animals!

I have been craving to do more animal books but I seem to continue to get projects with children in them, instead. That is probably because I have so many kids in my portfolio. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE drawing kids but I also really enjoy drawing animals so I have been adding a few critters to my portfolio, recently.

Sept./Oct. Jack and Jill Magazine

I have a piece of art in the September/October 2011 Jack and Jill Magazine. They do a fun contest where kids can submit their stories and the winner gets to have it illustrated and put in the magazine. What a great way to get kids interested in writing.

So sad...

I have been sharing lots of posts here recently about my new stamp designs I recently created for The Angel Company. I was shocked and so very sad to find out the following news today...

Here's a message from The Angel Company


It is with great sadness that I must announce we are hanging up our wings.  These past several years our industry has faced enormous challenges and as a result, we have seen many companies close their doors.  We continued to hope we could see The Angel Company through this recession and back into prosperous days and we held onto this hope as long as we could.

One of the largest challenges affecting each of us is our industry not being able to support all of the direct sales companies in our field.  Even in a healthy economy, we are a niche market trying to compete for a very limited number of distributors.  As a small company, this has been a grueling challenge for us.  Times are tough for everyone ~ in direct sales and retail environments.

I would like to thank each of you for being an customer and Angel these past 14 years.  Indeed, it has been a pleasure to serve you.

The Angel Company

a short break

I have had a short break before starting on my next project and it has gone by so quickly. I used my time to work on a couple personal projects. I prepared a book dummy for an up coming conference where I will have a one-on-one with an editor and worked on this piece as well for a workshop during that same conference.

I tried a new perspective and a little different palette than I typically use. It was tough...I redid this piece 4 times. It was a challenge but I learned from it so it was worth the effort.

What a gift...

Over the weekend I received the most wonderful hand made card and letter from a consultant and card designer for the Angel Company, Kerry Urbatch. The card is absolutely gorgeous and I am so touched that she would give me such a precious gift! Thank you again, Kerry!

She shared a very touching story about how my Brandy and Emma rubber stamp designs brought back a sweet but sad memory from her past childhood. I will share(with her permission) just a short part of this sweet story...

"Brandy & Emma brought me back to a day that was very difficult, a day a young child shouldn't have the opportunity of having. It was the day I said goodbye to my best pal in the world. To give her to another family and move on with my own. I remember the long drive down the gravel road to her new farm in the country. I remember holding her neck and crying the whole way. I begged my dad to keep her but it wasn't allowed. The military was moving our family and she had to be left behind. He searched for her perfect home but to me it was not.

Before leaving that day, she looked at me--the same look and unspoken words displayed in my card. She let me know "It's ok. I'll be fine!"...

Kerry shared that the art gave her "a comfort and a long time forgotten reassurance that things would be ok."

This story touched my heart in a big way because we adopted our sweet Brandy, who was the inspiration for this stamp design, from a military family and she ended up being the best dog in the world for almost 15 years.

As an artist...to bring forth such wonderful feelings and emotions with my art is the absolute best thing in the world. That's the reason I create art. I am humbled and I am so very blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love for a living. Thank you, God!

The advance copy of my book came!

Even though it's not due out until Oct. 1st, I just received an advance copy of my book, My Big Book of Prayers and I could not be happier with the results!

It's is a heavy board book with a padded cover. The designer, Katie Jennings, did a fabulous job and the printing is spot on for the color! Really perfect!! I  love my scanner! It scans my art beautifully and enables me to produce high quality scans that I can then work on digitally and feel really confident of the quality that will reproduce once printed. One of the better investments I've made.

NOTE: I was so excited about the book that I made a huge oversight...I know I called this my book...shame on me...the writer of this book is the wonderful Michelle Medlock Adams. 
I am the illustrator of this book, not the writer....still working on that! ;)

working on a new book dummy...

For the first time in a year and a half, I'm finally getting a moment to work on some personal projects. I'd like to introduce, Lola...she has been sitting in my flat files for years just waiting to come out and play!