I'm back!!!

I am back from a month long trip to Kauai...and WOW, what a vacation !!!! We were celebrating lots of great stuff...our 30th anniversary will be this year, I will be cancer free for three years in April and I had a big birthday on March 4th. :)  Yes, I celebrated a very BIG birthday while there. ;) OK, I will embrace it!! I am 50 and loving it!! Wahoo!!! I am loving life!!!

My sweet husband surprised me on my birthday with a surprise card shower! Bless his heart, he packed 78 cards and over 50 email into his suitcase without me knowing it and the morning of my birthday made me breakfast and called me in and there they all were! I was completely surprised, which is very tough to pull off! I felt so much love and shed lots of tears. I am the most blessed woman on the planet, that's for certain.

I also have other big news to share....drumroll....my daughter is engaged!!! We are thrilled and could not be happier for her and our soon to be son-in-law, Ron. We just love him to pieces! I am super late in sharing this since it actually happened in February. Been soooo busy...sorry.

A engagement photo to come but here is one I had on hand of the cute couple.

More "Katharine the Almost Great" books!

It is always so much fun to have your hard work come to life in book form! It takes so long(sometimes more than a year or two) for a book to finally get published after the art has been turned in. It never really seems real until you hold the book in your hand and are able to smell the new ink on the paper and to hear the tiny crack of the spine when opened for the very first time. :)

Here are the next six books(6-12) in the series of Katherine the Almost Great books written by the talented Lisa Mullarkey and illustrated by moi. :) They are published by ABDO and only offered in library binding at this time but hopefully you can find them in a library nearest you OR if you want, they are also available at your local bookstore or online.

LOVE this designer's card!!

Kary Lim is an amazing designer of cards and all things crafty. :) Here is a card she just shared with me where she used one of my stamps , Happiness is... which is produced by Unity Stamp Co. and it just happens to be ON SALE right now for $12, regularly $16.

Video of my newest stamp release. :)

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Newest stamp release!

Here are my NEWEST rubber stamp kits just released at Unity! 

Just click on the labels below to go to the specific newly released stamp.

PLUS, all of my previous stamps are on SALE now!!

Are you ready for a PARTY and a SNEAK PEEK?!

Unity is having a RELEASE PARTY on Thursday at 7 PM Central over at facebook and at splitcoaststampers.com for the release of some of my brand new stamps along with some new ippity stamps! COME JOIN THE FUN!! :)

Here is a sneak peek!!

I need help deciding which image to use for my spring mailer

OK, all you blog friends...I need help deciding which image to use for my spring mailer.

just painting for fun...

I have been working on some new sketches for possible rubber stamp ideas and came up with this image. I really had fun painting it. Do you think I am longing for Spring? I think so...

Ed Emberley, Children's Book Illustrator—Getting to know Ed

This was pure magic to watch! LOVED it!!!

Another fabulous designer uses my "Your Wings Exist" stamp!

Another fabulous designer uses my "Your Wings Exist" stamp from Unity!



 Beate Johns

First post of 2012

It's been too long since I blogged but I was "making rather merry" this Christmas holiday with family and friends. I didn't have work(by choice) during the holidays for the first time in many years and it was purely delightful! Then, a few days before New Year's, I was offered a couple assignments that were just too good to pass up so this is the first chance I've had to even think of posting.

Last night, I got an excited call from my sweet niece who lives out of town. She is in the first grade and went to her school library yesterday and checked out a book and began reading it. She's a fan of my art and an incredible little artist herself. She said she thought the pictures in the book looked a lot like my art and then she spotted the illustrator's name on the cover and saw my name on the book. She was SO excited that she couldn't remember the name of the book but started to describe the story. It was a Rookie Reader that I had done for Scholastic/Children's Press about 5 years ago called Kate's Surprise. How fun is that?! It definitely made my night. :)

Here's the cover. I used to paint with acrylics. I just may have to play with acrylics again sometime soon.

Merry Christmas!!

I just wanted to wish all my internet friends a very blessed and merry Christmas!!

My stamp art for Unity

Wow! What talent! Here are a few of the cards designed by some of Unity's design team with my  newest release of stamp designs!

My newest stamp releases are available now! Wahoo!

Unity has 5 of my newest stamp releases available to order NOW! Here are the links and new stamp images just in case you still have some Holiday shopping left. :)

Thank you Unity for making this all possible!!!

New stamp release tomorrow at Unity!

Be sure to take a look TOMORROW at my 5 new stamp sets to be sold at Unity.

One more set of Brandy and Emma to continue their sweet adventures together. Plus, some Valentine's Day sets as well as a couple new one's like the sneak peek you see above!

If you still have a few folks on your shopping list for the Holidays, be sure to check out all the stamps at Unity! :)

New stamp release at Unity delayed one week...

Sorry for the inconvenience folks but the new stamp release will be delayed one week. After Unity just had their huge sale we figured you might need to recover a bit before ordering again. ;)

Stay tuned...all NEW stamp designs by yours truly! :) This is just one of the new designs.

45% off on all Unity stamps including Brandy and Emma!

45% off and FREE SHIPPING over $50 only comes around ONCE A YEAR at unity - you have only 2.25 days left! coupon code: UNITY45 - SHOP! SHOP! SHOP! www.unitystampco.com

For the Brandy and Emma stamps be sure to click on the links above or go to the Unity website and click on Phyllis Harris. :)

new stamp release at Unity!

Just found out that my newest stamp release with Unity will be Dec. 1st! Here's a sneak peek at one of the images. :) Stay tuned!!

sketching...

Did you know that November is National Picture Book month?

 Did you know that November is National Picture Book month? Here's a wonderful website: