{grow with love: letters} day two

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Happy Sunday!

I am posting today’s prompt for Grow With Love: Letters on behalf of our dear Crystal as her home and family continue to be beseiged with the flu.  🙁  My heart aches for her knowing how horrible that can be and so wanted to lighten her load in any way I could.  So… I’m happy to bring you Day Two of the project!  You can find Day One {here} and as always are welcome to join in at any time!

Yesterday we reflected on setting our course for the year as we wrote our thoughts and hopes and wishes and goals to ourselves.  Let’s take a look at today’s prompt which will have us shifting our perspective just a wee bit more:

As Crystal and I thought about and discussed resolutions and goals and words of years past, we realized that sometimes our own journeys of seeking change and evolution and betterment fell flat.  Sometimes we would feel preoccupied with the uglier parts of ourselves we were seeking to change.  Sometimes that process even had us feeling disappointed in ourselves if we didn’t meet the goals or stick with a program or if we put too much on our plates.  So we wanted to frame these prompts in a tone of realistic expectations and in the framework of building upon the good that is already there.  In ourselves.  And our lives. And our relationships.  And so today’s prompt kind of evolved from that hope for ourselves and this project: we want to accentuate the positives not just work to better the negatives.

To me, this prompt is not meant to naive or be all “rainbows and bunny rabbits” so to speak…I approached it as a way to direct my steps in a positive line and avoid bullying myself or letting my insecurities take a hold in my thinking.  As one who has sometimes been too hard on myself and who has had difficulty seeing what others see in me, I have come to believe that edifying ourselves can be as important as edifying others.  And so it was in that spirit that I approached this prompt.  Here’s what I came up with for Day Two:

32-flavors

I was inspired by my own recent reflections and studies and by songs that have inspired me and by listing…so I listed 32 things for my 32 years and I incorporated some inspiring musings from lyrics I love into my own “talking to myself” journaling.  Your approach to affirming yourself or shining the light on the positives you hope to build upon this year may come in a different way..let your letter writing flow however you are inspired.

We can’t wait to see your pages too!

I do want to say again, as we get into this project more and as it is so journaling heavy… as with all our Grow With Love projects, we know these pages can be very personal and something you may not feel comfortable sharing in a gallery OR you may want to share, but do not feel comfortable sharing the words…that’s ok completely!  I usually do share my words, but some pages I like to hold the journaling closer.  We would love to see your pages and encourage you but ultimately, this is a scrapping journey for YOU.  So share as you are comforable.

Hope you have a beautiful day! Happy Scrapping!

{grow with love: letters} day one

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Happy Weekend!  I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful day!

I’m really thrilled to get us started on our latest Grow With Love journey…Grow With Love: Letters.  This is a series of templates and journaling prompts inspired by letter writing that will be featured in the Artisan Notebook throughout 2011.  Crystal and I are really excited about this adventure and hope you will join us along the way as we challenge ourselves to really pour our thoughts and feelings in to our scrapping and journaling.  Each month we will release and feature 4 fresh prompts and templates…totaling in 48 amazing pages and letters covering a wide variety of topics and heartsongs.  You can find January’s offering {here} and {here}.  As with each of our Grow With Love projects, Crystal and I will be posting the prompts and diving in to them with you on our blogs.  This weekend we will play a little catch up and post the first two prompts with some inspiration.  Then you will be able to follow along for the last two January posts as such:

Week Three: Wednesday 19 January – join us on Sara’s blog

Week Four: Wednesday 26 January – join us on Crystal’s blog

Also, as with all our GWL projects, Letters is ultimately a self-paced journey and whatever you hope to make of it.  So you are welcome to follow along and jump in at any time, using the templates or not, scrapping digi or paper, or simply just journaling or creating an art journal: whatever inspires you.  You will be able to find all our posts as we complete them listed {here}.

So let’s take a peek at the first prompt for this month’s Letters project:

I always feel a lot of energy in scrapping at the beginning of the year as we all often feel inspired by that fresh-start feeling of all the goal setting and reflection and optimistism and hope that comes with the new year.  This prompt holds on to that energy and asks you to write to yourself about your compass for the year.  Whatever that may be for you..your “one little word” or any direction-setting project you are pursuing, scrap it.  Challenge yourself to get really honest with this prompt.  Think and reflect and choose something you know is “doable” not just something you WANT to be doable.  In a way, you are holding yourself accountable here and also setting yourself up for success by setting realistic expectations for yourself and something you will strive for in the long term…it’s an endurance thing so to speak, as opposed to a short-term sprint kind of thing.

