A black-orange stripey head
Is peeking out at me
From that tiger lily –
What do you think I see?
Each lovely curly petal
Is a tuft of hair
Framing a little face
From which he does stare.
A cheerful tiny tiger
Perched upon a stem –
It’s not just one little fella –
It’s a whole patch of them!
*The Little Fairy is available in my Etsy shop
WE BE ON TV!
This adorable line of rubber stamps is from my line of Skratch Patch Kidz.
They will be on Hochanda tv, Hochanda.com, presented by Sarah Jane Bewick of Stamp Addicts, on Sunday, August, 4, 2019.
If you have been wanting some of my images as a rubber stamp, they are also available at StampAddicts.com, and will be available for purchase on Hochanda.com, as well.
They are also available as digital stamps in my Etsy shop.
Everything in the shop is on sale today until Monday, Buy 1, Get 1 Half off!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SherryWestArt/
These little cuties have been colored by the very talented Marnie Schagunn, a member of my design team.
#design #tv #hochanda #media #publicity #rubberstamps #papercrafting #scrapbook #sherrywestart #etsy #art #illustration #mouse #girl #angel #christmas #merrychristmas #sherrywestart #marniescagunn #marniescraftingcorner #sale #greetingcard #skratchpatchkidz
This lovely card is a representation of what I am grateful for.
It was colored and created by my very talented friend and Design Team member, Marnie Schagunn, using my stamp image.
I have a real live, bonafide “Design Team” of lovely talented coloring and cardmaking ladies who are in the process of making my images look good, my images are being turned into rubber stamps by a small UK stamp company and have been shown on tv not only once, but will be twice in less than two months, my book is being published and coming out in print soon (so excited!), I’ve met so many wonderful people in these new endeavors who have shown me so much patience, support and help, and I have a loving caring supportive husband who puts up with all of my shenanigans and three great hilarious kids, health (more or less, depends on what day of the week it is and if all the stars, moons and planets line up right), and faithful friends who put up with me and hang in there, whether I deserve it or not.
I’m counting my blessings!
I’m not making much money (barely covering the Etsy shop fees, but, hey, that counts!) but I get to be a real live working artist and book author!
And, my art and coloring skills are actually getting better, slowly, but anything is an improvement! How much better does it get?
Win-win!
(Btw, please forgive me me if I sound like I’m bragging. I’m honestly not. I’m just very sincerely appreciative of these wonderful opportunities and all the dear people that are in my life.)
It’s breakfast and the boys are eating at the dining room table.
Something is missing from their meal…protein.
So I ask them if they want an egg.
Gabriel asks,”Flat?”
That’s his way of asking if it’s fried, as opposed to “round”(I.e. boiled).
“No,” I reply. “Round.”
“No.” He says. He only wants a fried egg.
Then I get a great idea I think will ensure he eats an egg.
“Wait.” I tell them and go to the other room to execute it.
With highly expectant looks on their faces, they watch me as I leave the room and go into the kitchen.
I go to the frig, grab two hard-boiled eggs, go to my art supplies, grab a black Sharpie and give those boring old white eggs some personality to make them more appealing and edible.
Then take them back to the boys and plop one friendly egg on each boys plate, where it cheerfully stares up at him in its cutest, most engaging little way.
They laugh delightedly!
Then they start discussing their respective eggs and playing make-believe with them…acting out little chicken scenarios with all the appropriate clucking and bawking to go with it.
They’re having an absolutely lovely time with their new playmates.
But that’s not what I intended.
I did it!
I can color!
I’m NOT naturally gifted in the coloring department. Not. At. All.
If someone is “artistic” in one area, that doesn’t automatically guarantee they will be artistic in another area….like, say…oh…coloring in my own line work.
As a professional illustrator, I HAVE to be able to color in what I draw. Unfortunately, coloring is NOT my gift. I can draw, but I can’t color. That’s NOT good for a professional artist.
I have to ask others who are good colorists for help in that dept., and lucky for me, there are lots of good ones out there in the area I’ve chosen to specialize in – adult coloring and stamping – who love to color, are good at it, and kindly and graciously volunteer to help me.
After I Publically beg for help.
I have met so many nice people through this method, that I actually look forward to having to ask for assistance because I know I’m going to get some new wonderful friends, as well as some great coloring, out of the whole deal.
There’s a good reason why kids and pets beg….
It works!
This cute little gal is available in my Etsy shop
Here’s my brand-spankin’ new logo! The Flying Frog!
I thought about naming him “The Floating Frog,” but “The Flying Frog” just seemed catchier.
He’s one of my favorite characters from my new children’s book “It’s Raining Cats! It’s Raining Dogs! It’s Raining Bats! And Pollywogs!” being released by my publisher Morgan James Publishing…https://www.morgan-james-publishing.com.
