Winners Announced and a Feature Over on The Macs!

Winners were chosen for the big giveaway of our new Christmas cards over on (In)Courage!   Congrats to all of the lucky winners!

photo by Jess McClenahan

Winners, we would LOVE to know what item from "This Thing Called Family"'s Christmas collection you chose along with your set of cards - so leave us a comment!

Check out Jess McClenahan's blog called "The Macs!"  She wrote a post on preparing her home and her heart for the upcoming celebration of Jesus' birth!  We are so thankful for her kind words about our nativity, garland,  and our cards, plus her photography is beautiful!  Don't you just LOVE how she paired our garland with those white strands and their family photos?!  The chalkboard wall makes the perfect backdrop!  Does it give you any ideas for your own decorating?!

Jess Mclenehan's home 

Jess is offering a code to her readers for 25% off our entire DEMDACO line of "This Thing Called Family" through Dayspring!   Go check out more cool photos of her home on her blog and get the code! 

New Christmas Cards and a HUGE Giveaway!

 Introducing, our new Christmas Card Set with Dayspring!

It's simple and adorable.  Which makes it pretty much irresistible!

Take a look:

available exclusively here and on sale!

It's hard to tell, but there is just a bit of gold foil detail in baby Jesus' crown and in the star and letter patterns.  It looks awesome with the blue night background!

personalization available too!

Speaking of simple, today we're over on Dayspring's blog for women, (In)courage, talking about ways to regain joy and focus during the busy Christmas season by having a "Pared-Down Christmas."  We're also sharing an inside look at the design choices behind our new Christmas nativity.

*Dayspring is generously hosting a giveaway on their (In)courage site! They're giving away FIVE sets of our new Christmas cards to five different winners, along with a Christmas item from "This Thing Called Family" of your choice!

Did you see our post on (In)courage from last week?   We shared why we create art and how we got started with DEMDACO!

Dayspring is still offering 25% off your entire Christmas order using the code INCHRISTMAS25, through 11/15.

Do NOT enter here, go now to this post on (In)courage to enter!

Thanks, Dayspring!

(in)courage

Are you familiar with Dayspring?  They are a leading Christian greeting card company who have a heart for connecting people with the heart of God through messages of hope and encouragement every day, everywhere.  We feel blessed that they love our line, "This Thing Called Family!"

How about (in)courage?  - Dayspring's blog and marketplace for the hearts of women?  It' has also become a meeting and connecting place - with community groups, book clubs and conferences!  It's grown so much!

Today we have the honor of sharing our story over on (in)courage!!!  So exciting!  You will learn about how we got our start with DEMDACO which is a God story you'll want to read!

All this month Dayspring is offering 25% off of our Christmas collection with this code: INCHRISTMAS25

Head on over and check it out!

photo courtesy of Dayspring

Gift, Gourmet & Decor

Giftware News' digital magazine, "Gift, Gourmet & Decor" includes an article this month called "Looking For Some Inspiration," (p. 24).  There's a whole section on DEMDACO - which explains Demdaco's mission to connect with artists who have an "authentic voice or a genuinely soulful approach to art" to develop lines that "resonate with consumers on a very personal level."

Ahhh, can we tell you how it makes our hearts sing that Demdaco's mission for authenticity is the same as ours?!  This company is truly unique - and we are so grateful that it is!  Their approach is to connect with us (and other authentic artists who are working from their hearts) and in turn we are (hopefully) able to put work out there that is not only meaningful to us, but that you all can relate to too.  It's kind of this big circle of love! :-) This is the secret behind Demdaco's success and the reason they're #1 in the gift industry!

This article recognizes our line "This Thing Called Family" as one that's resonating with consumers, which is awesome and affirming news!  You all know that our line centers around the theme of family values and our quirky everyday, not-so-perfect family lives.  So maybe our own families are more "normal" than we think they are if ya'll are enjoying TTCF too!  :-)

Anyway, we're thrilled to be mentioned!  You can view the digital magazine here, by flipping to page 24. 

  *The wall art pictured above, "I am...", is a popular piece of wall art that released this year from TTCF.  When I created this piece I was thinking about how often and easily I can forget all of the positive things that make me unique.  And I know that there are bunches of other girls out there - both young and old - who need these reminders too. I can imagine this piece hanging in our bathrooms, right next to our mirrors so that when we're tempted to be critical, we can instead be reassured and lifted up.  :-)

You can find it for sale right here!

Cloth Paper Scissors STUDIOS Summer Issue!!

We have some exciting news!

WE are in the newest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors STUDIOS magazine! 

It's the summer edition and it just came out. We received our copies yesterday, so it should be on the newstands soon if it isn't already!  Three copies all arrived at my (Jill's) house but I was under strict orders to not open the package until we could all look at it together....talk about torture!

Here's what the cover looks like:

We are in the special Mother-Daughter section :-)  Our names are over there on the left, along with some other fabulous mothers and daughters.  Mamma Winger's flower made it on the title page of that section!

We have 4 pages (p 58-61) inside this section where we tell more of the Things With Wings story of why we do what we do and the inside scoop on + pictures of each of our three studios! You'll have to run out and buy a copy to see for yourselves!

