Happy Wednesday!  I’m so happy to present Day Fifteen of the Grow With Love: Letters project.  This month has us putting pen to paper about “beginnings“.  And this week’s prompt calls for us to get a little reflective and retrospective as we consider how a “beginning” of a relationship has evolved over time.

When I think of the “why” for my love of scrapbooking and storytelling, so often my thoughts land squarely on: relationships.  As I am documenting our days, really what I am doing is telling the story of our interactions: the conversations, the events, and the moments shared *together* with those I love.  Or I am gushing about or reflecting on the people I share my life with…and at the core of all of this is a portrait of my relationships.

Usually I am recording memories as they happen, preserving snapshots and details and connections in little windows of time.  One day, taken together, they will reveal an entire history and journey of our relationships.  But generally, as it’s unfolding in my storytelling day by day, the evolution of the relationships  isn’t immediately obvious.  And so this week’s prompt was refreshing for me.  It inspired me to take some time to consider the entire history of a relationship and give the “sum up” as I reflected on how that relationship has evolved over time.  And I’m really pleased to have scrapped it!

I was inspired to scrap about my relationship with my sister.  This is a relationship that has, regretfully, not been documented in my scrapbooks as often as I would like.  A huge part of that is the geographical divide between us.  Living at opposite ends of the country makes it difficult to make memories together like we once did.  And so that is another reason I really appreciated this prompt — I could focus on documenting a relationship that means so very much to me and has deep and long history, but fewer “today” moments than I would like.

I used goodies from the amazing new grab bag from Fruit LoOp Sally at Ninth and Bloom.

Coila was inspired to reflect upon her relationship with her husband:

And Lex was inspired to scrap the evolution of her relationship with her sister:

And Nicole was also inspired to reflect on her sister relationships:

As I was seeing the beautiful pages for this prompt I realized that several of us were led to scrap about our sibling relationships!  What relationship’s story do you feel inspired to share?

Hope this prompt speaks to you today too!  Happy Scrapping!

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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

Happy Wednesday!  I’m happy to be sharing today’s prompt from Grow With Love: Letters.  This month we are considering the stories of beginnings.  In Day Thirteen we let ourselves get reflective in our remembering and we captured the feelings that come with the beginning of a new season of life (married life, parenthood, stepping in to the world on your own for the first time..).  Today we will build upon that reflectiveness and the exciting energy of “begninning”:

This is what Crystal and I call an “act and scrap” prompt.  These prompts are designed with the hope of encouraging you to let the story touch your life in a tangible way…to actually *write* your story, so to speak.

And there are so many possibilities for this prompt, so you can have fun with it!  What little something (or big something) have you been thinking about beginning, but haven’t found the time or made the time for?  What something New would you like to try?  Try something new today.

Sara was inspired to share about a new lifestyle she is embarking on:

And Kelly documented her adventure in trying a new crafty project:

For more inspiration on scrapping the story of  “trying something new” I encourage you to visit Peppermint and Christine as they document an entire year of New in a project called New 52.  Each week they try something new to them and really embrace the journey of living life fully, trying new things and embracing change.

And be sure to visit next Wednesday for the next installment in the Letters series.  We can’t wait to see your pages!

Happy New and Happy Scrapping!

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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 the Letters project which will be highlighted here every Wednesday.

Happy April!  And welcome to the first Grow With Love: Letters post of this month!

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, and gifts.    This month’s project has us considering fresh beginnings.

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 April is as follows, with all posts found right here on the Plant Your Story blog:

Week One: Wednesday 6 April – join Sara for Day Thirteen
Week Two: Wednesday 13 April – join Crystal with Day Fourteen
Week Three: Wednesday 20 April – join Sara with Day Fifteen
Week Four: Wednesday 27 April – join Crystal for Day Sixteen

Each day we will post a prompt and delve into it a bit more, sharing our own inspirations and pages and hopefully giving you a bit of a creative push for your own pages.  We are thrilled to share in this adventure in scrapping and in storytelling with you!

So let’s get into April!  April is a time when we feel the beginnings of change in the seasons.  For many of us we are starting to feel the onset of Spring, for others we are feeling Summer’s end.  With the arrival of sunnier days and warmer climes for Crystal and I, we began to reflect on beginnings.  And how fun it is to look back and remember where things started.  We grow so much in our lives in every area and as we move from season to season in our days, and it’s good to take a little time to pause and reflect.   It’s good to  to record where everything started and to reflect on our changes from the beginnings.

This month, we will reflect on the fresh beginnings, and the endings.  We will take stock of the journey and our growth, how things have changed, what we have learned and what we have gained.  There is a lot of story to be told when we go back to the beginning.  And we are eager to do that this month.

Here is the prompt for today, Day Thirteen:

When you think of those moments of stepping in to fresh adventure, experiences, life seasons, what did you feel?  Try to capture the essence of your fresh beginning in this page..be it through art journaling or pulling out a few “vintage” photographs, getting nostalgic and diving into your personal history, or reflecting on something new right in this moment.

Let’s take a peek at how the GWL Storytellers were inspired by this prompt.  I really loved how each was inspired to reflect on different seasons in their lives:

Coila:

Jacq:

Lex:

Nicole:

Teresa:

How will you let this prompt inspire you?  Feel free to share with us in the comments or in the Plant Your Story gallery!

Happy Day and Happy Scrapping!

