Discover Yourself This August

Here's a closer look at the Discovery kit, our newest meaningful,beautiful offering, debuting today at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.



Design Team layouts are on the site - come on by and see! I'll start posting them here shortly.

Get ready for an awesome month...we'll be celebrating our belated 2nd birthday, I'll be guest posting at Ella, and we've got giveaways coming too - kits, amazing CHA goodies...stay tuned!

COURAGE Inspiration...Always at Your Fingertips!

If you're looking for more inspiration about our July theme, COURAGE, look no further! This page is linked to the monthly inspiration page on our site, Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. That's where you can find our kits, our community and our newest creations.

Join us tomorrow, August 1st for the launch of our newest kit: DISCOVERY. What have you learned so far and what do you still want to find out?

Design Team Creations

Journaling Prompts

Backbone: Your backbone is what keeps you standing tall and upright, so the backbone has become a metaphor for what helps you stand up on the inside. What helps you feel strong and courageous? What are the external and internal supports that give you backbone? Is there someone who ‘has your back’ that you can rely on as well?



Feel the Fear: It’s been said that you can’t go around, you can only go through. Some people say that you can’t achieve real growth in an area that frightens you until you face what you’re most fearful of. Are you a person who can ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ or do you tend to wait to become more comfortable before you leap?

Most Courageous: Who is the most courageous person you know? Is it someone you know in real life or someone famous that you admire? What about them do you find courageous? What do you think or know shaped their path to make them a courageous person? Do they possess a courage that you wish to have or is it in a different realm than you need for the challenges you face in life?

Courage Under Fire: This phrase comes from what brave soliders are lauded for – being courageous when things really get tough. When in your life have you been strong under circumstances when you thought that maybe you couldn’t? What were the difficulties that you faced that felt like bullets flying overhead? In your worst moments, did you feel that you were being brave, or did you not notice and just forge ahead as you needed to? Have you seen others in very difficult life situations behave the same way?

Your Wings: What gives you the feeling that you can fly? Does your feeling that you have the ability to soar differ in different parts of your life – work, love and family? If you had wings, would they currently be strong, flexible, big or small, birdlike or like an airplane? Are they in good shape or broken in some way? If something is broken, what would it take to repair them? Do you have the tools?

Wimping Out: Is there a time that nags at you when you lacked courage? A time when you couldn’t stand up for yourself, or for someone else? A time when you made the choice that was easy, took the path of least resistance, or just didn’t go as far as you would have liked? Is it true that we only regret the chances we didn’t take? Are you angry at the younger you who made those decisions, or have you been able to forgive yourself? Was there a long term impact of what you didn’t do?

 

Quotes

Courage is found in unlikely places. J. R. R. Tolkien
The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage. Thucydides

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason. Alfred North Whitehead

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow. Jim Hightower
We have a powerful potential in out youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends. Mary McLeod Bethune

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage. Moliere

We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts. William Hazlitt

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context. Margaret J. Wheatley

One man with courage is a majority. Thomas Jefferson

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts. John Wooden

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. Abraham Lincoln

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return. Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. Maya Angelou

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. Walt Disney

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. Martin Luther King, Jr.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. Benjamin Franklin

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. C. S. Lewis

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nelson Mandela

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Mark Twain

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known? William Shakespeare

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. John F. Kennedy

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. John F. Kennedy

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

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' Eleanor Roosevelt

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment. Napoleon Bonaparte

It requires more courage to suffer than to die. Napoleon Bonaparte

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others. Aristotle

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to. Oscar Wilde

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. George S. Patton

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Lao Tzu

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. Erma Bombeck
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. Dale Carnegie

Courage is grace under pressure. Ernest Hemingway

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin

Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. John Wayne

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart

A lot of people do not muster the courage to live their dreams because they are afraid to die. Les Brown

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself. George Bernard Shaw

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. George Bernard Shaw

A man of courage is also full of faith. Marcus Tullius Cicero

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. Earl Nightingale

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself. Charlie Chaplin

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say. Virginia Woolf

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. Victor Hugo

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. Epicurus

Have the courage to act instead of react. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. John Quincy Adams

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. e. e. cummings

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Vincent Van Gogh

We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters. Gloria Steinem

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. Paul Tillich

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it. Gilbert K. Chesterton

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. Jonas Salk

Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. James Allen

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. Michel de Montaigne

Courage without conscience is a wild beast. Robert Green Ingersoll

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless. Chester W. Nimitz

Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all. Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway. Robert Anthony

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. Erica Jong

Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear. Umberto Eco

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. Rollo May

Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead. Howard Cosell

Photos

I Wish I Could Have Lent Her My Courage

I have had so many feelings swirling around my head about Chantal. Then I found these photos of her with Bart on her last day of work at Healthy Spot, the doggie day care and all-around amazing dog destination where Bart hangs out a few days a week. The staff there has become like family to us over the last two years.

