Fa La La La Freebies: Tuesday Winner and Wednesday Inspiration/Giveaway

It's time for 2 winners and today's inspiration and a new giveaway!



Random.org says our winners are #2 and #5:

Amber said...
My precious kitten brings me peace! Just watching him sleep puts an instant smile on my face and makes me feel feel so comforted!

AND

Jane Jeffress Thomas said...
what or who in your home brings you PEACE

When it is quiet, I find peace.

Congratulations, Ladies! Thanks for playing...please email me at rachinla@aol.com with your snail mail addresses and we'll get your prizes out ASAP! Please make sure you use the email address you used to register at the website so we can match you up!

December 9th:

Here's today's inspiration and giveaways:

Another LO by Nancy Doren, using our GENEROSITY kit. What is this, the Nancy Doren Show? Why, yes it is. :) Look for her in January (and lots of additional months already confirmed) in two scrapbook magazines near you. The world has finally 'discovered' her! We're so proud...





And this one is also about her DH. 'Inside Out' doesn't mean we're not acknowledging our loved ones - we're just focusing the lens on how those key people in our lives inspire/support/challenge US. See the circles of all types? They read 'coins' to me, and they're all over the page, like Dan's generosity in so many areas. The angles suggest how Nancy leans on his example...and don't you love how masculine this page is with its mixed patterns? A great visual representation of a generous guy. Scrapbooking from the Inside Out's kits, and our industry exclusive inspiration, give you everything you need to create pages with layers of meaning.

And now for our next giveaway -

Two great items from the GENEROSITY kit:

A full package of Prima's Quillen - Gallery Roses (totally alterable, BTW) and three 'Ancient Dynasty' Coins from Tsukineko, as seen on Nancy's LO above.





How can you win?

Two easy steps:

1. Stop by Scrapbooking from the Inside Out and register for our mailing list on the home page (scroll down) if you’re not already a member. If you are, you’re good to go!

2. Leave a comment on this post and tell us, in the spirit of the gift-giving season, who teaches you the most about generosity?

That’s it! We’ll announce the winner tomorrow. You have until 6:00 AM Thursday (Pacific Time,UTC/GMT -8) to leave your comment to be entered to win, although I LOVE reading everything you say even if it's later. Make sure you join us!

Are you loving the kit featured above - grab yours! A $50+ value on sale now for the LOW price of $42.95, with MORE goodies than any other club's main kit + add-on for less dough. Yum.



How this works:

This holiday season, we’re celebrating you –your heart, your emotions and your self-expression! Every weekday between now and Christmas, join us for Fa La La La Freebies - great giveaways and inspiration as we highlight some of the best emotion-based layouts we’ve seen this year. Each day you can win something special used on those pages from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out to add to your layouts, and on Christmas Day, you can win our grand prize - our exclusive January kit before it’s available to our subscribers. You’ll love it as a way to help you explore the inner holiday experience, and get ready for a great, meaningful and powerful 2010.

There’s never been a better time to join us at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out…we’ll help you every day to use your mad scrapbook skills, color, design and journaling to learn about your dreams, hopes, fears and goals and what you need to be fully expressed. With all of the feelings involved in the holiday season and the start of a new year, ‘tis the season to be scrapping! Give yourself the gift of time…at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, it’s all about you! Explore your inner world…

Thanks for joining us...

Love,

Rachel

Generosity Inspiration

Still want to work on your November 2009 Generosity LOs? Here's the Inspiration page from November 2009...stay tuned for December's reveal in just a few hours! The PEACE kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is on its way...

Journaling Prompts

What is a Gift?:

The whole season between Thanksgiving and the winter holidays (Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa) are geared around the symbolism of giving, whether it be creating and sharing a beautiful meal, or making a list and checking it twice. What wonderful tangible and intangible gifts have you given and received in your life, and what made those gifts meaningful? Were they expected or a surprise? And how does reciprocity play a role in gift giving? What type of generosity do you prefer to demonstrate and to receive? Does everyone qualify as a gift recipient in your orbit, or are gifts for children alone?

Generous Spirit:

We all know someone (or more than one person) who embodies the spirit of giving by his or her attitude or actions through time and love. Who has the most generous spirit? What in that person's history do you think created that kind of generous nature? What have they taught you about how to give from the heart, even when you may feel bereft? Does having a generous spirit give the giver more than it takes away? Is there someone for whom you'd do anything, or vice versa?

Selfish/Selfless:

Do you allow yourself to practice healthy self-care? Women (especially) tend to give a lot of themselves to their families and friends. Are you the type of person who gives it all away, or do you find ways of keeping some of you for you? Are you ever awed by the selfless-seeming figures presented by history or religion - Mother Teresa, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, or do you recognize that they don't live in the real world with dishes to do and bills to pay? What balance do you find between generously providing for others and providing for yourself?

Charity and Generosity:

There are all sorts of ways to be generous - money, volunteering...what causes mean the most to you and make you feel that you can be generous? What do you sacrifice to provide that generosity? How do you balance between giving to causes and institutions that impact you directly (your own place of worship or kids' school) vs. those that impace the greater world outside of your orbit? Does charity start at home, and if so, where does it end?

