Rachel's Ramblings: Design Team Love

We at SFTIO have been fortunate to build a great relationship over the last few years with Creating Keepsakes magazine via their highly read editors blog and Club CK, their vibrant online community.

I have the special honor of writing a guest post for the CK blog each month and get to share the great work of our design team with a large audience.

I get lots of comments about how beautiful our DT LOs are, but also about how deep and meaningful they are - and nothing makes me happier! Our designers truly embody the soul of the Inside Out approach to art and I am so grateful for their ability to transmit meaningful ideas using words, photos, design and color. We LITERALLY couldn't do it without them.

We have a new blog post up at CK Friday, but here are some sneaks of the gorgeous LOs I've highlighted. All of them are focused on letting go of the past and releasing what no longer serves us. Great message for a new year, and beautifully summed up by our designers.

And as we've just announced our new DT, let me take this opportunity to thank the lovely Mary Jo Rhoda and Kate Vickers, our outgoing DT members for their great work and for helping me always see things in a new light.

And a hearty welcome to new members Lori Wilbanks and Kiki Halbert whose work I know you'll love as they help us expand our thinking into the worlds of hybrid design and art journaling. Welcome ladies!

Welcome back as well to brilliant DT coordinator Melissa Elsner (you rock, girl), and returning members Diana Brodeur, Nicole Martel and Jen Matott  - how lucky are we (and by we I mean me)! Thank you for being part of our mission to change the world one scrapbook page at a time.

Here's to a beautiful weekend...

Rachel

Goal Setting in your Layouts - and a Chance to Win ACHIEVEMENT

As your week draws to a close, do you feel that you accomplished everything you set out to do in the past seven days? How about the past month, or year? We all set goals for ourselves in different areas of our lives. And if you’re like me, you struggle with reaching all your goals because there are so many great things to create, so much you can become, and so little time.

My new blog post is up over at the Creating Keepsakes Blog today. It's about goals reached and opportunities missed...and how to be gentle with yourself about where you are in relation to your goals and dreams, loving yourself as you are right now. 

Her are some sneaks of the LOs you'll see. Make sure to head over to the CK blog for your chance to win the ACHIEVEMENT kit.

For more ways to win, come over to our beautiful new site and go the Community drop down to sign up on the Message Board. We've got meaningful, thought-provoking challenges all month with more chances to win great scrappy prizes.

What are your cherished goals?

Love,

Sneak Peek of BALANCE and a Giveaway at CK

Sneak Peek of the September kit: BALANCE

Our September kit is about how your life feels - in harmony, filled with peace...or not? How do you keep your composure and your equilibrium in this complicated and mysterious world?

Mid-century modern imagery mixed with a nod to simpler times. Strong color, presence and strength mix with delicate details.



Come and join us September 1 and get your life in BALANCE.

Creating Keepsakes Blog Post and How-to on Visual Journaling

My newest post is up on the CK Blog here with tips and tricks on how to deepen your layouts by adding visual symbolism.

Some peeks:







Come learn more, share your insights, and you'll have a chance to win the GROWTH kit before they're all gone!



Click here - and we still have these subscriber bonuses left with your six month subscription or renewal...




Have a beautiful weekend, and if you're on the east coast, stay safe, stay dry and stay home!

Love,
Rachel

PS - Don't forget that voting for the CK Teen Talent Search is unlimited...so vote as many times as you can! Click the widget at the top right of the sidebar. And thanks!

FIVE and Counting!

FIVE days and counting until registration opens!

Happy Tuesday everyone - just five days until you can reserve your spot for CRAFT...I'm so, so excited to share our next big announcement regarding CRAFT Beach Retreat: Creating Reflective Art for Transformation...our sponsors!

We are fortunate to have wonderful relationships with some of the biggest names in the paper crafts industry through our kit club, Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. They have been incredibly supportive of our mission - to empower women and girls to be fully expressed through our craft.

So without further ado, I present our sponsors for CRAFT!




Creating Keepsakes is an incredible partner. As the premiere publication in our industry, they set the bar for excellence in scrapbook inspiration, artistic diversity and creating community through their Club CK online forums and gallery. I personally want to thank Editor-in-Chief Jennafer Martin for her encouragement and investment in our collaborative efforts. CK is a perfect sponsor as we're lucky to have not one but two Dream Team members as part of the CRAFT teaching staff - Linda Barber and Stacy Cohen. Our event will include special gifts, giveaways and more courtesy of our friends at Creating Keepsakes. Thanks, ladies!





We've been working with American Crafts for three years - their clean and crisp designs, game-changing Thickers and innovative embellishments make them an industry leader and their supplies are featured prominently in every single kit we create. Once again, we are fortunate to have two members of the American Crafts design team to share their inspiration with you at CRAFT: Amy Tan and Paige Evans, who also serves as AC's Studio Blog Hostess. Even more exciting? Today's announcement that Amy has created her very first branded line of Scrapbook products under the American Crafts label! We'll have access to her design talents on both sides of the table - we'll be using her brand new products and combining them with her super style. Thanks, American Crafts for being such a great partner!