We were all together at her memorial service last week on the beach in Santa Monica as the sun was setting. Her friends are amazing...they wrote and shared songs, rap, poetry...it was a lovely tribute. Just way too soon.



Look at that moon, and the lone light out on Santa Monica Bay.

I opened the first photo in picasa viewer, and, I kid you not, it froze my computer...I finally had to shut down manually because the picture would not close. I think she was sending me a reminder to pay attention to my memories of her...and maybe more importantly, what I needed to learn from them.



In the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out tradition, I decided to start exploring my own experience of Chantal's death. I was immediately struck by her smile, so ubiquitous to anyone who knew her, and how it hid her pain...her bruised and bound heart that needed the layers peeled off. I created a juxtaposition between the sweet paper...her sweetness, and the distressing...things are not always what they seem on the surface.



I am reminded that I was struggling so much early this year with my back injury, worrying about my future, and I was so hard on myself...I thought I was struggling because I lacked courage - the courage to change what wasn't working, the courage to reach out with more strength toward my dreams, but it turns out I had more than I thought. I only wish I had been able to give her some of mine.

I miss you, sweet girl. We all do.

COURAGE and our New DT

A Few COURAGE Kits Still Available!


It's not too late to grab yours - and we still have a couple of subscriber bonuses left!

Click here for full contents and to learn more...and our industry-exclusive Inspiration Page, with quotes, prompts, photos, music and more will be there to get your creativity flowing.

New Design Team

One of the best ways to get inspired? Check out our new Design Team! They are more than great artists - they create art with meaning and resonance. I'm honored to have Nancy, Arlene, Cristal and Diana returning, and so thrilled to welcome Amy, Aymee, Felecia, Melissa and Shaina on board! Click on their names on the blog sidebar to open a new window with their blog...or click the photos to enlarge.

Nancy Doren, DT Coordinator:




Arlene Camacho:



Cristal Hobbs:



Diana Kennedy:



Amy Oxford:




Aymee Gandy:



Felecia Krech:



Melissa Elsner:



Shaina Longstreet:



Which LO is your personal favorite?

Love,

Rachel

Gaining Perspective on Courage

So I alluded last week to some big stuff in my life. The news is that I was laid off from my day job last week. This is ACTUALLY GREAT news, as I was almost ready to leave on my own, and if I had, I wouldn't have received a severance package...so I left under the best circumstances. The organization is going through a restructure and there are about 20-25 people in total being let go. I was getting prepared to leave at some point soon as I was ramping up the business...so the timing is fantastic!

So here I am, full time entrepreneur! Just a bit sooner than I expected, but I am very excited, nervous, hopeful...everything you can imagine...I feel very fortunate that I have the resources and COURAGE to handle this change...so many other friends don't.

14 hours before I got the news at work, I found out that a dear young friend who was our dogsitter died last week. She committed suicide at the age of 19. It certainly put things in perspective. I am blessed to have a life, and the strength, to persevere when she could not...it is just heartbreaking.

Here's a photo of Chantal, on the right, with our other young friend Ruby and our dog...he loved her so much. Look closely and you'll see he's proving that in the photo.



Chantal was a brilliant artist and sweet, sweet girl who had a terrible family life and a lot of pain. I pray that she is at peace.

So the loss of a job that I was ready to leave isn't much of a loss...and it reminds me that if we can inspire women and girls to be fully expressed and to explore their emotions, maybe there will be one less senseless loss. I'm dedicating the teen program we're working on to Chantal's memory...more on that soon.

Third chance to win a kit - Lily Bee!

I've got another opportunity for you to win...check out our awesome DT on the Lily Bee blog...their papers inspired us so, that we now refer to the blue in the kit as 'Lily Bee' Blue...

Click here and leave a comment for your chance to win the COURAGE kit: Lily Bee Blog



Tomorrow...stay tuned for details about our new DT...and a story about what's making me feel courageous this week...it's a doozy!

Love,
Rachel

Another Chance to Win at Glitz!

