Letters

{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} larkspur + letters {july}

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So it’s official: summer has arrived here in the desert Southwest…we’ve experienced our first “Severe Heat Advisory” warnings of the season which pretty much just means that the heat has evolved from Hot to Ridiculously Hot.  It also means that we spend a lot of time indoors enjoying the blessing of air conditioning (ohhh how grateful I am) daydreaming about if it’s possible to actually fry an egg on the pavement or rapid rise a loaf of bread out on my patio.

But apart from that heat-addled brains kind of daydreaming, I find myself daydreaming about making pretty things and why I love scrapbooking so much.  And it’s both of these…The Pretty and The Crafty…that have inspired this week’s {fresh seeds}.  I’m so happy to share two — yay! — new releases to share this week.

Meet Larkspur.  Larkspur is the latest in 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.  It’s been awhile since I’ve released a “full bloom” set, and I have to confess I have a soft spot for them.  They are derived from some of my most favorite pages and they can really be so beautiful and well, full while still affording you room to “play” and modify the page to suit your personal scrapping sensibilities.

And here’s a bevvy of beautiful inspiration from the girls and the Pollys:

Annnnnd.  We’re on the precipice of July (yes, seriously.) which means it’s time for the next installment of Grow With Love: Letters Edition with Crystal Livesay.

If you’re not familiar with the Letters Project, Grow With Love: Letters Edition is a fresh regular monthly feature in the Artisan Notebook for the year 2011.   It is a series of templates and journaling prompts rooted in letter writing 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. This is not only a scrap project. This is about changing yourself and your relationships for the better. Still, as ever, these templates can be used apart from the prompts to tell any story and scrap any page tailored to your own scrapping needs and style.

This month’s offering is rooted in our creativity and crafty and scrappy.  It’s fun and happy!

And here’s a spot of inspiration:

Both new releases are available in my store at The Lilypad for 20% off through Sunday 26 June.

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 maybe a fun summer freebie soon and very soon!)

Also!!!!

Registration for Grow With Love: Staycation has begun!  Staycation is a fun and relaxed and inspired summer adventure in storytelling.  I encourage you to learn more about it {HERE} and listen to Crystal and I yabber about it in this fun post too.  We so hope you’ll join us in this fun adventure!!!

I hope you have a fabulously pretty and crafty 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?!!

{grow with love: letters} Day Eighteen

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Hope everyone has had a beautiful week!  I’m filling in for Crystal who is up-to-her-eyeballs in vacation preparations…can’t think of a better thing to be busy with really and I know she’s super excited to be getting away for a spell…to the beach!

So here we are with the second prompt for May, which is Day 18 of our letter writing adventure.  This month we are honoring family and celebrating legacy and history with our prompts and pages.

Here’s a peek at today’s prompt:

You may take a peek at this prompt and feel, like me, that you need to take a pause and a deep breath.  One way or another, this is a kind of nudge to write and reflect about something emotional.  And that can be challenging or convicting or a little scary or overwhelming or even empowering.  It’s prompts like these that encourage us to tell the WHOLE story.  Even the emotional or difficult chapters…because these do shape us so.  And many times, reflecting on the goodbyes and the legacies (good or bad) can help close a door or facilitate the letting go or even reaffirm a person’s importance in our lives.

We hope that you feel inspired in this way today.  And we hope you will find some inspiration in these pages by the Storytellers.  They are so heartfelt and emotive and so beautiful.

Coila:

Nicole:

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Grow With Love is a story-centric scrapbooking and journaling project.  We hope it will inspire you to document your stories in a meaningful way that helps you live life more meaningfully too.  Please remember anyone is welcome to join in and follow along at any time.  You can access the complete Grow With Love archive and hop in to any past Grow With Love project or follow along with the Letters project which will be highlighted here every Wednesday.

Grow With Love Archive

{grow with love: letters} Day Seventeen

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Happy Wednesday!  And Happy May!!  (By the way, how is it May already?!)

