7.27.2009

Giveaway Winner and our Sneak Peek of SAFETY

And the strong woman who wins this weekend's giveaway is DONNA, per the true random number generator from Random.org.

Donna, thanks for your comment! Please email me your address at rachinla@aol.com and I'll send out a subscriber bonus gift pack to you...

Here are some sneak peeks of the August kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out - SAFETY. Feels GOOD.







Full look at the kit and contents on Saturday! Please join us.

Love,

Rachel

7.21.2009

Strong Women Rule - Giveaway!

I grew up in a home with a strong mother - a woman who fought her brothers to go to school when they thought she should stay home and learn to cook and clean...who retyped her school applications when her brothers tore them up, a woman who was the only female at the boys' science college, came to America and made the life that SHE wanted. Although we don't always see eye to eye, she certainly can't argue about where I get my independent spirit!



As we're exploring STRENGTH this month at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, I'm amazed at the great layouts we're seeing from our members about what it means to be a strong woman.

Some think there’s a tension between strength and femininity. What do you think? Do you subscribe to traditional views of masculinity and femininity? Do women wield different sorts of power than men? Do you see yourself as powerful, and in what ways? Who are women of great strength that you can think of, and how have they influenced your life?



And are we getting stronger as we get older? Is it all about physical strength, or is there a strength in wisdom?



Tell me what strength means to you and you'll be entered to win a subscriber premuum gift pack from SFTIO...please leave your comment before 5PM Pacific on Friday...

Love,

Rachel

7.16.2009

Let Yourself Feel Weak

Is it OK to be weak? I keep hearing that we’re past the time of the 'superwoman', but based on my unscientific research, we're expected more than ever to do it all - be wives, mothers, work outside and inside the home, and be creative geniuses.



I know that’s hard for me. I want so much to make a difference and make the world better that I tend to push myself past the point of sensible effort. I’m working on it…



At least once in a while, it’s nice to let other people be in charge and allow ourselves to be weak. Do you ask for help when you need it? Do you find that you rely more on others, or that others rely more on you? Is weakness a fault to you? Was someone in your past a weak figure, and if so, how did that impact your view of weakness today? Are there times that you become drained – and what do you do to remedy that, or do you surrender?



For our third LO challenge for the STRENGTH kit, please join us and create a LO about the ways in which you feel weak at times, and how you deal with that. Do you let yourself rest, or do you fight it? What makes you weak?

For the design twist, please 'fade' something on your page - your photo, the paper by distressing, or something different!

Need a STRENGTH kit? Lookie!



CLICK HERE to grab yours, and also check out our past kits, being clearanced out at 30% off!


Love,

Rachel

7.12.2009

Power Up With a Strength Challenge or Two

One of my favorite things about what we do at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is the way we approach challenges. I love thinking about how the theme of the month inspires me, and I try to develop challenges that encompass different faces of each emotion plus an opportunity to delve into 'visual journaling' as Nancy has described it, the use of visual elements that reinforce the content of the LO.

Here's an example of how Nancy used these techniques in one of her DT LOs for July's STRENGTH kit:





Can you pick out the visual ideas she used? Gears from the kit of course, but linked together to show how Nancy and her hubby work together like a well-oiled machine. She painted and used glossy accents on the gears to show their strength. She also created a frame around the gears and photos to show their unity.

Here are our first two STRENGTH challenges - please try them to create a LO that includes visual journaling and explore your inner world with us! I'd love to see what you do!

STRENGTH CHALLENGE #1: YOUR OWN STRENGTH/FRAMED

Is there a moment you can recall when you realized your own strength, either physical, mental or emotional?

For the design twist, please use a unique 'frame' around your page's elements to symbolize the focus and definition of your strength.

STRENGTH CHALLENGE #2, WHAT DOESN'T KILL ME/RISE UP

What have you survived that you thought might kill you or your spirit? How have you triumphed and become stronger?

For the design twist, please use an image of rising up or going beyond...


The STRENGTH kit is still available - CLICK HERE to grab yours before they're all gone!



If you'd like to see more, please come by the website and check it out! I'd love to personally welcome you...

Love,

Rachel

7.06.2009

Designer Spotlight - Anam Stubbington

Here's the last of our THANK YOUs to our wonderful outgoing DT: Last but VERY MUCH NOT least is the lovely and amazing Anam Stubbington!