Grand Gesture:

What action could you take, physical, emotional or spiritual, to show the ones you love how much they mean to you? Have you been on the receiving end of a grand gesture and what did it mean to you...were you grateful, blissful, guilty? How do you hold memories of great events in your life - a proposal, your wedding, the birth of a child, a major birthday, and how did the different types of generosity displayed by your loved ones influence your experience and your memories?

Music

Quotes

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. Kahlil Gibran



That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. Simone de Beauvoir



Generosity with strings is not generosity; It is a deal. Marya Mannes



To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness. Confucius



A really great man is known by three signs... generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success. Otto von Bismarck



Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. Albert Camus



Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect are the qualities which make a real gentleman or lady. Thomas H. Huxley



He who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self sacrifice. Henry Taylor



At best the family teaches the finest things human beings can learn from one another generosity and love. But it is also, all too often, where we learn nasty things like hate, rage and shame. Barbara Ehrenreich



Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin. Tacitus



Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will. Alistair Cooke



Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality and benevolence, the other from pride or fear. Horace Mann



Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do. Kahlil Gibran



Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives. Jean-Paul Sartre



Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion. Mohandas Gandhi



Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity. Jose Marti



No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. Emma Goldman



Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. Albert Camus



The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity. Jean-Paul Sartre



You see, antiquated ideas of kindness and generosity are simply bugs that must be programmed out of our world. And these cold, unfeeling machines will show us the way. Bill Gates



We would all like a reputation for generosity and we'd all like to buy it cheap. Mignon McLaughlin



I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it. Ralph Waldo Emerson



Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain. Helen Keller



The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. Gandhi

Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich. Eva Peron



It has always seemed strange to me...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, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. John Steinbeck



Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away. Francois de La Rochefoucauld



When a man dies he clutches in his hands only that which he has given away during his lifetime. Jean Jacques Rousseau



One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Maya Angelou



There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else. Peyton Conway March



There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light. Ralph Waldo Emerson



Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow. Thornton Wilder



The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give. Walt Whitman



You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. Winston Churchill



You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. Kahlil Gibran



What is bought is cheaper than a gift. Portuguese Proverb



A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver. Thomas á Kempis



The only gift is a portion of thyself. Ralph Waldo Emerson



We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. Seneca



We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. Ralph Waldo Emerson



But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's. Ralph Waldo Emerson



If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. George MacDonald



The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. Pierre Corneille



What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. Eleanor Powell

Corduroy Border - Fantastic Fabric on your Layouts and Two Big Giveaways

Our lovely DT Coordinator Nancy Doren has created this great tutorial on using fabric from our GENEROSITY kit to create a gorgeous, dimensional border on your LOs...check it out! You can use this pretty technique with any fabric, but you'll love the cord in this kit...

Creating a Ruffled Corduroy Border
by Nancy Doren



We have a very cool corduroy patch from Buzz and Bloom in this month’s kit. I love to make ruffles out of paper and fabric, so I made a cute fringed border for my page. Here are the steps for making one of your own!









1. Cut the corduroy patch into strips. I cut mine into 5/8” strips.

2. To make the fringe, pull the threads from each end all the way out of the fabric. This will create a frayed edge. Repeat on the opposite side.















3. Place the corduroy strip on your paper, and anchor it on one end to the paper with a few stitches.















4. Begin making the ruffle by folding the corduroy over itself and placing it under the presser foot.















5. Put the presser foot down to hold the fold in the corduroy.
















6. Sew for about an inch and then repeat the folding and stitching process.















7. Continue until you reach the end of the strip, then add another strip and continue sewing until you’ve made the border as long as you’d like.
















P.S. You don't have to have a sewing machine to create this border... you could sew it by hand, with embroidery floss, or even staple it down!

Here's the yummy GENEROSITY kit in all its glory - don't you want one right now? Be good to yourself and get yourself the gift that keeps on giving...an SFTIO subscription!

We have two great giveaways happening right now in conjunction with Craft Gossip and Scrapbook Trends. Click on these links to enter and win one of our kits! Don't wait too long...the deadlines are coming up soon...

Love,

Rachel

New, Fresh Ways to Use Your Stamps

This is the first in an ongoing series of tutorials by the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out Design Team using our kits...this one is all about fresh ways to use all those stamps in your stash and from our kits...there's a stamp in every kit...thanks for these great ideas to the talented and adorable Andrea Davenport!

And here's the current yummy kit of goodies which she used to create ALL these great embellishments and designs! Buy yours here!




Making the most of your stamps
by Andrea Davenport













Just some different techniques to give your stamps new life, and keep your creating fresh!

Technique One - Create a background:



The best part about this technique is that it really can work with any stamp. While using the stamp that came with the SFTIO November Generosity kit, I was able to create a pattern that I knew I would love. Even if it came out a little choppy, I like the element of distress that it has.











