christytomlinson

fun fun stuff.. always excited to share..

okay so I have a few things to share today.. so bare with me! it's a LONG post! but worth reading!!

first off.. many of you already know that last year I signed a contract with licencing agent, Painted Planet Group. AMAZING AMAZING group!! I have to say! Love working with Jan!!

Well IF you are taking my living canvas class.. you also know that this year.. I had to really take a close look at my life and re-evaluate it. While last year was a whirlwind of excitement for me and SO SO many good things happened to me. SO blessed.. I also found myself involved in so many things that I didn't have time for the most important things to me.. family being one, my testimony, my trues. and myself I guess. I also realized (while working with a friend of mine).. that my passion in my work wasn't designing and painting for companies to put my artwork on products.. but my passion was TEACHING.

 

Sharing my art..

 teaching others how to do my art..

both in person..

but mainly online..

 helping others discover themselves through art and inspiring others to be and do better not just with art but with life in general too.

I realized that while i absolute was so thrilled to have licenced my art in the home decor and fabric world.. I wanted to focus on my teaching as well.

HOWEVER through the process of last year.. I was able to collaborate with some AMAZING companies to bring my own line of products out this summer.. and i have been waiting SO long to announce this!!  I feel so lucky and blessed and EXCITED to have my first   line of products coming out with a few amazing companies. I can't share all of them yet.. (will as they debut this summer).. but I one big company I did my largest line for was Midwest-CBK.

And I can't tell you what a privileged it was to work with them! In November of last year I flew out and met with them (which by the way.. TOTALLY loved their offices.. in this quaint little town out in this rural setting.. big trees and a stream running through their outside grounds.. simply amazing).  We met and talked about packaging and ideas for my art to be licencing on and was so excited over the next few month to see it all come to fruition! Lampshades and pillow and mug and wall-art and paper weights and oh so much more! I remember coming home one day from a trip and they had sent me samples of all the things for me to approve and ben had laid them out all over our living room and dining room and I was in AWE of what I saw!!! So excited and SOO wanted to just squeal and share it with all of yoU!!! Lol.. but of course.. had to wait.. until the official launch.. (which happened last week and will debut at the july show in Atlanta).

So here is just a PEEK of what I did for them!

 

I wish I had taken pictures of the samples.. BUT the good news is that I am ordering a lot of these items to sell in our store and will also get samples of each one.. so when they do come will take lots of pictures and post them here! But I do have a catalog.. and took some pictures of it!

Super excited for this!!! Midwest was AWESOME to work with and really can't wait for this line to be in stores.. and my own store! We will carry alot of this on our Scarlet Lime website.. so watch for that late summer!

okay.. so now onto my second part of news..

last week I was reading my friend, Art's.. facebook page and he had just posted a new weekly challenge.. (He has been doing this awesome weekly challenge on youtube for the last month or so.. they are called initiatethechange... all having to do with changing your behavior to live a happy better life.

 
THIS one really spoke to me (well they all do lol) but this one in particular because I AM SO BAD AT IT!!! it is a media fast for an entire day.. meaning.. NO phone (meaning NO texting or calling), no internet.. which include facebook, pinterest (my newest obsession).. no checking emails.. NOTHING.. and INSTEAD to spend that day being PRESENT with those around you.. really SEEING them. Listening to them. Be IN The MOMENT with them.. (so goes along with our living Canvas workshop too).. 

 

 

 

SO I have decided to do this challenge too! TOMMOROW!!  which for me.. since most of my "work" is on social media.. I am going to take the day off and spend with those around me. HERE.. where I live.. being present with them. Think I might spend the morning at our new house.. helping Ben.. He is in the process of gutting the old farmhouse.. so he can rebuild and add on!( He is an amazing home buider so I can't wait to see what he does with it! I will post pictures next week on the before and during.)

Its gonna feel weird not to have my phone glued to my hands! lol.. but I can DO IT! (i hope!!) lol and speaking of Art and teaching.. Art was over yesterday and we were filming in my garage for week 6 of the living canvas workshop and he created the most beautiful canvas!! A few weeks ago I did an art day with him and his family and it was so fun because none of them had ever done mixed media art before.. and now I think i have them all hooked! It's been so cool to watch even him.. a guy.. really enjoy it and get into the process!