I know for me, this kind of “shift” in my approach to scrapping my compass for 2011 resulted in some really wonderfully energizing and fulfilling introspection and conversations and prayer as I chose my heading for the year.

Here is a peek at Crystal’s beautiful page as she encourages herself through her journaling:

Clivesay_janletters_pg1

We can’t wait to see your pages of reflection and compass-setting!  And we hope you find this process one as energizing and hopeful as it was for us!!  Feel free to share here in the comments with us if your comfortable.  And stay tuned for the next GWL: Letters posts tomorrow.

Happy Scrapping!

{fresh seeds} Grow With Love: Letters Edition {january} and Paper Gardens

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Happy Friday!! I hope that everyone has had a beautiful week!

I am so happy to share this week’s {fresh seeds} with you, as it’s something Crystal and I hold near to our scrappy story loving hearts.  As I mentioned yesterday, we were inspired by letter writing when we conceived of this latest set of Grow With Love templates and journal prompts.  We hope you will join us this year as we embark on an adventure of heartfelt writing.

As always, while GWL: Letters has inspiration rooted in letter writing, and heartfelt journaling, these templates can be used in any way that suits your style and story.  We so hope you like them!  Meet GWL: Letters Edition:

Sgleasonclivesay_gwlletters1_preview

And here’s a peek at some inspiration:

Inspirationgwljan

You can find Grow With Love: Letters Edition for January at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday 16 January.

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I wanted to thank everyone who played along for the {giveaway} of Grow With Love: Letters Edition.

I turned to Mr. Random again to help me select our winner.  And I want to say a big Congratulations to…….

Blogwinner114

Congratulations, holly!  Please send me an email to claim you prize.  ♥

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Also, I’ve released both of my Paper Garden sets at The Pad this week.  One of my most favorite things about scrapping are the papers.  I’m ga-ga for pretty papers.  And so, in my own scrapping I play with paper a lot.  And these templates celebrate and accentuate all that paper-y goodness.  If you haven’t yet picked up Paper Garden {volume one} or Paper Garden {volume two}, now’s the chance to snag them.  They will be available for 20% off through Sunday 16 January.

Sgleason_papergarden1_preview

Sgleason_papergarden2_preview

And here’s a peek at some fabulous Paper Garden inspiration from the girls:

Inspirationpg1

Inspirationpgv22

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 for my 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.  Woot!

Next week, Crystal and I are picking up where we left off with Grow With Love: Kids Edition and you can join us this weekend as we get started with the first two prompts of the Letters Edition.  I will be posting on Saturday and Crystal on Friday..  Hope to share in heaps of inspiration together!

Happy Weekend and Happy Scrapping!

Sig

 

love letter — a grow with love {giveaway}

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There is something about sitting down to write a letter, be it with pen and paper or on the computer, or in a journal or diary…the pouring of feelings and wishes and…truth…from your heart to someone else (or even to yourself) is a special kind of personal.  There is a kind of romance to it all. 

And it was letter writing that inspired Crystal and I to create our latest Grow With Love adventure.  We are thrilled that Grow With Love: Letters Edition will be a regular feature each month in the Artisan Notebook throughout 2011 (the first month is available now).  Each month we hope to inspire you with a series of templates and journaling prompts rooted in letter writing that we hope will encourage you to step out of your comfort zone a little bit, reflect on your relationships and loves, and love a little more deeply and truly. 

Growwithloveletterspromo

The templates and prompts are arriving at TLP Friday. Here's a closer peek:

Sgleasonclivesay_gwlletters1_preview

As always, while GWL: Letters has inspiration rooted in letter writing, and heartfelt journaling, these templates can be used in any way that suits your style and story.  We so hope you like them!

And I'd love to share them with one lucky commenter!   If you like to win, just leave a comment below, for a chance to win before Thursday 13 January at 9pm (PST).   You can increase your chances at winning by posting about the giveaway on Twitter and Facebook.  Be sure to come back here with a link in the comments (please post as a new comment each time). 

I will announce the winner here on the blog and in my newsletter on Friday 14 January.

Lots of luck!

{re-worked} and {re-energized}

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Happy Wednesday!

