Scrapbooking From The Inside Out

Oh, James...

2009-11-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

It's a banner day...James Taylor (my all time heartthrob) and Carole King are returning to the stage together to do a series of shows based on their original days performing together at the Troubadour Club in West Hollywood, CA.

They did such a show in Nov 2007 as part of the clubs' 50th anniversary/charity benefit, and I was sure there, second row standing and SO happy...so of course, now I'm stalking the Hollywood Bowl website waiting for the tickets to go on pre-sale...thought it was today, but alas, today was only the announcement...so I wait...sigh...

Not feeling patient today...but look (above) at the great pic they used as the header on the new webstore page...

Those of you lovely readers in Japan and Australia - shows there were announced today as well. Go check it out!

New, Fresh Ways to Use Your Stamps

2009-11-05T12:09:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

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

Loss Inspiration

2009-10-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

You know there's always time to explore our great themes...here's the inspiration for LOSS, October 2009's kit.

Journaling Prompts

Losing a Loved One:
There is probably nothing that strikes more fear into the heart of most people that the thought of losing someone they love. We live in a world of the tangible, the immediate. Being separated by death is the ultimate in aloneness and loss. What experiences have you had with death and dying? Whom have you lost, when, and what impact did it have on you? Did your age or life cycle stage at the time make a difference? How did you make peace with the loss, or if you haven't, why do you that that's the case? Did you experience the traditional stages of grief, and in what order? How do you comfort others who have experiences a tragic loss?

Loss of a Dream:
So much of childhood is focused on the future and on fantasy - the white knight coming to rescue you, the dreams that will be fulfilled. What did you dream of as a child and which of those dreams were fulfilled. Were those dreams fulfilled in the ways you expected? If you had dreams that did not come to fruition (and who hasn't!) what are those dreams and how do you cope with the loss of hope, even more so than the loss of the actual experience you desired? Has it changed the way that you now dream about your future? Are you less hopeful? Do you still dream about a future that seems far away?

Healing Tears:
What methods do you use to relieve yourself from the difficulties of life? For some people, a good cry is the way to open the pressure valve. How often do you cry, and when you do, does it bring you some comfort and release? Are you open enough to cry in front of others, or do you hide your deeper emotions? How did your parents treat crying when you were a child - were you chastised and told to 'buck up', or were you allowed to express yourself?

What You Gain:
Every loss typically has a gain associated with it. What great steps, achievements and gains have you made in your life, and how often were those connected to an initial loss? What new things have you learned about yourself? What do you have now that you didn't have when you were younger? Did the passage of time or your hard work bring you more of what you want in your life?

Quotes

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. Norman Cousins

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Marcus Aurelius

Through zeal, knowledge is gotten; through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost; let a man who knows the double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow. Buddha

Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret. François de la Rochefoucauld

What looks like a loss may be the very event which is subsequently responsible for helping to produce the major achievement of your life. Srully Blotnick

The greatest danger, that of losing one's own self, may pass off quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, that of an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc., is sure to be noticed. Soren Kierkegaard

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss. Epicurus

Gain and loss, birth and death are in the hands of God. Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief - but the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love. Hilary Stanton Zunin

Gain cannot be made without some other person's loss. Publilius Syrus

I have learned that some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet are those who have suffered a traumatic event or loss. I admire them for their strength, but most especially for their life gratitude - a gift often taken for granted by the average person in society. Sasha Azevedo

No loss by flood and lightening, no destruction of cities and temples by the hostile forces of nature, has deprived man of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance has destroyed. Helen Keller

A wife is a gift bestowed upon man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power. John Steinbeck

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters. May Sarton

Time by minutes slips away, first the hour, then the day, small the daily loss appears, yet soon it amounts to years. Ronald Tierney

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Kahlil Gibran

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. Kenji Miyazawa

Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains. Kahlil Gibran

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What we learned here is love tastes bitter when it’s gone. Rob Thomas

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. William Shakespeare

Even hundredfold grief is divisible by love. Jareb Teague

If you're going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill

We acquire the strength we have overcome. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time is a physician that heals every grief. Diphilus

The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost. Arthur Schopenhauer

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present. Jan Glidewell

The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. Henry Maudsley

There is no grief like the grief that does not speak. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief. Aeschylus

He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it. Turkish Proverb

Grief makes one hour ten. William Shakespeare

Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief. Swedish Proverb

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs. Euripides

I measure every grief I meet with narrow, probing eyes - I wonder if it weighs like mine - or has an easier size. Emily Dickinson

The cure for grief is motion. Elbert Hubbard

In youth one has tears without grief; in age, griefs without tears. Joseph Roux

Grief is the price we pay for love. Elizabeth II

Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean. David Searls

Suppressed grief suffocates, it rages within the breast, and is forced to multiply its strength. Ovid

Tears are the silent language of grief. Voltaire

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. William Cowper

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. Samuel Butler

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. German Motto

Only those who avoid love can avoid grief. The point is to learn from grief and remain vulnerable to love. John Brantner

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear. William Shakespeare

Music

If you can't see the player, click on 'pop-out' player to listen in a new window!

Enjoy and dig deep...

Love,

Rachel

A Few More LOSS Challenges

2009-10-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

These are challenges are SO good and meaningful, and you still have a few days to play along and learn so much. This month's overall winner will get a full set of two paper lines which are in the November Kit - they are gorgeous.

October Challenge #5, Gains & Losses/No Photo!

What You Gain: What looks like a loss may be the very event which is subsequently responsible for helping to produce the major achievement of your life. Srully Blotnick

Every loss typically has a gain associated with it. What great steps, achievements and gains have you made in your life, and how often were those connected to an initial loss? What new things have you learned about yourself? What do you have now that you didn't have when you were younger? Did the passage of time or your hard work bring you more of what you want in your life?

Please create a LO about gain and loss in your life. Is it a story from the past? Or do you still need to let go of something to gain something else?

For the design twist, please LOSE the photo! Just paper, embellies and your words on this one...

October Challenge #6, Lost Dreams/Song Lyrics

Loss of a Dream:

So much of childhood is focused on the future and on fantasy - the white knight coming to rescue you, the dreams that will be fulfilled. What did you dream of as a child and which of those dreams were fulfilled. Were those dreams fulfilled in the ways you expected? If you had dreams that did not come to fruition (and who hasn't!) what are those dreams and how do you cope with the loss of hope, even more so than the loss of the actual experience you desired? Has it changed the way that you now dream about your future? Are you less hopeful? Do you still dream about a future that seems far away?

Please create a LO about the loss of a dream in the past, and how it has impacted your view of the future. What was worse...the loss of the what you wished for or the loss of the dream itself?

Since SO many songs are about lost love or lost dreams, for the design twist, please feature song lyrics, either from this month's Music Playlist, or one of your own choosing.

