“Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite”….somehow these words have glued themselves to my thoughts when I think of goodnights and bedtimes and splashes of silly at the end of the day.  And that’s just what I love most about Sandra’s fabulous creations in the kit: the sleepytime mood with a splash of silly and adorable.

It’s that imaginative touch that inspired me as I created the templates to coordinate with this fun kit and it’s what makes me so excited about this collaboration.  Allow me to introduce Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite:

Here’s a closer look at the elements, papers, alpha and my templates…

And here’s a bit of inspiration with the templates and kit.  I really loved to see how the girls positively rocked this kit in sleepy time storytelling ways, in “battling-the-sicky” storytelling ways, and in general page ways too!

I also loved to see how the templates were used on their own:

sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite is available in my shop throughout the weekend for 20% off.  You can pick it up at ninth and bloom too!

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I wanted to thank everyone who played along for the {giveaway} of Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite.

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

Congratulations Shellie!  Please send me an email to claim your prize.  ♥

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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 and goodies.  Woot!

Crystal and I will be announcing our creative team for the Grow With Love series this weekend and soon and very soon we will be embarking on the next GWL releases.  I also have another fun collaboration in the works and some other wonderful surprises and projects are germinating as I type.  Can’t wait to share it all with you!!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!  Happy Scrapping!

Soooo, by now you know I’m pretty much a complete goob with a soft spot for cheesyness.  And so it’s probably no surprise that I rather like this lovey time of year swirling around Valentine’s Day here in the U.S.  I know the holiday itself is pretty much manufactured and yes, things can get a little *too* sweet, but it’s the whole spirit of it that makes me smile…the focusing a little more on the loves in our lives, the spreading of smile-y cheer, the giving of extra hugs.  And the chocolate.  All of that gives me warm fuzzies.  And it can really brighten some of hub-bub and some of the doldrums of winter and if we let it, it can really refocus us on what really matters in the world….LOVE.

So it was this spirit of the warm fuzzy, of all things lovey-dovey that I was inspired to create this week’s {fresh seeds}.  Meet Ooey-Gooey:

Ooey-Gooey {clipped} + {story seeds} is a collection of clipping masks and doodle-y sentiments that can be used together or separately for any of your love-inspired pages.

And here’s a closer look at the components…

Ooey-Gooey {clipped}

Ooey-Gooey {story seeds}

Ooey-Gooey {clipped} + {story seeds} is available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday 13 February.

Ooey-Gooey {chalky alpha + words} is a collection of love-inspired word clouds that includes a complete hand-chalked stampy alpha.

You can use the word clouds as mats behind photos and papers, to accent your papers and photos or as a stamp.  The alpha can be used in all these ways and more!

Ooey-Gooey {chalky alpha + words} is also available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday 13 February.

The Ooey-Gooey line can be used for any of your own love-inspired pages but are versatile enough to be used in any project.  The possibilities for your creativity to bloom with these are really countless.  Here’s a peek at some of the amazing amazing Ooey-Gooey inspiration:

I so hope everyone has a wonderful and ooey-gooey weekend!

Happy Scrapping!

Happy Friday, Happy February, and Happy BYOC!

Once upon a time I was intimidated by photo-less scrapbooking.  Now, I’m positively in love with it.  I find myself feeling even more creative and loving my pages even more when I let myself scrap without photos.  And that photo-less spirit and empowerment I feel when I focus on the words and the visual story is what inspired my fresh February BYOC release.

The Birchwood templates are designed in the spirit of story-centric and story-driven pages…inspired by my own photo-less layouts. This set is perfect for anyone who enjoys scrapping without photos, anyone who loves story-centered scrapping, or anyone who loves the look of a photo-less page, but needs a little outline to get started. As always, Birchwood is verstile enough to be adapted to scrap any general page and gives you room to “play” and modify each page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities.

Meet Birchwood:

And then there is Birchwood {clipped}:

Birchwood {clipped} is a collection of paper/photo mat clipping masks (in .png format) that can be used with your favorite papers and photos to give your pages, blog posts, and cards a little extra fun touch of whimsy.  Includes 30 clipping masks in .png format. These photo/paper clipping masks are big enough to be comfortably down-sized to suit your page and story. Ranging from more simple and classic (scalloped and deckled and bracket mats) to fun and funky and paper cut-y and doodle-y.

And some “made of awesome” Birchwood and Birchwood {clipped} inspiration from the girls:

Birchwood and Birchwood {clipped} are available in my shoppe at The Lilypad through Sunday for 20% off!

If you are a newsletter subscriber, you will have received special coupon for 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 as a heads up I will say “maybe there will be a special freebie included in next week’s newsletter and maybe there will.” ♥

Lastly, I’ve revamped my Facebook page and now there are exclusive goodies available to all my FB “likers” too!  All you need to do is “like” Zinnias and Swallowtails on Facebook and click on the “Exclusive” tab to access the exclusive content.  I will be updating the page and the goodies periodically.

Annnd we are into the final days of our Grow With Love creative team call.  Thank you to all who have applied so far!  If you are interested and inspired to join us in our Grow With Love projects, check this post for all the details!  The call ends on 5 February.

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!!

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:

And here’s a peek at some inspiration:

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…….

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.

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

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!

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!