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love letter — a grow with love {giveaway}

January 12, 2011 By Mrs. Gleason

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.

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

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}

January 12, 2011 By Mrs. Gleason

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!

January 7, 2011 By Mrs. Gleason

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.

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.

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

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.

and it comes with these simple January date clippables too!

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

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!

{grow with love: holiday} day ten

December 21, 2010 By Mrs. Gleason

Happy Tuesday and Happy Day Ten of Grow With Love: Holiday!! I feel as though I’ve time warped from the beginning of December to this moment because a good ten days in between was spent in complete sick-haze-couch-land and doesn’t count. I have to be honest, those days when I was feeling really terrible were a challenge for me. I LOVE this time of year. And I felt so discouraged and spent and completely devoid of the holiday spirit. So it was definitely an exercise in deliberate focus for me to stay focused on the positives…like the sound of my Bugga’s voice each morning (even when she herself was feeling yucky) discovered our little elf Rachel and her elf-y mischief or the sound of holiday tunes or lounging and watching my favorite holiday movies. We had to forgoe a lot of what we were looking forward to, but the important thing was we had each other and the whole point of this season was still there. We just had to work a wee bit harder to feel it.

We are nearing the end of Grow With Love: Holiday and despite all the busy (or all the sick) I hope that feeling of magic and warm is filling you up now! These prompts will remain up indefinitely and you can find any and all of them (as well as other Grow With Love projects): {HERE}. Feel free to dive in at any time!

Today’s prompt is another that has us considering a specific aspect of the holidays and one that can be deeply infused with meaning…music:

Even though there may be moments when I feel “tired” of hearing all the musical holiday notes everywhere we go this time of year, mostly I just love it all to bits. I looove holiday music! I am working on a page now that showcases my favorite holiday songs in a “playlist”. And it includes some that make me giggle and warm my heart (like I Want a Hippopatomus for Christmas):

a totally random pairing but song I just can’t get enough of in Bing Crosby singing with David Bowie (ummm..huh? lol!) Little Drummer Boy:

Oodles of other favorites from the Bing and Sinatra and Ella era, plus many traditional hymns and choral pieces and of course my most favorite (as in gives me the chills every single time I hear it), O Holy Night …really any version amazes me but I loove Josh Groban’s version:

ANYhoo…I could do this all night. I love love holiday music. So I’m excited to finish scrapping my music-y page while listening to some of these tunes. You can choose many to showcase, or one that is extra special to you. One that annoys you, one that uplifts you, one that takes you back to a special Christmas moment. Whatever you scrap I hope that you have fun reflecting on the sounds of the season.

Tomorrow the family and I head to the Polar Express train ride (the Grand Canyon Railroad) and I can’t wait! It will be just what we all need to get us feeling better and FULL of happy holiday spirit. I hope you and yours have beautiful days and moments leading up to Christmas!! ♥

{grow with love: kids} day thirteen

December 20, 2010 By Mrs. Gleason

Hello everyone and happy new week! Can you believe I’m actually blogging today?! Neither can I actually, as I almost wasn’t sure I’d make it. This illness has wrecked me so totally. I can’t recall the last time I was so hugely impacted by a virus, both physically and mentally. It’s day nine of the sick for me (which also hit my sweet Bugga and my dear love) and I’m only just able to peel myself off the couch for a few moments. Went back to the doctor today and they did a chest xray…which was sent off to be read to be sure of what they were seeing. I’m praying for good news and a clear film. In the mean time, I have been given some better meds and I am trying desperately to catch up on all that I’ve missed and regain all the holiday cheer I was feeling before this sick arrived.

I have missed you so and have missed scrapping and blogging and making merry so SO much. I hope that everyone has been enjoying their season and not feeling waylayed by illness or discouragement. I know that Crystal has been guiding you along the way with both our Grow With Love: Holiday and Grow With Love: Kids and I’m so grateful for her inspiration and for her stepping in when I couldn’t.

I’m happy to be bringing you Day 13 and the start of Week Seven of Grow With Love: Kids Edition. We will be taking these prompts into the New Year so there is still plenty of time to hop in and join us. You can do so at anytime, at your pace, whenever you feel inspired. Be sure to check out the main listing of postings {here} to catch up and follow along, for the backstory of Grow With Love and some wonderful inspiration.

Soo….let’s take a peek at today’s prompt shall we? It’s another “act and scrap” prompt as Crystal and I like to say and we find these ones to personally be among our favorites because they challenge us to really tangibly act in our lives. And today’s is one I have found to help guide my steps on the harder days of parenting.

So, it’s true. Parenthood is the most rewarding gift I’ve been given, but it’s also the most challenging. Sometimes parenting can be exhausting, and it can feel thankless, and it can feel like hard.work. Because many times it is. We are shaping our kids into the people they will become, we are guiding them and teaching them and that is HUGE stuff. Important stuff. And oftentimes frustrating stuff. I know I have some days where I am happy it’s bedtime. I always feel a little guilty for admitting that too, but some days…the hard days…nighttime can’t come quickly enough. It’s on these days I need to work a little harder to focus on the positives and so this prompt is helpful for me. It’s not about shielding from the important lessons or pretending life is all “rainbows and lollypops” but it is about being mindful of the power of your words. A parent’s words are heavy with meaning. Meaning that lasts. So we challenge you to take a day and let the praises be louder than the negatives..both outloud the little unsaid things you may say to yourself.

Ok..so I hope that gives you a good point to jump from. My head is feeling a little fuzzy so its entirely possible this post has made no sense. And I had better stop while I’m ahead. I will be back tomorrow though with Day 10 of Grow With Love: Holiday. And Crystal will be blogging on Wednesday.

Oooh ooh! And if you missed it…I’ve shared a freebie on the Scrap Orchard blog today as part of their advent hoopla annnnd my releases there at my guest home this month are currently 50% off (but only for a few more hours). ♥

Happy day and Happy Scrapping!

{grow with love: holiday} day five

December 10, 2010 By Mrs. Gleason

Happy Friday! I hope that everyone has been enjoying this the second week of December! I know it is a time that is extra full for everyone…with all kinds of busy. I know that I’m already feeling as though I could slow time a little bit to really relish all the moments and have a bit more time for the to do lists. And now that we are battling the sick in our house I feel that more than ever. Here’s to staying focused on what really matters and taking time to pause.

All that said, I was really excited to take a pause from the hub-bub yesterday to scrap today’s Grow With Love: Holiday post. And so without further ado here is our prompt for Day Five.

I’m really loving these “in their own words” prompts and pages lately and I love the idea of infusing MORE of my loved ones into my pages..not just me scrapping *about* them or speaking *to* them, but sharing more from their perspective in a real way. Getting them engaged in the memory keeping. So I had fun asking Bugga about her impressions of Christmastime. So here we have Christmastime with 4 year old goggles. What fun it will be to look back at this. And in fact I’m feeling inspired to revisit this very page each year to see the changes over time.