If you’re just finding us here’s a smidge of backstory: “Grow With Love: Letters Edition” is a collaboration of templates and journaling prompts presented by Crystal Livesay and Sara Gleason and rooted in and inspired by letter writing as featured in the Artisan Notebook throughout 2011.  We will really explore the beauty of letter writing in our scrapbooking through letters to loved ones, letters to ourselves, letters as words into the cosmos.  Letters that help us set our hearts to paper, help us to get introspective, challenge us to bring words and thoughts to action in our days and letters that guide us to share the fun, the little moments, the every day.   So far we have penned letters that reflect upon setting direction and setting compasses, loves and relationships, gifts and beginnings.

With Mother’s Day and Memorial Day here in the States, we were inspired to honor family this month with our prompts.  And so the {may} letters will have us putting pen to paper writing letters honoring those we’ve loved, those we’ve lost, celebrating legacies and pondering our own.

We hope you will enjoy continuing in this scrapbooking and storytelling journey with us!  Please remember anyone is welcome to join in and follow along at any time.  You can access the complete Grow With Love archive and hop in to the Letters project which will be highlighted here every Wednesday.  The schedule for May is as follows, with all posts found right here on the Plant Your Story blog:

Week One: Wednesday 4 May – join Sara for Day Seventeen
Week Two: Wednesday 11 May – join Crystal with Day Eighteen
Week Three: Wednesday 18 May – join Sara with Day Nineteen
Week Four: Wednesday 25 May – join Crystal for Day Twenty

And I’m so let’s dive in to the prompt for today, Day Seventeen:

This is a timely page for Mother’s Day which is celebrated here in the US this Sunday.  Let yourself ponder your mother and how she has shaped you (good or bad).  Reflect and write a letter that reflects this relationship and its dynamic.

Here’s a page from me that shines the light on my mom, who I am blessed to say has been an amazing light and influence in my life.

And here’s a spot of inspiration from the Storytellers:

Coila:

Lex:

Sara:

A page like this is not only a wonderful addition to your own albums and your story, but it could make a really lovely present for your mom too!  We hope you feel inspired by this prompt and we would love to see your pages!  Feel free to share them here in the comments or in the Plant Your Story gallery!

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Grow With Love is a story-centric scrapbooking and journaling project.  We hope it will inspire you to document your stories in a meaningful way that helps you live life more meaningfully too.  Please remember anyone is welcome to join in and follow along at any time.  You can access the complete Grow With Love archive and hop in to any past Grow With Love project or follow along with the Letters project which will be highlighted here every Wednesday.

Grow With Love Archive

{grow with love: letters} Day Sixteen

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Hello Everyone! Crystal here bringing you day 16 of the letters. I am pretty ill but I was determined not to leave Sara hanging on today’s post, so I apologize in advance for any typos…or sentences that make no sense! Today’s prompt was a bit different for Sara and I. We are always looking for different ways to inspire you in your storytelling. Let’s take a look at what we had for today and then chitter chatter a bit more about it!

I quite like this quote, don’t you?? So much comes to my mind when I think about it and so much can be scrapped with that as your inspiration. Sometimes an ending is very sad. It’s hard to move on from some things and ever see good things come from it. Sometimes you feel as if nothing good could ever come from something. However, I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and a lot of the time you have a lot of control over what is to be gained from a situation. If you sit around and sulk over your broken heart then you will never be able to heal or find someone to help you put it back together. Maybe a period came in your life where you felt so hopeless and full of despair? Where did you go from that point?? What good were you able to spring forth from those ashes? Maybe you are still at an end. Your new beginning hasn’t come yet. Where do you hope to go from here? We have a couple super amazing pages from the girls to share with you too!

by Lex

by Nicole

Totally amazing and inspiring!! I hope that you are moved by this prompt! Don’t forget to snag the May Letters because they will be starting here on May 4th!

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