You can ALWAYS add your LOs to the gallery, but to be eligible for giveaways, make sure you upload by the 30th at Noon Pacific.

Mwah!

Rachel

November Sneakie: Generosity

2009-10-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

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

Design Team Search is ON

2009-10-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

I know it takes a lot to put yourself out there...I want to encourage you to BE BRAVE! You'll never know what you can accomplish unless you try...

Near my home is a private high school which puts a new and interesting sign out front each week:

This week's sign says:

Embrace Change. PS...it may hurt.

So go for it...even if it may hurt. We're here for you!

Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is holding a Design Team search to add to our team! Inside Out is a different kind of kit club – it’s about a form of what we call ‘Scrapbook Therapy’ – using scrapbooking as a form of self-exploration, self-expression and self-discovery. Our goal is to encourage the use of scrapbooking as a way for us to tap into our deep inner worlds in the midst of our very busy lives. We will be taking submissions from now through November 6, 2009.

We are seeking two talented designers, who are passionate about scrapbooking and personal growth to share in this journey, to add to our team. As a Design Team member, you will serve a critical role in promoting the kits and the website on message boards, the blog, and representing the company where ever you can. We ask that our designers not hold design team positions with any other kit club or online scrapbooking retailer. Manufacturer design team appointments and teaching at your LSS are fine.

As a member of our Design Team, you will be asked to:
1. create 5 layouts using 80% materials from our kit and relating to the theme of the month
2. contribute two monthly articles for subscriber-only content (tips or techniques with step by step photos )
3. participate on our message boards at least 4 days per week
4. design for Inside Out for a 6-month term, beginning on December 1, 2009 (starting with the January 2010 Kit)
5. post your Inside Out Los as requested by us at scrapbook community sites
6. submit your LOs for publication as requested

All projects made with the kit are yours to keep, and when used in the newsletter or on the website, you will be given full credit. As our designer, you can also submit your own work for publication after 1 month of debut of the kit, as long as you give Inside Out proper credit.

Your compensation will be:
1. Free monthly kit with no shipping charge from January-June 2010.
2. Admission to CHA-Winter in Anaheim, CA, Jan 24-27, 2010 (travel, hotel and other expenses not covered).
3. Recognition on our website with a link to your blog.
4. Incredible friendships, publishing opportunities and creative insight into your heart!

To apply, please email the following to scrapbookdesign@aol.com (subject – Design Team):
1. photos of 4 layouts of any size. All 4 projects should be about your inner world – your thoughts, feelings, dreams, fears
2. links to your online gallery, blog and/or resume, if available
3. your full contact information: name, phone number, email address, and mailing address
4. a short paragraph or two about why you want to be one of our designers – why this concept matters to you
5. a list of your current scrapbooking commitments – other DT work, etc.

We’re a passionate and creative team looking for like-minded people who love to share their thoughts and feelings using our craft and foster a supportive and welcoming community. We look forward to getting to know you!

Love,

Rachel

New Challenges All Around

2009-10-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

I love a good challenge...don't you? I love sketching and pondering what I'll do with a particular challenge...now to find the time to actually scrap...sigh.

Here are challenges 2 and 3 for the LOSS kit at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

#2: Healing Tears/Liquid Imagery:

What methods do you use to relieve yourself from the difficulties of life? For some people, a good cry is the way to open the pressure valve. How often do you cry, and when you do, does it bring you some comfort and release? Are you open enough to cry in front of others, or do you hide your deeper emotions? How did your parents treat crying when you were a child - were you chastised and told to 'buck up', or were you allowed to express yourself?

Please share a LO about the role of tears, expression and release in your life.

For the design twist, please use some sort of liquid imagery...like the clear drops in the kit, crystal accents or paper glaze, stickles, or if you're not a cryer - maybe ice cubes or an iceberg? Hmmm.

#3: Change/Cycles and Circles:

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Marcus Aurelius

The seasons come and go, year after year. Children are born, they grow, parents grow old and leave us. There is nothing constant but change.

How do you feel about change that you cannot control? The seasons, life, death, transitions that are part of the human experience? Are you at peace with the speed or nature of nature's constant movement?

For the design twist, please use an image of a cycle or circle.

Just a couple more of these beauties left...click here to grab yours at our new lower price but with even MORE goodness...so perfect for autumn and exploring your heart.

So go for it...and post your LOs at our site in the challenge gallery, and you could win one of this month's prizes...

What will you learn about yourself?

Love,

Rachel

Loss Challenge #1 and a Full Kit Giveaway

2009-10-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

October Challenge #1, Stages of Grief/Steps

Welcome to October's challenges from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out!

These are the traditionally understood stages of grief, as Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote about:

Denial and Isolation.
At first, we tend to deny the loss has taken place, and may withdraw from our usual social contacts. This stage may last a few moments, or longer.

Anger.
The grieving person may then be furious at the person who inflicted the hurt (even if she's dead), or at the world, for letting it happen. He may be angry with himself for letting the event take place, even if, realistically, nothing could have stopped it.

Bargaining.
Now the grieving person may make bargains with God, asking, "If I do this, will you take away the loss?"

Depression.
The person feels numb, although anger and sadness may remain underneath.

Acceptance.
This is when the anger, sadness and mourning have tapered off. The person simply accepts the reality of the loss.

My experience has been that these stages are certainly not linear nor are they mutually exclusive. Kubler-Ross said that grief could follow anything from the death of a loved one to a great disappointment.

Please share a LO about an experience of grief in your life about any kind of loss. For the design twist, please use a visual interpretation of stages of grief as they related (or relate) to your experience...linear, stepwise, stuck, blocked, free...

Come on by the site and share your LO! We'd love to see it. You can post your LO on our gallery to be eligible for great prizes at the end of the month.

And now for a MOST fantastic offer:

Our October kit was featured last week at the Scrapbook Trends Magazine blog...if you go and post a comment, you'll be entered to win this fantastic kit - you will just LOVE it! Click HERE to leave your comment and give your support to the best magazine out there as well...

This is what you could win:

Come join us and unburden yourself using our amazing craft...

Love,

Rachel

Why Scrapbook Difficult Topics?

2009-10-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it. Turkish Proverb

With all the emotions we cover in our kits at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, the ones that seem to get our members most inspired are the ones that start out sounding 'negative'. No matter what the theme of a kit, we explore both sides of the coin, but when we start with a word like 'LOSS', there's something deeply moving that happens.

Good tears start to flow. Old pains subside. Hearts are lightened and lifted.

For me, that's the whole idea...to move this amazing, multimedia, hands-on craft from day-to-day review toward life-altering and life-affirming catharsis.

Here's our October kit, LOSS. Perfect for all your autumn thoughts, as well as the ones that reside in the autumn of your mind. What do you want to lose so you can gain even more? What losses from your past are ready to fly away?