It was either the frog or the chicken. Which do you prefer? Leave your choice in the comments below!
Ebook release: July 2, 2019
Softcover & Hardcover: October 8, 2019
On Amazon…
If you would like an autographed copy, you can purchase the book directly from me. Just send me a note on Facebook. I’m working on getting a more direct and seamless ordering route set up.
https://www.facebook.com/sharongwen.west.1
For a children’s book author illustrator’s logo, I think he’s just right!
So, which one? Frog or chicken?
Look out below!
Bored, I was foofing around on the internet and typed in the title of my book just to see what it might pull up, and THIS popped up!
I wasn’t aware that it would be up this early. I was under the impression it would be much closer to the ebook release date of July 2, 2019.
I’m not complaining! 😀
Yesterday,, I plunked the boys in a great big warm bubbly bathtub, where they had a wonderful time,then got out, dried off, dressed and exited.
Someone else was in there, too, standing right next to the tub that still had water in it. I looked at her, then looked at the tub, then back at her and proceeded to the next logical step, which was to out her in it.
She‘s 69 freakin pounds of unwieldy dog!
She didn’t fight me, but she certainly didn’t go in willingly, either. But I was MORE determined to put her IN than SHE was to stay OUT.
And in she went. (When I want something to get done, it gets DONE.)
She’s standing there in all that water hanging her head with her ears folded back like she’s about to be sacrificed to the bathtub water gods.
I felt really sorry for her, but it was really too late to back out now. I either started washing her and completed the job, or let her out sopping wet. Either way, she was wet, so we might as well get something done.
Besides, this way I wouldn’t have to wash her for another month, as opposed to next week.
I’m a pretty good dog (and cat) washer-upper. Been doing it since I was a kid. I was fairly certain I’d had enough experience with both to get the job done quickly and efficiently. How hard was this gonna be?
Polar bears. I have no experience washing polar bears. And I had a polar bear standing patiently in my tub.
I put a squirt of baby wash in my palm, rubbed my hands together and started working it through her fur in one spot. I don’t think bear fur is this dense and thick.
Supposedly, this is a short-haired dog. I don’t know who classified this dog as “short-haired,” but they seriously need to come up with a new classification ‘cuz that one isn’t accurate…not in the slightest.
I don’t know how much soap it took and how many times I had to repeat trying to work it all over her and into her fur to get her clean, but it was A LOT. That dog is HUGE. With a lot of square footage of furry real estate on her.
And, to make it even more challenging, water runs off her like a duck.
Rinse, soap, repeat…a few hundred times.I finally realized my spur of the moment “great idea” was Really stupid, not well-thought out, and yelled for Alex, my almost-18, almost 6-foot, long-limbed, strong-as-a-horse Amazonian Princess.
She came into the bathroom, took one look at what was going on, looked at me with that oh-it’s-another-one-of-moms-great-ideas look on her face then rolled up her sleeves and set to scrubbing.
We soaped, and we scrubbed, and we scrubbed, and we soaped, and we rinsed, and then we did it I-don’t-know-how-many-more times before I was DONE. I tried to stand up, but my back was so stiff and hurt so badly I was pretty well crimped into that position.
In the middle of the whole ordeal, one fed-up, sopping-wet 69-lb dog tried to climb out of the tub and escape.
One 185-lb human managed to somehow put her back into that tub and finish the job (Alex came after).
Someone decided they had had enough water and proceeded to start The Shake. You could just SEE it start at the end of her snout, travel over her head, past her ears, over her neck, down her back, down each leg, and on to the very end of her tail.
When we realized what was going on, we grabbed her before she could initiate the sequence a second time.
Alex and I were SOAKED. The bathroom was soaked. And there was white hair Everywhere.
I ran and grabbed some old towels from the laundry room. We rubbed her down as best we could, then tried to blow-dry her. That didn’t go over well, and we didn’t want to traumatize her, so we quit.
We figured that was as good as it was gonna get, so we opened the door to Freedom.
She’s not a stupid dog. She took it.
One clean, very happy, still-wet dog took off down the hall for parts unknown.
An absolutely amazing photo of a very self-satisfied looking, slyly smiling caiman wearing an unlikely crown of butterflies appeared on my Facebook feed recently (https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/09/a-caiman-covered-in-butterflies-photographed-by-mark-cowan/). It inspired me to draw the goofy guy below.
I have no idea what he’s doing…just something randomly un-alligator-ly.
A friend suggested he’d make a great end-of-relationship card, so that’s what I did with him! (See top illustration.)
He also looked like he was dancing and needed some dance buddies, so I used the copy, paste feature in my art program to give him so partners! (Think Whitney H.’s song with the lyrics “I wanna dance with somebody…” You’re welcome.)
HAPPY ART FOR A HAPPY HEART! 