A Gift

   

It has been a week of character classes and cupcake still life paintings, beautiful painted ladies and LOTS of lettering.  My job is dreamy and the students who come and go through the week absolutely fill my heart. I Play for a living AND do it with awesome peeps! Truly Can't beat that.

 

Sidenote: If you're new here and you want to play along with all of my studio goings on from a distance (or just peek at what we are making) be sure and follow our Instagram updates!
Link in the left sidebar.
 

 

In a crazy frigid, Blizzardy winter like we have had here, I truly love that no matter how cold it gets we have this amazing warm and cheery place to create and grow together!  It has been a Blessing in so many different ways for different people and I pray that only grows with time.

 

 

 In other happy news, Outside of the studio I've been finishing up some very special printable kindness cards to give as a gift to anyone who signs up for our newsletter! Spreading kindness is always good and never wasted, and friends, I am all about that!  These mini prints can be printed at 4x6 to give as a card or smaller 2x3 to keep in your wallet and hand out to someone special as you are moved to do so. 
Enjoy!

Simply Magnetic

I promised you something new in store this week. And so, by request, here they are, mini print magnets! Just $5 each, beautiful crisp quality and vibrant colors ( I couldn't be happier), and they are available in all of the prints you see in my shop. I did these thinking beyond the fridge; a bit of encouragement hung inside a special kids locker at school, a little brightening on the filing cabinet of a teacher who goes the extra mile, even a bit of heart stuck along the metal strip of an office cubicle as a reminder of how much brightness is there for the taking...you get the idea! Everyone needs lifting up sometimes, everyone likes to feel appreciated or understood, and that's kind of the point of my art. To shine a light into all of the wonderful places in our lives, as far as we can possibly reach!

You can look for these here in my Shop on Monday

Today is a Gift

My two random winners from Friday's post are  

Kathleen and Michelle! 

Congrats girlies, send me an email so I can get you hooked up with all of your goodies

You guys are all amazing, you really touched my heart last week; from your openness  to share your challenges and how you have chosen to overcome them with positivity here in the comments , to your honesty on facebook where I asked the same question, and even private emails I got last week sharing with me from an open heart and with such a positive attitude. I am encouraged, I am moved, and I am honored that you cared to listen to my story and felt comfortable enough to share so many of yours with me.
THANK YOU.

Taking Art off of someone's site is usually a Big "no no", please know this.
BUT... This time, I would Love for you to go ahead and right click the image above, save it, and print it out at 5x7 to hang somewhere as a reminder that it's up to YOU to make some sunshine in this world, to Make the choice to see TODAY as a gift no matter what may come.
xo it's My little gift to you.

ETA: The giveaway is now closed, the print above has been replaced with a web sized image and will be added to my etsy shop later this week

It's been a rough weekend/start to the week, my headache & other pain came back full force to try and kick my butt right back to bed and to laying there trapped on my frozen veggies. POOOP!
It's super duper intense BUT I'm doing as much kicking back as I can, there is just too much good living to be had! I did everything in my power to just keep going like a Rockstar. And we made all kinds of good family memories YAYY!

The truth is it could be partly my fault, I need to double check ingredients and be more careful this week with what I am eating, I have a sneaking suspicion that I accidentally may have had some wheat and dairy hidden in good eats which is most likely the culprit.
Live and learn, and then help someone else, right?!
If you have any amazing-must-try wheat free, dairy free recipes please please shoot me an email! I am getting really bored with my few stand by options. And don't have enough culinary imagination to invent my own.

 This week; my girls are going to wow me with their swimming, Tiara and I are going to head to the city together today to do some getting healthy. Our first soccer games officially start up which will be extra fun cuz two girls are on the same team and Cam is their coach, so I guess you could say I am a seriously invested fan! Later this week I have some new stuff to share going up in my etsy shop for gifts, another fun happy giveaway, and all kinds of pictures from snapping away during week in the life. Have a great Monday friends, let's be rockstars together and kick this week in the butt hardcore!!!

 It's TIME!!! Are you ready for some fun? Today is our Everyday Storyteller blog hop, each of the   contributors are sharing some bonus tips, and more...

  Here is a little bit of a bigger Peek at some of the project bits from my article in the book. There is Lots of Color, and TONS of tips for how I tell each of my life stories loaded with Heart. I can promise you at least 13 ideas from my article alone, I can't wait to see how many more the other ladies will be sharing too!

   I think for such an occasion a little bit of extra fun is in order, sooooo here is what we're gonna do...  Leave me a comment telling me YOUR favorite way to capture the heart in your life's stories, by   11:59 pm Central and I will be GIVING AWAY a copy of the book to one lucky storyteller before it is available to the public!