Today, we've got another kit giveaway to share...over at the Glitz blog! We've featured the wonderful Kismet collection in the COURAGE kit, and if you go over and leave a comment on the Glitz blog, you could win the kit...



Of course, if you'd like to join us and lock in our beautiful subscriber bonuses, come on over to the site and get your six month subscription before the bonuses get away. These beautiful inspiration cards created by Melody Ross are hard to find, but I've got some...they're waiting for you!



Love,
Rachel

Giveaway on the GCD Blog!

Hi all...just a quick post today...our newest kit, COURAGE, is being featured on the GCD blog today, and of you go on over, you could win your very own COURAGE kit!



Of course, if you'd like to join us and lock in our beautiful subscriber bonuses, come on over to the site and get your six month subscription before the bonuses get away. These beautiful inspiration cards created by Melody Ross are hard to find, but I've got some...they're waiting for you!



Love,
Rachel

July Kit Reveal - COURAGE!

What does the word COURAGE mean to you? Is it a waving flag, bungee jumping, or quietly facing your darkest fears? We’ll be exploring all this and more this month with our newest kit, COURAGE.



Inspired by the bright ‘Hello Sunshine’ line from Lilybee and Glitz Design’s ‘Kismet’, this kit is filled with the spirit of a summer picnic, a distressed leather jacket, a bingo game and red bandanna…and also includes gorgeous floral paper from Melody Ross/GCD Studios and Pink Paislee.



We’ve loaded this kit with bold star images – your badge of courage - in chipboard, felt and even a distressed acrylic stamp. We’ve got gorgeous Prima flowers of course, some rustic burlap and some gentle yellow roses. And more: printed corduroy fabric from Buzz and Bloom, gingham and lace ribbon, embossed cardstock, journaling cards, die cuts, vintage-look buttons from Jenni Bowlin and beautiful Melissa Frances resin wings.



If you've been waiting for the perfect time to get a six month subscription, scroll down to check out this month's bonuses from Vintaj and GCD/Melody Ross...we’ve been selling out, so make sure you buy now!



You are brave, smart and ready for your future. Come and create it with us and the COURAGE kit!

CLICK HERE to go right to our buy page to get your before they're all gone!

STAY TUNED for my next post where I'll be welcoming our AWESOME new DT!

11 Sheets Double Sided Patterned Paper:
* GCD Artsy Urban Red Flower *GCD Artsy Urban Petit Floral *Glitz Kismet Floral *Glitz Kismet Ledger *Glitz Kismet Stripe *Glitz Kismet Numbers *Lily Bee Hello Sunshine Fly a Kite *Lily Bee Hello Sunshine Savannah *Lily Bee Hello Sunshine Posies *Lily Bee Hello Sunshine Twirl *Pink Paislee 365 Degrees Dream Big

1 Sheet Specialty Paper:
* GCD Ava Sunny Pinwheels (shimmer)

Embellishments:
*American Crafts Thickers Printed Chipboard, Regards, Honey *American Crafts Minimarks Rubons, Martha, Cherry *Mark Richards Crystal Stickers, Turquoise, 1/3 sheet *GCD Chip Art Stars, 7 pcs. *Lily Bee Hello Sunshine die cut frames, 2 pcs. *My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary - Favorite Thing Umbrella die cut *Buzz and Bloom Fineliner Patchwork Yankee Doodle , 1 pc. *Jenni Bowlin Buttons, Red, 4 pcs. *Melissa Francis Resin Heaven Sent Wings, 1 pkg. *My Mind's Eye Life Stories Touched my Heart Journaling Card *Glitz Kismet Journaling Cardstock Stickers, 1 sheet *Creative Impressions Felt shapes Yellow Star, 4 pcs. *Prima Innocence Woodgrain White Flowers, 3 pcs. *Prima Liliput Roses Yellow, 3pcs. *Global Solutions Self Adh Wax Seals, IWS open star/ Banana Wax/silver ink, 1 pc *Creative Impressions Gingham Mini Check, yellow/ white, ½ yd *Websters Pages Trim - red lace, ½ yd

Cardstock:
* Core’dinations Core Impressions , Jenni Bowlin Burnt Sugar Embossed Stars * Core’dinations Whitewash, Butter Churn * Core’dinations Nassau Blue * Core’dinations Core Impressions Cosmo Cricket Red Pepper Embossed Dot

Color:
* SEI Ink Blocks, Turquoise

Stamp:
* My Mind's Eye Laundry Line, Authentic

Contents may vary slightly.