Oh my, does time fly fast when you are working on great projects and your work inspires you to just keep moving forward. When I look at the frequency of my posts here (something I really love to do), it must mean that the work behind the scenes must be good, if it keeps me away from writing to you all here. But, here I am and today I need to bring you all up to speed again.
So, what is "Creative Bliss" then? To me, it is to live the creativity God planted in you to the full. All the things you will read about in this post, showcase that. If your "Creative Bliss" is to have a little bit of new paper in your hands and making a card, then that is your moment. Celebrate it! Whether it is once a week or every day, we would like to encourage you to live it out often. It keeps you healthy mentally and spiritually and that my friends, will even spill over into your physical body. So fill your spirit with the good stuff and with God. Your spirit is what keeps your body going. :)
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| Click here to visit "Esther" in store |
So, first off there is our latest Print&Play collection, called "Esther". She is just so lovely and if you love pink and girly things, this collection is just for you. Lots of little pretty butterflies and the color palette includes a little bit of blue, green and orange too.
The next collection is to celebrate THREE YEARS in business and design as part of the creative industry. (Ivytree is actually much older than that as we started with design back in the year 2000).
This collection will be used during our Birthday Event and is called "Karalea" which means "innocent" and "righteous" (Spiritual meaning: "I am pure, without transgressions; I am innocent. There is no iniquity in me"). I think this is just in time for celebrating Jesus this month and what He sacrificed for us all. Accepting His gift of eternal life makes us all righteous and pure under the Blood of the Lamb.
The event is fully online, but you can get your friends together on the day and scrap with us. Please purchase a ticket for each friend. Surita is designing a couple of projects that will be included as a Print&Play product to your event and it will also include a "Happy Bag" (our new word for Goodie bags). International friends can join in. We will be celebrating privately on our Ivytree Studio Friends group on Facebook and share videos and fun stuff during the day in the group. So, if you are not a "Friend" yet, pop over and ask to join the group. All you need to participate is access to a printer and some cardstock and your usual crafty happiness. We will work on the projects during the day and I love the fact that we can engage with our friends no matter where in the world you are. Even if you want to join in while scrapping at your local store. Just print out the projects and elements and take along. Take some photos on the day of your progress and share it in our Facebook group with us.
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| Click here to purchase your online event ticket |
So why not a physical celebration? Well, we wanted to. We actually planned to. But then things changed in December for our family and our mom needs us, girls, a little bit more now. This way we can help her and still celebrate Ivytree Studio's birthday. We are absolutely sure that you all agree that family comes first, right.
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| Click here to purchase your Retreat |
Next up is the Online Retreats we are working on. It is a whole new direction for us, so it is taking longer than expected, but we hope to launch the first Retreat as not just an online event but also a product and classroom experience that will open up new directions for your own creative journey as well.
The first Retreat is called "Revive". Once I have more on this little Retreat, I'll be back here to share with you. For now, just know that it will be a fun investment in your own journey as a #Creative person and the purpose of the Retreat is to educate you about things regarding your profile that may just help you understand your creative needs and how to cultivate and grow it over time. It includes a full Curriculum, workbook pages, creative journal, decorative elements, videos and more. The listed price will be well worth it, but if you hurry and purchase it before the 15th of May (we extended the date), you will receive it at a discounted price.
Our Club is up and running and the girls are creating up a storm and enjoying the process. If you still haven't joined in, you can do so by applying over at the website here and then pop over to the store to purchase your yearly membership. You can then ask to join the Facebook Community group for the Club referencing your order number. (This is the number of the order you placed when purchasing your membership bundle). You will find that if you skip the steps to apply on the website and purchasing your membership, you won't be added to the Facebook community group. We only approve applicants who completed the membership application successfully. We find that if you pay for something, you are more inclined to value it.
So why Print&Play and is it practical?
Oh, it is very much practical and do-able! One of our clients commented recently that because she lives far from arts&craft shops, she finds that the printables give her quick access and help her to still be part of the creative community, have new stuff to work with often and she just loves it. We design it so it inspires #Creativegirls to be more creative more often and give them access to quality designs. We also focus on the basics so all you need is a craft knife, metal ruler or paper trimmer, your scissors and a couple of basic punches. Adding the stash you already have is also encouraged as we want you to use what you have. Yes, actually use those mountains of paper you are hoarding. We also encourage this new way of crafting as it gives you a lighter footprint in the world. You only print what you need and storing (or for the lack of a better word, hoarding) it digitally, causes less clutter as it is all stored on your computer drive.
We have always focussed on designing elements for girls like us. Girls in their craft spaces who just want to be creative. The end user. Girls who need some creative therapy to help them along in life and keep them positive. We create for creatives. We don't create so others can monopolize on our products and monetize it for themselves. That is not the idea here.
Because I am a Business Teacher, an Educator, I also have always had the heart to help women succeed in business and I opened Ivytree Studio up for so-called "Wholesale" from the start because of this reason. We quickly found that we were sidetracked and forced to offer our products as open stock, something we didn't plan on doing. It made things crazy! I found that local Retailers also do not share the same vision that working together and encouraging a healthy positive creative community, helps us all thrive. I found quite the opposite. A very unhealthy and toxic vibe. They are only out to make a quick buck from you. If you don't give in to their demands, they get mean. Very few of them function differently. It is a harsh industry, but I know that God placed us here for a very different purpose. We are here for Him. We will keep on shining...for Him. Being profit focussed only, is not our heart. That doesn't mean that this is not a business. It is. But we wanted to get back to why we started all of this in the first place. Since we stepped out with our digital content, things have really radically changed for us. We love what we do again. It is actually fun! And we have none of that toxic nonsense any longer! Halleluja! I am so happy about that, I could literally jump for joy! :) ;) That means, that when we engage with the end user directly, the person we actually create for, things bloom and blossom for both them and us. That is why we create!
It doesn't, however, mean that we won't be doing printed physical product. We will just have less order and print cycles during the year. When we open one up, you should jump to get your orders in, as you won't find any of our products anywhere but on our online store and only during those cycles. Because we are developing digital content at the moment, we have reduced the print cycles for now. It might change back to monthly later on.
People often ask where they can buy our products. Please direct them to our store and our platforms. Some in the industry might think us "short-sighted" for not offering Wholesale anymore or not offering our products up for distribution by Retailers or large companies. We gave the Retail route a proper go and it kept our business actually back. They only promote the brands they want to an keep their customer base in the dark where our products are concerned. Now, the sky is the limit for us and I am excited to see what God does with this little studio next. Watch this space. ;)
I am proud to say that Ivytree Studio is a family owned boutique design studio and our CEO is Jesus Christ. I say it boldly because this industry needs some light.
And on that subject, we just featured in our favorite magazine this past month. If you love the Leef Magazine just as much as we do, please support Christine Ferreira in purchasing the physical mag each time it comes out. It is a magazine for Christian Women who love the beautiful things in life, just like we do.
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| Visit the Leef website here |
CREATIVE PROJECTS:
Today's creative share is a single layout and little card Surita designed with the new Esther collection. This is to show you that Printables can give you just as much joy as purchased products. Surita was inspired by a pin from Pinterest. In the original layout, stamps were used. Surita didn't have any stamps so all the little leaves were hand drawn by her on this layout. All the paper and elements used in this layout is from the #Print&Play Esther collection and she used white cardstock for the base.
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| Single Layout - Esther Collection |
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| Handmade card - Esther Collection |
'Till next time!
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Share your Ivytree Studio layouts with us here
