Fabulous Friday - Inspiration Challenge

Today is indeed a Fabulous Friday, yes??? First off, we have the Passion for Fashion online crop here at Scrap Shotz AND we have an early challenge for those of you itching to scrap, courtesy of our awesome guest designer, Rosie!

In Rosie's words, here is her challenge...

I love to listen to music. I have no musical talent but that doesn't stop me from singing along when I hear a song that I love. A song can keep you motivated to finish a workout or calm you when you're stressed out. It can make a mundane task easier to complete or make you laugh out loud.

Some songs express exactly how you're feeling...happy, sad, angry or grateful. A song can also express a life lesson you want to record for yourself and/or a loved one. That's what this layout is all about. It's the song Video by India Arie and when I first heartd it, I knew I just HAD to a layout about it.

Is there a song you love because it helped you through a hard time? Reminds you of a loved one? Describes an important relationship in your life? Brings a smile to your face each time you hear it? Or you just can't help but dance around whenever it is played?

Scrapbook what that song means to you or maybe consider using the title of the song as a scrapbook title....hmmmm...."Waking Up In Vegas" would be perfect for my Vegas pictures! :-)

What do you think girls? Isn't this a Fabulous challenge??? Let's show and tell Rosie!

Fashion Crop: Sneak Peek #5, #6 and so on

Just a few more hours to go for Scrap Shotz's Passion for Fashion Crop!!!! Yeah! I wanted to drop a few more hints on the challenges to come :-)

So what do you think of the challenges???? Let me know, ok?

Fashion Crop: Sneak Peek #3 and #4

Just a few more days until the Passion for Fashion crop at Scrap Shotz begins...you as excited as I am????:-)

How about another sneakie or two??? Ssssh...don't tell the girls that I am sharing, ok?

So, what do you think??? Let me know, ok?

Oh...and before I forget, especially with all the crop festivities, the blog winners from the week of January 11 is.............




Andrea Weibe!!!!! Congrats!!!

And the blog winner from the week of January 18 is.............





Jamie! Congrats!!!

Can you ladies please pm Sandy to make arrangements to claim your prize?

You could be next...just leave me a comment and my little Vanna draws on Sunday night!:-)

On Special Assignment from our Roving Reporter

Read Denise's inside look at her cropping experience...(don't forget that Scrap Shotz is hosting a Passion for Fashion crop starting Friday January 29, 2010).

A Cropping I (Denise) Did Go...

A crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, fuel, or for any other economic purpose. (Wikipedia)

Uhmmm…not so much.

Crop (social event), an event where scrapbookers get together, at someone's house, in a scrapbook store or another event, and scrapbook.. (Wikipedia)

For many scrappers the holy grail of their craft/hobby/art is to attend a weekend crop to scrapbook to their hearts content without interruption for meal prep, laundry, chauferring to hockey/trampolining/dance/drama/piano (or all 5 in the span of 3 hours!) and answering the incessant “Mooooooom?” OK, I stand corrected…the real holy grail would be to sail away on one of those scrapbook cruises. Truthfully, I’d be too conflicted to pay to go on one of these. Do I spend my days in a dark meeting room with scissors and glue or do I get out and enjoy the on-ship pool and the warm rays of the sun and visit the various ports of call to enjoy the tropical scenery and the warm rays of the sun? Not to mention those drinks with the little umbrellas! I’m thinking anything that has to do with the warm rays of the sun would beat out scissors and glue. However, if I won a cruise or had a generous benefactor that wanted to buy my ticket I would have no qualms about spending my time in a dark meeting room with my glue and scissors (and perhaps a drink with an umbrella.)

OK, so in my reality a weekend get away is my holy grail and I recently came home from a wonderful weekend where I was provided with 6 meals, a wonderful bed all to myself, 12 feet of table space (and believe me, I used every inch of it!) a comfy padded chair (with wheels so I could quickly maneuver around my 12 feet of table space) and the enjoyable company of others who apprecaite being locked up in a windowless room for 3 days as much as I do. Now, I’ve also cropped at rustic locations where I’ve slept in squeeky bunkbeds made for pre-teens with 6+ other women (also in squeeky bunkbeds – ask me how I know!) and had a folding chair with 2 feet of table space. But you know what? As long as the company is good (and the food!) you can overcome these little (and those beds, chairs and limited table spaces were indeed little) obstacles and go on to create paper masterpieces.