Contents and close-ups:

10 Sheets Patterned Paper:
* 7 Gypsies Barcelona Terrassa
* 7 Gypsies Barcelona Sabadell
* Basic Grey Indian Summer Maize (single-sided)
* Basic Grey Indian Summer Splendor (single-sided)
* LYB Autumn Bliss Blue Sky and Leaves
* LYB Autumn Bliss Autumn Argyle
* LYB Autumn Bliss Bronze Leaves
* LYB Autumn Bliss Multi Plaid
* LYB Autumn Bliss Brown Leaves
* LYB Autumn Bliss Sweater

2 Sheets Specialty Paper:
* LYB Autumn Bliss Autumn Stripe w/thermography
* LYB Autumn Bliss Multi Geometric w/thermography

Embellishments:
* Kaiser Chipboard Alpha 1, full set
* Scenic Route Happy Valley Dark Orange Alpha Stickers, full package
* 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Life Stickers
* LYB Autumn Bliss Lace Cut Cardstock, 1 pc.
* LYB Autumn Bliss Clear Cut Frames, 2 pcs.
* Kaiser Droplets, Clear 1/2 pkg.
* Magenta Chipboard Shapes, Leaves, full package
* Prima Pearls and Crystals, Garden, full package
* Prima Say it in Pearls and Crystals Mocha Swirl
* Kaiser Dutchess Color Rub-ons, full sheet
* Creative Impressions Felt, Autumn Leaves, 6 pcs.
* Jillibean Soup Bean Seeds, Large Harvest, 5 pcs.
* Magenta Tassels, White and Gold 2 pcs.
* Prima Fleur Danseur Pirouette Flower, 1 pc.

Cardstock:
* Core'dinations Cardstock Rich Amber
* Core'dinations Cardstock Admiral Blue
* Core'dinations Cardstock Purple Granduer
* Core'dinations Cardstock Bonbon

Color:
* American Crafts Stamp Marker, Chestnut
* American Crafts Stamp Marker, Powder

Stamp:
* Prima Clear Stamps Fancy Mirror Frame

Contents may vary slightly.

How brave do you feel? Come on by and join us. You're not alone.

Love,
Rachel

September 2009 Inspiration - Yearning

2009-09-30T14:30:00.001-07:00

It's never too late to explore what you yearn for...

Here's the content from our industry-exclusive inspiration page for September 2009! We welcome your pages and look forward to seeing what you create on this subject. Please join us at Inside Out to share your LOs and your heart with us!

Tomorrow - the launch of our October 2009 Kit - LOSS.

You can see the Design Team's September LOs here. You'll need to login, but it's worth it! :)

Journaling Prompts

Love and Desire:
One of the experiences most often featured in poetry, music and literature is unrequited love. Yearning is probably the most accurate word to describe the pain of separation and loss felt by someone in love with someone who doesn’t return their feelings. Sometimes, those who do love each other are separated by distance or the wishes or demands of others. Or love can be lost by death or divorce. What experiences have you had with love gained, lost or desired? What words other than yearning describe the emotions you’ve felt under these difficult circumstances?

Be Careful What You Wish For:
There are so many things we desire throughout our lives. What have you wanted most and ached for. Of those things, which desires have you realized, and which have been outside your reach? Have you been in a situation where you’ve desired a certain outcome and then been surprised or disappointed by getting what you thought you wanted? What do you want most now, and do you ever think about what it might mean if it turns out that it’s not what you expect?

Fame, Fortune, Love:
There are so many things to yearn for throughout life…some of us want to be famous writers or actors, some of us want the wealth that we think will bring us happiness or freedom, and some of us want to feel safe and secure in the arms of a loved one. If you HAD to choose only one thing, what would you choose? What do you have now, and what do you still want? DO you ever feel envious of others who possess what you yearn for?

The Big Picture:
What yearnings and desires do you have that extend outside yourself to what you want for your family, friends and the larger world around you? It is sometimes hard to separate our own wants from those of others, especially when we want the best for them. How do you maintain your boundaries? Have others in your life ever imposed their desires on you? Did you give in, or argue, and how did that impact your relationship? What do you wish the larger world would know, appreciate and understand to make life easier and more peaceful?

Quotes

A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning. Lillian Gish

When the yearning for living ends, there can be no more birth. Sri Sathya Sai Baba

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. Helen Keller

I am never long, even in the society of her I love, without yearning for the company of my lamp and my library. Lord Byron

The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular body and its indifference to substitutes is one of life's major mysteries. Iris Murdoch

At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one's lost self. Brendan Francis

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Emma Lazarus

Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth like the yearning for freedom, lives in the hearts of humble men and women. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the Bastard Time. John Steinbeck

I follow in the footsteps of those who enjoy the Love of my Beloved. I beg of them, I implore them; I have such a yearning to meet God!. Sri Guru Granth Sahib

That cry of the soul to be lifted out of the bondage of the narrow circle of life, which carries up to God the protest and yearning of suffering man, never finds a more sublime expression than where humanity is oppressed and religion is corrupt. Hall Caine

When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race. Margaret Sanger

Yearning for the seemingly impossible is the path to human progress. Bryant H. McGill

Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning. Alice Raine

I know not what you believe of God, but I believe He gave yearnings and longings to be filled, and that He did not mean all our time should be devoted to feeding and clothing the body. Alton Swann

There is a need to find and sing our own song, to stretch our limbs and shake them in a dance so wild that nothing can roost there, that stirs the yearning for solitary voyage. Barbara Lazear Ascher

In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike. Harriet Beecher Stowe

The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn, you can't congeal: there is a forward motion to yearning. Gail Godwin

That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy. Freda Adler

I empathize with those who yearn for a simpler world, for some bygone golden age of domestic and international tranquility. But for the mass of humanity it is an age that never was. Shirley Hufstedler

Someone who goes with a half a loaf of bread to a small place that fits like a nest around him, someone who wants no more, who's not himself longed for by anyone else, He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, LIVE. Rumi

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.” Jimmy Carter

We live in a world that responds to our longing; it is a place where the echoes always return, even if sometimes slowly. John O'Donohue

Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations. Albert Einstein

The first half of life is spent in longing for the second - the second half in regretting the first. French Proverb

Strangely enough, this is the past that somebody in the future is longing to go back to. Ashleigh Brilliant

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing. Kahlil Gibran

There is a third dimension to traveling, the longing for what is beyond. Jan Myrdal

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. Saint Augustine

The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love. Kahlil Gibran

To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realization of God, to regard his hands as God's hand, his brain as God's brain, his purpose as God's purpose. He must regard God as a helpless Longing, which longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ. George Bernard Shaw

There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for. Saul Bellow

A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain, and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. Kahlil Gibran

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Bertrand Russell

Happiness is the longing for repetition. Milan Kundera

All lovers live by longing, and endure; summon a vision and declare it pure. Theodore Roethke

Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God. Ramakrishna

And a nameless longing filled her breast, - A wish, that she hardly dared to own, for something better than she had known. John Greenleaf Whittier

Is there anything better than to be longing for something, when you know it is within reach? Greta Garbo

The act of longing for something will always be more intense than the requiting of it. Gail Godwin

To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture of restlessness and vague desire-It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid. Edgar Lee Masters

Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love, lust, longing; joy, rage, fear; triumph, yearning and confusion. Tony Snow

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. Mahatma Gandhi

The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do. Orison Swett Marden

There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Music Playlist

(if you can't see the playlist, please click on 'standalone player')

Motivational Yearning Layout Challenges

2009-09-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all, sorry to have been away from the blog for a while...I had the flu and was just plain down and out.

