Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Moodboards, Creative Journals and Club News

Hi there #Paperlovers and #Creativegirls,


With wonderfully hot and sunny weather in Pretoria these last couple of days and working up a storm here at Ivytree Studio, we know that this year has kicked off with a creative blast and we can only give God all the honour and glory for it. When you have work for your hands and a song in your heart, life is good. 

We opened the club at the end of February and #Creativegirls are getting very very excited about what's to come this year. 

CLUB UPDATE:


At first we wanted to give FREE membership to all the #Creativegirls who wanted to join our little new club. But you cannot really control how people will respond and because we look at the research, experience and trends from other clubs and online groups, we specifically put together a club that we wanted to be different and special. To achieve that is not easy and you need to be really firm on your values and vision for the direction you want to go in with any initiative, or else it will go south really quickly.  I have learned this through experiences all throughout my life and career and so we want to apply these lessons to the new club too. 

After the club opened, ladies stared sharing and responding, but we still experienced some of what we were trying to avoid. We decided that we want to do things a little differently than previously advertised and updated our T's&C's for the club. We held a planning and brainstorm session yesterday and came up with a couple of solutions and strategies because we quickly saw some similar activity trends arise after opening the club. We experienced similar in other groups we manage and are part of on Facebook and we wanted to avoid same old same old and create something special together.


NEW CLUB STRATEGY:



From now onwards, the #CreativegirlPrint&PlayFriends CLUB will be a PAID MEMBERSHIP with a 
ONCE-OFF "New Member" fee of R150 (That is around $10 US) to gain entry to the club and a yearly renewal of R50 to stay in. Each time you purchase your membership, you will receive a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD BUNDLE with goodies and club-stuff that will get you started and support you in the club activities. The value of these bundles far outweighs the small fee you have to pay to be a member. We give more than we ask, but we do feel that if you are really serious about this club, won't be just another "groupie" or "inspiration seeker", you will benefit much more and we will be building a quality membership from the start with a group of girls who really want to play along with us. 

ALREADY JOINED UP BEFORE 4 MARCH 2019? 

Don't worry. We have you covered. Just read on. 

PROPER APPLICATION PLATFORM



We created the page on our website to help inform everyone in full and up front and have a proper application platform. We decided that a paid yearly membership would help us avoid frustration and disappointment on all sides. People are willing to pay for something they really want, believe in or know that they will benefit from and to that end you need to be properly informed up front, right?



Click here to go to the website and apply



STEP 1: READ THE WEBSITE INFO AND COMPLETE THE FORM: (See images above)


Anyone who wants to join up after the 4th of March 2019 will visit our website and apply there and follow the application steps. Anyone who had requested membership before the 4th of March (our "Pioneers"), will still be offered FREE membership for a full year AND receive the "New Member" Membership bundle. That's a WOW, right. So, if you had your foot in the door before the 4th of March, it stays in for a FULL YEAR. Isn't that great!!

We would like to request that our "Pioneers" also go to the website and check out the latest page we created just for the club (Click here), complete the quick application form there so we make sure you are still committed to the process and are updated with the latest Club T’s&C’s and we have you list under membership. You only have to do that once. 


                   ON THE WEBSITE: First you work through the info about the club and what it offers you.



  Then check out the CLUB RULES and the "club house" #Creativegril Community on Facebook called the #CreativegirlPrint&PlayFriends Club (later we will change the name to make it a bit short, but for now the title says what its about)


Next you apply by completing the quick online form. 
Don't apply unless you are really really sure and you are ready to purchase your
Membership bundle over at the store next. You have to do that within 24hours of submitting your form. (Just note that the membership bundle in the store will only release on Friday, 8 March 2019, so wait to apply until then. We are still designing the new bundle as it is one of the big changes to the club entry process and that came only this week.) 



STEP 2: GO TO THE STORE AND PURCHASE YOUR "NEW MEMBERSHIP" BUNDLE:


You can follow the links on the website to go to the item in the store or click here to purchase your membership bundle. Instead of having to purchase a membership bundle over at the store, our "Pioneers"  will skip step 2 and we will add them to the FB group. 

Anyone can purchase the pledge in the store (@R35). It is a bundle item with various options and some free #creativegirl goodies. From now on the Club Pledge Bundle will form part of the Membership Bundle so if you purchase your membership, you will receive this bundle included with all the other goodies in your Membership. 

Next you visit the store and purchase your membership and you will find it under 
the "Join the club" section and under that the "Club Membership" section. 



"NEW MEMBER" CREATIVE BUNDLE


You can check out the website for what is included in this bundle valued at R250. You receive nearly double than what you paid for. The idea of the membership bundles is that you commit by paying for your membership only once off  as a new member @R150 and then a yearly fee of R50. It is not a big fee to pay but we know that girls who are serious will commit to it by buying the Membership. We give a Print&Play bundle with it to get you started and the value of this far outweighs the membership fee. To help you even further, we have a current promotion running for all new members joining before 1 April 2019. You will only pay R50! BARGAIN, RIGHT!!! (See store for discount code. This item will be released on the 8th of March 2019) 

So, I hope you see that this decision is to make sure that the community we start off building is a quality community right from the start. Many Facebook community groups are full of thousands of people who never take part in anything and it makes the group number rich but poor in real community. Only around 6% and up to a quarter of members really engage in these large groups. 


