Continue your exploration of Vulnerability

There's always time to explore one of our emotions...please enjoy our February 2011 inspiration page - you're safe to dig in! And we still have a few kits left. Click HERE to get yours. Yum.



Tomorrow? Our March 2011 kit, INSPIRATION!

February 2011 Inspiration - Vulnerability

Design Team Creations

For more from the Design Team, and detailed close-ups, check out the

February 2011 Design Team Gallery

Journaling Prompts

Strength and Weakness: What have you thought of as a vulnerability that turned out to be a strength? Are there areas of your personality that you thought made you strong, but tuned out to be liabilities in certain situations? When others' vulnerabilities come to light, do they remind you of your own? Do you feel compassion and a kinship with someone who shares your weaknesses, or would you rather ignore that truth?



Your Body: Do physical limitations or infirmities impact your life? What parts of your body have been subject to injury? Does your mental or emotional state affect your physical well being? Are certain areas prone to weakness? How do those areas connect with your state of mind - does pain in certain part of your body reference your emotional pain? Do you consider yourself a robust and strong person?



On the Edge: What feels precarious about your future? Does the transient nature of life frighten you, or are you at peace with it? Are there specific areas where you feel that instability more heavily - in your intimate relationships or your work? How do you manage uncertainty or fragility? Are you able to experience life with fluidity, or do you attempt to control the outcome of certain things?



Exposure: Are you able to be open and honest in your life? Does your answer differ in different relationships? What allows you the freedom to be open about your thoughts, feelings and beliefs? If you're not as open as you would like, what would you need to know to allow yourself that freedom to be vulnerable?

Dependence: Whom and what do you depend on to create a sense of security? Are you good at providing that for yourself, or are you more free to allow others to care for you. If different people have allowed you to be safely vulnerable at different times, why were they the right person for the right time?

Music

Quotes on VULNERABILITY

In the beginning, people think vulnerability will make you weak, but it does the opposite. It shows you're strong enough to care. Victoria Pratt

There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community. M. Scott Peck

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle

No one ever kills himself for the love of a woman, but because love - any love - reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, our vulnerability, our nothingness. Cesare Pavese

It's so sad how we can go through life hating people, thinking that they are so different from us. It is only when we see them at their weakest point, seeing their vulnerability, that we start to realize how similar we all actually are to one another. Unknown

It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, aquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second. John Steinbeck

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. Carl Sagan

We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy. Walter Anderson

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. C.S. Lewis

Love is not love until love's vulnerable. Theodore Roethke

He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking vulnerable points. Ayn Rand

If you will discipline yourself to make your mind self-sufficient you will thereby be least vulnerable to injury from the outside. Critias of Athens

With each passage of human growth we must shed a protective structure [like a hardy crustacean]. We are left exposed and vulnerable - but also yeasty and embryonic again, capable of stretching in ways we hadn't known before. Gail Sheehy

We all need somebody to talk to. It would be good if we talked... not just pitter-patter, but real talk. We shouldn't be so afraid, because most people really like this contact; that you show you are vulnerable makes them free to be vulnerable. Liv Ullmann

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable. Joseph Addison

Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others. François de la Rochefoucauld

Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable. Joyce Brothers

What shames us, what we most fear to tell, does not set us apart from others; it binds us together if only we can take the risk to speak it. Starhawk

As earthly creatures continually subject to relative disappointment, pain, and loss, we cannot avoid feeling vulnerable. Yet as an open channel through which great love enters this world, the human heart remains invincible. Being wholly and genuinely human means standing firmly planted in both dimensions, celebrating that we are both vulnerable and indestructible at the same time. Here at this crossroads where yes and no, limitless love and human limitation, intersect, we discover the essential human calling: progressively unveiling the sun in our heart, that it may embrace the whole of ourselves and the whole of creation within the sphere of its radiant warmth. John Welwood

You haven't yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior's way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability--to the world, to life, and to the Presence you felt. All along I've shown you by example that a warrior's life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it is about love. Love is a warrior's sword; wherever it cuts, it gives life, not death. Dan Millman