I wanted to share our fantastic LO challenges for the Yearning kit. How yummy is this?

If you'd like to grab one of the last ones, just click here - it is rich, exotic and vintage all rolled into one...gorgeous!

I hope these challenges inspire you to reach inside and think about what you want with all your heart...as well as find new and exciting ways to imbue your layouts with meaningful visual journaing...

We'd love to see what you create...please join us online and share your creations.

September Challenge #1:
Yearning Synonym/Equal Sign
Please create a LO about the synonym for YEARNING that BEST describes your feelings for someone you love (or loved) deeply. Why that word? Share the definition to describe why that word is the best fit. You can be cheeky, serious, whatever you feel!

For the design twist please use an equal sign in some unique way - between words, pictures...

September Challenge #2:
Outcome/Negative
Have you been in a situation where you’ve desired a certain outcome and then been surprised or disappointed by getting what you thought you wanted?

The act of longing for something will always be more intense than the requiting of it. Gail Godwin

Please create a LO about finding out that what you thought you desired was different than what you imagined it would be.

For the design twist please use a negative/inverted image - either in a photo, or something used backwards or inside out...

September Challenge #3
Quotes/Length
We have some thought-provoking and deep quotes about yearning on our inspiration page... use one of these quotes (or any quote of your choosing) that describes one of your long-term yearnings.

For the design twist, use something long that stretches the length of your page, like a strip of paper, a ribbon, a line of bling... anything you can dream up!

September Challenge #4
Pick One/Pointer
Fame, Fortune, Love:
There are so many things to yearn for throughout life…some of us want to be famous writers or actors, some of us want the wealth that we think will bring us happiness or freedom, and some of us want to feel safe and secure in the arms of a loved one. If you HAD to choose only one thing, what would you choose? What do you have now, and what do you still want? Do you ever feel envious of others who possess what you yearn for?

So based on what you have now, what ONE thing would you want next? Fame: being accomplished at what matters most to you, Fortune: financial security for you and your loved ones, or Love: the feeling of being connected?

For the design twist, please use a pointer, spinner or something else that demonstrates 'selection' in a unique way.

September Challenge #5
Getaway/Mode of Transport

Come Fly With Me, Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away!

Sometimes yearning is about travel...getting away to someplace or REALLY running away...

So where would you go, and for how long? Do you love the mountains, the desert, the beach? Would you explore the cuisine of Italy or the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands? Meditate on a mountaintop in Tibet, or party in Cannes?

Please describe your wanderlust in glorious detail...

For the design twist, please show us a mode of transport...airplane (my favorite), rickshaw, gondola...

September Challenge #6
Other People's Yearnings/Boundary
It is sometimes hard to separate our own wants from those of others, especially when we want the best for them. How do you maintain your boundaries? Have others in your life ever imposed their desires on you? Did you give in, or argue, and how did that impact your relationship?

Tell us the story of a time when you either succeded or failed at maintaining the boundaries between your yearnings and someone else's.

For the design twist, please create a boundary on your page that demonstrates the nature of the boundary you're relaying - solid? broken?

I'd love to see you at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out...

And make sure to join on October 1st for the reveal of our next kit...

Love,

Rachel

Need a Jumpstart? Try our Exclusive Prompts!

2009-09-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love most about what we do at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is how we provide thought-provoking prompts for each of our emotions.

Here are this month's prompts on the subject of YEARNING. What do these make you want to scrap?

Love and Desire:
One of the experiences most often featured in poetry, music and literature is unrequited love. Yearning is probably the most accurate word to describe the pain of separation and loss felt by someone in love with someone who doesn’t return their feelings. Sometimes, those who do love each other are separated by distance or the wishes or demands of others. Or love can be lost by death or divorce. What experiences have you had with love gained, lost or desired? What words other than yearning describe the emotions you’ve felt under these difficult circumstances?

Be Careful What You Wish For:
There are so many things we desire throughout our lives. What have you wanted most and ached for. Of those things, which desires have you realized, and which have been outside your reach? Have you been in a situation where you’ve desired a certain outcome and then been surprised or disappointed by getting what you thought you wanted? What do you want most now, and do you ever think about what it might mean if it turns out that it’s not what you expect?

Fame, Fortune, Love:
There are so many things to yearn for throughout life…some of us want to be famous writers or actors, some of us want the wealth that we think will bring us happiness or freedom, and some of us want to feel safe and secure in the arms of a loved one. If you HAD to choose only one thing, what would you choose? What do you have now, and what do you still want? DO you ever feel envious of others who possess what you yearn for?

The Big Picture:
What yearnings and desires do you have that extend outside yourself to what you want for your family, friends and the larger world around you? It is sometimes hard to separate our own wants from those of others, especially when we want the best for them. How do you maintain your boundaries? Have others in your life ever imposed their desires on you? Did you give in, or argue, and how did that impact your relationship? What do you wish the larger world would know, appreciate and understand to make life easier and more peaceful?

There are a few more kits left...please join us before they're all gone!

Love,

Rachel

What do you YEARN for?

2009-09-02T10:46:00.001-07:00

This is Scrapbooking from the Inside Out's September 2009 Kit of the Month: YEARNING

Click here to get yours...

What do you ache for? What desires does your tender heart hold? Explore these questions and seek your truth with the YEARNING kit.

This kit’s color and design are mysterious, earthy and exotic…the perfect thing for letting your mind wander toward your deepest fantasies and far-away lands…outside of you or within the reaches of your soul.

Captivating color from GCD, Kaisercraft and Hambly draw you in, while vintage touches from Maya Road and Seven Gypsies take you on a journey. We’ve added organic, natural materials from Prima (who else) and Vintaj Brass…and so much more to elicit your secret needs and most furtive longings.

What do you want most out of life? Find out with YEARNING.