  Have you ever thought of your kitchen as a Great place for sourcing out your next storytelling tidbits? You'd be surprised how many treasures the heart of the home holds just waiting for you to discover! To make a great little page like this one, simply grab some extra non-slip mat from lining your cupboards, and some leftover sticky drawer liner. All you have to do is trace out a shape you love, like this bird, get creative stitching it in place, and add a photo or some journaling strips of your own! Voila, no cost cuteness!!!

OK friends, one last happy detail for today- are you signed up for the Big party yet? Head over HERE to sign up for a VIP invitation to join in our Book launch party at 8:30pm CDT on Friday, May 4. There will be almost $800 in prizes given away from our sponsors during the party, it's sure to be a BLAST!

Come back and visit me throughout this week, I will be sharing more tips, more peeks, and maybe even a giveaway or two of my own to keep things exciting! If you want to keep on blog hopping today and gather up all kinds of Bonus tips, here is the list of inspirational peeps who have lots of goodness for you, HAVE FUN!!!
  
ETA: if you have time to read through some of the comments, there are Great ideas coming in so far from everyone! I will put them all together in a Big post later this week

1. Cheryl Ashcraft
2. Anna Aspnes
3. Katie Clemons
4. Elise Blaha
5. Paula Gilarde
6. Sara Gleason
7. Michelle Hernandez
8. Debbie Hodge
9. Katrina Kennedy
10. Amy Kingsford
11. Cindy Liebel
12. Crystal Livesay
13. Robyn Meierotto
14. CD Muckosky << YOU ARE HERE
15. Nancy Nally
16. Christine Newman
17. Ashli Oliver
18. Amanda Padgett
19. Renee Pearson
20. Lynnette Penacho
21. Elle Price
22. Heather Prins
23. Traci Re
24. Lauren Reid
25. Amber Ries
26. Kristin Rutten
27. Betsy Sammarco
28. Jenn Smith-Sloane
29. Jessica Sprague
30. Melissa Stinson
31. Amy Tan
32. Tiffany Tillman
33. Jennifer Wilson

Guess what I'm working on?

I'm super excited to be a contributor in this Great e-book coming out in May! I have had many hours sitting on the floor in my studio, creating happy colorful new projects that showcase some of my favorite tips for telling the stories of life. 

 Keep an eye on things here over the next month as I get ready to share some more sneek peeks and give you the chance to win some great prizes.

In the meantime check out this Teaser video for a bit more info!

 In other news, the weather here has suddenly been extra warm For Early April in Manitoba, the kiddos have a little extra spring in their step. The windows are open and the bird song filling our house makes my heart so very happy.

 Little Jellybean Toes are muddy from hunting for ladybugs, Daddy is taking walks to the park and of course out for ice cream

 

 Skies are Blue, Bikes are out, and on the whole everyone seems a little more merry now that the snow is gone from sight.

 

Enjoy the fresh start that comes with Spring my friends!

announcing....

Some pretty fun news! It has been over 2 years of lovely sweet requests for me to sell my designs.

I make my own things for my paper layouts ( anyone who has had classes with me or hung out and scrapped with me knows how very true this is) and I have made a lot of my own goodies for digi/hybrid pages too, but the thought of making it "good enough" to sell and finding the time to package it all up etc. just made me shake in my polka-dot socks LOL!

In the last 6 months or so I have finally been feeling ready to just go for it, to stop saying "nah" and start sharing my creations...it's been stirring my friends. Seriously.

Soooooo, when my friend Michelle asked me to be a guest designer at the Little Dreamer Shoppe I decided that the time had come at last to finally say "YES!"

So here it is folks, the official launch of Chickie-D Art :)

Time for a virtual Kick off party! please make yourself at home, and help yourself to a few little party snacks I have put out for you here ;)

The decorations are lovingly hung below...

and I have lots more in the works....

check out my little corner of the shoppe Now for a little more kick off party fun!!!I wanna give some more goodies away :)

3 ways to win
1.Leave me a comment here on this post and let me know what you think, or for that matter just say hello and tell me something good about your day! I will randomly draw 5 names from the comments who will receive a free kit of their choice

2. We will randomly pull 5 names from everyone who purchases any of my new products in the next week to win 2 free packs of their choice!

Or

3. Scrap with some of my new goodies and post it in whichever galleries you post your scraps. Then leave me links on this post to be entered in a random draw for everything that you see above!!! ($30 value)

Whoo Hooo!!!!

for happy fun

Come out and play with me
Thanks for coming to the party and have a FAB Tuesday my friends!