For you uninitiated here’s how a crop goes…

You spend roughly 40 hours getting ready to go, between getting photos printed, matching patterned paper/card stock/embellishmnets, packing a few snacks and making the 13 trips out to your van to get everything loaded up (and FYI it only takes one trip to get the snacks!) Dan can’t understand why I don’t just stay home and crop. Ummm, yeah – please refer to paragraph 1!

You arrive at your destination and it only takes you 3 trips to get all your stuff inside because they have these wonderful carts to speed up the process.

You set up. This includes plugging in various accessories such as lamps, lap-tops, digital cutters and coolers (I told you I was bringing snacks!)

You get down to the business of scrapping, taking breaks only for meal times, bathroom trips, a sojourn to the LSS (Local Scrapbook Store) and a few hours of shut eye.

Reluctantly you pack up and take your 3 loads back out to your vehicle. Oddly enough your load has not lightened. It would seem that the void left by the consumption of snacks and beverages and all the bits of papers left laying on the meeting room floor has been filled by purchases at the LSS.

You arrive home where you may or may not bring your 13 loads back into the house. Even if you do bring them in, you may or may not unpack them sometime within the next week. Who am I kidding…the next month.

You run around like a mad woman trying to un-do everything that has been done and do everything that was left un-done in your house while you were away for 3 measley days. But oh how you loved those 3 measley days.

One of the neat things about cropping with friends is that you get to feed off their creativity and draw inspiration from their work. There is a lovely acronym in the scrapping world, CASE, which stands for copy and steal everything. AKA scraplifting – makes us sound like a bunch of criminals, doesn’t it? My little group like to display their creations up on the wall for inspiration (and easier copying/stealing.)

One of the issues with scrapping is how to organize and transport all the supplies that we collect. Some of us feel the need to bring everything we own to a crop cuz you just never know when you might need something. I’d hate to have my creative energy sucked out of me just because I didn’t have that one perfectly matched ribbon or eyelet with me so I like to err on the side of caution.

I also like to wander around and look at what other people bring with them to crops. At this last crop I found 2 cool inventions.

This first one is a ribbon holder made from a recycled Girl Guide Cookie box. This ingenious, environmnetally friendly scrapper has spray painted her box, drilled holes and added washers to encircle the holes for this awesome looking and easily transported storage idea.

Secondly, another scrapper has collected her bits of ribbons (but you could do this with buttons, chipboard alphas, etc) into little ziplock baggies and has hole punched the sides twice and run binder rings through the holes. By having the two rings it gives enough support for this holder to stand up on its on. This picture shows two holders stacked.

Besides scrapping, the thing we do best at these crops is talk and laugh. Sometimes I wonder how we accomplish anything. Do you suppose my output (usually the lowest in the group) is directly related to the amount of laughing and talking I do? Perhaps I should also mention that I require huge amounts of chocolate to get my creativity kick started. So between talking, laughing and eating I usually manage to create about 10 pages.

My little group plans these get aways twice a year, in spring and fall. If it weren’t for the probability of traveling in the middle of a snowstorm I’m sure we would try for a weekend in the dead of winter too. I hope that you also get a chance to experience a weekend crop. Why, I’ve even gone back after having to vacate the premises in the middle of the night for a fire alarm – and it was a real fire! Not only is it a chance to crop uniterrupted but a chance to renew old friendships and create new ones. Scrappers are the friendliest bunch of people I’ve ever met and most are not in the least bit inhibited in sharing stories that could make you pee your pants from laughter. I’d tell you more about the antics and laughs but we have a little saying with our group, “What happens at NavCan stays at NavCan.”

Thanks Denise for this excellent report; so when is the next report???

Spotted in the Gallery!

My pick this week is from Jamie's gallery. She created this layout for our January layout tag and I absolutely love it! From the precious photo to the star accents to the polka dotty dotty background! Be sure to check out the forum for our next layout tag and you can play too!

Fabulous Friday - Chromotherapy Challenge

This Friday we have a Chromotherapy Challenge from Heather. Can you guess what colour we are using??? LOL

"Brown is my favorite color, specifically chocolate brown. It's such a warm, comforting, earthy color. I love to wear it, decorate with it and definitely scrapbook with it. It goes so well with other colors, blue and brown, green and brown, red and brown, pink and brown, orange and brown, white and brown - so many beautiful options. So my challenge to you is to create a layout using the colour brown. You can use a little or a lot, chocolate brown, kraft brown, beige, tan, cinnamon, chestnut, any shade of brown you like. I can't wait to see what you create."

