12/2/15

A Little Santa Humor

Fun Santa Card available for purchase

No Spare Santa Greeting Card.

I created this card several years ago and it continues to be one of my bestsellers. (I even saw a crude imitation of it posted online once.) This fun card is available in several different sizes and quantities. You can also get shirts, coffee mugs, magnets, and more with this image as well. Click here for purchasing info.

11/30/15

Santa's Toybag Hidden Picture Activity

Santa Activity Page
Here's a fun and free little holiday activity for the little ones. Just click on the image to be taken to the download page at SantaTimes.com. There are a lot more fun activities to download there as well.

11/27/15

Holiday Art & Fun

Welcome to the holiday version of the Carefree Artist. Over the next few weeks I will be posting lots of holiday cards and other products created by me. There will some free printable holiday coloring pages as well as a number of holiday items you can purchase online. I sincerely hope you won't tire of all the items I will be sharing. But please try to remember I'm a freelance creative, and selling my art and designs is my bread and butter. In addition, I have a personal charity project I'm trying to fund and expand as well. So thanks for your indulgence and best wishes for a happy holiday season!

11/22/15

Art Mends Update

Just some of the art supplies donated this time.
I just made another donation of art supplies from my personal charity project Art Mends™ to the county hospital for the kids in the regular ward and burn unit. With these supplies the children will be able make holiday cards, decorations, and gifts for family and friends and, more importantly, the children will be experiencing the healing power of artistic creativity.

Purchasing and delivery the supplies is such a joy! And the appreciation shown by the hospital staff for providing materials that the hospital really does not have the budget for is heartwarming. And even though it is a shoestring operation -- I am never quite able to buy as many supplies as I would like -- I plan on continuing to do this at least twice a year for years to come. So, it is my holiday wish this year that somehow, some way, (or by some miracle) I can expand this project and turn it into a full-time passion.

Thanks for all the support for this project from family and friends (and a very special thanks to a wonderful person and friend, Diana S.!)

Visit www.ArtMends.org

11/17/15

The Holidays are Coming...

Desert Celebration Greeting Card
Desert Celebration Greeting Card
The holidays are the most whimsical time of the year for me. So join me here as I spread a little holiday cheer with my whimsical cards, coloring pages, and other stuff for the next several weeks.

More holiday cards here.

11/6/15

Creating Art and The Things I Will Teach You

Children's BookI love creating art. However, being a freelance creative often means fussy editors and art directors, tight deadlines, and limitations on style and media -- and that can really diminish the creative joy. But then there are those rare occasions when I am turned loose and I can't help but thoroughly enjoy what I am working on. Such is my experience with this book, The Things I Will Teach You. Lovingly written by a mother and dedicated to her sons, this joyful children's book celebrates some of the milestones occurring in a lifetime and demonstrates the ways a parent, family member or caregiver can shape a person's life throughout -- with love, commitment and involvement.

You can find the book at PumpkinSproutBooks.com.







10/30/15

Halloween Safety Rules

Here's a Halloween Safety Page to printout and share with your little trick-or-treaters before they head out on Halloween night. Click here or on the image to go to the download page.




10/28/15

Another Original Halloween Knock-Knock Joke from I M Halloween!

Knock! Knock!

Who’s there?
Wanda.
Wanda who?
Wanda go for a ride on my broomstick?

Now Wanda color the joke page? Then just click on the image and you'll be taken to the download page.


10/26/15

Doc Holliday and the O.K. Corral Shootout

On October 26, 1881, John Henry "Doc" Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Virgil and Morgan Earp got into a shootout with a group of local cowboys in what is often considered the most famous gunfight in the history of the Wild American West. The showdown on a dusty side street in Tombstone, Arizona only lasted about 30 seconds but it left three cowboys dead and Virgil and Morgan Earp wounded. Learn more about Doc Holliday by downloading a coloring page at GilaBen.com.



10/25/15

National Chocolate Day!

According to some calendars October 28th is National Chocolate Day. So, in honor of the day, I've dusted off a piece of art I created years ago for the C. R. Gibson Card Company. It was originally part of a series of notepads but now it's been reissued as Post-It® Notes and they are available at Zazzle by clicking here
By the way, if you are a collector of published artwork you can buy the original piece. It comes complete with overlays, production notes, and etc. Click here for more info.  If you are interested in securing the licensing rights contact me here. Look for more original pieces of art for sale here in future posts.


10/23/15

Halloween Pet Safety Rules

While Halloween can be very fun for people it can be a very scary for pets. Help keep your pets safe and happy this Halloween by following the safety tips on this fun coloring page. Just click on the image to go to the download page.
 