Technique Two - Glossing:



For this technique, I used a basic archival ink with my stamp. After it had dried completely, I used a gloss gel to give it a shiny coat. When you use the gloss, be careful-use a smooth, even layer so that you don’t get any air bubbles. Put it aside overnight and in the morning, you have a super slick stamped image.










Technique Three - Stamping with Pearl Effect Powder:



Using a Perfect Medium stamp pad (you can find this at any craft store in the stamping section) stamp your image on a piece of cardstock. Using dark paper works better for this effect. Take a small paintbrush and dip into your pearl powder. In a drawing motion, cover your image with the pearl powder. After the entire image has been covered, take a larger brush and remove the excess powder. You should have a perfect pearl image of your stamp! Once you’re done, lightly spritz the image with water; this will keep your powder from smudging.

Technique Four - Stamping on fabric:



This technique can give you some great results-just have an open mind. Using a solvent ink, stamp onto your piece of fabric, then let dry. How simple is that?









Technique five - Create a distress:



Start with a clear embossing ink. Stamp your image, and cover with a clear embossing powder. Using a heat tool, heat your stamped image until you see it start to rise from the paper. After that, use acrylic paint to cover your project. Moving quickly, wipe away the paint from your stamped image. This is by far my favorite effect to use with stamps. So many things can be created!











Find a way to use your stamps in every project you do. They can make such a difference. Remember to enjoy being messy with ink, and experimenting with different techniques. That is all a part of the fun!

November Kit Reveal - GENEROSITY

November 2009 Kit of the Month: GENEROSITY



As we approach the season of giving and receiving, our thoughts turn to the intrinsic value of all the ways in which we contribute to the lives of others. We’ll be exploring these ideas with our newest kit, Generosity.

This kit is so graceful and stylish – full of rich, deep color and elegant design, with coins, copper accents, shimmery self-adhesive mosaic tiles and, of course, pretty Prima. There are tons of intricate die-cuts, chipboard, and metal tabs to layer to your heart’s content. The kit features gorgeous die-cut and metallic paper from My Mind’s Eye and SEI, along with corduroy fabric, transparencies, there’s SO much to play with!

This month, we’ll be exploring how you give of your time and money, inspiring a generous spirit in yourself and your family, positive self care vs. selfishness, and the big and small gestures that create connection in your life. Join us for Generosity…at the LOW price of $42.95 when you subscribe for 6 months...no one else gives you the greatest kits, the deepest inspiration and the best community but Scrapbooking from the Inside Out...

More gorgeous close-ups tomorrow...stay tuned!

Contents:

7 Sheets Double-Sided Patterned Paper:
* Lilybee Audrey Smashing
* Lilybee Audrey Cosmopolitan
* Lilybee Audrey Delightful
* MME Ooh La La For Him Checked Out
* MME Ooh La La For Him Frivolous
* MME Ooh La La For Him Out and About
* MME Ooh La La For Him Playful

5 Sheets Specialty Paper:
* SEI Moravia Katarina
* SEI Moravia Sanov
* SEI Moravia Rosice
* SEI Moravia Michov
* SEI Moravia Lisen

Embellishments:
* American Crafts Thickers Delight, white
* Jenni Bowlin Tiny Alphas, Vintage Navy
* 7 Gypsies Transparencies, Gypsy, 2 pcs.
* Lilybee Audrey Die Cut Frames, half sheet
* MME Die Cut For Him Acc Sheet Ooh La La, full sheet
* American Crafts Brads, Medium Glitter, Copper, 5
* Mark Richards Cabochons, Tangerine, ¼ pkg.
* Mark Richards Mosaic Tiles, Small Cranberry, ¼ pkg.
* Mark Richards Mosaic Tiles, Large Navy Blue ¼ pkg.
* Prima Pebbles, Gold, 6 pcs.
* Tsukineko, Coins, 2
* SEI Moravia Metal Accents, 4 pcs.
* SEI Moravia Foil Chiplets, 8 pcs.
* Jenni Bowlin Journaling Cards Memo Book, Grey, 4 pcs
* Buzz and Bloom Corduroy Fabric, Fineliner - Airforce
* Prima Gypsy Petals, Orange Yellow, 1pc.
* Prima Tiffany Petals, White, 1 pc.
* Prima Say it in Pearls Flower Centers, Pewter, 4 pcs.
* SEI Moravia Pressed Linen Texture Embellishments , 3-4 pcs.

Cardstock:
* Core'dinations Cardstock, Roasted Pepper
* Core'dinations Cardstock, Sutter Butter
* Core'dinations Cardstock, Navy
* Core'dinations Cardstock, Cream of Wheat

Color:
* Ranger Stickles, Copper
* SEI Ink Pad, Cayenne

Stamp:
* Prima Clear Stamps, Tassel

Contents may vary slightly.

Love,

Rachel

November Sneakie: Generosity

But no worries, there's still LOADS of deep and meaningful October activity happening over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out...challenges, giveaways and great conversation about loss and gain. I'm learning a lot!

Here's a first look at November's kit: GENEROSITY!





Talk about counting your blessings! Check it out for real on November 1st.

Love,

Rachel