If all hearts were open and all desires known -- as they would be if people showed their souls -- how many gapings, sighings, clenched fists, knotted brows, broad grins, and red eyes should we see in the market-place! Thomas Hardy

Armed I am with love. Disarmed I am. Manuel Alegre

I honestly do not know if love vanquishes death as our traditional faiths teach but I do know that our vulnerabilities trump our ideologies and that love leavens the purity and logic of our beliefs propelling us to connect as the fiercely gracious human beings we are. Irwin Kula

Love is not love until love's vulnerable. Theodore Roethke

Most urgently, women's identity must be premised upon our "beauty" so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air. Naomi Wolf

The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution, is more vulnerable than guilt, and oftener assailed. Nathaniel Parker Willis

People who know me know I'm strong, but I'm vulnerable. Catherine Deneuve

For the current of our spiritual life creeds, rituals and channels that may thwart or help, according to their fixity or openness. When a symbol or spiritual idea becomes rigidly elaborate in its construction, it supplants the idea which it should support. Rabindranath Tagore

As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery… we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness. Dalai Lama

The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are. Dr. Paul Tournier

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on it's vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to it's security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. Adlai Stevenson

Photos

March 2010 Sneak Peek - INSPIRATION!

What in your world motivates and lights your spark? Find out this March with our newest kit, INSPIRATION!

Bright, light and full of fun, you'll adore this great kit featuring American Crafts' City Park and Cosmo Cricket's Delovely...filled with banners, kites and blossoms.

You'll uncover your creativity, vision and ingenuity!

Available for purchase March 1. Join us! If you're not already a subscriber and would like to reserve your kit now, please email us.

Peek-a-Boo, I See Through!

I think I'm going to start calling Tuesday's "Tutorial Tuesday".  I think we're overdue for another piece of goodness from our design team.  Here are some great tips by our very own Felecia on how to use see-through elements on your scrapbook pages, as shared on our community forum boards.  Let us know what you think after you read it!

Using See-Through Elements

by Felecia Krech

There are TONS of see through items in this month’s kit…but sometimes see-through elements can be intimidating, or baffling. Here are a few suggestions for using see-through items. They provide a huge number of options, depending upon how they are layered or backed.

One thing to keep in mind when working with see through elements: what you put behind a see through element can completely change how it looks.

Just to see how it would photograph, I put three pieces of cardstock behind the Hambly transparency: white, dark pink and pale pink…you can see that the transparency color changes based on what is behind it.

Experiment with backing to see what looks best for your project. You can certainly choose to use a see through component as the foundation for your layout like I did on the See Through layout..(note that these are very hard to take pictures of for posting. You might have to experiment with that, too!)

Fussy cutting is a great option for see through elements. Choose an element and cut it out from its background. I really wanted this little element from the larger transparency, but couldn’t get the whole transparency to layer correctly with the rest of my page elements. Cutting just the element I wanted was a perfect solution. There are now layers of see through and paper elements.

Another option is to back the element with paint or ink. If you are going to use ink, use alcohol ink and be sure you allow enough dry time. I thought about dripping alcohol inks on this doily, but chose instead to use paint.

To paint, turn the item over, paint liberally on the back and allow to dry.

The results are so pretty!

See through elements also allow us to combine techniques. Fussy cutting, backing and layering were all used for the butterflies.

I first cut several butterflies from the sheet, then ran them through the Xyron (You could cover them with any dry-ish adhesive. Wet adhesive will make them curl.)

Next, I cut pieces of ribbon and adhered them to the backs of the butterflies. You could use other papers, tissue paper, or fabric for this step.

Next, I cut the excess ribbon off and embellished with a few little pearls. Finally, I layered them over other un-backed butterfly sections to give some dimension.

See through elements provide lots of options for scrapbooking and using visual imagery. The possible uses depend only on your creativity!

Happy Scrapping!

I know I alway struggle with acetate... I love it, but I never know what to do with it.  I can't wait to try out some of these techniques!  Thanks Felecia! 

