{grow with love: letters} Day Sixteen

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Hello Everyone! Crystal here bringing you day 16 of the letters. I am pretty ill but I was determined not to leave Sara hanging on today’s post, so I apologize in advance for any typos…or sentences that make no sense! Today’s prompt was a bit different for Sara and I. We are always looking for different ways to inspire you in your storytelling. Let’s take a look at what we had for today and then chitter chatter a bit more about it!

I quite like this quote, don’t you?? So much comes to my mind when I think about it and so much can be scrapped with that as your inspiration. Sometimes an ending is very sad. It’s hard to move on from some things and ever see good things come from it. Sometimes you feel as if nothing good could ever come from something. However, I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and a lot of the time you have a lot of control over what is to be gained from a situation. If you sit around and sulk over your broken heart then you will never be able to heal or find someone to help you put it back together. Maybe a period came in your life where you felt so hopeless and full of despair? Where did you go from that point?? What good were you able to spring forth from those ashes? Maybe you are still at an end. Your new beginning hasn’t come yet. Where do you hope to go from here? We have a couple super amazing pages from the girls to share with you too!

by Lex

by Nicole

Totally amazing and inspiring!! I hope that you are moved by this prompt! Don’t forget to snag the May Letters because they will be starting here on May 4th!

creating a self portrait

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I’m often asked: Why  Do You Scrapbook?  And while there are 57854 reasons why, in the spirit of simplicity I usually say something like “I think it’s important to preserve our story”.  Which is true, of course.  But there is so much more to it for me.  And one of those “so much more”s has a lot to do with this:

Recently I was thinking about my grandmother. This month marks the anniversary of her going Home and it is the month of her birthday, so as it happens every year around this time, everything about her was fresh in my mind.   Life has a funny way of making people and moments vivid again for us around holidays and anniversaries and milestones doesn’t it?

So I was thinking about the way she laughed..such a beautifully vibrant laugh for such a small woman.  I was thinking about how much she loved natural things and playing with flowers and digging in the dirt.  I was thinking about how I never once (not ONCE) saw her look angry or sound angry.  I was thinking about how much she loved my grandpa.  And politics.  And I was thinking about how she made everyone smile.  She was one of those people who epitomized those words Tom Hanks used to describe his late wife in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle”: “She made everything beautiful”.  And that was her story.  As I knew it.  It is her story, written by me.

And sometimes I wonder what was her story…written by HER?  I imagine know it would reinforce the portrait I have of her in my mind and the one my mother has painted and my grandpa.  But I’d love to know…how did she feel when she first became a mother?  What were her favorite songs and books and what are her most vivid memories?  What was it like to grow up in her shoes?

I am fortunate to have been given a glimpse of all of this.  Shortly after she passed, as we were going through her things, we came across a diary of hers from long ago.  What a treasure it was.  And there we were, the whole family, gathered around the dining room table reading from age-stained pages.  And her voice shone through so beautifully.   And it was….nothing less than a gift to all of us.  Because as much as we all knew her, this was her in her own voice.

So I was thinking of this the other day and remembering how it felt that day around the table learning more about this woman we so loved.  And I was thinking about how much MORE I would love to know.  And I was thinking about my own story.  Am I telling it?  Am I represented in the pages of my scrapbooking?  Is my story there?  Will my loved ones, gathered around a table one day, hear my voice?

Are you creating a self portrait?

 

{fresh seeds} grow with love: letters edition {may}

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As May is approaching ever nearer, a month that is home to Mother’s Day and Memorial Day in the U.S., Crystal and I felt inspired by the spirit of family and history and legacy.  And so, Grow With Love: Letters Edition {may} which hits The Lilypad today is rooted in that inspiration.

“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” — William James

Meet Grow With Love: Letters Edition {May} — a set of four templates created in the spirit of remembrance and accompanied by four thoughtful story-driven journal prompts which will help you put pen to paper, writing letters of legacy and history.  As always these templates and prompts can be used together or separately to suit any page and story.

