A great many big internet sites are blackout today. In protest of a law in Congress that could be devastating for free speech and easy information access. It’s called Stop Online Piracy Act.

While stopping piracy in and of itself would be a good thing for creatives such as artists and musicians and writers, the bill as it is currently worded gives far too much power to big business and big government to flip the off switch on sites with content they object to. Anyone can claim a site is infringing copyrighted work and have the site shut down.

The problem with piracy is that it is world-wide and not something a bill in the USA government can control. Many of the worst offenders are over seas, and not under the jurisdiction of our laws. The bill would punish tertiary sites linking to such content by shutting them down as well.

There are (as with all legislation) people on both sides of the fence on having this legislation passed.

The internet being what it is, there are rumors galore on what this bill will and won’t do.

As a creator, it is in my best interest to see piracy defeated. I do not think the scope of this bill will stop people trying to profit off other people’s’ creative efforts by grabbing copyrighted works for their own commercial use. The worst offenders will find other ways around legislation as vague as this bill is. The ones who lose, as usual will be the small business person, the freelance artist, the independent musician and the people with unpopular or fringe viewpoints they wish to express.

Copyright law is broken within cyber-space and legislation to shutter the internet will not fix it. Censorship is wrong, even if the thought behind it is well-meant.

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Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

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Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color.

It’s hard to believe it’s 2012. I had so many plans for 2011 that I haven’t gotten to yet!

I’ve spent the last week attempting to corral and finish up a few projects that were already close to the finish line. One out of three isn’t bad. I find it hard to believe how many times I start on something only to have the shiny thing syndrome capture my attention and pull me in yet another direction. One of my “resolutions” for 2011 was to not begin anything new until I had cleared my closets and drawers of started projects. I made good progress with several of them, but in the process of clearing them out, found other projects I had begun and forgotten all about!

I remember my mother had a knitting project in one of the family room bureaus. It was white and had half the bodice and a sleeve done. In all my childhood, I’d never known my mother to knit. I didn’t even realize she knew how until I came upon this abandoned sweater. I wonder if she still has it, or if she eventually got rid of it after two moves.

My abandoned projects are mostly quilts. There are several clothing patterns that have been laid out on fabric yardage which are in sizes that will no longer fit. Surprisingly, there are only a few art related ones. Or maybe it isn’t so surprising since I spent most of last year focusing on my illustrations.

So it would seem my New Year’s resolution for 2012 is the same as for 2011. Finish what is already started before beginning something new. Yup. I can do that.

What are your resolutions, plans, goals, dreams, hopes, wishful thinkings for 2012?

(I will be traveling for a family event so there will be no coloring page next week. See you in 2 weeks! Be kind o each other!)

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

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Thank you so much for being a loyal blog visitor. There would be no point to doing this without your continued support.

This week’s coloring page is a tiny bit different. Every once in a while, I get a bug to do something ‘more’ with them and they become activity pages. These snowflakes are a matching game as well as a coloring page. I hope you and your little ones enjoy them. Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color.

Here in Missouri, we’ve only had a dusting of snow on Monday, which was all melted before the end of the day. Temperatures have been well above freezing for the majority of the month. For a New England transplant like me, it just isn’t winter without the white stuff covering the ground.

I’m hard at work on a number of book related projects, but I can’t spill the bean just yet. I hope to be able to tell you all about them very soon.

As always, I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Happy New Year, to all. Be safe in your celebrations and I’ll see you in 2012!

Blessings,

Lyon

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Comments Off | Tags: activity page for kids, coloring page, copyright 2011 W. Lyon Martin, snowflake

Celebrate the return of the sun tonight. The season are shifting toward spring again. Time to begin planting new ideas for a fruitful harvest in the summer and fall months to come.

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Enjoy the coloring page! See you next week!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

2 Comments |

It’s been a hectic few weeks for me. I did get my house decorated on the rare sunny day last week. It felt good. The penguins for you to color are heading home with their fresh tree.