 

Lots of fun things going on here in little old shelley..

SO join me tomorrow. in the media fast! Can you do it??

See you monday! With pictures of our new/old house! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Behind the Art Video: May Mixed Media kit

Happy Memorial day!! What a beautiful day it looks like it might be here in Shelley. Not warm.. but at least sunny :). Gonna go spend some time today to visit my dad's grave.. and put some Mountain Dew on it. (he wasn't the flower type.. but oh man he loved his Mountain Dew!). My kids always leave all sorts of things.. notes, bracelets they've made, treats they bought.. same with the other cousins. When we visit his grave we often times find all sorts of fun nicknack's laid there by one of his 27 grandchildren.. they TRULY loved him! (love you dad!)

So last week I was finally able to get into the studio and play with our May Mixed Media kit from Scarlet Lime. I KNOW so many of you were wondering how in the heck I was going to use those United States die-cuts! lol.. and hopefully I showed you that you don't always have to use a product for how it was intended.. here is what I made..

I used the die-cuts to make leaves for the trees... (just loved the graphic map designs on them.. thought they would make really cool leaves!!)

Used the American Crafts Micro Beads to cover some of the Studio Calico Wood Veneer Hearts.. (stamped some too with my new Classified Newsprint stamp included in the kit)

Also used the She Art Doodle Rubons in the kit to add texture to the leaves and tree trunk!

The flowers are the Die-cut Stickers from Crate Paper

Used the saying "do what matters most" on the back of the packaging from the Doodle Rubons.. (gotta get resourceful sometimes!)

seriously love those doodle rubons..

this is what is included in the kit.. (except the stamp included is the my new NewsPrint Stamp.. not the one featured in the picture)

So.. it was a ton of fuN! I also used a 9"x12" deep edge canvas.. which is a new size for me! And I loved it!

We still have some of these kits available in the store!!  so check em out!

AND if you are interested in subscribing to our mixed media kit and automatically receive it each month at your doorstop.. you can sign up on our "kits" page of our website (www.scarletlime.com)
on the 1st of june :)

Anyhow.. enough talk! Let's watch the Behind the Art Video!! Enjoy and Happy Monday!

 

New SHe Art Unity Stamps!

About a month ago, I started dreaming of some new stamps and emailed Angela at Unity and said.. I know it's not CHA yet but I really want to do another set of stamps! She said.. heck yes and don't worry about timing.. that I can do new designs anytime I want! lol.. I was like.. oh crap.. did she really just tell me that.. because that might not be a good thing! lol

So.. i put my ideas onto paper.. and this is what I came up with!

WoodGrain Script

  

  

 

She Script (so just like she print but a cursive font!)

 

 

Plump Polka Dots

 

 

Cooped Up Notes

 

 

Transposed Dots

 

 

Classified Newsprint

 

here is Cooped UP used on a project..

and she script for texture..

 

 

and a few I created for this new workshop I am currently teaching..

 (living canvas workshop which started MONDAY.. but you can signed up for ANYTIME!! So join us!!)..

which will be available NEXT week!

So SUPER excited!! The texture stamps above are available NOW.. and these last three will be here next week!

can't wait to play some more with them.. might have to do a video!

AND speaking of videos.. May's Mixed Media kit video (avilable in the Scarlet Lime Store).. will be posted on MONDAY.. on my blog here.. kinda late in coming.. but this week has been crazy with the new workshop starting! wow..

thanks for letting me share this fun bit of news!! have a wonderful weekend!!
hugs!
Christy

totally not art..

okay.. so this post has nothing to do about art.. or creating or anything special like that.. lol

but I was going through some old photos this week for a project my daughter needed and I came across some photos of me when I was a kid and just thought that it would be fun to share.. for no absolute reason at all.. but to share.. lol

so this is a picture of my family.. my parents and my 6 brothers and sisters .. right before my parents divorced (I was 7.. don't know the year)..

I am totally loving both my parents VERY large glasses.. I actually think those are back in style! lol. I am pretty sure you can guess which one I am. The only blond one. Hence the nickname from my dad.. Blondie. That house is actually around the corner from where I live currently.. so many good memories in that house.

