More Clarity Sneak Peeks

Have to share these fantastic sneaks of our Design Team Coordinator Nancy Doren's fantastic work with the Clarity kit, launching tomorrow at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. As usual, Nancy perfectly captured the spirit of the theme in her deep, inspiring and fresh layouts:

The full reveal is tomorrow morning - this kit is packed with light, bright and airy embellishments and will lift your spirits as the sky clears and spring approaches...don't miss it! Hope you stop by!

March 2009 Inspiration - Spirit

It's never too late to play along with us while we learn and grow as artists...here's our Inspiration page for the March theme, SPIRIT. If you'd like to see our Design Team's LOs for Spirit, click here!

Journaling Prompts

Your Inner Light: Spirit can be described as many things - one is your inner light. There’s a spark in all of us - a spark of consciousness, conscience, greatness, and sometimes genius. To me, this spark is the definition of the life force in all living things. How would you describe your inner light? What places, things, experiences or connections bring out the spark in you? What beliefs do you hold that express the life force inside your soul?

Wild Child: There's part of spirit that is about the hidden you – that voice inside you that isn't always the good girl. So many of us are brought up to follow the rules and do the right thing. Do you consider yourself a 'good girl'? Do you struggle with doing the 'right thing'. How often, and in what ways do you give yourself permission to let loose and be free? Do you have an alter ego that looks and acts nothing like the 'perfect' you? Tell us about her!

Shooting for the Stars: It takes drive, gumption, and yes, spirit, to achieve your dreams. What drives you to pursue what you love and to try to accomplish your goals? Where does your strength come from? Whom do you admire, especially among the women in your life, who really go for it and grab for the gusto? Are there people outside your immediate sphere who inspire you with their spirit of adventure and stick-to-it-iveness?

Spirit Journey: We couldn't talk about spirit without looking at spirituality. What do you think about the role of the body vs. spirit, and how our faith in whatever we hold dear impacts us? Are we human beings having a spiritual experience, or spiritual beings having a human experience? Is faith an important part of your life experience? What is your connection between faith and your personal spirit?

Music Playlist:

Quotes

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Albert Schweitzer

You can kill the body but not the spirit. Robert Stevenson

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. Kahlil Gibran

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. Leonardo da Vinci

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. Franz Kafka

I'm a free spirit; more people should become free spirits. Mark Roberts

This I know; the spirit of Man cannot be stopped. Walter Reisch

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm. Aldous Huxley

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. e. e. cummings

I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am. Princess Diana

A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back. Arthur Miller

I need this wild life, this freedom. Zane Grey

They put me on television. And the whole thing broke loose. It was wild, I tell ya for sure. Elvis Presley

You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you. Isadora Duncan

I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth. William Faulkner

Take a walk on the wild side. Lou Reed

Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking. John Maynard Keynes

Wild oats will get sown some time, and one of the arts of life is to sow them at the right time. Richard Le Gallienne

Every man has a wild beast within him. Frederick The Great

Adventure is not outside man; it is within. George Eliot

Life is either a great adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. Jawaharlal Nehru

One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure. William Feather

What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it. Juliette Binoche

Life is beautiful but people are crazy. Charles Osgood

I think I have a lot of crazy layers. Blythe Danner

If we weren't all crazy, we'd just go insane. Jimmy Buffett

I'm crazy, and I don't pretend to be anything else. Calvin Klein

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Passion is the genesis of genius. Tony Robbins

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action. W. Somerset Maugham

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will. Charlotte Bronte

All men are by nature born equally free and independent. George Mason

I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean. John Sayles

When the going gets tough, let the tough get going. Frank Leahy

My light shines when things get really tough. Tippi Hedren

I'm off to save the universe again. It's a tough job but someone has to do it, and I'm glad it's me. Lexa Doig

I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. Madonna Ciccone

I'm just a tough old woman. Marjory S. Douglas

My grandmother was a very tough woman. She buried three husbands and two of them were just napping. Rita Rudner

If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain't enough! Shel Silverstein

Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart. Ruth Graham

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through. Rosalynn Carter

Links

How to Get in Touch with your Spirit
The Labyrinth – Walking a Spiritual Journey
Creative Fun for Inspired Women
Strong Women, Strong Girls
Women in Extreme Sports

Sneak Peek - CLARITY Kit

This is it - the new, fresh as a splash of citrus, CLARITY kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out:

Full reveal on April 1st - make sure you come on by! We'll be featuring our fantastic DT - Team Leader Nancy Doren, Nicola Booth, Laura Croft, and Anam Stubbington, as well as Guest Designer Christi Wright.

