Going with the Flow

I'm still riding the corner bookmark wave, but I'm nearing the end. Last project, I swear. Maybe.

I found the perfect book to use for my "Happy Reading" cards, one that practically begged to be repurposed since pages were falling out left and right. It was a paperback about various versions of the Rumpelstiltskin story I had picked up at the thrift store awhile back. Not my favorite fairy tale, so I had no guilt plucking it apart for this project.

Happy Reading Cards with Corner Bookmarks

"You can't direct the wind but you can adjust your sails." ~ Author Unknown

Junk or Treasure?

I wanted to make birthday cards using a story page as background and including a corner bookmark. I thought this would be apropos since I generally give books as presents. I dug through my stash, to find a book junky enough to repurpose and found this...

Famous Fairy Tales (c) 1971

by Western Publishing Company

...an old gem from my childhood, Famous Fairy Tales. It has been duct taped, inside and out, and yet is still missing the first forty-two pages with these classics: Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Jack the Giant Killer. Why keep this thing? Why not give it a new life by recycling it into cards to share with my friends?

 

First Page, 43

So I drug it down to my basement studio and flipped through the chapters...perfect! But I can't seem to make myself tear the pages out! This book has been kicking around since I was a little kid. It's been read and loved in Montana, stored in a box in Alabama, moved back across the country to Oregon, and now is seeing the light of day in Washington.

Where else can you find a book with crusty, forty-five year-old duct tape, hot chocolate stains, and an advertisement for a free can of Folger's Coffee? When I flip through the pages, the book automatically falls open to Tom Thumb on my favorite page, sixty-four. I love that picture of Tom taking a bath in a tea cup. So tiny, so cute!

Guess I'll keep it a while longer.

Tom Thumb

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." ~ Thomas A. Edison

Coach Card

I took some time away from writing to create a thank you card for my kids' basketball coach. The session is over and the Jawbreakers' team of eight have officially retired their green t-shirts. 

Thank you from Team Jawbreakers

I've turned most of my creative energy toward writing (I've started Chapter 18...whoo hoo!), but this small project whetted my appetite to create another collage. I took a peek at Illustration Friday's theme this week. It's "dragon" for anyone who wants to participate.

"Slow progress is better than no progress." ~ Author Unknown

Camping Season with NaNoWriMo!

I'm all signed up for Camp NaNoWrimo starting in April. I'm planning to write 20,000 words for the month, finishing up Will's story, then writing toward my next idea. Come join the fun! 

April 2016

The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you didn't write. ~ Author Unknown

Not So Special Delivery

So, I'm new at this, right? I was so excited to mail my Dealing with Blue (DWB) books to the Goodreads Giveaway winners with my newly hand-crafted bookmarks...until I got to the post office and started talking shipping costs. Ugh!

One paperback book to London costs $28.00! Same scenario, but to Alberta, shipping costs $20.00. Ouch. That puts a hefty dent in the budget.

For London, I logged onto Amazon.co.uk, ordered the book, made up a 555 phone number, and had it shipped at half the price. Now, I sit here with my fingers crossed, hoping for a no-snafu delivery.

For Canada, Amazon had this to say, which didn't inspire much confidence:

Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item. 

 Anyway, back to the post office to mail DWB to Canada, and my apologies to the UK winner. There will be no cutesy bookmark with your giveaway, but the silver lining is you should receive it on Thursday :) Schwing!

Brushing aside the unexpected shipping woes, I hope everyone enjoys DWB! For the stateside winners, your book is in the mail.

Special Delivery!

The Goodreads Giveaway for Dealing with Blue is over and five winners have been selected. Congratulations to the following:

Wendy from Alberta, Canada
Violaine from London, England
Galina from Hattiesburg, MS
Ron from Pearland, TX
Savannah from Madison Heights, VA

I wanted to send a little something extra, so I thought about some monster bookmarks, only I couldn't find any of the creepy eyeball stickers by Sticko. Boo. Hiss. On the flip side, I had to get creative and ultimately came up with a better idea. Still bookmarks, but now they are relevant, can act as a giveaway, and be my business card, too. Yeah!