9 Sheets Patterned Paper:
* Basic Grey Marrakesh, Vanilla Chai
* Basic Grey Marrakesh, Chai
* GCD Debonair, Tahiti (DS)
* GCD Debonair, Capri (DS)
* GCD Debonair, Barbados (DS)
* GCD Debonair, Cote D'Azzura (DS)
* Kaisercraft Esther's Guestlist, Lucy (DS)
* Kaisercraft Esther's Guestlist, Rachael (DS)
* Pebbles Downtown, Brooklyn (DS)

3 Sheets Specialty Paper:
* Seven Gypsies Artsylicious, Alabaster Engraved
* Hambly Overlay, Grandma's Wallpaper Antique White
* Hambly Paper, Brocade Orange on Copper

Embellishments:
* Jenni Bowlin Old School Alphabet, Brown
* Pink Paislee Chip Alphas, Captivating
* Seven Gypsies Ephemera, Gypsy, 3 pcs.
* Basic Grey Opaline, teal-aquamarine, 1/2 sheet
* Maya Road Trinkets III, Vintage Pearl Pins, 6 pcs.
* Vintaj Brass, Wish Circle
* Vintaj Brass, Filigree Piece
* Jenni Bowlin Label Strip Stickers, Brown, 2 pcs.
* Basic Grey Marrakesh, Sultan Rubons Orange
* Maya Road Trinkets III, Pinwheel Blossoms, Cream and Brown, 3 pcs
* Prima Flowers, Wildwood Collection, Hazel, 3-4 pcs
* Tim Holtz Mini-Mask, Compass
* Websters Pages , Cocoa Ruffle, 1/2 yard

Cardstock:
* Coredinations Chocolate Box, Dewberry
* Coredinations Chocolate Box, Amaretto
* Coredinations, Vanilla Cream
* Coredinations, Cloudburst

Color:
* Adirondack Color Wash, Stream

Alterable Item:
* 7 Gypsies Naked Journal, Medium Envelope Book

Contents may vary slightly.

See these awesome papers close up, and the embellishments...mmm...

Remember - no one gives you deep and meaningful inspiration like SFTIO...music, journaling prompts, quotes and photos will jumpstart your creativity and encourage you to explore your inner world. Come on by!

Love,

Rachel

Safety Inspiration

2009-08-31T23:38:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying that there's always time to explore your heart! Here is the inspiration page for August 2009's kit SAFETY. We'd love to see what you create! Come see us at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

Prompts:
Secure Attachment: We all need to create safe spaces inside ourselves in order to handle life’s difficulties. The touchstone for that safe place is, in the best world, created in infancy and early childhood through secure attachment with a parent…she looks at you and shows that she mirrors your emotions – it tells you that you exist, and in the future, without trying, you can go back to that security to give you comfort. Did your mother or father create a secure attachment with you? Do you remember feeling safe as a child? If you are a parent, what have you done to make sure your child knows that she or he is secure?

Safe Place: Is there a physical place you go to feel safe – a room in your house, a favorite park, or the home of a trusted friend or relative? What makes that place safe – is it the people you love, or the memories you have of that place? Or perhaps, your safe place is inside you…are there memories you pull up, or a lovely image you focus on when you need it? When do you go to that place? What does it do for you?

Vulnerable: We all have a vulnerable side – that soft part of us that feels things deeply and is sensitive, for better or for worse. What makes you make contact with the vulnerable parts of yourself? When do you feel sensitive, and how do you handle it? What makes you feel susceptible to harm or danger? Do you see your vulnerability as a liability or strength? How are you sensitive to the vulnerability in others?

Playing it Safe: Many would say that achieving rewards in life, whether business or personal, is related to the amount of risk you’re willing to take. Are you a risk-taker? If so, in what ways? Do you tend to ‘play it safe’? Has your view of risk and reward shifted over time? What risks are more comfortable for you to take, and which make you feel fearful?

Music

Quotes

Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it. Albert Smith

Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands. Jeff Cooper

When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home. Thornton Wilder

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. William Shakespeare

For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind. Eleanor Everet

The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear. Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person. Jane Austen

Our insignificance is often the cause of our safety. Aesop

Confidence cannot find a place wherein to rest in safety. Virgil

There is nothing more precious to a parent than a child, and nothing more important to our future than the safety of all our children. Bill Clinton

God promises a safe landing but not a calm passage. Bulgarian Proverb

If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore. Shirley Hufsteddler

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. Maya Angelou

The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course. Michelangelo

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. Aesop

This indeed is a safe refuge, it is the refuge supreme. It is the refuge whereby one is freed from all suffering. Buddha

He that's secure is not safe. Benjamin Franklin

For me, the safest place is out on a limb. Shirley MacLaine

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular. Adlai E. Stevenson

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. George Eliot

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. Thomas Jefferson

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. John F. Kennedy

Playing safe is probably the most unsafe thing in the world. You cannot stand still. You must go forward. Robert Collier

One can advise comfortably from a safe port. Soren Kierkegaard

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth. Charles Dickens

Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, through kindness his throne is made secure. King Solomon

It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. Dag Hammarskjold

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir

He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The logical process will often be the safe one. I tend, when I'm given that choice, to go the way that's not safe. Sting

After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Sophia Loren

There is much good luck in the world, but it is luck. We are none of us safe. We are children, playing or quarrelling on the line. E. M. Forster

Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great? Jimmy Johnson

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. Grace Hopper

When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we're given. Barbara Sher

Courage is what preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things. Plautus

More Safety Challenges and Awesome Inspiration

2009-08-26T13:28:00.001-07:00

We're continuing our exploration of Safety at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out and our challenges are in full swing...here are five (that's right, FIVE) more for you!

Remember - our industry-unique Inspiration Page provides a music playlist, journaling prompts, quotations, links and photos to spur your creative spirit. Our thought-provoking challenges include a prompt and ask you to dig deep by including a design twist - something visual on your LO that connects to the challenge. All challenge entries are eligible for fantastic prize giveaways from the best manufacturers, and one overall winner is selected from subscribers' entries. To enter, check out our Challenge forum on our Community Page, and upload your LO in the Challenge Gallery. If you have any questions, you can always email us at info@scrapbookingfromtheinsideout.com!

Scrapbooking from the Inside Out's Safety Kit: molto delicioso!

August Challenge #3, Outside the Zone/Door or Ledge:

It takes the bravery to risk in order to gain great rewards...

When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly.
Richard Bach

When do you step outside of your comfort zone and risk feeling unsafe? Why do you do so, and if you've done it in the past, what rewards has it brought you? How did you feel being in that emotionally 'unsafe' or insecure place? If you wish to step out of your comfort zone in some way now, what do you want to do and why? How will you get the support you need to take some brave steps? For the design twist, please use a door or ledge on your page to represent stepping out of your comfort zone...

August Challenge #4, Vulnerability/Delicate:

We all have a vulnerable side – that soft part of us that feels things deeply and is sensitive, for better or for worse. What makes you make contact with the vulnerable parts of yourself? When do you feel sensitive, and how do you handle it? What makes you feel susceptible to harm or danger? Do you see your vulnerability as a liability or strength? Explore your vulnerable side on a LO with us....And for the design twist, please use an image of something extremely delicate...

