Power Down

Usually my husband suggests inappropriate things for me to draw 😂,  , but last night over dinner he suggested these two words, which surprised me in the best of ways. 

Today is rough and prickly for a lot of people. 

Don't forget you can always power down if it gets to be too much. Turn off the news. Move away from the TV. Close Facebook and Twitter.

Light a candle. Brew some of your favorite coffee or tea. Put on your comfiest sweater. 

And take a coloring break. 

You can grab the free printable here.

Love and light to you,

Free Holiday Printables

Hello friends and Happy Monday!

I've been busy making you things, and I have two free holiday printables for you!

First up is a coloring page:

The idea behind this page came from my son Ben, which makes me love it even more. Who wouldn't wish for presents and candy falling from the sky? No one I know, that's for sure! 

Click here to download the coloring page!

And if this isn't even coloring fun for you, You can also grab my printable holiday coloring book with six fun pages here! These pages are perfect for holiday parties and family gatherings.

And for that second printable, I got so obsessed with the different motifs in the coloring page that I turned them into a set of holiday gift tags!

There are eight different cheerful tags, ready to be attached to gift bags, boxes, or any package you desire! They would also be fun embellishments for your holiday scrapbooking. 

Click here to download the tags!

And because I couldn't stop there, I also turned it into a pattern!

I pretty much want to wrap all of our Christmas gifts in these happy houses. Or move into one of them. I mean a candy cane roof? Come on. 

I added it to my Zazzle shop as wrapping paper and ordered a roll...SUPER excited to see how it turned out! You can see it here. 

If you share the printables on social media, I'd love to see how you use them! Tag me @mandyfordart! 

Happy printing & even happier holidays!

XO,

{new coloring book!}

This is how I like to start a Sunday morning...

Coffee & coloring perfection.

I'm excited to share that my new printable holiday coloring book is now available in my Etsy shop!

There are four new pages and two of last year's favorites. 



These pages are perfect for any age and a great addition to holiday parties and family gatherings. Or you can keep it all to yourself...I won't tell. 😉

Click here to shop!

And if you're looking for markers to use, check out this blog post where I share my favorites! 

XO,

{new coloring page}

Hey there! Happy Tuesday!

A quick email today to show you a new coloring page that will be going out to my email subscribers...

Are you on the list? Sign up here and you'll get it in your inbox!

XO,

{magazine feature}

Happy weekend friends! 

I feel like I have SO much catching up to do with you here on the blog.

I hope you are settling into your weekend as well as we are here at our house. I have already had chips & guac and taken a nap on the couch...so you could say I'm definitely in weekend mode. 

I wanted to share with you a fun magazine feature I got to do recently in the alumni magazine of my alma mater, IU East! 



I graduated in 2001 and the crazy thing is I did probably less than a handful of drawings during my college years, and about the same amount in the 12 years since, until three years ago when I began drawing daily. I would have never dreamed of this artist journey during my college days.

I'm so pleased with how the entire article turned out, from the photos to the writing to the coloring pages they commissioned me to create. They wanted me to make one page that was an IU East theme, so included the mascot, logo, and one of the buildings. They gave me free reign on the other page so of course I included an encouraging handlettered quote. And they perforated the coloring pages - so perfect. 

Here are a couple screenshots of the article, and you can view the online version here.

A wonderful bonus from this was a great set of photos from the local photographer, Greg Pyle. I've already added a few to my website! Here are a couple favorites...

  

This is one of the super fun parts of where my art has taken me so far and I'm so thankful for the local support. Richmond is a great little town. 

Happy weekend and I'll be sharing a #100daysofyourtruth update soon!

XO,

{new printable coloring book}

Happy Tuesday! How is your week going? 

I have some fun This Girl's Doodles news to share today...



I've added a five-page printable Valentine coloring book to my Etsy shop! I'm really proud of these pages. They are all so fun and happy, and I hope you love them too!

You can grab a copy here! 

And be sure to tag your pages with #coloringwithTGD so I can see your beautiful creations!

XO,

{Valentine's Day coloring book!}

Happy Monday friends!

Whew...did you make it into work OK this morning? We're finally experiencing winter weather hear in Indiana...about 10-ish degrees this morning and my boys had a 2-hour delay so I'm just now getting settled in at work.

I wanted to share a few new coloring pages I'm working on for a Valentine's Day mini coloring book. I think it will be similar to my Christmas coloring book...5 or so pages and it will be a printable for sale in my Etsy shop. 

Here are the first two pages I've completed...

All of those hearts were fun but left my hand a bit crampy!

This one was fun to sketch...

And here it is inked in...the heart keys are my favorite...

Excited to see what else makes it's way onto the page. Any suggestions or requests?

XO,