How about you?  What do you like to do with see-through elements?

To Be Alive

A thought from our inspiration page:

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.  

Madeleine L'Engle

Crackle It!

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a Tim Holtz fan... and if I'm a Tim Holtz fan, that pretty much makes me a Ranger fan as well.  This month's Vulnerability kit has a wonderful new crafty item for me to play with, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.  Meanwhile, over at the Inside Out forums, our very own Nancy read my mind and shared this great tutorial using the Crackle Medium! 

First Christa, now Nancy... the design team just might have developed a new mind reading skill!  Did Nancy read your mind too?  Here's some tricks and tips (and really fancy technical terms) for using Ranger's Crackle Accents:

Creative Ideas for Ranger’s Crackle Medium

by Nancy Doren

This month’s kit contains the very cool Crackle Accents medium from Ranger. 

It’s a bottle full of a clear gel that dries to a pretty crackle finish.  It’s the perfect technique for all your pages about Vulnerability—very symbolic!  Here are a few ways to use Crackle Accents:

I created crackled flowers on my Only You layout by applying the gel over the flower, then swooshing (yes, that’s the technical term) it around with a paint brush. 

I tried a thin layer first, but after it dried there was almost no crackling, so I went back and applied a thick layer.  I found through my experiments this month that the Crackle Medium works best in a really thick layer.

Let the flower dry, and you’ve got a lovely crackly bloom!

I also used Crackle Medium on the Pink Paislee transparency.

And on the metal badge. I love that it looks like a “broken” heart!  To apply it to those surfaces, I just squirted some on and smooshed it around with my finger.

My favorite way I used Crackle Accents was on paper. I applied the gel to my ruffled paper strip like this:

Then I used my paintbrush again to swoosh the gel around.

After it had dried, I gently bent the paper to create more cracks. The paper was actually very flexible and had an almost rubbery feel to it.

And here’s the finished product:

Another fun way to use Crackle Accents is as a kind of enamel.  I used it to create these butterflies:

I created the butterflies by trimming them from the Dear Lizzy lace paper, then backing them with patterned paper. I did this by tracing the “holes” in their wings, then cutting out each bit of paper. Here’s what the back of the butterfly looks like:

Then I filled each hole with the gel medium, being careful not to get it on the wings.

Then I let it dry and it looks like this:

I also tried using it on chipboard letters, then used my heat gun to make the drying process faster. This did not work. :D At least not in the way hoped for. What actually happened is the gel heated up and bubbled. I left it the way it was because I kind of like the look, but it’s definitely not crackled.

I know that you are all such clever crafters and will come up with lots of fun ways to use Crackle Accents. Let us know what you discover!

Whoo Hoo!  Well, my kit arrived in the mail today so I know the first thing I'm going to play with.  Have you ordered your kit yet?  If not, and you want one, better hurry before we're sold out!  And, as always, join us in our community for more inspiration, sharing and tutorials like this one!

Life and Layers

We are exploring vulnerability over at Inside Out this month.  The kit is absolutely gorgeous, and one of my favorite things is to watch and see what the Design Team creates with these goodies.

I love this layout by Christa because it is exactly what I can never seem to do... it has white space (what's that?  I've rarely seen that on my layouts) and ah-maze-ing layering.  I love, love, love the look of all of that layering.  It gives a layout such depth and interest!  Luckily, Christa wrote up a handy dandy tutorial on layering this month... she must have read my mind.

And, since I can't be the only one out there who needs some tips and tricks on how to layer on a layout, here I am to share it with you. C'mon!  Let's have fun with layering...

Adding Layers

by Christa Paustenbaugh

I love to add bits of layers to my layouts, whether it's just a couple of things in a corner or in this case, it's all over the page! When I opened up the February kit that is the first thing I thought of when I saw all the embellishments and the Dear Lizzy die cut paper. There are so many elements to layer in this kit that my layout, "Life", quite literally fell together by itself!