August Challenge #5, Safe Place/Nest:

Safe Place: Is there a physical pl ace you go to feel safe – a room in your house, a favorite park, or the home of a trusted friend or relative? What makes that place safe – is it the people you love, or the memories you have of that place? Or perhaps, your safe place is inside you…are there memories you pull up, or a lovely image you focus on when you need it? When do you go to that place? What does it do for you? Where do you go, in real life, or in your mind, to feel safe? For the design twist, please use a cozy nest image to demonstrate the security you feel...

August Challenge #6, What Scares You/Monster:

Please create a LO about what scares you most - one or more things. Sometimes, just getting them on paper helps to lessen their power over you. For the design twist, use a dark, scary or monster image...

August Challenge #7: Bumpy Road/Bumpy Road

God promises a safe landing but not a calm passage. Bulgarian Proverb

Have you been in an unsafe or unsure situation, physically or emotionally, and come through it safely? What did you learn from the journey? Did the bumps in the road add to your understanding of yourself? In what ways? Would you go back and change the bumpy road to a smooth one? For the design twist, please use a bumpy road or obstacle image.

Check out my previous blog post to see challenges 1 and 2...here.

You can win big this month by posting your interpretations of these challenges by August 30th...come on by!

Love,

Rachel

Safety Kit Challenges

2009-08-21T11:47:00.001-07:00

I've been a bad blogger...but a good Kit Community owner. Nancy and I were hard at work putting together our orders for the October 2009 - March 2010 kits, and we're very excited about them...the themes, the colors, the icons...it's always so exciting to imagine the layouts that our design team and members will create, and the great deep and meaningful conversations we'll have online!

So we were deeply ensconced in beautiful paper, piles of catalogs and two computers at a time. Heaven! But I've missed you gals (and guys).

Here are our first few challenges from the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out's SAFETY KIT - it's not too late to join in this month! There's no better place than our community to dig deep and explore your inner world. And you don't need a kit to participate - everyone is welcome! If you do want one of these gorgeous, lush kits, they're still available - click here! Purrrrr.

Our challenges provide a thought-provoking prompt along with a design twist for you to interpret that gets to one of the core ways we're different - visual journaling - using the design of the page to elucidate the theme...

Challenge #1: Childhood Safety/Texture

For our first challenge, please create a layout about a sense of safety you felt as a child. Did your parents, grandparents, or sibling(s) create a secure situation for you? If you didn't have an experience like this, what do you wish you had experienced? Or how will you create that environment for yourself or your own children?

For the design twist, use the velvet paper from the kit (or any kind of fun texture you have on hand.)

Challenge #2: Friends/Pouring

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. George Eliot

Do you have, or have you had a friend who embodies SAFETY for you - someone with whom you can truly be yourself? Tell us about her or him, and what that safety means to you.

For the design twist, please use a pouring or sifting image - flowing words, or flowers through a net, or something else!

Jump on in and play with us!

Love,

Rachel

Strength Inspiration

2009-08-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's never too late to join in and share a layout about any emotion - here's the July 2009 STRENGTH Inspiration page!

Journaling Prompts

Your Inner Reserves: It’s been said that all that you need for this journey is already within you. Are you connected to an inner reserve of personal strength? What does it look like and feel like? How do you gain access to it? Do you recall a specific time in your life when you’ve been able to connect with your inner strength and use it to move forward?

Powerful and Feminine: Some think there’s a tension between strength and femininity. What do you think? Do you subscribe to traditional views of masculinity and femininity? Do women wield different sorts of power than men? Do you see yourself as powerful, and in what ways? Who are women of great strength that you can think of, and how have they influenced your life?

Physical Strength: As time goes on, we lose some of our physical strength, and perhaps gain some wisdom. Some of us start out as physically stronger than others, and some of us build our physical strength over time. Are you physically strong – do you stay healthy? Do you struggle with health issues? Do you consider yourself a hearty soul or a sluggish one? Do you do anything to improve your health or physical strength in any way, and if so, do you do it to look good or to feel good?

Weakness: At least once in a while, it’s nice to let other people be in charge and allow ourselves to be weak. Do you ask for help when you need it? Do you find that you rely more on others, or that others rely more on you? Is weakness a fault to you? Was someone in your past a weak figure, and if so, how did that impact your view of weakness today? Are there times that you become drained – and what do you do to remedy that, or do you surrender?

Music

Quotes:

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength. August Wilson

It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more 'manhood' to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind. Alex Karras

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

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. Anais Nin

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Mahatma Gandhi

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

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up. Pearl S. Buck

What does not kill me makes me stronger. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. Tao Te Ching

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses Marilyn vos Savant

For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself. Henry David Thoreau

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. Samuel Johnson

Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines. Paul Brunton

Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amid joy. Arthur Helps

People do not lack strength, they lack will. Victor Hugo

What we actually learn, from any given set of circumstances, determines whether we become increasingly powerless or more powerful. Blaine Lee

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. Elie Wiesel

Strength is a matter of the made-up mind. John Beecher

All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. James Freeman Clarke

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom. Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure. Rabindranath Tagore

Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle. A tree that is unbending is easily broken. Lao Tzu

Remember, you are braver than you believe, you are stronger than you seem, and you are smarter than you think. AA Milne

Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world. Brenda Peterson

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself. Henry Miller

I don't believe in anything and that makes me stronger than you think. Anne Rice

Storms make trees take deeper roots. Dolly Parton

Concentration is the secret of strength. Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. Maya Angelou

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up. Booker T. Washington

Perhaps I am stronger than I think. Thomas Merton

He possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence; courage without ferocity; and all the virtues of man without his vices. Lord Byron

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. Audre Lorde

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." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do. Elbert Hubbard

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. Jonathan Swift

Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength. Frances de Sales

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mohandas K. Gandhi

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. Rachel Carson

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice. Theodore Bikel

Strength and wisdom are not opposing values. William J. Clinton

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. Carlos Castaneda

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. Mahatma Gandhi

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power if within, and it is available to you now. Eckhart Tolle

Oh soul, you worry too much. You have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty. You have seen your golden wings. Of anything less, why do you worry? You are in truth the soul, of the soul, of the soul. Jalal al-Din Rumi

love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun more last than star e.e. cummings

Concrete is heavy; iron is hard - but the grass will prevail. Edward Abbey

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Christopher Reeve

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Pablo Picasso

Links:
Share Our Strength – Working to end childhood hunger in America
Voices of Strength - Resources for Rape and Sexual Abuse Survivors

Network of Strength – Breast Cancer Awareness and Support

August 2009 Kit of the Month: SAFETY and the BEST GIVEAWAY!