And here’s a spot of inspiration:

Grow With Love: Letters {may} is available for 20% off at The Lilypad through Sunday 24 April.

As always I looove to see your stories and art too, so please feel free to share with me anytime.  Just shoot me a mail or share them on my facebook page.  And if you haven’t signed up  the newsletter yet you may want to do that so you can be the first to hear the latest news and get the latest exclusive savings.

Registration for Grow With Love: Self Portrait is open and runs through 6 May 2011.  We would love for you to join us on this journey as we plant ourselves into the story.

{grow with love: letters} Day Fifteen

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Happy Wednesday!  I’m so happy to present Day Fifteen of the Grow With Love: Letters project.  This month has us putting pen to paper about “beginnings“.  And this week’s prompt calls for us to get a little reflective and retrospective as we consider how a “beginning” of a relationship has evolved over time.

When I think of the “why” for my love of scrapbooking and storytelling, so often my thoughts land squarely on: relationships.  As I am documenting our days, really what I am doing is telling the story of our interactions: the conversations, the events, and the moments shared *together* with those I love.  Or I am gushing about or reflecting on the people I share my life with…and at the core of all of this is a portrait of my relationships.

Usually I am recording memories as they happen, preserving snapshots and details and connections in little windows of time.  One day, taken together, they will reveal an entire history and journey of our relationships.  But generally, as it’s unfolding in my storytelling day by day, the evolution of the relationships  isn’t immediately obvious.  And so this week’s prompt was refreshing for me.  It inspired me to take some time to consider the entire history of a relationship and give the “sum up” as I reflected on how that relationship has evolved over time.  And I’m really pleased to have scrapped it!

I was inspired to scrap about my relationship with my sister.  This is a relationship that has, regretfully, not been documented in my scrapbooks as often as I would like.  A huge part of that is the geographical divide between us.  Living at opposite ends of the country makes it difficult to make memories together like we once did.  And so that is another reason I really appreciated this prompt — I could focus on documenting a relationship that means so very much to me and has deep and long history, but fewer “today” moments than I would like.

I used goodies from the amazing new grab bag from Fruit LoOp Sally at Ninth and Bloom.

Coila was inspired to reflect upon her relationship with her husband:

And Lex was inspired to scrap the evolution of her relationship with her sister:

And Nicole was also inspired to reflect on her sister relationships:

As I was seeing the beautiful pages for this prompt I realized that several of us were led to scrap about our sibling relationships!  What relationship’s story do you feel inspired to share?

Hope this prompt speaks to you today too!  Happy Scrapping!

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Grow With Love is a story-centric scrapbooking and journaling project.  We hope it will inspire you to document your stories in a meaningful way that helps you live life more meaningfully too.  Please remember anyone is welcome to join in and follow along at any time.  You can access the complete Grow With Love archive and hop in to any past Grow With Love project or follow along with the Letters project which will be highlighted here every Wednesday.

Grow With Love Archive

Grow With Love: Self Portrait Q & A

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So hopefully by now you’ve heard a little bit about our latest Grow With Love installment Self Portrait.

Crystal and I are really excited about this one as it takes the entire experience to a new level and because it gets us focused on something we both really believe in: telling OUR stories, ones about us..not just our kids or husbands or families, but about us.  We are really excited about the format and our plans for the class and can’t wait to share it with you!  So we invite you to learn a little more {HERE} and in the Q & A thread in the forum.  And we also invite you to ask questions here in this post!  What would you like to know about the process and the class?  Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and we will respond to them as best we can.

I’ll share a few FAQs…

Q:  Do I have to register in the forum?

A:  No, you do not.  You’ll receive all the basic course materials which are enough to follow along with the series at your own pace.  That said, we really encourage you to register in the forum because, while we will send out some emails with additional content, the bulk of our bonus content and all of our exclusive offers from class sponsors and contributors during the “enhanced class period” will be posted in the forum.  If you’ve signed up for the class, or even if you haven’t feel free to register and join in conversation in the forum.

