Flashback to Passion

Those who control their passions do so
because their passions are weak enough to be controlled.
William Blake

This month's emotion is Achievement, and we'll certainly be exploring that over the next few weeks.  However, Inside Out has been around for quite some time, and I wanted to jump backwards to another time and another emotion, just for fun:  Passion!

Passion was originally explored in February 2010.  I loved this kit, I loved the inspiration and I loved making a layout of one of my first passionate crushes, back in the good ol' days of high school.  He was my "rebel" boyfriend (the kind you really don't want to take home to ma and pa) and I experienced many forms of passion with him, one of which I'm embarrassed to say, was somewhat stalker-ish.  Uhm, on my part, not his.  Poor guy.

Anyway, please join us for this flashback challenge.  Create a layout and post it in our gallery (view our message boards too and let us know you're posting for the flashback challenge) and who knows?  There might be some goodies involved.  C'mon over and play with us!!

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Hi all, Rachel here hijacking the post to add one of my recent PASSION layouts - it's never too late to use one of our themes to explore you...

Here's a sneak - you'll have to come join us on the website to see more!

Our regular reader may remember that I am James Taylor's BIGGEST fan. So I wanted to capture some of why I love him and what he stands for, how he inspires me.So what are you passionate about? Like Kai said, come tell us and you could win a great prize!

XO,

PASSION Inspiration from the Inside Out

It's not too late to explore our PASSION theme...here's the inspiration page for your creating pleasure!Stay tuned...our next theme, NOSTALGIA, launches in just a few short hours!

Design Team Creations

For more from the Design Team, and detailed close-ups, check out the February 2010 Design Team Gallery.

Journaling Prompts

Devotion: The people in our lives who stay close to us benefit from a level of devotion, dedication and focus that is unique to them. What makes the one you choose ‘the ones’? Are the ones you’re devoted to your family, friends, or both? What about these people makes you devoted to them…is it a reciprocal love, or one that is more selfless, with less expectation? Does the length of the relationship have an impact on the level of your devotion to them, or theirs to you? Are you good at choosing the right ones to be devoted to?

In Love vs. Loving: What’s the difference between being ‘in love’ and loving someone? What are your memories of the blush of first love, or the feelings you had when you first met your current beloved? How long did those feelings last…or do you still feel them? What about the day to day of living with someone transforms ‘in love’ to ‘love’? What models of deep love and passion do you have to look back at – your parents or grandparents? Does popular culture – movies, music (the ‘language of love’), inspire your passionate feelings, or does it not represent your experience of passion?

Drive: In a perfect world, we’d all get to create a life that beautifully represents our passions. Do you do a job, or do you spend your days, in a way that truly speaks to your passions? If not, why? How did you get to do what you do? Did you follow your inner voice, or did someone else tell you what you should be? What pushes you to create a career, or life, that you love? When did you start to hear that inner voice? If you don’t hear it, how do you feel about people who have that drive and pursue it?

Vehement Dislike: Passion can sometimes be described as a strong anger or dislike. What is it you detest the most? Is it certain behaviors in others, something about the world or human nature? Do you feel free to express what you don’t like, or are you more worried about being kind? What outlets do you have to tell your truth? Why do you think you dislike whatever you dislike so? Have you ever known a person that you’ve automatically disliked? What about them creates that reaction? Is there something about them that actually elucidates something about YOU with which you have trouble?

Desire: Most of our cultural upbringing makes us shy or embarrassed about our sexuality. Is it difficult to talk about that aspect of your life? Did your mom discuss sex with you when you were young? If she didn’t, how did you learn about it? From your friends, or teachers? If you have children, do you talk to them freely about sex, or is it difficult for you? How important a part of your life is your sexuality? What do you think about the way men and women approach sex differently?

Music

Quotes

I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. Orson Welles

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. Alfred Lord Tennyson

My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose. Bette Davis

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. D. H. Lawrence

Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place. Ice T

Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still. Robert Sternberg

It's the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion. Rebecca West

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. Denis Diderot

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

Think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived. Anna Quindlen

Who is wise? He that learns from every One. Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. Benjamin Franklin

The more passions and desires one has, the more ways one has of being happy. Charlotte-Catherine

When a quiet man is moved to passion, it seems the very earth will shake. Stephanie Barron

Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled. William Blake

I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves. Blaise Pascal

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. Denis Diderot

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. Anthony J. D'Angelo

Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out a candle, and blows in a fire. De La Rochefoucauld

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential -- for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never. Søren Kierkegaard

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Eric Hoffer

Passion holds up the bottom of the universe and genius paints up its roof. Chang Ch'ao

All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual. Honore De Balzac

Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act. Claude A. Helvetius

We welcome passion, for the mind is briefly let off duty. Mignon McLaughlin

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. Benjamin Franklin

Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name of reason. John Wesley

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night. Glade Byron Addams

Passion spins around love and I am dizzy always around you. Albany Bach Reid

Follow your passion, and success will follow you. Arthur Buddhold

Were the passionate visible, all we would go blind. Jareb Teague

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman Renew your passions daily. Abbe Yeux-verdi

