Blog

{fresh seeds} grow with love and life documented

By

I’m happy to share two fresh releases today that are rooted in my most favorite thing: storytelling and documenting.

I’m happy to share with you the next set of templates and prompts for the Grow With Love: Letters Edition as featured in the Aritsan Notebook.  This {february} installment dives in to letter writing that is, naturally, inspired by the spirit of LOVE.  The prompts will inspire us to reflect on love stories past, present, and future as we communicate our heartsongs through pen and paper.  Here’s a peek:

The next installment of life {documented} with Tiny Toes Designs also lands at The Pad this week.  Katrina and I are happy to share this fresh set of templates that will coordinate beautifully with any P365, P52, or photo-a-day kind of project.  They can also be used fabulously in a general papery or multi-photo way.  Meet volume two of life {documented}:

I’ve included another set of simple date elements for clipping for February as well:


grow with love: letters edition {february} is available now at The Lilypad for 20% off through the weekend. life {documented} volume two is available now at The Lilypad for 20% off through the weekend too too.  If you are a newsletter subscriber, you will have received special coupon for a bit of extra exclusive subscriber savings.  If you aren’t, feel free to sign up so you can get extra little gifties too in the future. ♥

And here is a smattering of inspiration to brighten your Friday:

I hope everyone has a beautiful Friday!  Happy Scrapping!!

{grow with love: kids} day sixteen

By

Happy new week!

Welcome to Week Eight and Day Sixteen of the Grow With Love: Kids Edition project!  We are getting down to it now with only a few prompts left until we will have created 20 story centric pages full of emotion and truth and fun for our children.  We hope you have loved diving in to these prompts as much as we have and that you find yourself feeling encouraged and edified in your storytelling and memory keeping!  I know, for me, this project has already evolved my perspective for how I approach my scrapping and I can’t wait to continue scrapping pages for my sweet Bugga like this.

Today’s prompt is a fun one and pretty light in mood and we hope you have fun with it!  Let’s peek:

I have always been a lover of music and so it’s kind of had a way of infusing itself in to my own scrapping.  I have a few ongoing album projects that are music and lyric centered and so this prompt was one I was really excited about.  I am still working on mine, and can’t wait to share it with you.  In the mean time, we can’t wait to see how you were inspired by this prompt.  Did you share your favorites?  Your kids’ favorites?  Did you compare your musical tastes to theirs?

Hope you have fun scrapping!  Maybe listen to a few tunes while you scrap.  Woot!

{grow with love: letters} day three

By

I hope everyone has been having a beautiful week!

I am happy to share Day Three of the Grow With Love: Letters project today!  In Day One we set our compasses for the year and in Day Two we made a deliberate effort to focus on the positive foundations of ourselves.  Today’s post ventures into sharing encouragement and gaining big picture perspective.  Let’s take a peek:

Right from the off I could see how this may be a heavy page for myself.  There is a page I’ve been wanting needing to scrap for almost two years now.  But it’s one of those emotional, cathartic types and frankly I’ve been avoiding it.  Not entirely intentionally, but it was easy to scrap the other lighter things.  And so I have been.  In fact, I actually tried to think of something else to scrap for this prompt.  But this page kept tugging at me and it turns out this prompt was a perfect and timely opportunity to finally dive in.  Because this page that has been brewing is a perfect example of a “hindsight is 20-20” moment for me.

So for me, it was a bit challenging.  But then, also amazingly empowering and encouraging.  The whole process of scrapping this prompt became a reminder for me of the big picture.  And my big picture is framed by my beliefs and experiences, but it tells me that even in those moments when I feel so out of control, there is a plan (and a better one than my own).  My lesson was, to a degree, at its core: “when you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears”.  It can be so reassuring and reaffirming to look back in hindsight and be able to discern the reasons for the tougher moments.  And to learn from them so when faced with challenges in the future I can rely on what I know is true instead of being guided solely by the moments in the present.

So, all that said.  My page looks a little dark and scary (and if anyone is familiar with my scrapping, I don’t do dark and scary).  BUT really the message for me, the process for me, and the hindsight I am communicating is…light and beautiful and amazing.  I think I may do a second accompaniment page for this prompt.  To kind of echo the beauty of hindsight.  Because two years later, things are not this dark.

Onfear

So how does this prompt speak to you?  Do you have a moment, like me, that is clear to you now, but that seemed muddy once upon a time?  Or is your hindsight moment one full of humour?  Is it a “note to self”?  Think about some of the lessons you feel you’ve learned in life and trace it back to the beginning…how did you learn it?  Where does your wisdom in life come from?  What experiences got you to where you are?  Consider all of that as you think of writing this letter.

Can’t wait to see!  Happy Growing and Happy Scrapping!

Crystal will be presenting the fourth prompt for Letters next Wednesday.

{grow with love: kids} day fourteen

By

Happy Monday! Welcome (back) to Grow With Love: Kids Edition.  So…here we are.  We are picking up where we left off and I’m so thrilled to be getting us back into these posts.  Crystal and I have been loving them so far and we are eager to step in to the final sequence of prompts and pages for our kids project!!  If you need to get caught up feel free to head back to the beginning or catch up on the latest update post.  As always we are so happy to welcome anyone who wants to dive in at any time and we hope you have fun making this project your own!  Most of all we hope you find it fulfilling and thought-provoking, fun and impactful.

So let’s take a peek at what’s next.  Here is the prompt for Day Fourteen:


This is a prompt that has so many possibilities for direction.  I can envision many funny pages…maybe that it might be a good idea to invest in Mr. Clean Magic Erasers:

Thewall

Or that there is such a thing as Toddler Math.  And one of the primary formulas to remember is: giving your toddler a bit of time to herself + silence = trouble. (Incidentally please forgive the horrific photography of this linked toddler math post.  It was before the days of a decent camera and before the days of my knowing anything about photography.  I still don’t know much, but as you’ll see..at least there’s been progress. lol!!).

But there may also be pages brewing of a more serious tone, and that’s the direction I took with mine as I reflected on this prompt. I decided to share a “wish someone told me” about some of the negative feelings that emerge in moments of parental frustration, or sheer exhaustion…I suppose, looking back, if I was being realistic I had to expect that these moments would happen.  But I think I always felt that my gooey-oozy-HUGE-never-before-experienced-unconditional kind of love would manage to ourweigh any irritations I might feel toward my child. And, in the end, it does.  But the truth is, sometimes I feel frustrated.  Sometimes I even feel irritated.  Sometimes I let those feelings direct my mood.  And then, almost immediately feel incredible guilt for having felt that way in the first place.  So I wish someone would have told me this would happen.  That I am not alone.  That it’s rather normal.  And so…my page:

Iadmit
I went with stark background and photoless because it seemed to suit both the wish and the insecurity of “confessing” these feelings.

When you reflect on this prompt, no matter what direction you go in..be it fun and silly or more serious..think of how your page design or template transformation can “fit” the story you’re sharing.  You can set the mood with design and color as much as you can with words.

We hope you have fun with this one!  Can’t wait to see your pages!  And don’t forget to check in with Crystal for Day Fifteen on Thursday.

 

{grow with love: letters} day two

By

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

By

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!

1 … 18 19 20 21 22 … 34