2009-08-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

(MAKE SURE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THE GIVEAWAY...THERE'S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO JOIN US!)

What makes you feel safe? Safety is such an evocative word...puts me in mind of a warm hug, holding my puppy or falling asleep as a little girl in the back of the car with my parents driving. This kit will hold you with corners, wood grain, velvet, and soft, plush ribbon.

Lots of gorgeous paper with fantastic flourish and floral imagery from Kaisercraft, Basic Grey, GCD and SEI...rich, saturated purples, lavenders and pale blues, and vintage style cardstock.

We also added loads of beautiful big Prima flowers, a set of double-sided stickers to use with doodlebug lilac flocking powder, and four letter sets: THICKERS, BG script letters in two colors, and a set of bold chipboard letters and tags.

Create your own inner sanctuary with SAFETY!

8 Sheets Patterned Paper:
* Basic Grey Wisteria Garden Patio
* Basic Grey Wisteria French Topiary
* Basic Grey Wisteria Dahlia
* Basic Grey Wisteria Jardin
* GCD Lost in Paradise Plum Berries (ds)
* Kaisercraft Plush Empress Fabulous (ds)
* Kaisercraft Plush Empress Eclectic Dream (ds)
* Kaisercraft Plush Empress Sophisticated (ds)

4 Sheets Specialty Paper:
* SEI Bridgeport Pavillion Pearl
* SEI Bridgeport Oceanfront Pearl
* SEI Velvet Paper Cloud (5.5x8.5 sheet)
* SEI Velvet Paper Lavender (5.5x8.5 sheet)

Embellishments:
* American Crafts Thickers By the Yard - White
* Basic Grey Wisteria Alpha Stickers - Maude
* Chatterbox Fabulous Wooden Brads (3)
* Basic Grey Opaline lilac-violet (1/2 sheet)
* GCD Die Cut Chipboard - tags and letters, Majestic Purples, full package
* Kaisercraft Flower Rhinestones, Lilac (1/2 sheet)
* Prima Say It in Studs Lilac Corners, full sheet
* Hambly Textures 1 Rubons, White, full sheet
* Prima Woodstock Flowers Mauve 2 pcs
* Prima Bonnet Blooms Leather/ Petunia Flowers 1 pc
* Prima Daisy Dreams – Juicy 4 pcs
* Doodlebug Stick With It Flourishes (full package – 2 sheets)
* Maya Road Pom Pom Trim Slate Blue Medium (1/2 yd)

Cardstock:
* Coredinations Vintage Serene
* Coredinations Vintage Dalmation
* Coredinations Tidal Wave
* Coredinations Blue Lilac

Color:
* Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock Lilac

Alterable Item:
* Maya Road Chipboard Coffee Cup Coaster 3.3x5.4

Contents may vary slightly.

NOW, HOW ABOUT A GIVEAWAY...OR 9!

Are you sad that you didn' get to go to CHA? Wish you could see and feel all the great new things that the Scrapbook world has dreamed up for you?

Here's an offer that's BETTER than going to CHA. Why? Manufacturers don't tend to give out a lot of samples at the show. You sure get to look, but you don't go home with a lot more than catalogs.

We've got a whole drawer of fantastic mostly FULL LINE samples from our favorite manufacturers who wanted to make sure we had their papers in hand when we made our decisions for the next six months.

Here's just a taste of what we have so far (more to come):

My Mind's Eye Ooh La La For Him
My Mind's Eye Ooh La La For Her
My Mind's Eye Boo! To You
My Mind's Eye Abbey Road
My Mind's Eye The Spider's Web
My Mind's Eye Colorful Christmas
My Mind's Eye The Merry Days of Christmas
GCD Party it Up
GCD Sunny Days
GCD Vintage Boy
GCD Morning Glory
Pebbles Lil' Buddy
Pebbles Lil' Miss
SEI Moravia
SEI Winter Song
SEI Christmas Mint
Scribble Scrabble, new assorted papers

Some of these include embellishments!

So here's the scoop...if you'd like to start a new six month subscription, just go HERE to our buy page and click on six month subscription...write CHA in the comments field in paypal and you'll be entered into a drawing to win two of these great collections!

If you're already a subscriber, when you get your paypal invoice, let us know you're extending your current subscription agreement by 6 months by writing CHA in the comments on your payment.

Right now, you've got 8 chances to win, and more to come! It's a great chance to be the first on your block to have the latest and greatest and be part of the inside action!

Love,

Rachel

Giveaway Winner and our Sneak Peek of SAFETY

2009-07-27T14:19:00.001-07:00

And the strong woman who wins this weekend's giveaway is DONNA, per the true random number generator from Random.org.

Donna, thanks for your comment! Please email me your address at rachinla@aol.com and I'll send out a subscriber bonus gift pack to you...

Here are some sneak peeks of the August kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out - SAFETY. Feels GOOD.

Full look at the kit and contents on Saturday! Please join us.

Love,

Rachel

Strong Women Rule - Giveaway!

2009-07-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a home with a strong mother - a woman who fought her brothers to go to school when they thought she should stay home and learn to cook and clean...who retyped her school applications when her brothers tore them up, a woman who was the only female at the boys' science college, came to America and made the life that SHE wanted. Although we don't always see eye to eye, she certainly can't argue about where I get my independent spirit!

As we're exploring STRENGTH this month at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, I'm amazed at the great layouts we're seeing from our members about what it means to be a strong woman.

Some think there’s a tension between strength and femininity. What do you think? Do you subscribe to traditional views of masculinity and femininity? Do women wield different sorts of power than men? Do you see yourself as powerful, and in what ways? Who are women of great strength that you can think of, and how have they influenced your life?

And are we getting stronger as we get older? Is it all about physical strength, or is there a strength in wisdom?

Tell me what strength means to you and you'll be entered to win a subscriber premuum gift pack from SFTIO...please leave your comment before 5PM Pacific on Friday...

Love,

Rachel

Let Yourself Feel Weak

2009-07-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Is it OK to be weak? I keep hearing that we’re past the time of the 'superwoman', but based on my unscientific research, we're expected more than ever to do it all - be wives, mothers, work outside and inside the home, and be creative geniuses.

I know that’s hard for me. I want so much to make a difference and make the world better that I tend to push myself past the point of sensible effort. I’m working on it…

At least once in a while, it’s nice to let other people be in charge and allow ourselves to be weak. Do you ask for help when you need it? Do you find that you rely more on others, or that others rely more on you? Is weakness a fault to you? Was someone in your past a weak figure, and if so, how did that impact your view of weakness today? Are there times that you become drained – and what do you do to remedy that, or do you surrender?

For our third LO challenge for the STRENGTH kit, please join us and create a LO about the ways in which you feel weak at times, and how you deal with that. Do you let yourself rest, or do you fight it? What makes you weak?

