Telling Stories

Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {On Scrapbooking & Music}

This morning I had a radio interview set up by my amazing publicist, Jeane. She's more than a publicist, she's a friend...and this girl keeps my brains in check. (Did you know I had more than one brain?) 

One thing that I love about doing these interviews is the fact that I get to talk about scrapbooking...something that I've realized has been with me for as long as I could remember. 

Before there was patterned paper and embellishments and scrapbooking stores, I used whatever I found around the house...(not acid-free, mind you...) and the results were always just fine. Because I was telling my stories. 

Pulling that in to this novel has been one of the most eye-opening things for me...because even as I wrote it, I don't think I fully realized the impact scrapbooking has had on my life. And I'm not "caught up" and all my pages aren't organized in albums...but the stories have been told...and there they are, waiting to be told again. 

Scrapbooking is at the heart of A Sweethaven Summer...so when Scrapbooking Rock Star Jen Jockisch agreed to create a Sweethaven-inspired layout, I was so happy she chose to reflect on the "why" of scrapbooking. Jen has long been one of my favorite scrapbookers, with her fresh and funky style...

But when you read her journaling...gosh. I just get it. I get that need for the creative outlet...that need to lock yourself away and get lost in it for a few hours. I love every word of this journaling...not to mention the adorable design...

(PS...visit Jen's blog later today for a chance to win a copy of my book!) 

What is your creative outlet? I really want to know what you're into!!

Being able to pull parts of yourself into a keepsake...it's so worth it. Worth the time it takes... For instance, Becky Fleck of Page Maps fame, has created a layout focusing on a particular song...a song that ran through her mind all day long the day she had to say goodbye to a trusted friend:

Music is a huge part of Sweethaven...from the country lullaby Adele always sang to her daughter to Campbell and her mom's shared love of Norah Jones, to the faded memories that accompany "When You Say Nothing At All..." the soundtrack of our lives brings back memories quicker than anything...

So, yes, I'm a sucker for this hobby that's become a job and then a hobby again...it's something that brings people together, and for that, I will be forever grateful. 

Next week, I'll announce The official rules of The Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge and tell you how you can win some awesome prizes! {Which of these layouts will inspire YOU most?!}

Now. About this book...If you've read it, thank you. If you've told me your thoughts about it, thank you. It's consuming my life a little right now, although the rest of my life sure hasn't stopped or paused or even hiccupped...

If you haven't read it, it's now available for Kindle or in paperback right over HERE at Amazon...and in advance, I'll say a humbled thank you...because it means the world to me.

Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {A Special Place}

When I was home at Christmas, I spent more time in my hometown than I had in many, many years. Living about an hour from there, I always drove to my parents' house and then drove home, but now that we live in Colorado, driving home every night wasn't an option. 

While I was there, it really sunk in for me how much your heart can be tied to a place. Whether it's the place where you grew up or the place you spent every summer or your grandmother's house...places are so much more than places...

When I was working for Memory Makers, I wrote an article about "Scrapbooking Your Stomping Ground." I guess even then, I knew there was special significance to the park I went to to practice for that audition and the train tressels where the entire senior class signed their names. 

I suppose that's why creating a small midwestern town where the streets are named after flowers and the Main Street is still a brick road came naturally to me...Sweethaven is every good feeling about small town USA I could muster...and believe me, I could muster a lot. 

I asked two amazingly talented friends to scrapbook a place with special significance, and these girls have created layouts that are sure to inspire. They're gorgeous! 

First, look at Linda Barber's (do you think she's related to Luke? A long lost cousin, maybe?) ode to LA. She moved there not long ago, and the city is finding a way into her heart...

I can't begin to tell you all the things I love about this layout. The colors, the sewing, the design... but I especially love the story...

I know first-hand how moving can challenge everything you thought you knew about yourself. There are still days I wonder if Colorado will ever feel like home...but Linda's layout, documenting this moment in her journey, reminds me that I need to do the same...

I don't even know what to say about this:

I told Linda this is why she's so "dream-teamy" (because she's on the Creating Keepsakes Dream Team.) I mean, really? A stitched title? It makes me want to send her all my photos and have her scrap them for me. 

And this sub-title treatment with the photo in the stitched frame is killing me...

I have sewing machine envy. It makes me want to learn how to use mine already! 

Have you scrapped your hometown? Your stomping ground? 

What about a vacation spot that holds a special place in your heart? Lisa VanderVeen, another California girl, created a two-page spread about Mackinac Island, a place where no cars are allowed...

It sounds heavenly to me...and it has a lot of the same elements that Sweethaven has...a town that takes you back in time somehow, to a day when things were just a little simpler. And even if things got complicated, they still felt simpler. 

It's funny how small-town living can do that. Lisa's layout is full of adorable little details (the wooden bike is such a cute addition to her title, I can hardly stand it.) 