Love this picture simply because its me, my mom and my sister tia. Love love love it.

 

This is a classic picture! this was when the twins (my two younger sisters) were babies and with my great grandparents, the woods. Look at the cheesy smile. lol I always so enjoyed going to my grandparents houses. My Grandpa had horses and we used to go into the horse barn and steal the sugar cubes and eat them. We'd wouldn't even suck on them.. just down right eat them! lol. SO bad.

This picture brings back SO many memories.. holy cow.. the three of us (my sister Tia, and my cousin Melissa).. getting into to SO much trouble as kids and young adults. I remember the time we all laid out on the trampoline in junior high and used Crisco oil on our bodies so we could be super tan for school that started in a week!  I luckily didn't stay out very long.. that was back when I hated being hot (now I love it).. well my Tia and Melissa stayed out WAY too long and ended up getting 3rd degree burns everywhere from the crisco and the sun!  TOTALLy not fun.. but it was kinda funny. and where the heck are my pants? really?

I'm only showing this picture because seriously? did I not every comb my hair when I was a kid? Oh and there is another funny story behind this picture. We were called the Red hots team.. and at the end of the year to celebrate (i don't think we won very much but still we celebrated).. we had a sleepover at our coaches house (yea that probably doesn't happen much anymore lol).  Anyhow i thought it would be super funny to take the red hots that someone had brought and put them all over my face and be the "red hot" mascott. Yeah well.. that pretty much turned out like my sister tanning with Crisco. It not only burned my face.. it turned it right and was itchy and sore for days! I seriously did some pretty dumb things growing up! lol

Okay.. sorry this picture isn't bigger. Maybe you can click on it to make it larger. But seriously? Yep that's me in the middle. Acid wash shirt and acid wash jeans.. pegged to perfection with the white bootie socks and white canvas shoes. I had a thing for fashion growing up. I watched all those movies like Pretty in Pink, Some kind of Wonderful, Can't buy me love.. you name it and I planned my school shopping according to what outfits I wanted to buy to look just like those movie characters. That white and black sweater is actually mine (that tia is wearing) and that outfit was based off a outfit that the girl in Can't by me love wore. OH and don't forget about that hair!

don't know if that is any better lol

anyhow.. that's pretty much it. If I looked hard in my boxes of pictures I know I have one that you would OH so love. My hair is about 5 " off my head (my bangs are).. and I am wearing pretty much the same shirt and broach (right at my neckline) where the girl from Some Kind of Wonderful wore in that movie. Seriously funny. Maybe I stalked movies.. who knows!

Anyhow.. kinda of a fun little post.. thanks for letting me share! 


 

Back home again and sneak peek #6!!

Back home to little old Idaho from my Europe teaching trip and feels so good to be home! Yesterday was mother's day and I as we were kneeling last night as a family in the living room for family prayer.. i looked around the room and had this overwhelming moment of " i am so blessed".

 

(taken yesterday on our front porch)

The last few years on Mother's day.. has seem to be ones of not so fond memories.. but THIS year, was just truly the best ever. Spent the entire day with just my little family. Breakfast in bed from ethan, noah and Parker, Church, a afternoon nap, a bbq'd dinner made by ben and my son Braden.. then  a pedicure and manicure by Allie and Preston and to top it all off, an evening walk with the entire family down by the boat dock about a 1/2 mile from our new house and  around the property of our soon to be new home! (we close friday!) 

( i was going to post the picture of us in all bare feet.. but had decided this one showed our personalities more.. gotta love noah has on two different shoes lol.. this was at the boat dock)

(we were SO excited it says SOLD on it!! lol..friday is the day! wahoo!)

I admit I am experiencing a bit of jet lag from the 16 hour flight home.. but won't complain a BIT because the trip was magical! I have never been to Europe before and wow.. what a BEAUTIFUL PLACE! Sweden was gorgeous and loved the women I taught there!

I had a wonderful experience with those girls! Wish I had more time to explore the outskirts of Stockholm and drive through the beautiful country side! 
Then it was onto germany to meet up with my husband ben and visit my mother and step-dad who were there on a mission for our church.  I really wasn't expecting all the green lush trees and beautiful rolling hills of Germany.. Dresden was just a magical place that will always have a special part in my heart!  had some cool experience there was well. Fell in love immediately with this gorgeous country!