Q: What if I’m not comfortable sharing or participating very much?

A: That’s ok!  Crystal and I really understand that not everyone will want to participate at the same level.  And so we aimed to design the class in such a way that you can still participate with as much or as little involvement in the forum as you would like.  You can sign up for the forum and peek in throughout the class simply to snag the latest content or exclusives or you can get comfy cozy and join in and share.  It’s completely up to you!

Q: Is the forum private?

A: Yes and no.  There is a general forum area that is visible to all Plant Your Story forum goers.  And then there is a private forum specifically for Grow With Love class participants.  This will go live just before the official class start date of Monday 9 May.  Only class members will be able to see and share in this forum.

Q: Is the gallery private?

A: Again, yes and no.  Like the forum, there is a general Storytellers gallery that is open to anyone.  There is also a private gallery for class participants.  You may post in the private gallery or in the public gallery, or simply in the forum, or not at all…whatever you are most comfortable with.

Q: Is this class only for digital scrapbookers?

A:  Not at all!  While Crystal and I both have roots in the digital scrapbooking community we feel sincerely that this is a class that any scrapper (traditional, paper, or digital or digital art) can find inspiration.  In fact, we have had paper scrappers follow along with Grow With Love, scrapping the prompts and we have LOVED to see the results.  In fact, you could adapt this project in to any craft or type of storytelling.  And while the exclusive kit is in digital format, it is produced in printable quality and can easily be used in hybrid or paper scrapping.  And the digital templates can also be used as basic sketches.  We will be offering some more traditional sketches as well, but we truly believe that anyone hoping to tell their story can find inspiration in this journey.  🙂

Please feel free to ask anything that comes to mind.  We will update this post as we receive and answer questions.  We’re getting excited!  Can’t wait to embark on this journey!

today i…

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So.  I love to play with paper.  I love neutral krafty papers.  I love pretty patterned papers.  I love papers with beautiful color palettes.  I love papers with realistic textures.  I love papers that make you want to pet them even if they are digital.  I love layering papers.  I love cutting papers.  I love using papers in fun shapes.  I love using papers to frame photos, to blend photos, to mask photos, to create alphas, to use as mats.

And this love of paper probably goes a long long way in explaining just why I love Liz of Paislee Press so much (beyond the fact that she is completely made of awesome).  She creates gorgeous papers that make my paper-loving heart go all a-twitter.  She’s also a storyteller at heart I find myself effortlessly inspired by her beautiful work.  So needless to say, when I laid eyes on Liz’s newest release (landing in her store on 20 April) I was smitten all over again.

I was instantly inspired to use the beautiful papers in Sorriso to create a design that framed and anchored this photograph of Bugga.  I really wanted to create a balance of letting the photo AND the papers shine without one overpowering the other.  And Liz made it easy by offering a cheerful and vintage-y palette and both big patterned papers and smaller patterned papers,  as well as beautiful neutral papers.

And I knew this kit would really afford itself beautifully to my latest album that showcases a series of “todays” over time.  I am scrapping a page every month or so that simply captures the beauty of one moment and then includes a stream of thoughts and feelings I have on that day.  So this is “today i…” for 4.18.2011.  In the end, these pages will be compiled together into an album mosaic of moments that will reveal the bigger picture and let my daughter and family see themselves and me through my eyes over time.  It’s a fun and simple way to document the everydays and see a progression of our story.

So yeah.  Liz has inspired me to create another page that helps me tell our story.  And I love her for it.

For another peek at Sorriso inspiration that will no doubt WOW you, please wander over to Therese’s blog {HERE}.  Therese is a dear inspiration to me and has such a beautiful and restrained voice in her storytelling.  I think you’ll be taken in by her beautiful photographs and pages too!

 

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