Plant Your Story

Author: Mrs. Gleason

Currently. A Date With Paint and Paper

Currently. A peek into my creative process as I created Petals no.7, releasing this weekend. I was inspired by the warm colors of autumn leaves and layers…as many of us are (daydreaming of) bundling up against the crisp autumn air.

Usual cast of characters: tissue papers, other texture based mediums (this time it was cork and burlap, corrugated cardboard and ribbon), template for cutting, paints, mists, paper bags (which are my most favorite “canvas” for getting painty and spashy and smatter-y).

Creating my Petals collection might very well be my favorite creative endeavor. I don’t usually have a plan, just a palette. I especially love playing with paper. And with paint. I set aside time to play with both, listening to music and just experimenting with my creativity. I used to be intimidated by this kind of “playing” with art. It is rather wandering and fluid and without a specific destination. I never know exactly what I want to create. But I always LOVE the process and usually feel really happy with the final result.

The fruit of this process looks like this in the end:

October 16, 2013
Fresh Seeds | Beech Tree

I think I find the greatest value in the documentation of everyday stories. Maybe it’s because those little stories are the things that make our lives *full*. The details, the conversations, the portraits of moments, the snapshots of character that reveal themselves in everyday happenings. That’s precisely the kind of story that inspired my contribution to this month’s Build Your Own Collab collection at The Lilypad.

(Incidentally, I have to say. This is one of those BYOC collections that makes my scrapbooking heart go pitter patter. It really is full full full of beautiful contributions from the TLP designers.)

Inspired by the spirit of everyday storytelling, documenting the details, and leaving a legacy, the Beech Tree collection echoes the intent of the Beech Tree album which I created to document “in the life” stories.

The Beech Tree {elements} feature cohesive, colorful pieces and classic story-centric pieces for telling those everyday stories:

The coordinating paper collection includes 17 versatile papers in colorful yet restrained hues and patterns. Meet Beech Tree {papers}:

And rounding out the Beech Tree collection is a versatile, structural full upper-case alphabet (plus numbers and punctuation) in six colors. Meet Beech Tree {alpha}:

The Beech Tree collection is available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday October 6, 2013. Subscribers to The Garden Report receive an additional 10% savings.

I loved seeing the inspiration pages for Beech Tree. Each one reveals the beauty of everyday kinds of stories.

As always I looove to see your stories and art too, so please feel free to share with me anytime. Really! Just shoot me a mail through the contact form or share them on my Facebook page.

I so hope you have a beautiful weekend full of memory making (and keeping too!).

October 3, 2013
Fresh Seeds | Plant Your Story: Journaled {volume three}, Plant Your Story: Titled {volume one}, and Sage page designs

One of my most favorite things to do is to play with design in my scrapbooking while still keeping the focus on The Story. And so I find myself inspired by layers and play-with-paper and balance and journal spots working together seamlessly in one design. And it’s that kind of spirit that lives in this week’s new releases.

Meet Plant Your Story: Journaled {volume three}:

This follow-up set of “journaled” templates focuses on the use of journal cards beyond the horizons of typical Project Life or pocket scrapbooking compositions. I love journal cards even though I don’t typically scrap in pocket-scrapbooking ways. Still I love to use them to include journaling in my pages or to layer or to add interest in my designs using “filler” journal cards.

Also new this week is Plant Your Story: Titled {volume one}. I find myself drawn to pages with strong title work and yet it is a facet of my own memory keeping that I sometimes neglect. I find myself playing with titles and title work more often and with more “gusto” when I have a design that incorporates a title seamlessly. These page designs were designed in the spirit of embracing “titling in design”.

And finally. Fresh this week are the Sage page designs. The Sage templates are designed in the spirit of play with paper, love for balance and clean lines in design, and the every day moment.

All is available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday September 22, 2013. Subscribers to The Garden Report receive an additional 10% savings.

Here is some beautiful inspiration with this week’s fresh releases.

As always I looove to see your stories and art too, so please feel free to share with me anytime. Really! Just shoot me a mail through the contact form or share them on my Facebook page.

I so hope you have a beautiful weekend full of memory making (and keeping too!).

September 27, 2013
Fresh Seeds | Coconut Tree

I’ve always been drawn to stories of hoping and dreaming. There is something so empowering about a person daring to believe in things, in others and in themselves. I think it’s brave. I think it’s bold. I think it’s authentic. And so full of…color. And those things shine BIG in this beautiful collection.

Coconut Trees have long been associated with tropical environments, beaches, islands and other places that people find themselves wandering away to in daydreams. It’s the quintessential dreamy tree. And so Coconut Tree seemed the botanical name choice for a kit about Dreams and Hopes and celebrating stories of imagination, following dreams and living boldly. Coconut Tree features vibrant colors, hope{full} words, and a sense of happy. It was unveiled as part of The Digi Files in July and now it’s come home to The Lilypad.

Meet Coconut Tree:

Coconut Tree is available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday September 22, 2013. Subscribers to The Garden Report receive an additional 10% savings.

Here is some amazing Coconut Tree inspiration, showcasing just how versatile this kit is. There are pocket scrapbook pages, project pages, girl centric pages, boy centric pages, artistic pages and every last one of them is full of WOW:

And I’m happy to share a fresh free download. The Coconut cards coordinate with Coconut tree beautifully but can also be used in any pocket scrapbooking pages or other layouts.

As always I looove to see your stories and art too, so please feel free to share with me anytime. Really! Just shoot me a mail through the contact form or share them on my Facebook page.

Here’s to a wonderful weekend full of Hoping and Dreaming and Going Forward. Happy scrapping, friends!

September 19, 2013
National Scrapbooking Day 2013 :: The Happenings

Happy Happy Scrappy ~~Day~~ weekend!

I hope everyone is enjoying all the wonderful happenings all across our scrapbooking community! I’m looking forward to scrapping a little this weekend and spending some time soaking up inspiration in the galleries! And hopefully I can squeeze in a little extra fun and shopping too!

Here’s Everything You Need To Know about what’s happening for Plant Your Story this weekend (all images are linked).

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Hope you have a very happy weekend!

May 3, 2013
DigiScrap Parade May 2013 :: That’s Life

The DigiScrap Parade is a fresh “hopping” experience for scrapbookers and storytellers wherein they can “hop” about a series of blogs or Facebook pages to gather pieces to a coordinating collection to scrap their memories. It is meant to be a sampling of products from wonderful designers in the community, offered quarterly. I was happy to be a part of the inaugural hop (which is at once GINORMOUS and very beautiful). For more information and for all the links to the hop, please stop by the DigiScrap Parade website.

Here’s my contribution to That’s Life:

My contribution can be found on my Facebook page and you’ll be able to hop into the mix easily from there. Happy Scrapping!

May 1, 2013