When it comes right down to it, I'm not really sure if we went to Anam or she came to us! I just know we got lucky! I emailed her when I was launching the website, along with some other selected fabulous designers, to join us in some capacity. I was long a fan of her work already, having seen her designs round and about the web. I was jonesin' for her to be a guest designer...when she applied for the full-time design team, I was jumping up and down. I called Nancy all excited and said, "we've got one slot decided! Anam wants to be on OUR dt!"

Anam has a unique ability to combine complex materials (especially busy paper) with a perfectly spare and elegant design to produce pages that draw you in but never overwhelm. I truly admire her use of negative space. She is a prolific creator, often gracing us with 8 or 10 layouts instead of the DT required 4, and would add multiple altered projects full of out-of-the-box thinking. Anam also has a facilty for adding packaging and negatives of shapes and letters to her LOs in the most unusual way. She just blew me away every time I saw her monthly submissions.

Here are some of my favorite LOs and projects of hers and this was NOT EASY - there were SO many lovely things from which to choose:

Patience - feeling grateful for her husband's support:



Compassion - thinking of the past



Spirit - making room for learning something new



Clarity - reflecting on what her she and her daughter bring to each other:



Hope - trusting the song in her heart:



Renewal - life being in constant motion



Anam is a creative powerhouse, a fixture on so many sites for her amazing LOs, her sketches and altered projects. She currently designs for Twisted Sketches, Prima, Ad This and her LSS, Treasured Memories. I love her unique personal style, her truthfulness, and her passion. Anam is Mama to her lovely daughters Fay and Lily, and wife to her hunky hubby Ian.



Anam, I am so thankful that our paths crossed and that we've all been the beneficiaries of your fantastic work.


Love,

Rachel

7.05.2009

Renewal Inspiration

It's never too late to explore RENEWAL with us - here's the Inspiration page from June 2009:

Design Team Creations

To see the Design Team's projects and detailed close-ups, check out the June 2009 Design Team Gallery

Journaling Prompts

Is change good?: Change is an inevitable part of life – in nature, in our circumstances, and in our thinking. Some people are better than others at managing and accepting change. How does change impact you? Are you comfortable moving with the tides and the seasons, or do you resist? What major changes inside or outside your orbit have affected you, and in what ways?

Body, Mind and Spirit: Everyone needs ways to recharge when they’re feeling down or out of energy, whether in physical, mental, emotional or spiritual terms. What do you do to renew yourself – do you spend time in nature, in prayer or meditation, by running, reading or watching your favorite movie? Do you make different choices about how to recharge depending on what you’re missing?

Cycle of Life: There are few things in life that are certain except for birth and death. How have the beginnings and endings you’ve seen impacted you? Have you had children of your own, and if so, how did that experience shift your understanding of the world? Have you lost someone you loved, quickly and unexpectedly, or after watching them fight a long illness? What lasting effect has this had on you?

Renewing the Planet: In these times, it’s become important to so many to be part of solving the problems that our planet faces. How do you contribute to that effort? Do you actively work to reduce your carbon footprint? Are you frustrated watching how things are developing, and do you worry about the kind of world that future generations will inherit?

Music


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones!


If you can't see the playlist above, please click on 'standalone player' to see and listen.

Quotes

So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being. Henri Frederic Amiel

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival. Wendell Berry

The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love. Terence

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death. R. D. Laing

The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings. Rainer Maria Rilke

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order. Susan Taylor

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up. Pearl S. Buck

To touch a sore is to renew one's grief. TerenceWhen you are in the valley, keep your goal firmly in view and you will get the renewed energy to continue the climb. Denis Waitley

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Audrey Hepburn

The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. Cato The Elder

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix. Christina Baldwin

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix. Aaron Parrish

It`s exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. Ahmed Ghneim

Creativity comes from awakening and directing men`s higher natures, which originate in the primal depths of the uni- verse and are appointed by Heaven. I Ching

Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion. Dalai Lama

If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing. Gail Sheehy

No human being ever learns to live until he has awakened to the dormant powers within him. William James

There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet. Brooke Medicine Eagle