 DWB Giveaway Bookmarks

Paper, scissors, glue. Sigh. Yeah, I found my zen.

Lights Out, Price Down

Oops! I'm not very good with marketing it seems. I scheduled my one-time allotted Kindle Count Down Sale for Dealing with Blue to start today...and never told anyone about it!

Then the power went out...

In the Dark

...but the count down continues! The Kindle price for Dealing with Blue is $0.99 right now. Price goes up to $1.99 in two days. Get it while it's hot :)

Thank goodness, it was only three hours of candlelight, cold cereal dinners, and rowdy kids. Power's back on, and I'm ready for bed.

Have a good night!

March 2016 Reading Challenge - Green Covered Books

No, I'm not talking about anything eco or sustainable. I'm talking about the color most found in nature, like kelly and pine, forest and sage, and some khaki and neon, too. I recently joined a Goodreads group and one of their challenges was to read books with green covers during the month of March. I love stuff like this, so I was on board.

 

TBR Pile - Green Books

I'm currently reading and loving Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty* (Middle Grade). I also have a bookmark in Rule by Jay Crownover (New Adult - NA).

Being a slow reader, there is no way I'll get through all of these, but I will definitely read FanGirl by Rainbow Rowell* (NA) before I leave the "Green" phase. 

The other books in by To Be Read pile, pictured above, that have a dab of green on the cover are:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Young Adult)

Finding it by Cora Carmack (NA)

Ivy + Bean: No News is Good News by Annie Barrows* (Chapter Book - CB)

DragonBreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs by Ursula Vernon (CB)

Please feel free to share your green book in the comments :)

* A recommended read!

Home Shelf Favorites: Chapter Books

There is still confusion between the Chapter Book genre and the Middle Grade. One year, I won second place for my first chapter book in a series. The second and third year, my second book in the series was dinged for being in the wrong category. The judges felt it should have been entered as middle grade. This year, I entered book three in my series in middle grade to see what happens.

*shrugs*

Here's my take on what a chapter book is:

- It's a transition between easy reader and middle grade.

- It has short chapter lengths, about 500 - 750 words.

- Overall, it's approximately 10,000 - 15,000 words. 

- Usually, pictures and white spaces break up the page of text.

- Content is suitable for six to ten year olds.

- Protagonist is younger than age twelve.

Great resources for a little more clarity:

Chapter Book Chat

Emma Walton Hamilton

KidLit

The Book Pile

Now, onto our favorites! My two voracious readers helped me pick out favorites off our home shelf. Here's the big bad:

All time favorite: Ivy + Bean (Volumes 1 - 10)

Most funny: Junie B. Jones

Most Interesting: Human Body Theater

Most Scary and Different: Goosebumps #13: Scream of the Evil Genie

Favorite Classic Single: Alice in Wonderland

Favorite Classic Series: My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and The Dragons of Blueland

Just Plain Super Cute: Appleblossom the Possum

Worth a Read: Heidi Heckelbeck and Katie Kazoo Switcheroo

I've not read all the above books, but the ones I have and strongly agree with are Ivy + Bean and Human Body Theater.

According to Goodreads I've read 36 chapter books with my kids. The ones I really enjoyed, that are worth a mention are:

The Mouse and Mole series by Wong Herbert Yee

Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo

Roscoe Riley Rules #2: Never Swipe a Bully's Bear by Katherine Applegate

Bookmarks: A Simple Craft

The Event: Second Grade Valentine's Day party.

The Mission: offer a craft that's quick, easy, uses very little glue and no paint. The craft needed to be completed and sent home immediately after the event.

The Idea: bookmarks. Thanks, Pinterest!

To save on time and explanation, I pre-cut and pre-scored the pieces. I bought stickers (eyeballs, glasses, and mustaches), and provided glue sticks and scissors. Boom. Let's do this thing.

Everything you need.