Desire is the very essence of man. Baruch Spinoza

If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few. Benjamin Franklin

My heart beat so hard when I was near him, I feared he could hear my secret longing for him. Destiny Vaestus

The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another. Friedrich Nietzsche

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark. Amiel

You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion. Garrison Keillor

Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work. Aldous Huxley

You've got to follow your passion. You've got to figure out what it is you love--who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams. Oprah Winfrey

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you. T. Alan Armstrong

A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means. William Hazlitt

Passion is the genesis of genius. Anthony Robbins

It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it. Christian Nevell Bovee

Love without passion is dreary; passion without love is horrific. Lord Byron

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

I do today from memory what yesterday I did in passion. Gerald Barzan

The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in the passion we inspire . François de la Rochefoucauld

Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost. Proverb

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life. Federico Fellini

A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to act on. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on. Tom Morris

Our destiny changes with our thought; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire. Orison Swett Marden

Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. Robert Frost

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man. Madame de Stael

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it. Brendan Francis

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. Napoleon Hill

Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead. Joss Whedon

We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us. Francois Rabelais

Your feet will bring you to where your heart is. Irish Proverb

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way. Robert Kiyosaki

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving. Ayn Rand

Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power - a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment. Marsha Sinetar

Two Meaningful Layout Challenges about PASSION

In the Inside-Out spirit of looking at emotions in different ways, here are the first two challenges this month on the theme of PASSION. I'ts not all about roses and candy...there are some important lessons to be learned looking at what makes our hearts pound...

February Challenge #1, First Love/No Direct Photo

Now listen, all you married ladies...this challenge is a bit different...made for you to explore some of your past, potentially NOT about your current spouse.

Remember the first time you REALLY fell in love? How your heart would practically pound out of your chest when you saw the object of your affection?

Please create a LO about that feeling. What was it like, what did you learn from that first love, and how has that experience influenced your life today.

If you don't feel that you've been in love that way (yet), what do you imagine it to be like in your perfect world?

Design twist: DON'T use the person's picture...find a creative way to tell the story w/o it to keep the focus on YOUR experience. After all, this is SFTIO...all about YOU.

February Challenge #2, Drive/Road

You've got to follow your passion. You've got to figure out what it is you love--who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams. Oprah Winfrey

Passion is the genesis of genius. Anthony Robbins

Drive: In a perfect world, we’d all get to create a life that beautifully represents our passions. Do you do a job, or do you spend your days, in a way that truly speaks to your passions? If not, why? How did you get to do what you do? Did you follow your inner voice, or did someone else tell you what you should be? What pushes you to create a career, or life, that you love? When did you start to hear that inner voice? If you don’t hear it, how do you feel about people who have that drive and pursue it?

For our next challenge, tell us about whether what you do all day (career, homemaker...) reflects your passions. If not, what's stopping you from achieving that?

For the design twist, please use a road image for your path toward your best life.

Every month we help you Explore Your Inner World like no one else can. And kit, or no kit, you can play along with your evocative challenges, learn about yourself and create on a deeper level. Although you really do want the kit...:)

Just ONE more left:



Look at these lovely LOs created by our DT:

Nancy Doren, DT Coordinator:


Rita Barakat:


Arlene Camacho:


Stacey Hansen:


Cristal Hobbs:


Diana Kennedy:


Our girls are getting pubbed ALL OVER the place...stay tuned to future issues of Scrapbook Trends and Creating Keepsakes to see Nancy, Arlene and Stacey in action!

Congrats!

Hope to see you all at our cybercrop tomorrow. Details on this post.

Love,

Rachel

February Kit - PASSION

Here's a close-up look at the gorgeous, luscious brand new kit launching today at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out - PASSION.



What moves your heart and soul most? That’s what we’ll be exploring this month as we take a different, inside-out approach to love, devotion and desire with our February kit, PASSION.



This kit is the definition of lush…cherry red, candy pink, light blue and cream with a tiny bit of chocolate (what would passion be without chocolate?) Overflowing with Prima flowers, bling, hearts, crowns, wings and flourishes…with goodies from Pink Paislee, My Mind’s Eye and Collage Press, and trim you’ll want to use EVERYWHERE.



We’ve included a huge Tim Holtz music mask for awesome technique opportunities, tons of journaling cards, tiny word stickers, velvet texture and the oh-so-popular smooch paint.



If you've been waiting for the perfect time to get a six month subscription, check out this month's bonuses – all from Prima...last month’s bonuses sold out, so make sure you buy now!



What could be more delicious, decadent and delectable than exploring all the ways that PASSION influences your life…in your relationships, your work and your play? Come join us and let us join YOU as you explore the depth of your inner PASSION.











Grab yours now while they last! Our January kit sold out!

We look forward to welcoming you to our warm, deep, caring community...

Love,

Rachel