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

It seems that all these things I want to be involved in and do all have the same time frame for their deadlines. So, even though I am working non-stop to catch up, I feel as if I am not getting much done.

Maybe my lists are too long and I need to prioritize better.

I did manage to come up with my 30 ideas for Picture Book Idea Month. A huge shout out thank you for Tara Lazar, the organizer and head honcho! Take a visit over to her blog for all things picture book if you haven’t seen it already. Now that I have a pile of picture book ideas, I signed up for 12X12. Another challenge to come up with 12 finished picture book drafts in 2012. That would be one a month. A lot more than my usual one every five years. I feel a need for speed.

Speaking of challenges. Last December I signed up for the Of the Shelf book reading contest. I am 3/4 of the way through my LAST entry to meet that challenge. It’s tough going though. The book is non-fiction and written much like a masters thesis. I can only read a few pages at a sitting before my brain cries uncle and I have to move on to other activities. I will do this though. I’m just THAT close. It’s a matter of personal pride now.

The Picture Book Month initiative went viral just after the half way point in November after an entry on the Oprah blog, Life Lift. Now, the other founders and I have the year long behind the scenes work to make it even better and bigger for nest year.

The winter holidays are fast approaching, and with it many people are examining goals and wishes for 2012. What are yours? I think mine should be NOT to sign up for any more challenges!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Enjoy the coloring page! See you next week!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Comments Off | Tags: coloring page, copyright 2011 W. Lyon Martin, holiday, penguin

I’ve been meaning to get the house decorated for the holidays, but all things being equal, it hasn’t happened yet.

Mostly, the weather hasn’t been very cooperative. It’s been cold, wet and windy for most of the last week. The sun came out today, but as luck would have it, I have a bunch of deadlines that can’t wait and the house decoration can. All I’ve managed to do so far is hang a couple of bows from the porch railings. The rest will have to wait until I have time to dig through the garden tools and get the holiday decorations from the spare room in the basement. Then the evergreen branches will join the bows and a holiday wreath will find it’s way to the front door.

One of my all time favorite holiday shows is the Nutcracker ballet. I used the story as inspiration for this week’s coloring page. Have fun coloring!

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Enjoy the coloring page! See you next week!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Comments Off | Tags: coloring page, copyright 2011 W. Lyon Martin, holiday decorating, Nutcracker ballet

We had a wonderful and relaxing holiday weekend. I hope you did the same.

It started off with an artist date with my husband. We went to see the Da’Vinci Machines exhibit downtown. I’ve always loved the drawing and line art of the master. This exhibit took his many sketches of machines, and created scale models of them. There were 50 models, some you could even try out to see how they functioned. Local peeps, if you can get to downtown St. Louis, the showing has been extended until mid Dec. http://www.davinciexhibitstl.com/

After a yummy lunch, we headed back home. The afternoon activity was the actual sale (finally) of the house which was hoarder haven. 14 months of non-stop cleaning have finally, FINALLY come to an end. We couldn’t be happier to have that chore off our list.

I baked a mountain of cookies, a spice cake and a large batch of my cranberry relish. I hope you had a chance to try the recipe. Did you like it? It’s one of my husband’s favorites.

Today, the last of the turkey is in the crock pot with veggies and rice. A nice thick soup is just what we need for the chilly weather that has settled in. The temp has been dropping steadily all week. It looks as if snow isn’t too far off.

Speaking of snow, this week’s coloring page is a roley poley snowman. He’s managed to get himself into quite a tangle trying to decorate for the December holidays.

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Enjoy the coloring page! See you next week!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

1 Comment | Tags: coloring page, copyright 2011 W. Lyon Martin, holiday coloring page, snowman, winter

Here in the US, Thanksgiving is looming on the horizon. After spending Thursday in a turkey induced comma, many people begin their long holiday weekends with the festooning of seasonal lights all over their homes. Some of them include exterior lights and in my town, there is even a contest to see who has the best lawn display.

When I was growing up, my family’s home was the only one on the block to remain “dark.” When I became an adult, I spent a long time in city apartments with no outside living space. When my daughter was 3, I bought a house with a little postage stamp of a yard. Whoa! I could decorate to my heart’s content.