The purple card stock pattern is based on a 3x3" square. The pink paper squares are just slightly smaller. The only thing missing in my picture above is a pair of scissors and a Sharpie pen.

1.) Fold triangles flaps in and crease. 

2.) Open flaps back up and glue one pink square on the purple card stock.

3.) Cut the remaining pink square in half diagonally, forming two triangles.

4.) Use one triangle to cut out some monster teeth, assuming the back of the paper is white.

5.) Fold the purple flap, glue teeth onto the top, then cover flap with glue. Fold second purple flap down, adhering to the top (teeth should be in between the layers).

6.) Glue remaining pink triangle on top of flap.

That's a tongue, by the way.

7.) Add stickers of eyeballs, glasses, and/or mustaches. The stickers I used by Sticko were foam padded stickers. Colorful cushions that won't damage the book's page. After it's all said and done, use a Sharpie pen for eyebrows, nostrils and other details.

For a great tutorial, check out Tally's Treasury blog on how to make the corner bookmark along with creating the pattern.

From the Art Docent: Symmetry

Second Grade Art Wall

Ladybug Image Transfer

Bumble Bee Image Transfer

To help the kids understand symmetry, I opted for an easy image transfer project. I gave each student a piece of white paper, a soup spoon, and an assortment of oil pastels. Here's the lesson:
1.) Fold the piece of paper in half.
2.) On the fold, draw half a bug by pressing firmly with a dark colored pastel.
3.) Fold the bug to the inside, and on the back, burnish the bug lines with the spoon.
4.) Unfold and voila! A mirror image on the opposite side.
5.) Color the same on both sides.

At first I thought the kids would whip through the assignment, and the lesson would be over in fifteen minutes. Most did, but they were excited to make another...and another. They got into the spirit of exploring. They turned out so cool!

Another fun day with the kids :)

Groundhog Giveaway

Spring! Spring!

Super Phil, my little groundhog buddy, is helping me get the word out today. We have five copies of Dealing with Blue up for grabs on Goodreads.com. The giveaway starts today! Head on over to enter your chance for a spankin' new paperback.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Dealing with Blue

by Stacia Leigh

Giveaway ends March 03, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Now Available in Paperback!

Dealing with Blue is now available on Amazon in paperback. It was a long process, and one that I found conflicting. On the one side, it was a drawn out slog. On the other, I kind of enjoyed it. Weird.

I'm one of those people who take the long road. I like to jump right in, then spend 90% of my time fixing all the errors I made, like:

1) Getting the margins right, including enough space for the gutter.
2) No ragged edges. Justify it, please.
3) Then, adjust character spacing to avoid excessive rivers.
3) No last-chapter widow sentences.
4) No dangling m-dashes.
5) Remove TOC in print version, add back for digital one.
6) Go back and add Acknowledgements page after all.
7) Make sure the spine on your cover is the correct width when it's all said and done!

There was a lot of back and forth and precious time spent waiting for Createspace to approve my changes.

And here we are...

Sigh.

Done.

If you've already read it--I hope you enjoyed it! Please remember to leave a review on Amazon. Algorithms, marketing, blah blah blah. Plus, this is all new to me. I'd love to know what you think.

Look What My Eyeballs Found!

I'm considering a book giveaway on Goodreads, and through a search, found an informative blog by author Catherine Ryan Howard.

I love her writing style and gleaned fabulous information on what to consider and what to ignore. Here's what I've learned, just in time, too:

* It's not about how many books you give away. It's about how many eyeballs see your book giveaway.

* Don't restrict the giveaway to U.S. residents only, especially if you're self-published and don't have to worry about territory issues. Again, it's about how many eyeballs see your book.

* If you're worried about shipping costs, order your book from Createspace and send directly to the winners from there, instead of paying to ship to yourself and again to ship to the winner's address.

* If the winner is from another country, say the UK, order and ship your book to them from Amazon.co.uk.

* Don't just have one giveaway, have multiple, and make use of the fact that participants who didn't win, will get an email from Goodreads, saying to try again in the book's new giveaway.