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. Frank Herbert

It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. Adrienne Rich

He who looks outside his own heart DREAMS, he who looks inside his own heart AWAKENS. Carl Gustav Jung

Virtue tested: "Have I not survived hunger and thirst, suffering, and mockery for the sake of the truth which heaven has awakened in my heart?” Kahlil Gibran

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear. Buddha

We are near awakening when we dream that we dream. Novalis

Rest when you`re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work. Ralph Marston

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

We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again. Shana Alexander

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. Adam Acone

To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. Adam Maida

There`s a rebirth that goes on with us continuously as human beings. I don`t understand, personally, how you can be bored. I can understand how you can be depressed, but I just don`t understand boredom. Dustin Hoffman

Links

Renew – programs for maintaining creativity, energy, and optimism

The Renewal Project and Documentary – the Religious Environmental Movement

7.03.2009

Strength Kit at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out

Feel your oats and flex some muscles. This month, we're exploring STRENGTH at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. This kit has one of the most unique color palettes yet: Navy, Pale Green, Fuschia and Goldenrod. It’s a powerful mix that will inspire you to show us your tough and tender sides. It's also perfect for the hot sun of July as it illuminates you.

The kit include gears, the perfect symbol for might and tenacity, bricks for your unbreakable spirit, and frames to anchor your emotions. Materials include chipboard, pearl paint and grungeboard: like your spirit, it bends, but doesn't break…




You'll enjoy two gorgeous paper lines: American Crafts' Character, with typographical elements that speak your truth, and Little Yellow Bicycle's Zinnia, with floral gear like elements, designs that are a throwback to the old toy, spirograph, spot-varnished and glittered finishes, and the most cool lace floral paper die-cut in a circle.

We also added some beautiful Hambly on kraft, rub-on frame labels, vinyl and chipboard flowers and shapes, Prima pebbles, THICKERS, and a mixed set of blue Prima letters, half flat and half chip for funky, chunky layered titles. Be strong, speak your mind and express your heart with STRENGTH!

What can you do? Check these out! LOs by our stellar NEW design team - Andrea Davenport, Nancy Doren (our ongoing and fearless DT Leader), Rita Barakat,and Siobhan Fry, respectively.



Please join us at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, the inspirational source, kit club, and online community to help you Explore Your Inner World!

Love,

Rachel

PS: make sure you check out our clearance sale on the BUY page!

STRENGTH Contents:

7 Sheets Double-sided Patterned Paper:
* American Crafts Character Times
* American Crafts Character Chronicle
* American Crafts Character Planet
* American Crafts Character Gazette
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Zinnia Bloom
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Zinnia Dots
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Zinnia Garden Stripe

4 Sheets Specialty Paper:
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Green Floral Ledger (die cut)
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Flower Patched (spot-varnish and glitter)
* Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Pink Blossom Lace (die cut)
* Hambly ATC Patchwork Purple on Kraft Embellishments:
* American Crafts Thickers – Typo, Mustard, full pkg
* Prima Alphas Sticker and Chip,Blue, full pkg
* American Crafts House Collection Chipboard Character, 5 pcs
* Basic Grey Bling It - rhinestone squares, indigo-sky, 1/2 sheet
* Maya Road Chipboard Sets Gears, 6-7 pcs
* Maya Road Chipboard, Scroll Frames, 1/3 sht
* Prima Pebbles J, 2 pc
* Ranger Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears, 4 pcs,
* LYB Zinnia Journaling Pieces, 1 sheet
* Hambly Elegant Labels Rub-on, Magenta, 1/2 sheet
* American Crafts House Collection Vinyl Character, 5 pcs
* Magenta Felt Border Yellow Flowers, 1 border
* American Crafts Character Ribbon Italic 6 Yellow, 1/2 yd
* American Crafts Character Ribbon Bold 1 Pink, 1/2 yd

Cardstock:
*American Crafts - Mustard
*American Crafts - Sky
*American Crafts - Denim
*Core'dinations - Love Potion

Color:
* Ranger Perfect Pearls Silver Pearl Paint

Alterable Item:
*Ranger Grungeboard Basics Stripes 5x8, 5 pcs

Stamp:
*Prima Stamp, Collage, Brick

Contents may vary slightly.