First up, I knew I wanted to use the Pink Paislee clear cards somehow. I put it against the light blue cardstock and it wasn't the effect I wanted. I decided yellow would do the trick and set to work on digging through my paints to see what would strike my fancy. I found a nice dark yellow and set to work on painting a rectangle paper. I chose to brush it on with a tissue rather than a brush to get a more muted look.

Then I set to work on getting the bits layered how I wanted them. I never adhere anything until I know for sure it's how I want it on the page. Wish I were more of a fly by the seats of my pants kind of gal, but I'm not! I laid the wallet sized photos, overlay and yellow painted paper down in the vicinity of where I wanted it to the edges and border.

Next, I cut out one of the medium sized flowers from the die cut paper and chose a ticket/tag I wanted to use for the title. I laid them on the layout to make sure they were in good composition to the yellows, etc.

Finally, I cut some leaves from the die cut paper, and layered the Maya Road doily overlay with some flower and metal accents. I layered and re-layered until it was appealing to me visually, while still keeping the focus on the photos. I was going to leave it without the pink butterfly (cut from Dear Lizzy paper), but once I cut it and put it on it had a nice pop that I wanted.

I have to admit that I tend to push paper around for a while before it suits me, but this one took much less time than normal. There are so many things in this kit to layer that I look forward to seeing all the different possibilities everyone comes up with!

Thanks Christa!

Do you layer on your layouts?  Let's see them... join us over at Inside Out!

What it Means to be Vulnerable

Only You by Nancy Doren

What is vulnerability?

vul·ner·a·ble

/ˈvʌlnərəbəl/ [vuhl-ner-uh-buhl]  

–adjective

1. capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon: a vulnerable part of the body.

2. open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.: an argument vulnerable to refutation; He is vulnerable to bribery.

3.  (of a place) open to assault; difficult to defend: a vulnerable bridge.

---

Origin:
1595–1605; < Late Latin vulnerābilis,  equivalent to Latin vulnerā ( re ) to wound + -bilis -ble;

—Related forms

vul·ner·a·bil·i·ty, vul·ner·a·ble·ness, noun

vul·ner·a·bly, adverb

un·vul·ner·a·ble, adjective

It's a topic so many people spend a lot of energy protecting.  We are taught to be tough, to hide our sensitivities, to show no weakness.  Yet, at Inside Out we're asking to you push all of that hogwash aside and rediscover those hidden, sensitive, vulnerable sides of you. Take a moment... take several moments... and explore vulnerability.  Delve into it, let yourself BE vulnerable.  We'll be gentle, we promise.  We'll even help you start exploring, just ponder these questions...

• When do you feel most vulnerable?  

• Who do you turn to when you are feeling vulnerable?  

• What do you do to protect your vulnerable sides?  

• What scares you about allowing yourself to be vulnerable?
• Have you ever felt empowered just from allowing yourself to be vulnerable?

Be vulnerable with us... explore and make a layout (or two, or ten!) about your vulnerabilities.  Join us and share in our community and watch for more inspiration throughout the month here.

The Vulnerability Kit - February 2011 Reveal

This sweet, luscious kit mixes beautiful pink and raspberry tones, delicate crocheted and transparency doilies, feathered flowers, pearl accents and bling.

Lace-cut butterfly paper, resin hearts, metal and layered embellishments add tons of dimension to your layouts. Glittered paper with magical birdcage and word imagery will make you feel like a girlie girl…glitter foam thickers and tiny alphas, along with 8 different journaling tools, including Pink Paislee clear cards and American Crafts journaling tickets will give you all the space you need to tell your most private stories. You’ll love the mix of papers from American Crafts, My Mind’s Eye, Pink Paislee and Hambly will wow you…and the crackle accents medium will let you try out new, accessible techniques with ease!

The softer side of you is something to embrace, nurture and love. Be you, be real and be VULNERABLE. Join us.

Buy yours here and read the detailed contents too. You can also check out the DT's new layouts. We'll have even more at mid month to inspire you!

These kits are sure to go fast! We are grateful for our wonderful members and customers for their support...thanks, ladies!