10/21/15

Vampire Knock-Knock Joke and Coloring Page

Here's some more fun Halloween humor to print out and color. Just click on the image to go to the download page.

10/17/15

A Little Halloween Humor

What happens when ghosts eat beans? Click on the image below to go to the page where you can download this Halloween Joke Coloring Page for printing and find out.

A little Halloween humor
 


10/10/15

Skull Halloween Window Decoration

Here's a fun Halloween window decoration for you to print out and color. Hang it in your front window to greet all those trick-or-treaters. 

10/7/15

Play the Monster Mix and Match Game

Play the Monster Mix and Match game at IMHalloween.com.
See how many funny monsters you can make! 
 
(Update: This game was created many years ago in Flash, which, unfortunately, is no longer supported by Adobe or any major Internet browser and may not work. Sorry.)

http://www.imhalloween.com/mix_n_match_monster.html

10/6/15

Witch Hunt Halloween Matching Game

Can you find the two matching potion bottles and the one different skull in this picture? Click on the image to go to the download page at IMHalloween.com

10/2/15

Mummy Mummy Knock knock

Knock. Knock. Who's there? The first fun activity for Halloween from IMHalloween.com! Just click on the image to go to the download page.

10/1/15

Fun Days of Halloween

Meet I M Halloween. I M Halloween is a creation of mine and the official host of a Halloween website. Please join me and I M Halloween here as we celebrate the trick-or-treat season with a variety of fun Halloween activities and coloring pages for kids of all ages during the month of October.

(By the way, there's a cool little Flash intro featuring I M Halloween here. However, it doesn't work on mobile devices because Adobe, well, never mind.)




9/25/15

September 26th is Love Note Day

Tomorrow, September 26, is Love Note Day. Not an official holiday -- but you can make it a fun and special day nonetheless.

Sometimes in our fast-paced world we often forget that it really is the little things that matter most in life and love. So take a moment to create a handwritten love note for that special someone.

Below is a pattern for a heart note that folds into an envelope. Print it, write your special message, cut it out, fold it, then slip it into the love of your life's briefcase, lunch bag, backpack, coat pocket or some other special place and surprise them with your romantic thoughts. Just click on the lovebirds, the heart or here to download the PDF for printing.

9/12/15

Martian Fun

Here's a fun Mars Rover Maze
Did you know that small craters on Mars are named after towns and cities on Earth and large Martian craters are named after famous scientists and science fiction authors?

Some of the scientists and authors that have craters named after them are Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giovanni Cassini, Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin, and Carl Sagan.

Looking over the list you may have noticed that all the names mentioned above are male. That's because Mars, named after the Roman god of war, is associated with masculinity. But don't worry girls, you did not get left out -- you have your very own planet, Venus! Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty and all the craters on Venus are named after famous women or have female first names.

To download a PDF of the Mars Maze activity pictured above just click on the image or go to:
www.markix.net/fun/mars_maze.html.


9/4/15

The Friendliest Gila Monster

Gila BenMeet Gila (HE-la) Ben. Gila Ben is the friendliest Gila Monster* in the Grand Canyon State and he has his own website where students and educators can find facts and more about the state of Arizona. Below is a coloring page from his website featuring the Arizona State Bird, the Cactus Wren. Be sure to visit www.GilaBen.com for more fun pages to download.

(* Real Gila Monsters are very shy -- they are also very poisonous! While unprovoked bites are rare, for your safety, DO NOT approach any Gila Monster you might encounter in the wild!)

Gila Ben's Cactus Wren Coloring Page

8/28/15

Friday Fun: "A-mazing" Ants

Here's a fun little activity for the little ones. Just click on the image and you'll be directed to a download page. Happy Friday!

8/21/15

In the Wild Dot-to-Dot

Here's another fun activity that I created as a volunteer for Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Located in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California, beautiful Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are right next to each other.

You can find this activity at the visitor's center. Not visiting there anytime soon? You download the PDF at www.MARKIX.net/fun

8/14/15

Raising the Costa Concordia

Above are illustrations I created for the July/August 2015 issue of ASK Magazine for a feature about how they raised the Costa Concordia. The Costa Concordia was an Italian cruise ship that capsized and sank after striking a submerged rock formation on January 13, 2012. The ocean liner was on a trip around the Mediterranean Sea with 4,252 people on board. Sadly, thirty-two lives were lost in the disaster.

By the way, the little cartoon characters on these pages are not mine. They are characters the publisher uses in each issue and were added after I did the art.

8/9/15

Life as an Artist

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Use the browser "back arrow" to return to main page.)