 I  I will tell you more about Sweden and Germany later this week.. but wow.. FELT SO blessed for the opportunity to go there! Amazing!

I got home late friday night and freaked out about when I realized Your Living Canvas workshop starts in ONE WEEK!!

 Freaked in a GOOD way.. I have been SO excited for this class to start for weeks now and it's ALMOST HERE!!! SO STINKING EXCITED! I know over at the facebook group page.. there is a lot of good things happening. I was without internet for most of my trip (i seriously live on my phone.. and it was crazy hard not to have it to check for emails and texts and facebook! lol..).. but it was good for me to be present and enjoy where I was for sure!  Art was great to hold down the fort at the facebook page while I was in Europe. Of course I don't think anyone complained too much that he was totally in charge either lol. He's alot more fun than I am!

So today is the last sneak peek for the living canvas workshop! AND we also drew another 4 winners for this workshop giveaway!

 REMEMBER!! if you are singed up for this workshop, you are entered to win our weekly giveaways.. a $100 gift card to our store, a $50 gift card to our store and two $25 to the store! Today's winners have been sent and email and I will also be posting them in the facebook group page! (as well as last weeks!!)

SO if you are on the fence for joining the workshop! COME JOIN US! You will be entered to win in our final giveaway next monday.. and its HUGE! ONE person will win $300 gift card to the store and 3 others will win $25.00 gift cards! SO COME JOIN US! once you sign up.. you are entered to win! THIS IS THE LAST week to sign up before it starts! SIGN UP HERE!

So onto the sneak peek.. week 6 of Your living canvas workshop, The 3 p's,  is based on something I learned and decided about 2 years ago.. after my dad passed away.

 For me, one of the things that struck me most when my dad passed away was that now, I felt like he was watching over me all of the time. He could see me and see my actions and it made me want to live a better life. It made me want to live so he would be proud of me. I learned so much from my dad and one of those things was to have passion in everything you do.

 That if you love it, do it and to be proud of it.  So 3 p's is based off that lesson I learned from him.  I have found that in everything i am doing in life I need to ask myself these three questions.. am I passionate about it, does it have purpose and at the end of the day.. am I proud of it. 

 If it doesn't fit into those 3 p's I really need to evenualte my actions, my relationships and my life and see if there is something I need to be doing different so that it does. 

This week is about that and also about taking all that we have learned from Art's previous weeks and putting them into action and moving forward in creating our own living Canvas. One that has purpose, one that has passion and one that at the end of the day, we can be TRULY proud of. Doesn't mean we won't have mistakes and bumps along the way.. or step backs.. but one that we can always say we are trying to work on and do our best.

So here is little sneak peek about week 6! I actually filmed this while I was in Germany.. the day I arrived from sweden.. super fun to be there! Have a wonderful MONDAY! AND please come join us! Last week!!
for more info about siging up.. check out this link HERE!

Your Living Cavnas Workshop!

 Y

 

fun little repost.. art inspiratoin.

So I am still here on the other side of the world.. in Germany visiting my mom.. (and OH I MISS MY KIDS!!!).. and I don't have any new fun art projects to show you.. so thought it would be fun to RE-POST an old project I did last year.. just a fun behind the Art Video.. called Fly birdie Fly.

It's one of my earlier projects I did, all in fast forward.. but still tons of fun!

Super fast and fun for a nice Spring day!

anyhow.. hope if you haven't seen it.. it inspires you to create something today.. and even if you HAVE seen it.. hope it inspires you to create as well!!  It's a good reminder that messups are never really messups!

Hope you are having a fabulous week! Happy wednesday!

Sneak Peek #5 and ANOTHER giveaway!

so last wednesday I told you about the newest giveaways we are doing for the Living Canvas Workshop! $200's worth of gift certificate to the Scarlet Lime Store each week for the next 3 weeks! For all those who are registered for the workshop you are entered to win automatically and if you haven't signed up yet.. as soon as you are.. you are entered to win each week! AND of course. the refer a friend.. for every friend that signs up and lists you as the referral.. you are entered AGAIN. cool huh? So the sooner you get signed up the better!