And it spoke to my intense love of scallops...

So, what about you...is there a place you love, one that's captured your heart? One that you were smitten with from the very moment you stepped foot in it? 

Have you ever created a piece of art about it? 

Who knows...

Maybe that place is waiting for you right on the pages of a book...if you're looking to be transported, I've got just the one. 

Escape to Sweethaven (in paperback or on Kindle) right HERE. 

Maybe I'll see you walking down Main Street or having a donut in Sweets on Sweethaven... or perhaps we'll ride the old wooden carousel together or dip our feet in the lake down by the Boardwalk...

Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {First Love}

I didn't set out to write a romance novel. That's not what A Sweethaven Summer is...but I couldn't NOT write in a little romance...and it seems there's nothing as sweet as those first few months of first real love...

I got to talk about it a little on this interview over HERE on Lisa's Blog. (I also got to tell you who I think should play Campbell and Luke if there was ever a movie version of Sweethaven... (If you've read it, what do you think?) 

Anyway, first love. 

It's sweet and moving and the stuff dreams are made of...so it was important to me that I include a love story in each book...and each love story is shockingly different. At different points in their relationships, the characters are all going through different things. Just like real life. 

My friend Stephanie Ackerman, whose blog Homegrown Hospitality is FULL of artisitc inspiration, read the book and sent me an email. It was such a kind email, I couldn't respond right away. I didn't know what to say. And later, she said this on Facebook...

"I just read a 316 page book in less than 24 hours and I have only ever done that one time (and I was on a lounge chair in Maui...) THAT is how beautiful the book is..."

Still, I had no words. 

But when this showed up in my inbox, the artwork she created right after finishing the book, I was dumbfounded...

The book, she said, made her want to scrapbook again...and it was so unexpected to hear that. The art journal, which she talks about on her blog, made ME want to go create... I mean, the layers of art on this thing are jaw-dropping:

...and creating a book to document your love story, as it grows and changes and shifts and becomes something you don't recognize, then stabilizes and becomes something, once again you can't live without...these are the stories that stop your heart...

And having a dedicated place for them? Priceless...

Don't you want to read Stephanie's story? Don't you want to see how it started? How it grew? This book, once she's done with it, will become a treasured keepsake, the story of two people who fell in love in a way that no one else has...because no two love stories are exactly the same...

It's strange getting emails that tell me things about this book I poured my heart and soul into. It's jarring, almost, and often, I don't know how to answer, what to say to express my genuine thanks. I still feel like I should send people presents to thank them for buying my book. 

And when my work inspires the work of an artist...well, that's just icing on the cake. 

I hope the work of these artists inspires you to participate in the Sweethaven Scrapbook Challenge... it's coming SOON, but I have a few more amazing things to share this week (and early next week) before I tell you what you can win! 

Play along, will you? 

And tell me...have you documented your love story? 

Finally, the Winner of the Sweethaven Online Launch Party Week Four is:

Linda Carson said...

My favorite drink is diet Pepsi.

ReplyFebruary 14, 2012 at 02:20 PM

Linda, send me your address and we'll get your prize on its way!

 

Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {Forgiveness}

Sometimes I think we, as writers, end up writing about things that are personal to us whether we want to or not. Forgiveness wasn't something I set out to include in this book, but I can't think of a more universal struggle. We all know we should forgive, but it's the how that escapes us... 

And sometimes, even when we think we're over something, it comes back to bite us later... and we realize that thing we thought we'd dealt with still holds up shop in our hearts. 

This is a strong theme through all three of the Sweethaven novels, and I think that's because it's a strong theme in my own life. I don't come buy forgiveness easily. It's not sitting on my doorstep waiting to be invited inside. It hides out in the dark spaces of the back yard... and if I want it, I have to go searching for it. 

And sometimes I do because I know it's what I need...but other times? I close the door, turn of the light and walk away, taking my bitter feelings with me, letting them fester... In Sweethaven, Jane does this a little bit. And she's justified...anyone would harbor anger in her shoes...but that anger, it eats us up... 

So she journals her through it. With photos. Like a paper crafter. 

I asked two incredibly talented paper artists to create pieces based on this idea of forgiveness... this elusive, yet freeing idea. They blew me away. 

Look at this art journal page by the insanely talented Tammy Tutterow:

It's SO gorgeous and I love the rectangular size of it. (I fully intend to create something this size!) 

But it's what Tammy said about the project that I find most inspiring...

Tammy: "At this time last year I was in a really tough place in life.  I had been hurt and deceived by someone very close to me and my world felt completely torn apart.  I tried to keep a very happy public face, but inside and in the confines of my home I was feeling complete devastation.  I didn't know where to turn or what to do.  I felt like I was swimming up river with a boulder strapped to my ankle.  

