I am literally bursting with excitement friends! Today is the public launch of my new project and it is going to be life changing-for myself, my collaborator Chara of Love, Me Boutique and hopefully for creative entrepreneurs everywhere!
If you have been reading Oh My! Handmade for awhile you know that nothing makes me happier than nurturing the dreams of entrepreneurs, sharing their stories and giving them resources to grow their businesses. Creating community is my life’s work and what I am best at. Before I started editing OMHG I knew I had the power to connect people and help make vibrant communities, that is what I did as a living and a calling. OMHG taught me that the work I was called to had no borders or boundaries-that the internet was also a place to bring people together to make the world, and our lives, more joyous and beautiful while making me happier then I ever thought possible.
For the last year I had this idea in my head that wouldn’t go away and had been gnawing at me. It was like a little weed with deep roots-while I tried hard to focus on just one thing it kept popping up and keeping me awake at night. It was so beautiful I couldn’t bear to weed it out, so I did my research. I knew what I was imagining hadn’t been done yet, by anyone, anywhere that I could find, but I wasn’t quite ready or sure of my direction…
Until I interviewed Chara for Oh My! Handmade. Afterwards we started emailing about creating an ecourse or program of some kind and sharing our dreams about handmade, community, life, love and our own paths as creatives. As we talked online and in person our idea grew from a program to a magazine, to a magazine + online community + plans for print magazines and/or a book. After over 6 months of emails and weekly Skype meetings (+ endless revisions of our logo until I got it just right) Chara and I are ready to share our dream with you.
Help us welcome Heartweed to the world!
Heartweed is the magazine creative entrepreneurs and artists have been waiting for (even if they don’t know it yet!). Unlike other shelter, art or design focused digital magazines Heartweed is centred solely on growing your creative dream from a seedling into a blossoming business. I am a huge fan of digital and print magazines and devour new issues of my favorites. But where is the beautiful magazine just for creative entrepreneurs? A magazine so lush and gorgeous you can curl up with it and flip through again and again, filling your heart with inspiration and your mind with ideas and strategies? We are making it!
I’m not going to ruin all the surprises we have planned for you but expect to see interviews, studio tours, videos, chats, tutorials and some of the most talented established and emerging artists in our community within Heartweed’s pages. Heartweed is beginning with six online issues, each with a focused topic (Dream It, Plant It, Weed It, Tend It, Flaunt It, Grow It) that follow the flow of beginning and building a creative business.
But it won’t stop there, the magazine is only half of it! The other half is the stuff dreams are made of. The Heartweed magazine will be available free to the public and our first issue will launch in January 2012. In addition to the magazine Studio Rose Flash is building a full website for subscribers that will allow creatives to connect with each other and get incredible bonus materials linked to the magazine content. Subscribers will be able to access peer support and mentorship, get feedback on their projects, and download the amazing extra material we will be offering. When subscribers read each issue of Heartweed they will be able to click through to access more content, talk about articles with other readers, find opportunities to have their work and story featured in our magazine + so much more still planned.
I love blogs and magazines but I always want MORE. More engagement and interaction, more insight, more connection to the writers and their stories or the pieces featured. After I read something I want to talk about it and share my ideas with others. The Heartweed community will be that more.
Excited yet? Because I am so thrilled to start this new journey and hope all of you are along for the adventure. I will of course continue editing Oh My! Handmade and building our community here but I will also be giving a large chunk of my love to Heartweed.
So please join Chara & I-follow Heartweed on Twitter and Facebook and by signing up for the Heartweed mailing list to be the first to know when our full site and first issue launch + get sneak peeks and special offers.
You can also be a part of our project from the beginning by purchasing advertising in our first issue! Find out all the juicy details and download our advertising info on the new www.heartweed.com launch page.
Together we will plant the seeds of our dreams and unearth the heart of a creative life.
Are you with me?
