fresh seeds

Happy Happy Joy Joy

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I had delayed posting this until now because unfortunately the store at The Lilypad was positively overloaded, despite the best efforts of the girls to prepare for the uptick in site traffic in advance of this weekend. What a blessing though, to be SO busy that the site couldn’t handle it for a little bit there. We all thank you so much for all your support and especially your patience. I know this is a busy day for everyone and we are so sorry for the delay and troubles and even more grateful for your hanging in there with us today!   It looks like the site is now up and functioning (ever so slowly with peak usage). Yay!
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Happy Digital Scrapbooking day!!

It’s that time of year again…that special time dedicated to celebrating this craft and art we love so much and we honor our penchant for telling our stories and playing with programs by shopping and scrapping and chatting and browsing and soaking up all the fun to be had in the digital community. It’s a day full of busy and creativity and I love it so much because in the end, after all the hubbub, it’s all about Getting Excited To Tell Our Stories.

So here’s what I have going on this weekend.

The Lilypad is positively hopping with games, challenges, forum fun, and sales and sales and TONS of new releases and more sales.

And it all starts with the release of the November BYOC, which is full and gorgeous.

Meet, Milkweed:

The Milkweed templates are designed with a heart for capturing the details of your story, a series of photos and the warmth that lives in the every day moments.   Inspired by autumn sun and color and the layers of fallen leaves 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.  And they give you the chance to scrap some photo centric stories that feature a series of photos or play with paper in fresh ways!

Also new for the November BYOC is the Thankful Collection:

The Thankful collection is a warm, happy, and positive collection of  clipping mask templates, word art, text paths and stamps/brushes designed in the spirit of simple happinesses, and autumn.

Here’s a closer look at the components of this wonderful collection of details to add to your pages:

Here is some beautiful inspiration from the girls:

As if the BYOC goodies weren’t enough in the way of gorgeous goodies…The Pad is overflowing with amazing fun and tons (over 60!!) new releases for Digital Scrapbooking Day!

I have several new releases myself including a couple collaboration projects with Crystal Livesay!  We have teamed up for a fun and fabulous Grab Bag of 8 page design templates.  And since Grab Bags are all about the deep savings, you can snag this collection of templates for only $3 through DSD weekend and Monday.

Here’s a peek at the iDSD Grab Bag‘s innards:

And also new this weekend is the November installment of our Grow With Love: Letters collection:

And here’s some inspiration with the Grab Bag designs and November letters designs:

The best part of all this yummyness is that they are all available through the weekend and Monday for 30% off (except the new BYOC which is available for 20% off OR 30% off if you are a newsletter subscriber and use the coupon for exclusive savings found there).  In fact, my entire store is available for 30% off through Monday 7 November.   Woot!

Not to mention this seriously gorgeous Free With Purchase kit from The Lilypad designers, which is free with any purchase of $15 or more in the store:

And for a little something extra here’s a fun chance to win a gift that keeps on giving (like the jelly of the month club, lol!).  Every order of more than $10 this weekend will be entered to win a membership in the Seeds of the Month club — which entitles the winner to a $10 GC to my shop for every.single.month in 2012! 🙂

Not only that, there is a fun and fabulous free download available on the Plant Your Story facebook page.  If you’ve never scrapped with a template or never used a journaling prompt to get your creative thought process going and to encourage you to plant your story on your art and pages, here is the perfect opportunity to get a taste of both…for FREE.  You can snag this Grow With Love sampler — a set of templates which are accompanied by two thoughtful journal prompts — on the PYS facebook page. Just check the left sidebar and click the Happy DSD tab. ♥

Annnnd. This warm set of autumny sweet tags is still available as an exclusive download on the Zinnias and Swallowtails facebook page.  Simply click on the “exclusive” tab to snag it if you haven’t already. (It will be removed on Tuesday).

So hope you all have a beautiful weekend!   And please, feel free to share any of your art and stories with me via email or on my facebook page.  I LOVE to see your work!!

Happy scrapping!!

{fresh seeds} Apple Tree

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The story of our education and the memories of our school days are a significant part of the fabric of our personal stories. Our educational experiences and the lessons we learn in school and throughout life shape us and our values and beliefs.  The whole “story of learning” in our lives is something that is SO part of who we are.  And it’s a story that deserves to be told.

Apple Tree is a full digital kit inspired by these stories of schooling and learning and it is my hope that it will inspire you to document your own story of learning. Whether you are documenting these days for your child(ren) or for yourself (and please do!), Apple Tree is FULL of hand-crafted crafty goodness with a heart for the schooly story. And it is versatile enough to help you tell any story, for any age and any gender.

Meet, Apple Tree:

And here’s some truly amazing inspiration from the girls and Pollys.  I was blown away with the range of pages here and how some used it to scrap their own personal schooly stories, schooly stories of their kids, and non-schooly pages.  Seriously inspiring:

Apple Tree is available in my shoppe at The Lilypad through Monday 19 September for 20% off!

I’m really thrilled to share with you my very first full kit!!  It is planted firmly in the story and it was a joy to create.  I wanted to create something that reflected my paper scrapping roots a little bit and my love for all things crafty and my penchant for journaling all the while being versatile, easy to scrap, and fun.  It was a long process but a really fulfilling one and I really hope you love it as much as I do!

