Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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 :)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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:

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!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

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:

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 :)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

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.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

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.

Friday, March 18, 2011

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.

Monday, February 7, 2011

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 :)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Merry Christmas

You are probably coming to this page because you have been given a seeded Christmas card or a Christmas present that had a seeded paper gift tag. You may be excited to grow some flowers (in which case you can jump right to the planting instructions) or you may be a little skeptical that the piece of paper that you are holding can actually grow flowers right before your eyes - but rest assured, it can! In fact, it will grow many types of flowers (a full list can be found here).

Your card or gift tag is made entirely from post-consumer paper (junk mail, bills, packaging, envelopes and printed paper), which has been recycled into a new sheet of handmade paper and embedded with wildflower seeds.

Of course, if you just stumbled across this page by accident, then you are probably feeling a little disappointed that the only paper around you is boring regular paper that will not grow flowers no matter how hard you try. Never fear! In the near future we will be making greeting cards, gift tags, postcards, calendars and other paper goods from this eco-friendly plantable paper and selling it in our Etsy store and at local markets. 

If you would like to sign up for our newsletter and be informed of updates such as when our Etsy store launches or when we will be at local markets, please sign up here.


Please email us at - tara.growme [AT] gmail.com if you have any questions or suggestions, or if you:
  • have photos of your paper sprouting seedlings or would like to show us the flowers that grew from your paper (to add to our gallery),
  • have paper you would like to donate to be given a new life as a grow-it-yourself floral bouquet (all paper donations large and small are appreciated).
In the meantime, we hope that you enjoy your gift that keeps on giving. Feel free to read a little bit more about us here.