What a darling layout Heather! And brown is own of my favourite go-to colours too! Thanks for challenging us...I think I have the perfect photo and papers for this challenge!

What about you? Link me up to your project, ok?

Fashion Crop: Sneak Peek #2

Going anywhere during the weekend of January 29??? Because you should prepare to get dressed up for Scrap Shotz's Passion for Fashion crop!!! :-)

Are you intrigued yet?

Tell me what you are thinking...because I really really really wanna know! LOL

Fashion Crop: Sneak Peek #1

I am feeling the call of the wild...aren't you? :-) The girls tell me that we're going to get a little wild with inspiration from this fashion trend.

Any guesses?

Let me know what you are thinking in the comments section, ok?

Spotted in the Gallery!

This week I'd like to share an amazing photo with you... this layout by Andrea includes this totally stunning photo... besides the rad blossom accents and really cool distress lines in the background... great work Andrea!

Fabulous Friday - Blueprint Challenge

Denise never disappoints and for this Fabulous Friday challenge, check out this fun sketch.

And here is Denise's interpretation - pretty cute, eh?

I think this is pretty darn cute; how about letting Denise know too??

Do You Have a Passion for Fashion????

Whether you have a passion or not for fashion, mark your calendars for the first 2010 Online Crop on January 29 to the 31st. If you haven't experienced a Scrap Shotz crop, you are in for a BIG treat! The inspiration, the challenges and oh those prizes...are FANTASTIC!

So book your babysitters, dust off your crockpots and get ready to enjoy Scrap Shotz's first 2010 online crop!

Spotted in the Gallery!

Well I don't know about you... but the warm weather here is making me think spring! I know we have a long road to go, but this card by Jennifer was perfect for my mood! I love what she's done with all these gorgeous AC patterns (featured in the January SSZ kit!) and the stamps are so precious! Be sure to pop in to the gallery this week and see what everyone has been up to!

Fabulous Friday - Anything But!!!!

Welcome to the first Fabulous Friday of 2010! Denise has a fantastic challenge for you!!!

I’m not sure how this happened but every couple of weeks I get a message in my in box for things like “quick and cute sewing projects.” You may have heard me lament about my non-existent sewing skills in the past so these e-mails pretty much go unopened. The other day (when I had nothing else to do the day before Christmas!!!) I decided to open one up and I was immediately taken by the cute felt flowers on this tote bag…aha…a little hand sewing I can do! I especially liked the yarn centers that added that extra little bit of dimension.

I needed a little pick-me-up card for a friend that was having a bit of stress in her life so this worked perfectly. I added my own version (ie. not technically correct) of a blanket stitch around the flower as it seemed to almost create a petal edge and voila – a quick and cute sewing project for a card, LO or as an embellishment to a REAL sewing project. I’d love to see your take on these cute little flowers.

Gosh Denise, these are so darn cute; don't you guys think???

January Reveal

The January Scrap Shotz kit is stunning...as in absolutely stunning! When I saw the kit, I immediately started drooling :-) It features 12 sheets of the American Crafts Letterbox papers, a sheet of American Crafts glitter cardstock, a Pink Paislee die cut sheet and 8 American Crafts cardstock. There are gobs of embellishments - here is just sampling that you will find...pearl brads, buttons, Flair badges, jewel brads, chipboard, Thickers, Glitter alpha stickers, glitter phrases, robbon, a black Copic spica pen and a Maya Road canvas/chipboard album. Sandy is also going to add a jar of chocolate Shimmerz. Are you craving the kit too??? Here is a snapshot of this delicious kit-

Wanna see some projects with the kit from the Design Team???

Amber - Isn't this just the sweetest layout?

From Denise, we have an adorable gift package. (Note that the template is from a Silhouette.)

Look at this fantastic Baby record book from Jen!

Don't you love this album from Heather? Fantastic idea!

And our guest designer, Rosie debuted her work this month. This card is stunning!

Pop back tomorrow to see who the blog winners were for the remainder of December! Don't forget to leave some loving for these hard working girls!

Out With the Old and In With the New!

Actually it's my Gallery pick for this week, but that title just sounded so much more exciting! That's the name of Rosie's Guest DT Challenge for this month! Welcome Rosie!





Tanya was right on top of things and uploaded this beauty into the gallery for the challenge! I just love all the blossoms... love the velvet ribbon... all the details! And what cutie!

Make sure you check out the DT Challenges this month for some fun and inspiration!