We've got just a few previous kits on sale now at the site as we clear out the store for more goodies coming your way - go check' em out before they're all gone! It's never too late to dig in and create about JOY, PATIENCE, GRATITUDE...and out trademarked inspiration is always available - just go to the Inspiration page and click on the month you're looking for!

Rebel with a Cause

If you're like me, and grew up in a religious home, you probably can relate to my intrinsic drive to be 'good' all the time. I was really concerned with 'right' and 'wrong' - and consumed by my own fear of making a mistake in the eyes of whoever was in charge. There was quite a long list of rules and regulations, a lot of DO's and DON'T's. I could write a book (oh right, someone already did...)

This month at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, with the SPIRIT kit, we're exploring that 'bad girl' side of ourselves...you know, the voice inside telling you to blow off work and go ride a Harley. Or maybe your rebellion is more subtle. I feel quite liberated when I sit and do nothing for a day...checking off nothing on the list, just being.

Seems like this trend is BIG these says in the scrapbook world...rebellion is in:

Glitz Designs' Rebel Collection:

The Rebellious collection from Adrienne Looman for Prima:

The SPIRIT kit has lots of images to evoke that feeling of freedom, rebellion and being truly and totally yourself. There are grunge, graffiti, rock, bohemian and surfing images - perfect for your free and wild spirit.

We have just a few left for sale now! Click here to buy one before they're all gone...

What do you do to strike a blow for individual liberty?

On your Path

One of the topics we're discussing this month at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is the Labyrinth.

I found this great explanation of the meaning and use of a labyrinth as a meditative tool here. I've copied some of it below for your edification.

Here's a photo of one that you can use to trace with your finger or your mouse cursor. How does it make you feel?

I think the labyrinth is a great metaphor for going inside yourself and coming back out - a process that is so central to the idea of Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

How does this symbol or idea inspire you?




"Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path... exactly where you are meant to be right now... And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love." Caroline Adams

We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that path.

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which Is Within."

Labyrinths and mazes have often been confused. When most people hear of a labyrinth they think of a maze. A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is like a puzzle to be solved. It has twists, turns, and blind alleys. It is a left brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find the correct path into the maze and out.

A labyrinth has only one path. It is unicursal. The way in is the way out. There are no blind alleys. The path leads you on a circuitous path to the center and out again.

A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. With a maze many choices must be made and an active mind is needed to solve the problem of finding the center.

With a labyrinth there is only one choice to be made. The choice is to enter or not. A more passive, receptive mindset is needed. The choice is whether or not to walk a spiritual path.

At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.

Let the Voice of the Spirit be Heard

Here are some more layouts from our fantastic Design Team over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. These in particular have really inspired me to explore more about my wild side.

Laura Croft:

Nancy Doren:

I am really excited that we have the chance to share our vision for a more openly expressed world. I truly believe that it is GOOD to say what you think, what you believe, and what you want...even if you're the only one listening...

Come by and check out the SPIRIT kit, for sale now...and don't miss the Inspiration page for FREE music, quotes, journaling prompts, photos and links to get your creative juices flowing about your wild and free spirit...

What does your spirit say when no one else is listening?

Rachel

Scrapbooking your Spirit

We've had a lot of interesting conversation on the Message Board over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out about the meaning of SPIRIT. Here's the thesaurus.com list of synonyms:

Definition: soul, attitude
Synonyms: air, animation, ardor, backbone, boldness, breath, character, complexion, courage, dauntlessness, disposition, earnestness, energy, enterprise, enthusiasm, essence, fire, frame of mind, gameness, grit, guts, heart, humor, jazz, life, life force, liveliness, mettle, mood, morale, motivation, nerve, oomph, outlook, psyche, quality, resolution, resolve, sparkle, spunk, stoutheartedness, temper, temperament, tenor, vigor, vital spark, vitality, warmth, will, willpower, zest

To me, spirit is that indefinable quality, the 'it' that makes us 'us'. This kit's use of graffiti, grunge, bohemian and tattoo elements is really just a metaphor for the life force in us - what makes us tick, what lights our inner fire and what defines us.

Here are a couple of beautiful takes from our Design Team on the meaning of Spirit...about what makes them 'them'. Click on their names to see their blogs - they are VERY talented and inspirational artists.