Read Catherine's article Don't Do What You're Told and Goodreads Giveaway: An Update for an in-depth and witty read.

Favorite Picture Books on My Home Shelf

I love reading out loud to my two voracious readers. When we were in the picture book phase, we'd check out tons of books from the library and read through the stack in short order. We'd discuss what we liked about each book and what we didn't. It was a nice way to spend time together, to communicate through stories. Our imaginations would soar.

Last night, I picked through our shelf and made a pile of the books that were my personal favorites. Instead of me reading to them, they read to me. Times change quickly, don't they?

Anyway, I wanted to share my favorites that are currently in house. This short list by no means covers them all. *sigh* That would require a bigger house, a bigger shelf. Here goes:

The Book Pile

Are You a Horse? by Andy Rash
Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox (illustrated by Lydia Monks)
Brontorina by James Howe (illustrated by Randy Cecil)
I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House by Laurie Freidman (illustrated by Teresa Murfin)
The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen
My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis (illustrated by Daniel Kirk)
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis (illustrated by S.D. Schindler)
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker (illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton)
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett (illustrated by Jon Klassen)
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
Journey by Aaron Becker
Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox (illustrated by Lydia Monks)

I have a whole slew of other favorites I keep track of on Goodreads. According to them, I've read 524! That's a fair amount. Out of curiosity, I looked for my last two picture-book favorites from the library...they were so good, they're worth a mention:

Adele and Simon by Barbara McClintock
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems

Okay, that's it for now. I'm done listing.

eBook Available on Amazon

Two years! What a haul. But after writing, attending critique sessions, rewriting, sending it to a developmental editor twice, more revisions, sending it to a copy editor, and...yup, you guessed it, more writing and rewriting...

I can finally say--

Wait! I also muddled through cover design. I took a picture of a pair of jeans, bought new fonts from myfonts.com, and perused buttercup images at Foter.com (thank you Blue Diamond Photography!)

Then--

I fussed with changing the margins, uploading to KDP, creating...you know what? This is boring. Suffice it to say Dealing with Blue is up and digitally available. Check it out on Amazon. It's also available through Kindle Unlimited until April 2016.

Getting it in paper back is another matter altogether, and I'm still working on that one :)

Dealing with Blue

Cover Art

  Dealing with Blue is a Young Adult Romance about a self-contained girl named Suzy Blue, who quietly endures a fragile relationship with her hoarding mother. Suzy wants to be wild and free and agrees to take part in a pretend girlfriend scheme with her charming neighbor, J.J. Radborne. When the lines between fake and real start to blur, Suzy gets nervous. What if J.J. wants more and what happens when he finds out about her mom?

This is a small town love story about a strong girl, a bad boy, forgiveness and trust, and finding love.

Merry Christmas!

"Merry & Bright"

Burst Pattern

I found a "burst" pattern on Pinterest and loved the look. This design made good use of the scrap paper I keep around. Gotta love the stacks of music I have set aside for collaging. I tried to capture some of the Christmas lyrics while cutting out the pieces.

"Merry & Bright"

Circle Pattern

This piece was inspired by a German advent calendar I received as a gift several years ago. Behind the chocolates were red holiday images, which I cut out with a large hole punch. I arranged them on red polka dot paper and...boom! Fin.

These two projects were done at the Western Washington Scrapbook Retreat last November.

From the Art Docent: Complimentary Colors

Second Grade Art Class

Mixing Paint and Complimentary Colors

The assignment was to draw a border (so paint doesn't go right to the edge--saves on clean up) and trace their hands as many times as they'd like. Then, I had the kids mix primary colors, blue and yellow, to make the secondary color, green. The hands were to be decorated with the primary and complimentary color, red. That's it, the rest was left up to creativity.

The kids were so excited about mixing colors that many explored on their own. I encouraged the journey! This is where kids can dabble with the media, see what patterns the brushes make, and if they heard the lecture, maybe a little of it soaked in. The artwork turned out beautifully.