What can I say about Prima? No one creates more intricate and beautiful products, be it flowers, bling, trim, or paper. And no one creates as many new items each season! We're always amazed at the range of choices offered by Prima, and by the talent of their International Design Team and instructors. The aforementioned Stacy Cohen is one of those fabulous designers and will be teaching us some great techniques using Prima products in innovative and meaningful ways. Many thanks to Prima's Lead Educator Sharon Laakkonen, and the Prima sales team, for all their support of our program!

We're expecting to add at least two more sponsors on the coming days, and we look forward to sharing the good news soon...

In the meantime, have we whet your appetite? A-List instructors creating emotion-based, personal projects; beautiful materials from amazing sponsors...and much, much more to be announced between now and Saturday when we open registration! Stay tuned!

Win the OPTIMISM Kit

We're on the Creating Keepsakes Blog today talking about self-talk - what you tell yourself to keep going under difficult circumstances.

There are 5 beautiful examples from our DT sharing their secrets...







LOL, I'm such a tease, you'll have to go over to CK to see these LOs in their entirety!

Leave a comment on the CK Blog to be entered to win the kit!

Come on by our Message Board and Gallery to see all of our DT layouts about optimism, including some fresh ones uploaded today. It takes only a couple of minutes to register, and then you'll have access to all the goodness we share.

Come on in!

Kit Giveaway on the CK Blog

Hey all - believe it or not we have another giveaway of the FRIENDSHIP kit to share - and a lesson about how to scrap about (and learn about) yourself by scrapping about the ones you love in a reflective way.

You already know how we feel here at SFTIO about scrapbooking about yourself, but there's a lot to be learned about yourself through the filter of your relationships. Enter the FRIENDSHIP kit. Now, the focus is on the people whom you've chosen to mean the most in your life. There’s a way that these two kinds of scrapbooking connect beautifully. With this kit, we're scrapbooking about someone we love from OUR perspective – that is, how they influence us and what they help us learn about ourselves.

Join me on Saturday over the the CK Blog where I'll be guest posting on this subject with some wonderful examples of how reflecting on others helps you learn about you. You'll get some great insight from our designers and about yourself.

I'm a tease:









Check out my post on Saturday and leave a comment there to be entered to win. Or get your kit now before they all go bye-bye! The price is simply unbeatable - 39.99 with your six month subscription plus two gorgeous free gifts, and it's got what other clubs offer in a kit plus a sneaky add-on. No upselling tricks here - it's all in one!

See you soon!

Rachel

Giveaway with Creating Keepsakes

Want to use your words? I'm the guest blogger on the Creating Keepsakes Blog today sharing some ideas for using synonyms to jump-start your layouts. Come and see!



You might win the RESILIENCE kit. Mmm.



You can buy yours now here.

Which is your favorite synonym?

Our Giveaway on the Creating Keepsakes Blog and Free Shipping Offer

Please come join us for an INSPIRATION kit giveaway on the CK Blog. I'm the guest blogger today, sharing some layouts about what inspires our Design Team.

Allow me to whet your appetite:



Click HERE to enter the CK/SFTIO giveaway.

This is what you'll win:



What inspires you most? Is it your friends, your family, music, art, other crafters? How about nature, love and the search for meaning?

We're just about to launch the April kit, RESILIENCE:



Order the INSPIRATION kit before April 1 as part of a six month subscription and you'll get FREE shipping on this kit. Save $9! For US and Canada customers only - but if you're anywhere else, you'll get $9 off your shipping. This offer expires at Midnight Pacific time on March 31.

Also make sure you join our mailing list for a special offer coming this Tuesday...

Have an inspirational Sunday!

Love,
Rachel

Join Me Today on the CK Blog and Win!

Hey everyone...Happy Friday!

I am having a really fun week with my friend Barbara who is visiting from New York. We have had the most enjoyable couple of days, shopping, laughing, and cooking up a storm!

I want to invite you over to the Creating Keepsakes Blog! I had the pleasure of creating a special layout on this month's theme at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, ANTICIPATION. I'm really pleased and honored to share it there as this Friday's Guest Blogger. Here's a little peek:


My post is all about how to add more meaning to your layouts, and I walk through how I created this layout from my photo inspiration to using the right embellishments in more creative ways. There are tons of tips and lots of step by step photos. I had a blast! Thanks, Megan and Joannie for the great opportunity!

Make sure you go and check it out - we're sponsoring another wonderful giveaway..that's right, the ANTICIPATION kit. You'll need to leave a comment on my CK guest blog post to be entered.



You can still grab one of these kits here...we've restocked due to the incredible demand for this gorgeous kit.

Hope you have a great weekend...I'll be back tomorrow with some good news...the NEW SFTIO Design Team announcement.

Love,

Rachel