This week we have four winners from those who have already signed up for the workshop! The winners have been emailed and gift certificates will be emailed later this week when I return home! FUN FUN!

 

SO happy monday by the way! I am on my way from Sweden to Germany right now.. just got done teaching at a WONDERFUL event in Sweden with all those awesome sweet ladies! My dear friend Meredith came with me to Sweden to be my travel buddy.It was truly So fun! Now I am heading to Germany to meet my husband and see my mom and step dad who are currently serving there on a mission for our Church. Last week was a blast by the way.. IT was SOO good to have my best friend Mer with me there. We went a few days early to just get use to the time zone and yea.. that didn't happen. We found ourselves waking up at 2:00 am every morning and not being able to go back to sleep! lol.. so we would stay up and talk and read until the sun started to peek around 4:30 am and then we found a coffee shop and went and read and sketched the streets for stockholm as it was waking up for the day. THAT was probably one of my favorite memories.. (will share more about that later in another post). So fun though!

Okay.. so onto sneak peek of week 5 of the Living Canvas Workshop... BE PRESENT!!

 

This week digs deep and starts to focus on our relationships.. and being totally available and aware of who we are with at the moment.. so for instance.. sitting on the couch snuggling with your kids..

no cell phones, no facebook, no checking pinterest.. or emails, not making a list for the grocery store.. no thinking about what we need to get done tomorrow..

 

but being PRESENT with them. Giving them our full attention. Being Genuine. Giving quality time.. being in the moment with them. EVen if it's for five minutes. Those five minutes of undivided attention will go so much further than 30 minutes of hanging out but not really being "there" if you know what i mean.

 

Being Present is so important and truly does build and strengthen our relationships with those who are important to us.

okay! so enough talk.. here is short sneak peek video of Your Living Canvas Workshop.. WEEK 5! (and get signed up for the workshop to get entered to win the giveaways!!)

Sneak Peek #4 AND GIVEAWAY!!

we are getting close to the Living Canvas Workshop starting.. only 3 weeks away! ANd today is sneak peek #4 for this 6 week workshop! 

BUT before I tell you about it.. I wanted to tell you about something super fun we are doing for the next 3 weeks to really get everyone excited for this workshop! EACH week for the next 3 weeks.. we will be giving away $200 worth of Gift Certificates to the Scarlet Lime Store.

 

$100, $50, and two $25 gift certificates.. The giveaway is open at ALL registered participants in the Living Canvas Workshop! So if you have already signed up.. you are already entered.. if you haven't sign up yet.. JOIN us and you can be entered to win EACH week! AND if you refer a friend to the workshop.. and they mention your name that you refereed them, when they sign up, your name will be entered another time as well! So the more friends you have join, the more chances you have to win!

These giveaways are going to be great! Each monday for the next 3 Mondays, I will pick the winners! $200 worth of gift certificates each week!  Gonna be fun! We also have a special prize in store for the final week.. you'll have to tune into to find out :)

Okay.. so onto the sneak peek!
Week 4 of the Living Canvas Workshop focuses on the 80/20 rule.. Pareto's Law.

 

Which is.. 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Most of us believe (me included).. that we must multitask to get everything done.. when infact if we would just simplify

 

and focus our efforts on one thing at a time, we will actually get more done and be more productive and get more out of life.

 

 

THIS was something for me.. that I REALLY needed to learn. I realized after going through the journaling and exercises that Art had me doing that I didn't need to add MORE to my plate to feel like I was being successful with my dreams or being a better mom, or being a better friend.

I didn't need to DO more, I actually needed to let go of MOST of what was I was doing and focus on the most important tasks and moments that would cultivate those relationships and dreams

 

and then I would see those grow more than I could ever imagine. ANd it's true. When you simplify and focus.. you actually get more from your results.

One of my favorite weeks by far.. Love love love what I learned in this week...

so.. enough talk.. HERE is the sneak peek for this Week 4 of your living canvas workshop! Simply.. or 80/20 rule.  AND DON'T FORGET! As soon as you sign up you are entered to win in our BIG giveaway each monday for gift certificates to the store!! To find out more about the workshop and sign up.. you can read about it here!

 
Your Living Canvas Workshop..

Happy Wednesday! Enjoy the video!