I have been asked quite a lot if I still plan on designing page design templates and the fast and happy answer is: yes, definitely!  It is my plan to primarily stick to my scrapping/page design foundation…creating a story driven full kit every once in awhile.

In fact I have a couple fabulous fresh template releases on the horizon that I’m excited to share with you!  In the mean time, I so hope you enjoy Apple Tree!!  And that it inspires you to tell your own stories of learning.   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 or share them on my facebook page.  And if you haven’t signed up the 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.

I so hope you have a beautiful weekend!!

{fresh seeds} Sugar Maple

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Happy September!!  This year is determined to fly by at speeds that leave me reeling and hoping for a moment to breathe and pause so I can catch up with life and tasks and mountains of things I want to pour myself in to, but instead of making another “how did we get here so fast?!” declaration I am welcoming September with arms open w i d e because I’ve been told this is the month that the heat starts to wane..the month when I won’t feel like I’m baking myself when I step outside.  And I’m in the mood to give September a big fat hug because it is the month where things slow down a bit and normalcy sets in, I can just feel it.  We are settling in to the routine of the school year, the weather is settling, everyone is healthy (thank goodness) and good things are on the horizon.

I hope that as summer wanes and as the school year begins for many of us that you are finding September a welcome sight as well…full of hope and promise and warm.  And a fresh (amazing) BYOC at The Lilypad.

 

With all this promise of autumn beauty and deep breaths, and the fresh hope of the school year, and these yummy colors, I was inspired to create Sugar Maple:

The Sugar Maple templates are designed in the spirit of the warm and the onset of autumn 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. This set is perfect for any autumn, vintage, school, everyday page, all about me, or event page and gives you room to “play” and modify each page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities.

I’m also happy to introduce Sugar Maple Seeds.   Sugar Maple Seeds are a collection of classic journalers, journal mats, daters and tags. Inspired by the warm and rich welcome of autumn and with the heart of encouraging you to capture your story, Sugar Maple Seeds coordinates seamlessly with the September BYOC but can also be used beyond that in coordination with any of your autumny or everyday pages throughout the year.

Includes 24 different journalers of different sizes and shapes, some with journaling lines, some without, and a few date tag elements to give you a cornucopia of choice in adding that perfect journaling touch to your pages.

And here’s a spot of Sugar Maple inspiration (WOW.):

Sugar Maple and Sugar Maple Seeds are available in my shoppe at The Lilypad through Monday 5 September for 20% off!

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 or share them on my facebook page.  And if you haven’t signed up the 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.

There are so many fabulous happening on the horizon and I can’t wait to share them with you!  I so hope you have a beautiful weekend!

{fresh seeds} Gladiolus

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It’s August.  It’s Warm.  Scratch that, it’s HOT.  Scratch that too, it’s Crazy Hot.  But it’s sunny and  it’s time for a Fresh BYOC and I’m feeling inspired by it’s classic and sometimes retro-y feel.  It feels cozy and homey and warm in a warm fuzzy kind of way.  And I so hope you like it!

I was inspired by this warm palette, summer’s end, and a touch of vintage to create these papery designs.  Meet Gladiolus:

I’m also happy to introduce Gladiolus {story seeds}.  These fun postage date frames and vintagey stamps (in .png + .abr formats) are inspired by old school postage stamps and are perfect for adorning any page or creatively adding dates to layouts and blog posts.:

Gladiolus {story seeds} includes 31 days of dated postage stamp frames (in .png format) that can be recolored or used as a clipping template and customized with papers. Frames come with a clipping mask for your photos or papers and are sized big at 4×5 for easy resizing. Accompanied by month (Jan – Dec) and year (2066-2016) vintagey post stamps (in .png and .abr formats). Use the brushes or re-color the .pngs to create a custom look.

And here’s a spot of Gladiolus inspiration:

Gladiolus and Gladiolus {story seeds} are available in my shoppe at The Lilypad through Sunday for 20% off!

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 or share them on my facebook page.  And if you haven’t signed up the 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 don’t forget there is still time to check out and comment for your chance to win in the ongoing Grow With Love: One Year Later giveaway!  In celebration of one year of storytelling, three lucky commenters will receive our very first project Grow With Love: Marriage Edition or a gift certificate to shop my store!  So pop over for your chance to win. ♥

{fresh seeds} Letters and Redwood

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Well goodness it seems like mere moments ago I was sending a newsletter that was full of ohmygoodness-it’s-summertime-wooooot!!!! sentiments and now we find ourselves at the end of July and that period of time where the summer sets too quickly and I am clinging to that sunshineyness trying to squeeze every last drop of fun out of it before my little girl goes to her first day of school (!) in two weeks time.  How did that time fly by so fast? Seriously.  Both the summer and her growing up.

But there is still a lot of time to treasure and make beautiful memories and I hope that this week’s releases will help you scrap yours!

I am happy to share two (yay!) fresh releases with you this week both of which were inspired by the beauty of nature, the designs and pattern and foundational strength that lives in our natural world.

