Mornington Market Debut & Some New Releases

Didn't mother nature put on a beautiful day for us last weekend for the Mornington Racecourse market? We had a great time spreading our cards down to the peninsula and meeting some new fans and customers - we even came across a customer who knows us from the Upwey Market... Wow, it's a crazy, small world! Our banner arrived in time and it looked perfect after some teething problems with our marquee height (I should not be trusted to put up a marquee at 7:30 on a Sunday morning!).

Derek on our stand with our beautiful new banner and blackboard signs

We sold plenty of our Seed Bombs and launched new Garden Starter Discs. Our Garden Starter discs are a circle of plantable paper sitting on top of a Jiffy Pellet and they come in a packet of two. The Jiffy Pellets are made from sustainable coconut fibres and grow to a 4-5cm biodegradable 'pot' when soaked in water. Once your seedlings are established the whole pot can be planted in your garden where it will break down into the soil. I think they would make great business cards or giveaway products for an environmentally friendly company, but they are just as good as a present or stocking stuffer (I won't start the Christmas countdown just yet, I promise) or just as a fun activity to do with the little ones. You can grow them on a sunny windowsill so they can watch them grow.

Flower Seed Bombs on left and Flower Garden Starter Discs along the bottom

We also launched our new Fathers Day cards that grow herbs and even had some dads point them out and turn their backs for their kids to buy them... so cute!

Our 'Green Thumb' Dad & Tie font Fathers Day cards with some herb Seed bombs

And some new cards for parents of new babies, available in boy, girl or neutral...

Both our Fathers Day and Baby designs are now available in our Etsy & Madeit stores online.


And for everyone who has asked me at markets "Don't the seeds in the paper wreck your printer?"... Thanks for jiinxing me! I guess 200 pages of seeded paper is about the limit for a printer to handle... So until my printer gets fixed, I will not be able to print cards on demand. Therefore, if you want something I would suggest getting it sooner rather than later because I only have a few cards printed in most designs. Hopefully my printer will be back up and running soon though *fingers crossed*

Sorry for the silence!

It may have been quiet here on the blog, but we have been busy little beavers here at GrowMe!


A snapshot of what we have been up to:

• Had another successful market in Upwey back in June - we launched (and sold out of) our new Seed Bombs
• Tara completed her masters degree and is now qualified as a Dietitian! (Now to find a job!!)
• Been busy making over 130 sheets of seeded paper over the last couple of months, getting ready for Spring and lots of upcoming markets
• Re-designed our logo and made a banner for our online spaces... and ordered a canvas version for use at markets (fingers crossed it arrives on time!)
• Gave this blog a bit of a makeover with the new banner and a new colour scheme - What do you think?
• Got ourselves a web domain - www.GrowMe.net.au (at the moment it is just redirecting to here)
• Working on Fathers Day cards to be printed on our herb seeded paper - great for dads who love to cook or have a green thumb (to be released in our online stores later this week)

And, last but not least...

• Preparing for our first Mornington Racecourse Market which is on THIS SUNDAY the 14th of August from 9am-2pm - Drop by and visit us if you are in the area (or make the trip down to the beautiful Mornington Peninsula - I may be a little biased because I grew up down there). We will have our new range of Fathers Day cards, lots of Seed Bombs (if we sell out this time we will be very happy!), a bargain basket of cards with the old logo going out cheap, and *hopefully* our brand spanking new canvas banner, if you all cross your fingers for us really hard!

Well, I better get back to it, these cards won't print themselves!

And Our Winners are...

From our Facebook Page: Michaela Wake, Kate Hutchinson, Amy Keep, Sarah McNeill
From our Newsletter list: Yvette Stubbs, Lee Goller
From our Blog followers: Samantha Dunn, Rachel Bergin


Congratulations to our 8 winners, I will be contacting you shortly to get your addresses.


Thanks to everyone else who entered, it has been great meeting you all :)

There's still time...

... to get in on our Earth Day Giveaway!

We've got 89 entries into the giveaway so far, so make sure you get your three entries into the draw to win one of our limited edition Earth Day postcards like the one pictured above. 

To get your three entries:

1. Sign up for our Newsletter

2. Like us on Facebook

3. Follow this blog by clicking the 'follow' button in the right sidebar down the bottom.


Check out the original giveaway post for more information. I will be announcing our 8 winners tomorrow, so make sure you check back to see if you are a winner!

Happy Earth Day & a Giveaway

While everyone is starting to celebrate their long weekends with Easter festivities, it may slip a lot of peoples minds that today is not just Good Friday, but also Earth Day. For over 40 years April 22nd has been a day for environmental activists and ordinary people all around the world to come together to influence change to protect our environment and make our Earth a healthier, more sustainable place. You can read more about the history of Earth Day here.

Here at GrowMe we are committed to beautifying our Earth one greeting card at a time. We believe that a sustainable future is possible and that every one of us is responsible for ensuring that our Earth remains beautiful for future generations. This is why we urge all of you to make a pledge to do something to help keep our Earth beautiful by being a part of the Earth Day Network Billion Acts of Green. 