Here you can see the table of contents and all the good stuff this issue has:StudiosSumm2011TOC



We owe Samantha Bender of SB Photography a big THANK-YOU for taking pictures of each of our studios!

You can purchase the summer edition here!  You can usually find it at bookstores and arts and crafts stores too! 

*Stay tuned Monday because we will start ANOTHER exciting giveaway of "This Thing Called Family" product!!!  

Saved By Love Creations

Head on over to Saved By Love Creations to see an interview that we did!

*Note: the first item pictured - the Count Your Blessings Lazy Susan - was actually designed by Connie, not me.  It is a part of our "This Thing Called Family" collection, so you might be able to find it in your area!

Happy Spring Break!

One Word Sums It Up: "Wow"

 From Saturday's Press Citizen...

(click on the image TWICE for larger text that's easier to read! )

Today's Des Moines Register

Our article made it to today's Des Moines Register!  Front page of the Iowa Life section!  Go here to see the online version!

Today's Gazette

 Today's Gazette featured a very nice full page, color article about Things With Wings!  We had a great time visiting with Molly Rossiter from the Gazette and were thrilled that she wanted to learn more about our new home decor line with Demdaco called "This Thing Called Family."  To see pictures of our entire line, click here.  

You can actually read the article by clicking on the pictures below several times to enlarge!

Can't read the teeny tiny words?  Click on the pictures several times to make them bigger.

Crescendoh

Thrilled to be sharing our story on Crescendoh, called "Faith Shining Through Art!"  Go check it out here!

Paint Me Plaid

A while back,  Mod Podge Amy,  (Love!) who also writes for the Paint Me Plaid blog (ditto!) did a feature about our post on recycling thrift store frames to showcase your artwork.  We love to use Mod-Podge and FolkArt paint in our work, so it was an honor to be featured! Go check out the Paint Me Plaid article here!  If you've never been to these two blogs, they're so much fun so go check 'em out and tell Amy we say hi!

Interview

Go check out this interview that our Green Girl did over on My Owl Barn. This blog is full of everything that Things With Wings loves! It's totally owlsome!  Have you ever been to it?  If you never have you should.  These things are fun and fun is good.  :-)

What's With All the Hoopla?

Another fun article to check out in Hoopla this week about Connie and Laura! You can read the shortened website version here or the full size version here, by turning to page 17. Or if you're local you can go pick up a copy here.

BIG, DREAM-COME-TRUE NEWS Revealed!

Remember we told you all to stay tuned for our Big News? Well it has been 'officially' announced in a very special way! Hoopla Magazine has a feature called "Made In Iowa" and Paper Prayers is the featured art this week! Green Girl and Mama Winger will be featured in weeks to come! (As if that's not exciting enough, there's even BIGGER news than that!***)

Hoopla is a free, weekly entertainment magazine that features all kinds of cool things going on in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor. You can view the shortened online version of the article here, or the full version (with more pictures) that's in the actual printed version here ('flip' to page 14.) I love how they cropped my pieces and shadowed them so that they really stand out on the page! Locals, if you want your own copy, you can go to any of these places to get it.

***If you read the article you will find out what our BIG NEWS is!

....Or we could just tell you.

OK. We can't really keep it inside much longer anyways!

Everything Etsy

The heart flower below from the Paper Prayer's Etsy shop is being featured in the "Sweet Gallery" at Everything Etsy! Go check it out! Thanks Kim!

Things We Make

I discovered Amy's blog, Things We Make through Amy at Mod-Podge Rocks. I think maybe Mod-Podge Amy facebooked about an inspiration image feature she did for Things We Make, so I had to go check it out, and man am I ever glad I did because Things We Make Amy is in Des Moines! It really is a small world after all - that's just a hop, skip and a jump from where we live in Iowa City - and we do a couple of shows every year there. (Valley Junction's Spring Art Market and the Beaverdale Holiday Boutique next month - which is not far off!)

Things we Make Amy was kind enough to feature us today, and we are honored! She is an editor and writer of decorating, entertaining, and crafting stories (currently on staff with ReadyMade), and her blog is full of inspiration. Be sure to visit and tell her Hi!

Funky Finds

We were featured last week over at Funky Finds! We love their motto: "They once were funky lost, but now they are funky found! Featuring funky finds from indie artists, crafters, and designers worldwide." Check it out!

Mod-Podge ROCKS!

Our blogger friend Amy has a very cool website called Mod-Podge Rocks and today we are being featured! She showcases all kinds of cool projects and uses for our favorite product: Mod-Podge! Go over and visit and say hi! *While you're there, be sure to enter the giveaway she's having for a mod-podge starter pack!

Feature!

Wow! We are being featured on Just a Girl today! Welcome to all the new visitors stopping by today! Lots of refreshing, fun things to look at on the Just a Girl blog, so go visit and say hi! Thanks Chris!

Muse Behind the Mask

Remember awhile back, when all you nice folks voted for us the be the next Muse Behind the Mask over on our friend Stephanie's blog? Well, we won thanks to all of you! She was nice enough to feature all four of us gals! We had lots of fun answering her great questions. Go check it out!

And don't forget to enter the great GIVEAWAY below that Laura is hosting!!!!