After careful consideration, I purchased some balsam garlands and giant red ribbons. I draped them along the stair railings leading up to the front door. I bought a small, decorated rosemary tree, the live-in-a-pot with roots kind and a tiny string of purple flashing lights. I was in heaven.

Later, when my daughter got older, I decided this didn’t really involve her enough in the holiday spirit. I continued with the balsam boughs and ribbons, (still do that now) but dispensed with the potted plant. Instead, we made our own decorations. Here are some links to a couple of her favorites.

Watercolor paper chain garlands http://ohhappyday.com/2010/12/watercolor-paper-chain-garland/ Pick your favorite colors or seasonal ones for the holiday you celebrate in your home.

Popcorn and cranberry strings http://artesprit.blogspot.com/2010/12/simple-art-of-making-popcorn-chains.html

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Speaking of cranberries, this is my recipe for a unique and tasty cranberry relish. Much better than the glop from the can.

1 bag of fresh cranberries, water, sugar, 1 large pomegranate, 1 small can of mandarin oranges, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla extract and a package of unflavored gelatin.

Follow the directions for the plain cranberry sauce on the back of the package of cranberries. This uses just the cranberries, water and sugar. While the cranberries are cooking and popping open, slice the pomegranate in quarters and pick out all the seeds. This is a fun (if really messy) task to do with your kids. Make sure you get the BIG pomegranate so the little ones can eat some of the seeds will making a pile of the rest.

Follow the directions for the unflavored gelatin to dissolve in water. By this time the cranberries should have all popped open and removed from the heat to cool. (When they are cooled slightly taste test them to see if they are sweet enough for your family. I like mine tart, but if you want a sweeter relish add a bit of honey.) After they have cooled for 10-15 minutes, add the dissolved gelatin, 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp each of the nutmeg and allspice. Stir well and let cool some more. While the mixture is cooling, rough chop 1/2 cup of walnuts (skip this step if nuts aren’t your thing), open the small can of mandarin oranges and drain of the syrup.

Gently mix in the nuts, oranges and pomegranate seeds into the cooling cranberry mixture. Transfer to a nice covered serving bowl and refrigerate until set. Serve with the rest of your turkey dinner. Yum.

The coloring page for this week was at the request of one of my young fans. When her mom told me what she wanted, I asked why the turkey was dancing, wouldn’t it make more sense if it was running away? She replied the child was too young to connect the image of the bird with the cooked one on the table and didn’t realize the turkeys got eaten.

Enjoy the coloring page! If you are in the US, enjoy the holiday. And most of all enjoy the crafts and time spent with your children.

See you next week!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

3 Comments |

I love watching squirrels play tag in the back yard. They seem to delight in the game in spite of the encroaching winter heralded by blasts of chilly winds.

Usually, when I come out the house, they see me and scamper willy-nilly in all directions to escape my presence.

Usually.

This weekend, I left the house to run to the post office before it closed. On the air conditioning unit, about 5 feet from the door, sat a squirrel completely absorbed by the acorn he was consuming. The door clicked shut, and the squirrel dropped his acorn and leaped from the unit.

I assumed he would run away from me and walked toward the steps on the end of the porch only to come face-to-face with a very startled squirrel. I was pretty startled myself and stepped backwards. The squirrel scrabbled off the trash can onto the chimney, bring him even closer to my face. I’ve never looked a squirrel in the eye before, and am not interested in doing so again.

I think the squirrel had the same kind of thoughts as it scolded me as it climbed up the chimney and onto the roof. He continued scolding as I made my way to the car, and I could hear him still as I drove off.

Today’s coloring page is a pair of squirrels. Silent in their cuddling hibernation, they will be scolding no one for a while.

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Comments Off | Tags: coloring page, copyright 2011 Wendy Martin, hibernation, Illustration Friday, squirrel

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Comments Off | Tags: animal coloring page, copyright 2011 Wendy Martin, free coloring page