I woke up this morning to bright sunny skies and we are in that beautiful interim period of nice warm, but-not-too-hot weather, so it was like being greeted with a “nature smile”.  Which always puts me in a mood of gratefulness and pondersomeness.  And cheese-yness, and make-up-my-own-wordness, apparently.  But truthfully, it’s been one of those weeks where days aren’t really going as planned, or falling into line.  When tasks don’t get crossed off the list, where bumps come up in the road, and where worries clog the mind…so this sunny perspective was like a breath of fresh air, this morning.  Instead of thinking of obstacles, I was thinking of gifts.  Isn’t it amazing how moments like that can re-frame your days?  When you are reminded that you can choose how to react to the cards you’ve been dealt?  And that it’s actually a good hand you’re holding?

ANYway..all this to say I was so happy to be pondering gifts today, as it so beautifully meshes with our current journey in Grow With Love.  Today is a letter writing day!  And we are considering gifts this month.  So far we’ve reflected about memorable gifts and written letters that celebrate the gifts in those we love.  Today, we will take a moment to pause, much like I did this morning.  And in that quiet space, we will let ourselves consider our own gifts.

Let’s take a look at today’s prompt:

Do you find it difficult to consider and celebrate your personal gifts?  Do you feel as though you know your strengths?  When you look at your life, are you using them?  How do others describe your gifts?  Think of these things as you put together a page and write about a gift that you have…something that makes you YOU.  Something you feel defines who you are or points you in the direction you hope to go.

I love how the GWL Storytellers captured the spirit of this prompt.  Each in their own way.  I find so much inspiration in these pages:

Coila:

Kelly:

Mandi:

Teresa:

Tracie:

If you are new to Grow With Love, we hope you’ll feel inspired to join us any time!  You can find an archive of posts and prompts {HERE}.  Crystal and I love to see your pages and we can’t wait to continue in this journey with you!

A couple things to note about GWL happenings on the horizon.  Starting in April, Crystal and I will be posting these GWL: Letters posts at Plant Your Story every Wednesday.  The archive will continue to be available and everything will remain the same, just a wee different venue.  Annnnd…we will be launching the next BIG Grow With Love project with expanded content and inspiration and much much more very soon!  Can’t wait to tell you more!

In the meantime be sure to swing by Crystal’s blog for Day 12 next Wednesday 30 March.  Happy Scrapping!

Welcome to the first post of the Grow With Love: Letters Edition {March}!  As I outlined in our first post of the Letters series in January…Grow With Love: Letters is a series of templates and journaling prompts inspired by letter writing that will be featured in the Artisan Notebook throughout 2011.

In January, we put pen to paper writing letters to ourselves: letters of encouragement, of determination and compass setting.  We built a kind of foundation for the year with our pages.  And last month, we were inspired by the mood of the month: LOVE.  We considered our own love stories and those the relationships and loves that have impacted us and shaped our personal stories.

This month, we find ourselves pondering “gifts”.  Gifts received, gifts given, gifts of character, gifts of talent.

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gift – noun

1. something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present.

2. the act of giving.

3. something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned: Those extra points he got in the game were a total gift.

4. a special ability or capacity; natural endowment; talent: the gift of saying the right thing at the right time.

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Let’s take a peek at the first prompt of the month.  This is Day Nine:

There are so many options for where this prompt can guide you.  Do your thoughts immediately land on a tangible gift you’ve received?  Or do you think of gifts of moments, gifts of trust, gifts of blessing?  Do you find yourself drawn to scrapping a photoless page?  One that shines the spotlight on a “thing”?  One that focuses on people and relationships? A little of everything?

Let’s take a look at some of the amazing inspiration from the Storytellers…

Coila:

Lex:

Mandi:

Mel:

I love how each “gift” highlighted set the mood of the page, from the photo selections to the element and color choices.  The meaning and the emotion of each just jumps from the page.  What gift will you scrap?  We can’t wait to see!

Be sure to join Crystal on her blog next Wednesday 16 March for the next prompt.

So I have a confession.  I’m kind of a wordy girl.  I heard it said somewhere “anyone who uses one word, when they could have used ten, just isn’t trying hard enough” and I felt like that line was written just for me.  I wouldn’t say I am “windbaggy” per se, but let’s just say conciseness is not my cup of tea.  Apparently.

While I’m confessing, I should probably also tell you that I am kind of a cheesey, sentimental, traditional, ooey-gooey girl.  I appreciate words that edify and uplift and support and encourage and make people smile.  Words of praise and love make my heart all a flutter.  I guess you could say “words of affirmation” is one of my “love languages”.  I’m the kind of person who has kept every letter, note, and scrap of paper exchanged between my husband and me over the years.

Anyway, so I tend to write a lot and I also really love to give words of affirmation and that means I always really love prompts like today’s prompt for Grow With Love: Letters.  The kind where I can just write from my heart, say everything that’s on my mind and shower love and praise on someone I love very much.

Let’s take a peek at today’s prompt to see what I mean:

Maybe this is just the kind of challenge that would appeal to you too.  Or maybe it comes at a time when it feels difficult or uncomfortable.  But I promise you these are the prompts that really end up meaning the most to us, in the end and in the big picture. And so I hope you’ll really dive in to this with an open heart.

And the possibilities for scrapping this are fabulously numerous.  You can write to your spouse, you can write to a child, to a dear friend, to a parent or family member.  And you can set the mood with your papers and elements, your photo treatment, your typography.  You can scan the letter you’ve written, you can scrap it, you can photograph it.  No matter what avenue you choose, I hope you will let your loved one read your words.  See how it touches them and uplifts them, and maybe even feel how it does the same to you in the uplifting.

Here are a few examples from our brand new Grow With Love creative team…I love the range of emotion they have captured here.

from Kelly:

Mandi:

Jacq:

Coila:

Nettie:

How will you let this prompt inspire you?

We’d love to see your pages if you’d like to share!   And remember, you can jump in to this Grow With Love journey with us anytime.  This is a self-paced project and the prompts will remain available {HERE} indefinitely.