SO.  In recent weeks, life happened.  With general busyness of the holidays came a huge heaping helping of illnesses and a goodbye that had me reeling.  Busy seemed manageable.  Busy + Yick + Sad wasn’t.  And Grow With Love got lost in the shuffle a little bit, unfortunately.  You’re probably wanting to gift me with the title “Captain Obvious” right about now, since (duhhh lady) there have been no updated postings of prompts and inspiration recently.  Crystal and I are sorry for having fallen behind in things and we are so very grateful for your patience and your understanding.  And I am so grateful for all the well wishes and prayers of support.  They have meant so much to me and have really uplifted me.

We are hoping this little break has been rejuvenating creatively speaking and that you’re all feeling ready to dive back in to the project with us.  We can’t wait to continue to grow with love with you all as we finish up Grow With Love: Kids.  Before that, over the next couple days, I will be posting the final two days of prompts for Grow With Love: Holiday.  Annnnd…we have a little something fresh coming, beginning this weekend and throughout the year.

Here is the revamped schedule for Grow With Love: Kids for the remaining prompts…

The last post we worked was for Day Thirteen.  And so we will pick up again with…

Week Seven: Monday 17 January (Day Fourteen. Sara) and Thursday 20 January (Day Fifteen. Crystal)

Week Eight: Monday 23 January (Day Sixteen. Sara) and Thursday 27 January (Day Seveteen. Crystal)

Week Nine: Monday 30 January (Day Eighteen. Sara) and Thursday 3 February (Day Nineteen. Crystal)

Week Ten: Monday 7 February (Day Twenty. Sara)

So..we so hope you’ll join us.  And feel free to revisit the first 13 Days of the project {HERE}.  There is still plenty of time to join in, if you haven’t already.  And if you’re brand new to Grow With Love, welcome! We feel so deeply about our hopes for Grow With Love that while we are digital scrapbooking template designers, we hope that anyone and everyone who wants to play along does…be it paper scrapping, digiscrapping, with the templates, or without.  Let your creativity guide you along the way, using any products and any medium.  In the end it is our hope that you will have created a series of pages (that can become an album) that you will have poured your hearts into and that you will be proud of.  Whether you’ll be using the templates (you can snag them here and here) or not, we hope that you’ll be inspired to share your heart and stories and delve in to new creative territory along side us!

And remember, ultimately this is a scrap at your own pace adventure.  These prompts will be available on our blogs indefinitely so dive in and share whenever you’re inspired!  We can’t wait!

{fresh seeds} and a sale!

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Hello everyone!  I feel as though it's been an age since I've last posted, maybe in part because it has indeed been a while, but also because in these short few weeks so much has happened.  You ever have periods in your life where you feel you've aged or grown so much more than the actual time that has passed?

ANYway…I'm falling back into the groove a little more with each day and I'm so excited to bring you a closer look at my latest {fresh seeds}: amaryllis and life {documented} vol. 1. Both are available in my shoppe right now and on sale through the weekend.

The Lilypad is four this weekend!!  And we are celebrating with a big (and rare) storewide sale.  Virtually everything is on sale…so big fat WOOT for that.

Tlpbday

amaryllis is my January BYOC offering and were designed in the spirit of all things new and with fresh starts in mind…with varied design styles ranging from a "fuller" page, richer in layers with many little details and a little more depth to cleaner and more linear designs.

Sgleason_amaryllis_preview

Here's a peek at a bit of inspiration from the girls:

Inspirationamaryllis

Next I'm really happy to say that I've teamed up with sweet Katrina of Tiny Toes Designs again.  This time we're bringing you a set of 12 templates inspired by inspired by the documentation of the every day, but which can be used to tell any story and scrap any page.  This series of templates that can be used in coordination with any photography and moment-capturing project including: Project 365, Project 52, and photo-a-day.  If you're not doing project 365, these would still work perfectly for a multi photo and journal heavy layouts. 

Sgleason_ld1full_preview

and it comes with these simple January date clippables too!

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here's a peek at some of the amazing inspiration:

Inspirationlife

Inspirationlife2

life {documented} is now available at TLP and is on sale through the weekend.  Woot!

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 for my 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.  Woot!

I have some really exciting things brewing that I can't wait to share with you…so be sure to check back later this weekend for a hint of what's coming.  Annnd, Crystal and I will be getting back to our Grow With Love posts now that the craziness of the last month has calmed a bit.

Happy weekend and Happy Scrapping!

Sig

 

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