Deb Famularo - Spirit Guest Designer:

Anam Stubbington:

Laura Croft:

Nic Booth:

Design Team Coordinator Nancy Doren:

From soft and sweet to wild and crazy, your spirit is who you truly are inside...with all its layers and faces. Stop by the Gallery to see more and be inspired!

Who are you inside? Tell us by leaving a comment linking to a LO about your spirit, and you will be entered to win a 20% off coupon on your first SFTIO kit. What a deal! You can enter until Sunday 3/15 at Noon PDT (GMT-7).

Isn't it nice to be home again

Back from another whirlwind trip to NY, but it was worth it to see this:

Perla and Meir's wedding, March 4, 2009. Young love is so sweet and innocent...I'm very excited for them and for their bright future. It was really nice to share in their first moments as husband and wife.

And a scrapbook note? It's traditional at Orthodox weddings for the couple to spend a few moments alone right after the ceremony. They often exchange gifts. Perla made a scrapbook for her very sentimental now-husband with all the things she had saved from their dates...tickets, flower petals, and slivers of balloons from the many thousand that filled her parents' living room as part of his proposal...so sweet.

Compassion Inspiration for your Scrapbook LOs

In case you missed it, or want to keep working on your COMPASSION, here is the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out Inspiration for February 2009 - the Compassion Kit. Please keep uploading your LOs - we'd love to see them here!

We're in the process of uploading the March Inspiration for SPIRIT! Check in often to see what we're got to share by clicking here: INSPIRATION

Journaling Prompts:

Compassion for Ourselves: So often it's easier to have compassion for others and give them the benefit of the doubt than to give ourselves a break. How harsh are you with yourself when you make a misstep? Can you accept your own faults or forgive your mistakes? Do you find yourself giving others more leeway then you give yourself? How has your treatment of yourself changed as you've matured? How helpful are others in your life at helping you be more kind to yourself?

Judgement vs. Compassion: It can sometimes be hard to look the other way and let go of our built-in judgements. How generous are you toward others when they make mistakes? Especially when they make the same mistake over and over again? Do you see yourself as more judgemental, or more compassionate?

Kindness Toward Animals: There's a trend toward vegetarianism and veganism these days, for health reasons, to reduce animal suffering and to reduce our carbon footprint. What role do animals play in your life, for companionship or otherwise? Do you see a connection between how we as a culture treat animals and how we treat eachother?

Music

Quotes
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. The Dalai Lama

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong -- because someday you will have been all of these. George Washington Carver

Compassion is the basis of all morality. Arthur Schopenhauer

The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis. Thurgood Marshall

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. Albert Schweitzer

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man. Saint Francis of Assisi

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too. Frederick Buechner

The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret.....It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. Albert Schweitzer

It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance. Dalai Lama

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. Henry Ward Beecher

It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding. Erma Bombeck

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. Buddha

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. Buddha

The dew of compassion is a tear. Lord Byron

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. Confucius

Pets have more love and compassion in them than most humans. Robert Wagner

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Lao Tzu

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights. Desmond Tutu

A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. Abraham Joshua Heschel

The major block to compassion is the judgment in our minds. Judgment is the mind's primary tool of separation. Diane Berke

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. Thomas Aquinas

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others. Albert Schweitzer

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. Albert Schweitzer

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Thomas Jefferson

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold. Zelda Fitzgerald

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. Franklin D. Roosevelt

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand. Baruch Spinoza

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. George MacDonald

If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. Buddhist Saying

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. William Penn

Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. Rudyard Kipling

If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. Bob Hope

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. Robert Brault

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Mark Twain

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. Henry Boye

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. Abraham Joshua Heschel

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another. Thomas Merton

Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people’s hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human 'brain' with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human 'heart' with compassion. This is what the real role of religion is. Dalai Lama

By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also. Thomas Browne, Sr

In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength. Buddha

It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope. Ursula K. Le Guin

The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love. Khalil Gibran

For me music is a vehicle to bring our pain to the surface, getting it back to that humble and tender spot where, with luck, it can lose its anger and become compassion again. Paula Cole

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Eric Hoffer

Compassion is the desire that moves the individual self to widen the scope of its self-concern to embrace the whole of the universal self. Arnold Toynbee

There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos. Milan Kundera

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival. Dalai Lama

True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. Joseph Addison

Links
A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices
Self CompassionSpiritual Practices: Compassion
Seeds of Compassion
Compassion Beyond Borders: Funding the education of impoverished girls and illiterate women in Latin America, South Asia and East Africa
Century of Compassion: Making compassion the guiding principle of the 21st century