“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story. ”. — ~Linda Hogan, Native American poet

Crystal and I were inspired by the stories that live in nature and all things beautiful for the August installment in our Grow With Love: Letters series. Meet Grow With Love: Letters {August}:

Grow With Love: Letters {August} is available in my shoppe at The Lilypad through Sunday for 20% off!  Garden Report subscribers receive an additional 10% off. ♥

Here’s a spot of August Letters inspiration from the team:

Annnd…In response to many requests for a fresh set of photo-less design templates, I am happy to introduce Redwood.  The Redwood 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, Redwood 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.


Redwood is available in my guest shoppe at Ninth and Bloom through Sunday for 20% off!

And here’s a bit of Redwood inspiration:

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 or share them on my facebook page.

Hope everyone has a beautiful and sunshiney weekend!

{fresh seeds} Bluebonnet, Mayflower, Shasta

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I hope everyone is enjoying this first day of July!!   Besides the fact that I can hardly believe I typed that sentence just now, I do hope that those of you in the midst of summer have been enjoying the sunshine and the playfulness of these weeks!  We have fled the Oven Heat for a short trip back “home” and so this post comes to you from the shores of Lake Michigan where I can see actual water and actual green trees and where I send happy hellos with a happy belly full of real pizza.  And by “real” I mean Chicago pizza.

Speaking of full…this week is FULL of fresh releases!!

(did you like that segue?  Punny, right?).

So let’s dive in to this deep dish of goodies.

(oooh see that? I did it again..).

And yes, forgive me, I may or may totally be a little gooped up on the gop to be back home visiting with my family which means the goofy is a little more obvious than usual.  But in all seriousness, I am really excited to share this week’s new releases.

It’s BYOC and quarterly storewide sale time at The Lilypad!  Which means YAY for savings!

I was inspired by the fabulous and fun, the sunny and nautical-y, the patriotic, and the playfulness of summer when creating my contributions to this month’s amazing BYOC.

Meet Bluebonnet.

The Bluebonnet templates are designed in the spirit of the every day, of fun, sunshine, summer, nautical, and play…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. This set is perfect for any summer or vacation page, everyday page, all about me, or event page and gives you room to “play” and modify each page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities.

And then, since it is Independence Day weekend here in the States and the 4th is one of my most favorite holidays I was inspired to create Mayflower.  I just love the family time, the fireworks, the warm, the patriotism, the remembrance and all the red, white, and blue.  And all of those happy things pulled me to create this patriotic collection of layered templates, clipping mask templates, and stamps/brushes.

Here’s a more detailed look at the components.

The Mayflower {templates} are designed in the spirit of love for country, of fun and family, celebrating the 4th of July…This set is perfect for any independence day or patriotic page but can easily be modified to suit any everyday page and the designs give you room to “play” and modify each page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities

he Mayflower {clipped} clipping masks includes 11 different clipping mask templates for photos and papers (in .png format). They are sized BIG so you can easily resize and customize the look to your page designs and color schemes. The photo {clipped} masks are sized 4×6 in portrait and landscape orientations. The patriotic phrase and word art sentiments include “fourth”, “my country tis of thee”, “america the beautiful”, “home of the brave”, “land of the free”, “from sea to shining sea”. Also includes a fun sliced star clipping template. Inspired by Independence Day Mayflower {clipped} is the perfect touch of fresh whimsy for any patriotic page! Also wonderful for cards and notes and blog posts.

The Mayflower {seeds} are a fun set of 30 patriotic words (in both plain and scattered versions) and an additional 8 patriotic stamps. Stamped sentiments include: 4th, 4th of July, american boy, american girl, america, america america, bbq, brave, bright stars, broad stripes, family, firecracker, fireworks, founding fathers, freedom, fun fun, God bless, honor, independence, liberty, love for country, monument, never forget, old glory, patriot, proud, red.white.blue., stars & stripes, sparklers, stars, U.S.A.

Mayflower {seeds} are in both .png + .abr brush formats so you can easily customize to your page designs and color schemes. The are the perfect little extra touch and detail for your pages, photos, blog posts or card making projects.

And here’s a little Bluebonnet and Mayflower inspiration from the girls and Pollys!

Bluebonnet and Mayflower are available for 20% off at The Lilypad through Sunday 3 July!  And everything else in my shop is 30% off for the storewide sale!!

And I’m so thrilled to be guesting at Ninth and Bloom too!  And this is Shasta (like the Daisy).  Another set of templates in the Full Bloom series.

The “Full Bloom” series of templates are designed in the spirit of a “fuller” page, richer in layers with many little details and a little more depth, while still affording you room to “play” and modify the page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities.

Shasta is available for 20% off at Ninth and Bloom through Sunday 3 July.  Woot!

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 or share them on my facebook page.  And if you haven’t signed up the 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.

If you haven’t already..take a peek (and a listen) to this fun post about the latest class offering at Plant Your Story.  Crystal and I have a spot of audio for you and some q&a about Staycation.  (you can see the contents and learn more and register HERE).

Hope everyone has a fabulous, FULL, and sparkly weekend!!

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