For the design twist, please 'fade' something on your page - your photo, the paper by distressing, or something different!

Need a STRENGTH kit? Lookie!

CLICK HERE to grab yours, and also check out our past kits, being clearanced out at 30% off!

Love,

Rachel

Power Up With a Strength Challenge or Two

2009-07-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about what we do at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is the way we approach challenges. I love thinking about how the theme of the month inspires me, and I try to develop challenges that encompass different faces of each emotion plus an opportunity to delve into 'visual journaling' as Nancy has described it, the use of visual elements that reinforce the content of the LO.

Here's an example of how Nancy used these techniques in one of her DT LOs for July's STRENGTH kit:

Can you pick out the visual ideas she used? Gears from the kit of course, but linked together to show how Nancy and her hubby work together like a well-oiled machine. She painted and used glossy accents on the gears to show their strength. She also created a frame around the gears and photos to show their unity.

Here are our first two STRENGTH challenges - please try them to create a LO that includes visual journaling and explore your inner world with us! I'd love to see what you do!

STRENGTH CHALLENGE #1: YOUR OWN STRENGTH/FRAMED

Is there a moment you can recall when you realized your own strength, either physical, mental or emotional?

For the design twist, please use a unique 'frame' around your page's elements to symbolize the focus and definition of your strength.

STRENGTH CHALLENGE #2, WHAT DOESN'T KILL ME/RISE UP

What have you survived that you thought might kill you or your spirit? How have you triumphed and become stronger?

For the design twist, please use an image of rising up or going beyond...

The STRENGTH kit is still available - CLICK HERE to grab yours before they're all gone!

If you'd like to see more, please come by the website and check it out! I'd love to personally welcome you...

Love,

Rachel

Designer Spotlight - Anam Stubbington

2009-07-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

Here's the last of our THANK YOUs to our wonderful outgoing DT: Last but VERY MUCH NOT least is the lovely and amazing Anam Stubbington!

When it comes right down to it, I'm not really sure if we went to Anam or she came to us! I just know we got lucky! I emailed her when I was launching the website, along with some other selected fabulous designers, to join us in some capacity. I was long a fan of her work already, having seen her designs round and about the web. I was jonesin' for her to be a guest designer...when she applied for the full-time design team, I was jumping up and down. I called Nancy all excited and said, "we've got one slot decided! Anam wants to be on OUR dt!"

Anam has a unique ability to combine complex materials (especially busy paper) with a perfectly spare and elegant design to produce pages that draw you in but never overwhelm. I truly admire her use of negative space. She is a prolific creator, often gracing us with 8 or 10 layouts instead of the DT required 4, and would add multiple altered projects full of out-of-the-box thinking. Anam also has a facilty for adding packaging and negatives of shapes and letters to her LOs in the most unusual way. She just blew me away every time I saw her monthly submissions.

Here are some of my favorite LOs and projects of hers and this was NOT EASY - there were SO many lovely things from which to choose:

Patience - feeling grateful for her husband's support:

Compassion - thinking of the past

Spirit - making room for learning something new

Clarity - reflecting on what her she and her daughter bring to each other:

Hope - trusting the song in her heart:

Renewal - life being in constant motion

Anam is a creative powerhouse, a fixture on so many sites for her amazing LOs, her sketches and altered projects. She currently designs for Twisted Sketches, Prima, Ad This and her LSS, Treasured Memories. I love her unique personal style, her truthfulness, and her passion. Anam is Mama to her lovely daughters Fay and Lily, and wife to her hunky hubby Ian.

Anam, I am so thankful that our paths crossed and that we've all been the beneficiaries of your fantastic work.

Love,

Rachel

Renewal Inspiration

2009-07-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

It's never too late to explore RENEWAL with us - here's the Inspiration page from June 2009:

Design Team Creations

To see the Design Team's projects and detailed close-ups, check out the June 2009 Design Team Gallery

Journaling Prompts

Is change good?: Change is an inevitable part of life – in nature, in our circumstances, and in our thinking. Some people are better than others at managing and accepting change. How does change impact you? Are you comfortable moving with the tides and the seasons, or do you resist? What major changes inside or outside your orbit have affected you, and in what ways?

Body, Mind and Spirit: Everyone needs ways to recharge when they’re feeling down or out of energy, whether in physical, mental, emotional or spiritual terms. What do you do to renew yourself – do you spend time in nature, in prayer or meditation, by running, reading or watching your favorite movie? Do you make different choices about how to recharge depending on what you’re missing?

Cycle of Life: There are few things in life that are certain except for birth and death. How have the beginnings and endings you’ve seen impacted you? Have you had children of your own, and if so, how did that experience shift your understanding of the world? Have you lost someone you loved, quickly and unexpectedly, or after watching them fight a long illness? What lasting effect has this had on you?

Renewing the Planet: In these times, it’s become important to so many to be part of solving the problems that our planet faces. How do you contribute to that effort? Do you actively work to reduce your carbon footprint? Are you frustrated watching how things are developing, and do you worry about the kind of world that future generations will inherit?

Music

If you can't see the playlist above, please click on 'standalone player' to see and listen.

Quotes

So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being. Henri Frederic Amiel

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival. Wendell Berry

The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love. Terence

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death. R. D. Laing

The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings. Rainer Maria Rilke

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order. Susan Taylor

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up. Pearl S. Buck

To touch a sore is to renew one's grief. TerenceWhen you are in the valley, keep your goal firmly in view and you will get the renewed energy to continue the climb. Denis Waitley

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Audrey Hepburn

The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. Cato The Elder

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix. Christina Baldwin

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix. Aaron Parrish

It`s exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. Ahmed Ghneim

Creativity comes from awakening and directing men`s higher natures, which originate in the primal depths of the uni- verse and are appointed by Heaven. I Ching

Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion. Dalai Lama

If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing. Gail Sheehy

No human being ever learns to live until he has awakened to the dormant powers within him. William James

There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet. Brooke Medicine Eagle

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. Frank Herbert

It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. Adrienne Rich

He who looks outside his own heart DREAMS, he who looks inside his own heart AWAKENS. Carl Gustav Jung

Virtue tested: "Have I not survived hunger and thirst, suffering, and mockery for the sake of the truth which heaven has awakened in my heart?” Kahlil Gibran

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear. Buddha

We are near awakening when we dream that we dream. Novalis

Rest when you`re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work. Ralph Marston

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. Buddha

We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again. Shana Alexander

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. Adam Acone

To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. Adam Maida

There`s a rebirth that goes on with us continuously as human beings. I don`t understand, personally, how you can be bored. I can understand how you can be depressed, but I just don`t understand boredom. Dustin Hoffman

Links

Renew – programs for maintaining creativity, energy, and optimism

The Renewal Project and Documentary – the Religious Environmental Movement