From the Art Docent: Texture

I thought it would be fun for the first-grade kids to create images, painting with glue and paper to create texture in their art. I brought bins of paper in various solid colors, visual texture, and tactile textures like basket weave, glitter-paper, corrugated cardboard, die cuts, and paper doilies.

I started the lecture by asking them if they remembered the first thing they touched in the morning and what it felt like...soft pajamas, warm sheets, rough carpet, fuzzy slippers and so on.

Then, I had them imagine the other things they'd touch getting ready for school from their clothes to their breakfast. I told them to imagine the lights suddenly went out, and it was pitch black! They still had to brush their teeth, but how could they find their toothbrush and toothpaste? I brought a black bag that contained a toothbrush, toothpaste tube, comb, scrubby, exfoliator, file and a calculator. Without taking the items out, they felt around in the bag, trying to guess what was in there. I asked if they could tell what item didn't belong?

It was a lot of fun! This was the first lecture where I felt the kids were really engaged. Success!

The lesson, however, was a bit of a rough one. I showed the kids how to paint the paper onto their cardboard hearts...I chose this shape because I thought the kids might be interested in making unique valentines. I pre-painted the hearts blue, so the background could be the sky, water, the color of a room, but it would be done, and they could focus on glueing the surface with their imagery instead of spending the limited class time covering the background.

The blue background threw them for a loop. Was it the back? Should they glue on the blue paint? Then they didn't know if they should tear the paper? Cut it? What should they glue down? Should they really glue over the top of the paper? I explained all these things, but there was still a block in getting started. They felt unsure of what they were supposed to do.

I quickly realized that even though I had examples for them up on the board: pizza heart, animal faces, city, random, robot, shapes, words, they really needed one theme to get them started. I think they felt overwhelmed.

Most of the kids enjoyed it, but unfortunately, I didn't get to walk around and snap pictures like I wanted. Clean up was a massive effort! I scraped glue from twenty cups back into the jug and then stood in front of the sink washing glue cups and paint brushes. Oy!

I did manage to get a snap shot of two texture hearts:

Top: Shark Reporter by Ruby

Bottom: Our City by Bianca

Supplies: paint brushes, Mod Podge glue, glue cups, paper towels, paper and cardboard, painted cardboard hearts, and yarn for hanging.

From the Art Docent: Line as a Visual Element

Hey kids! Are you excited for today's art class?
(Yeah! Insert excited chattering and clapping.)

We're going to learn about line!
(Insert the chirp-chirping of crickets.)

I could tell the first grade class I taught today didn't think line was all that exciting. At first, I followed my lesson script with enthusiasm and fun facts like:
A line is a path between two points! Wait, it get's better...
A line can express a feeling. I know, fascinating, right? Like a horizontal line can be sleepy, a line full of angles can be angry or energizing, a thick line can feel heavy, a lightly drawn line can seem like it's floating.
A line can connect and create a shape, it can communicate by forming into letters or scrawling like cursive.
A line can--
(chirp-chirp)

--well, it can decorate...

I tossed the notes aside and jumped in with the fun stuff. I passed out watercolor paper, paints, brushes, water, and a black crayon. I had them sign their names first, earning a nod of approval from the teacher, and settled in with drawing lines on the paper with our black crayon.

Put your crayon on the paper and see where your line goes, I encouraged them.  I told them to draw squiggly lines, straight lines, circles, shapes, angles, dotted lines.

Hey kids! Draw whatever you feel!
(Huh? Is that it?)

Hey kids! Let's paint the white space in between!
(Yeah! Color! Insert applause and cheer.)

Some were done the second their paper hit their desks, and some consternated over each detail for the full hour. It takes all kinds of artists, and even though the enthusiasm I was looking for seemed a little mellow in the beginning, most of the kids were exited to show me their work and proud of their "line" journey.

Today's Drying Rack

Bianca's Sea Monster

Ruby's Hannah Playing in Heaven