journal prompts

Putting Pen to Paper

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One of the wellsprings of inspiration you’ll find here at Plant Your Story is a project in storytelling called Papyrus.  It’s all about Putting Pen to Paper and I hope you’ll find it both inspiring and encouraging in your own scrapbooking and storytelling.

You can find Papyrus products in my store as well as inspiration in the Anthology; each release includes a set of page design templates accompanied by a a series of story driven journaling prompts and a spot of content in printable .pdf format.  These printable .pdf pages will contain a sprinkling of story starters, a dash of encouragement with a side of creative inspiration designed to meet you right where you are, as you are, whether you love to write or not with the hope of nudging you to put pen to paper.

My personal philosophy for scrapbooking, storytelling, memory keeping, documenting, capturing, goodness…even *living* can essentially be boiled down to these 6 words:

everyone has a story worth telling.

The longer, spill my heart version of that can be found here: Planting Roots in the Story wherein I share in true Wordy McGee style my heart for documenting our stories.  And that big fat ooey gooey heart is that storytelling and scrapbooking, for me,  is about documenting and recording, it’s about remembering.  It’s about saying “I was here”, it’s about taking stock in life, it’s about celebrating the every day, it’s about finding your voice and getting to know yourself better, it’s about writing love letters to those we care about, it’s about keeping a family history, writing biographies and an autobiography, and it’s about building a legacy. It’s about things that matter. Not to the world. Not to Tom, Dick or Harry or Lady Gaga. Not to anyone else but those who matter to me, to YOU. The ones we love, the ones we hope to teach and to learn from, the ones we share ourselves and our lives with. We are recording our stories. And in the process, we are *writing* our own.

And that’s what Papyrus and Putting Pen to Paper is all about.

The process of “putting pen to paper” comes easily for some..the words just flow like water. There is a comfort there. Others are less comfortable in their journaling skin. But the “how” is the same for everybody and it’s really simple. As with anything else in life, the growth and the fulfillment lives in: practice. So our motto is: “just press record”, “just start”. Today is the best time. And the comfort and the ease lives in: being authentic. Just be YOU. Doubts and hesitations live in comparisons. It doesn’t matter how much or how “well” anyone else journals their story. This is YOUR story. You are the author. And you’re the *only one* who can tell it.

So please do.

Grow With Love: One Year Later

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July of 2010 marked the beginning of something special.

One year ago, Crystal and I introduced our storytelling concept Grow With Love.  It was fresh, it was a little challenging, and we were a little terrified but hugely excited about it.  Grow With Love was and remains our vision for our personal storytelling and it also reflected our philosophy and heart for encouraging others in their own storytelling.  We hoped to create story-and-prompt driven projects that would challenge and encourage scrapbookers and storytellers to document their personal stories in a more meaningful way.  And more importantly, in a way that would have a tangible impact on their lives beyond the page.  In the year since we first put ourselves and this heartsong “out there” we have been so amazed and inspired by the beautiful pages and stories we have seen shared.  And it was Grow With Love that gave me the personal nudge of confidence to really surrender to my love of Story and develop Plant Your Story.

So reflecting on this adventure, one year later, has me feeling a little nostalgic and ooey and gooey.

And Crystal and I both agree that our first project, Grow With Love: Marriage, holds a special place in our hearts (and in our albums)…and not just because it was our “first” but because of the impact it had on both of us personally.  To this day, the pages that I created during the GWL: Marriage process remain some of my most favorite because they are full of my heart and they document the most important relationship in my life.  It was transformative.  It was empowering.  It was challenging.  But it was worth it.  So so worth it.

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So today, in honor of our One Year Grow With Love “anniversary”, Crystal and I would like to offer three Plant Your Story readers with the chance to take part in this storytelling journey as well.

Grow With Love: Marriage was inspired by deep reflection of our own loves and relationships.  It is a series of templates and journaling prompts that we hope will inspire you to share your own stories and create beautiful pages from the heart that you will love.   Includes twenty layered templates and twenty printable thoughtful journaling prompts 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.  And as you scrap, at your own pace, you can review the process and get inspiration and encouragement that was posted here on the blog.

To enter this giveaway, simply comment here by next Friday 5 August at midnight (PST) for your chance to win Grow With Love: Marriage Edition.  To increase your chances of winning, you can tweet (or retweet with a visible link) or blog or share news of this contest — be sure to share a separate comment with the link to your tweet or post.

If you have already scrapped Grow With Love: Marriage Edition, you can still win something special!  Simply share one of your pages on the Plant Your Story FB page  (For a “how to” see this link) and comment here for your chance to win $20 to shop my store!

Lots of luck!  And thank you for one year of growing with love!  ♥

{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} grow with Love: letters edition {june}

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Well goodness another month is drawing to a close and many of us find ourselves saying goodbyes to school years and hellos to summer.  And as this season of travels and staycations draws near, Crystal and I were inspired by journeys, getaways.  And we threw in a little taste of fatherhood too (since June *is* the month o’ Dads here in the U.S.) as we created June’s Grow With Love: Letters templates and prompts.

Meet Grow With Love: Letters Edition {June} — a set of four layered templates created in the spirit of journeys, adventures, getaways and vacations.  As always, these Grow With Love templates are accompanied by a series of thoughtful story-driven journaling prompts which are borne from the hope of helping you tell your stories and put pen to page.

We hope you’ll have fun getting inspired with these!  You can use the templates and prompts together or separately to suit your own story and pages.

And here’s a touch of inspiration:

Grow With Love: Letters Edition {June} is available at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday May 29.

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 quite a few fun goings on on the horizon including fresh collaborations, a wonderfully fun summer Grow With Love experience, and more giveaways!

Speaking of giveaways.  There is still time to check out and participate in the ongoing Scrap Your Theme song giveaway sponsored by the amazing Kristin Cronin-Barrow.  Not only will you walk away having created a fun page, the winner of this one will receive a $25 gift certificate to her store!!!  Which is pretty WOW, right?!!