To celebrate Earth Day GrowMe is giving away 8 limited edition Earth Day postcards that grow flowers. The good news is if you are already a newsletter subscriber, a fan of GrowMe on Facebook or a follower of this blog then you are already in the draw to win one of our Earth Day postcards. The even better news is that you can get more entries to win if you do all of these things, so you can get up to three entries! 

To get your three entries:

1. Sign up for our Newsletter

2. Like us on Facebook

3. Follow this blog by clicking the 'follow' button in the right sidebar down the bottom.

The Giveaway will be open until midnight AEST Wednesday April 27th. International entries are welcome, but please enter by midnight Melbourne Australia time.

*Please note: due to customs restrictions for WA and TAS we are unable to send seeded products to these areas. If you live in these states or in a country where customs restrictions for seeds exist you will need to nominate someone else for us to send your prize to.*

To those of you who saw us at Selby Festival last weekend, I apologise that this giveaway was not drawn last Wednesday as promised, I have been sick so there has been a delay in getting it up here.

Good luck with the giveaway, have a lovely Earth Day today and enjoy your Easter break :)

A Busy Weekend

After doing the Upwey Grassroots Community Market a couple of weeks ago I was running low on stock and even lower on paper to print more cards on, so I got really busy last weekend and made 88 sheets of seeded paper! 

This is what 88 sheets of handmade paper looks like after it has been tidied up to A4 size sheets.

The white and yellow sheets on the bottom are all flower seed paper, but I also made herb seed paper (purple and white) and salad seed paper (the yellow sheets on the top). I'm really excited to see what I can do with the new mixes. I'm looking forward to reprinting some of my existing designs on them, but also have ideas floating around for Get Well Soon cards on the herb and salad papers. 

I printed some Easter cards on the salad paper already and I love how they turned out. They are meant to be a bit of a quirky alternative to giving Easter eggs and adding to the massive pile of chocolate that is consumed at this time of year. After all, real bunnies eat salad!

The Easter cards are now available in our Etsy store, and here is a sneak peak of a new design I am adding later this week. I got a lot of requests for more cards with sayings on them at the Upwey market, so this is going to be our latest addition to the range.

 I am going to announce an Earth Day giveaway later this week, so make sure to keep an eye out for it.

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Upwey Grassroots Community Markey

Me on my stand at the Upwey Grassroots Community Market yesterday.

A closer photo of my table.

What a lovely start to GrowMe we had over the weekend. I managed to get a logo together thanks to my boyfriend Derek and some designs for my cards from my friend Aleisha Cutler and her mum Bev. I also designed a few cards myself with some plant and flower fonts which were quite effective. 

Although I wasn't quite sure how GrowMe would go as this was my first market, I did much better than I ever could have imagined. I sold 39 cards and 8 postcards over the 5 hours of the market and gave out over 150 seeded business cards. The response was overwhelmingly positive and people seemed to like the fact that they were something a bit different to everyday greeting cards.

Blue Bird on white seeded paper, artwork by Bev Cutler.

A sympathy card that I designed.

Swirly Heart on red seeded paper, artwork by Aleisha Cutler.

I really love how they turned out, they look really professional and just gorgeous. The flecks of colour in the purple and red papers and the contrast of the white paper with the black seeds look great. I've already had requests for Mother's Day cards and more cards with sayings on them, so I've got some more designs to work on for next time. Somebody told me about a sustainability festival that is happening in Selby in a few weeks time, so hopefully I can make it along to that, they seem like my kind of people!

I've started listing the cards that I have leftover from the market in our Etsy store, so head over there and check them out.

They're flowering!

Baby's Breath in one of the pots that I planted Christmas gift tags in.

These flowers have been growing in two places that I tip out my tubs of water after making paper. It could be a coincidence, but I think they might be Chinese Houses which are in my flower seed mix. I'm not really a flower expert though!

I can't believe it, they have started to flower! I went away for a few weeks and lost a lot of my seedlings, but a few of them survived and have started flowering beautiful baby's breath flowers. Just in time for a market I am doing next weekend, the Upwey Grassroots Community Market which is just down the hill from my house. Hopefully I can get some designs to put on my cards by then! If you're in the area on Saturday make sure you stop by between 9am and 2pm.

So many seedlings...

I can't believe how many seedlings have sprouted from the paper I planted a couple of weeks ago... Look at them all! Can't wait to harvest all those herbs and see all those flowers :)

I've been busy making paper!

Paper sorted into colour piles, ready to recycle into handmade seeded paper.

Coloured paper all ripped up and ready to pulp.

Red and purple shredded paper soaking overnight, ready to go into the blender.

Big tub of white shredded paper soaking overnight.

 I've been really busy making seeded paper while I've been on holidays. The weather has been a bit iffy, but I managed to find a couple of nice sunny days to set up my paper making supplies in the front garden and get messy making some paper. I've made purple, red and white so far - I can't wait to print cards on them and get GrowMe off and running properly.

I also planted some of the leftover Christmas gift tags that I gave out to friends last year, it has only been a few days and they are sprouting already!

Purple gift cards with herb seeds in them.

Green seeded paper scraps with flower seeds in them.

A bit hard to see, but there are a few tiny seedlings here! (Click on the photo to see it larger)

And more little germinated seeds on the right of this picture. (Click on the photo to see it larger)