as well as individual photos, a lot of these layouts have been 2 pagers. For this page, I started with 2 white pieces of cardstock. I punched out some stars and used removable adhesive to put them on the page. I then used some red and black distress ink around the edges of the page. When I was finished, I removed the stars to allow the white stars to pop.

December Challenge~Design Your Own Paper: Groovy Deb♥

Hey Everyone! Welcome to December! With the new month come s anew challenge that The Groovy chicks and I have been working on!!! This month I asked everyone to complete a layout where they designed their paper.So, I chose a pink cardstock and started doodling :) Remember last month on Hug a Bear Day that Katelyn and I both were hugging a teddy bear? Those are the photos I used!!! I love being caught up in my scrapbooking :)

Now let's see you put your spin on this challenge! As always you are welcome to play along and we will show your work right here! Deb♥