Although I have struggled with issues of faith my whole life, I knew that I had to surrender the pain to something larger than myself, that I alone could not fix the person, the situation, or my response to it.  Through everything, I knew that a large part of healing and moving forward would be in forgiving the person who had hurt me so deeply.  I couldn't even wrap my mind around how to forgive or even what truly forgiving someone meant.  I thought forgiving meant to just forget and to tell the person what they had done was ok.  It wasn't ok and I really wasn't sure I could ever let it go.  I am not one to share personal things or to reach out to others but I did and was led to some really wonderful resources.  One was THIS ARTICLE on the Focus on the Family website.  

At last I really started to understand what it meant to forgive.

As I sat down to create this project with the focus on forgiveness, I kept thinking of butterflies. When faced with difficult times and difficult situations at the hands of others, we can continue to crawl in the grief of the circumstances, or we can forgive, let go, and be free to fly.  It didn't happen overnight, but eventually I chose to forgive the person who had hurt me.  

At this time last year, I thought about the situation and concept of forgiveness every single day.  As I worked on this page, I realized I hadn't thought about it in weeks, maybe even months.  I think that was a sign that I had let it go and was finally flying free.  I chose to create the stamped images of the page so that they looked very fluid, as a reminder of the tears that were shed.  The symbolism of it though is that despite tears, there is beauty and vivid color and freedom to fly.  

The memory will never go away, but the pain does through forgiveness.  As I worked on my page, I searched for a quote to include about forgiveness and very quickly found one by H. Jackson Brown Jr, the author of Life's Little Instruction Book:

"Never forget the three powerful resources you always
have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."  

Those were the three things I clung to in those dark days and those are the things that helped carry me through.

Tammy's story is so inspiring...I especially like that she mentioned that it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't for any of us, does it? Not even the characters in my book have eveyrthing all wrapped up with a pretty red bow...

Tammy is still writing her story...you can find more of it on her blog HERE .

Stacey Michaud also tackled this subject of Forgiveness by scrapbooking about a relationship that helped teach her how to forgive: 

In this case, Stacey is also scrapbooking an important lesson, and it celebrates the fact that despite the hurts of the past, she could, with the help of a good friend, move past it and forgive. 

Take a look at Stacey's journaling:

What a gift, don't you think? The peace of mind that comes with forgiveness. 

I know, it's so easy to say that but even as I do I find myself mentally repenting and trying to come to terms with the hurts of the past...

How about you? Do you struggle to forgive? Do you journal through it? What helps you with those feelings of anger and hurt? I'd love to hear...

A Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {Vacation Memories}

I am so happy to announce that A Sweethaven Summer is now available on Kindle! I've gotten some of the coolest emails from people who've read the book, but the most unexpected note is "this book has made me want to scrapbook again..." I've heard it several times now, and I'm almost surprised--but so happy--that maybe, somehow, reading it will inspire people to tell their own stories (in whatever way they choose.) 

Some people aren't as smitten with the book, however, which is evidenced by the first line of Sophia's new story: 

"Paige Jones was so excited that she got to see her friends again. She hadn’t seen them all summer since she had to spend it in a boring old cottage in Michigan." 

She asked me to "edit" it, and I didn't get much farther than that because it made me laugh. Sophia read the whole book in a weekend, and we've had many conversations since about what she thinks should happen to the characters. I have a feeling one of these days she's going to be my favorite brainstorming partner. 

Sweethaven instantly evokes the feeling of being on vacation, something I could desperately use right now...(but couldn't we all?) And in all of my scrapbooking, I'm not sure I've ever done a vacation layout...I don't remember one, so now I'm on a mission to get one made. 

My friend, Greta Hammond, created this inspired by Sweethaven layout, focusing on the subject of "Scrapbook a vacation memory..." 

There are so many things I love about Greta's layout, starting with the colors. She always has the best colors on her pages. But I especially love the way the journaling block breaks up the strip of photos on this page. It's just a clever way to get the story documented, don't you think? 

If you look carefully, you'll see all kinds of neat little layers on this page...just way too fun. 

So, are you ready to join in the fun? I'm putting together an awesome prize package (or two) to conclude this little Scrapbooking Challenge, and I'll announce all the rules very soon, but the plan is to have you create a layout based on one of these inspiring pages...(or, if you've read A Sweethaven Summer, you can create one inspired by the book from your own point of view!) 

Super fun, right? 

People are winning...and here's the proof!

The Winner of the Sweethaven Online Launch Party Day THREE goodies is: 

Anne Demos said...

I am a coffee snob! Hard to admit I absolutely LOVE Starbucks it is the ONLY Coffee I drink. Sumatra Bold is my favorite everyday. Carmal Machiatto Venti and Peppermint Mocha Venti are my special treats. Which I was trying to decide today what I was going to order when I come and see you Saturday at Barnes and Noble!!