STEP 3: GO TO FACEBOOK AND REQUEST TO BE ADDED TO THE GROUP:



You can also follow the links on the website to go to the Facebook community "CLUB HOUSE" and request to be added by referencing your email and store order number (the order number you received when purchasing your "New Member" bundle). We will then match it with your application and add you to the group. 


Finally, you go over to Facebook and request to be added to the "Club House"  or the community group. Remember to answer the entry questions. Here you will be asked if you completed the form on the website,
and to reference your email and order number you received when you purchased your membership. We will use this to match you to your application form and add you to the group. Once you are in, remember to complete the final steps to activate your membership. Read on to see what that's about. 

STEP 4&5: ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP: 


Why activate your membership? Well, we feel that this is your way of showing the community that you are serious about the club and it helps you get started with your own creative journey (or even kick-start it after you have experiences a slump or a bit of a "creative block" perhaps. All in all, it just makes sense to ask you to actually make something and put in a little effort at the start, right?


TAKE THE PLEDGE:


Once members are added to the Facebook group (referencing their email and order number from the store so we can match them with there application form), you need to print your Club pledge included in your "New Member" Membership Bundle (to be released on 8 March 2019 over at the store), sign your pledge and take a selfie of you and your signed pledge. This pledge is more of a commitment you make to your own creative journey but also to be a loving club member and then share this as your first post in the club. 








We all shared our pledge on Friday, 1 March 2019. Taking a selfie with your pledge is quite a challenge. Asking someone to photograph you may be the go-to method. ;) ;) 

FINAL STEP IN ACTIVATING YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN FULL: MAKE A MOOD-BOARD: 


The final step to fully activate your membership is to take part in the first creative challenge and share your post with your created project. Add your foto and a little bio to the post as well to introduce yourself to the community. You have ONE CALENDAR MONTH to complete your Membership Activation process. 


CREATIVE JOURNALS & THE PURPOSE OF THE MOOD-BOARD CHALLENGE:


We are gearing up to launch our very first #Creativegirl Journal. A fully printable journal and starting off with a mood-board each month is a habit we want to encourage in your journals. So start to collect ideas for your month ahead. 

I was working on all the club content last week, but finally got round to make my own mood-board for the club. You won't be able to really understand it, until I do a flip through video. I call this a "loaded" mood-board. My inspiration for it, is actually my 80 year old dad. He has been making prayer journals, scrapbooks and altered book journals since forever. It is his style to work with magazines and newspapers and any recycled materials he can find. He then creates "Word Books" that tells His story and expressed his love of God's Word and words in general. 

My moodboard consists of all the things that represent me, that I am and want to be, that I love and whom I love and a little bit of paper, pretty pictures and art product and techniques I love. I used the Loveday collection and the Happy Day collection printables in my project. You can find them here

I will post the full step by step in the next post here on the blog. Look out for it. 



Becuase the Club House is a private group, I asked the girls permission to share some of their projects. I'll be sharing more in the next post as well but we will kick it off with just a couple. 


Here is Debbie Minnaar's project who graciously agreed that I share her work. 




Surita, our little "Pearli' here at the Studio, also inspired the Club with her little mood-board and a very cute video tutorial.

Translation: Now we are being Creative!

And here is her little video tutorial as promised:
(Give her a shout out here in a comment on the blog or over on our youtube channel. This is
her first face to face video. For any introvert, that is quite an accomplishment. I know she will 
gain more and more confidence to do more of these as to me she is such an inspiration artistically)

(PS: Wink wink - if you catch a little bit of a "Jane Austen" accent in her video it is because she is
just crazy about all things "Jane Austen" and have read so many of her books. 😊😘😘)


I just loved each and every shared project because no matter where you find yourself on your creative journey, each project you do, reflects where you are on that personal journey. When we share projects here from time to time it is not to showcase only the "designer" projects. It is to show you how creative and active the girls are being. We never compare anybody's work with anyone else's. It is not educational and it doesn't help you grow your own thumbprint at all. Our club will also have zero competitions because all that breeds is comparison. Each and every project and share is important to our community! That is what make different. We celebrate everybody's work and encourage each other to NOT GIVE UP. 

Always always ONLY compare what you do with where you started and you will always feel accomplished. You will see progress and you will see your art and creativity blossom more and more over time. That is the purpose of this CLUB. 


This whole application process and the first "required" projects might all sound like everything in the club will be a lot of work and take a lot of your time, but these two activities are the ONLY deadlined and required activities. All of the rest will be self-paced and you will decide where and when you take part. 

We hope that you will take part in as many lovely creative shares and projects as possible, but we believe creativity needs time and patience to grow. So, no further pressure after activating your membership. 

As you can see, it is real important to us to build a community of girls who really want to be part of the club and grow with us and this is how we feel we will accomplish this. To ensure that we don't have any false starts or members that change their minds or go back on their commitment to grow their creativity with us once they enter the group, we made these amendments and we are absolutely convinced that this is the best way and that the serious #creativegirls will agree. 

Before I sign off, just a quick reminder about the blog hop and the #Creative Team call and #Creativegirl Retreats for this year. Read more about it in the previous blog here





Till next time...



Visit Ivytree Studio to see more of what we are up to: www.ivytreestudio.co.za
Buy some of our pretty paper here
Connect with the team on our Facebook page here.
Share your Ivytree Studio layouts with us here
Join our #CreativeGirlPrint&PlayClub here
Watch our Youtube channel here.



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