ReplyFebruary 09, 2012 at 12:36 PM

(Anne Marie, send me your address!)

And the winners of Melody Ross's Soul Restoration Class (and a copy of "A Sweethaven Summer") are:

• Jessica Engel
• Julie P
• Rebecca Lovell
• Martha S.
• Tracie
• Laura L.
• Shannon Taylor

Girls, send me your address to claim your prizes! courtneycrops {at} msn {dot} com.

Congratulations to all the winners! I can't wait to get everything boxed up and shipped off...it's so exciting to send happy mail, isn't it? There's really nothing like opening the mailbox and finding a package waiting for you! 

I hope you all have a beautiful Monday! 

And come back all week for more inspiring art projects inspired by A Sweethaven Summer...I'd love it if you played along!

Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge {A Painful Memory}

The girls of Sweethaven are fighters. Their lives aren't all happy and jolly. What kind of cardboard characters would any of us be if we didn't have challenges, struggles, things to fight for...?

These women, like all of us, have been through their share of tragedy. And in this first book in the series, one of the characters, Jane, finds out that scrapbooking through it becomes quite therapeutic. 

In my own life, I've found that journaling and scrapbooking and creating art all give me the tools to tell a  story... painful or otherwise, and in doing so, somehow, I always feel better on the other side of it. 

And the most painful, most personal of memories are the ones you may be the most afraid to document...and also the ones that most deserve your attention...

Document a Painful Memory.

My friend, Jennifer Gallacher is a brilliant scrapbooker. Her layouts are so stunning and vivid and eye-catching, sometimes they literally make me gasp. On this layout, Jen shared so openly about a painful memory, the loss of her thirteen-year-old son, Joey. 

Isn't he handsome?

Yes, it's painful, but this is a huge part of Jen's story. 

A story I'll let her tell you herself...

"I lost my oldest son at 13 years old to the devastation of colon cancer. Joey had poor health almost his entire life, but he was always so happy. That's not to say that he didn't get down, but he never complained about the pain he was in. His battle with cancer and his passing was a terrible blow to our family. Suddenly we were left with a huge, gaping hole in our family and in our hearts.

As we have worked to repair those feelings of sadness and loss over the past five years, we try very hard to dwell on the happy times that we had together as a family. We also rely heavily on our faith. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't "talk" to my son and let him know that I'm proud of him, and that I miss him. I feel so grateful that I took so many photos of him even when he didn't necessarily love having his photo taken. I am even more grateful that through journaling and scrapbooking that I have recorded hundreds of memories of our time together. Now his sweet personality and beautiful smile is forever preserved for my children and my children's children--a priceless book of memories we'll always cherish."

Jen's story continues right HERE on her blog...

I can't think of many things more priceless than memories and photos of the ones you love.

The ones you've lost.

Scrapbook for the comfort of others. 

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to create a layout for Angie Smith. You might recognize her husband from the Christian group Selah. Angie's blog, and now her books, are inspiring, encouraging, amazing...but their story is not without pain.

Sometimes, documenting the hope found in the sorrow is also hugely important--for you or for those whose stories have touched your heart the way Angie and Todd's did mine. 

But where do I begin?

But maybe you're thinking, "I don't know where to start. It hurts too much..." 

Maybe you're scared to crack open the things that are holding you back, to speak them out loud so they lose their hold on you. 

So, today, I want to offer something amazing that can help you document the painful things, the things that are hard, the things you fear, the things that keep you from moving forward...

Watch:

 

My soul friend, Melody, is offering not one, but SEVEN spots in her online Soul Restoration class. 

Seven. 

And because I believe in the power of storytelling...in the power of all of us telling our own stories, through whatever medium we choose, I'm going to give away SEVEN copies of A Sweethaven Summer too. 

I've recently learned that writing a book is wonderful, but it makes you vulnerable in a way you didn't expect...and in some ways, that's scary...but in other ways, it's exhilarating.

I'd love to share it with you. (If you don't win, you can order your copy HERE or HERE!) 

How do I enter?

This time, just leave me a comment and tell me: Is it hard for you to document the painful parts? Would you rather turn away and forget all about them? Or do you find it helps to work through it...even though the tears may dot your paper as you write or paint or create? 

We're all in this together, girls...

Now, last order of business:

The winner of the Sweethaven Online Launch Party DAY TWO is: 

Margie Visnick said...

I think my word would be "light" to remind me to find the light and be the light...so important in all aspects of my life!

ReplyFebruary 08, 2012 at 06:39 AM

Margie, email me and claim your beautiful prizes! :) 

I can't wait to read your comments, your thoughts, your hearts...I hope you