March 10th, 2010
As you may know, my husband has ESRB and is going to be starting dialysis soon. Although he can no longer work his job as a short order cook, disability doesn’t think he is disabled yet. You gotta laugh. So I’ve been job hunting.
I got hired yesterday to do housekeeping at a nursing home. Part of the hiring process was a tour of the home – they have both full care and also assisted living areas. It’s a beautiful place and I think I will really enjoy working there but what really struck me as we walked through was several beautifully colored coloring pages proudly displayed in residents rooms and the activity room. Made my heart all warm and stuff – even though they were not my coloring pages – it just kinda made me all warm and squiggy to see that other adults loved to color. I never get over it. It gave me an idea for some more coloring pages, too – LOL.
Between doctors appointments and working I may not be able to add pages as often as I would like. The fact is that it doesn’t matter how many pages I add or how often I update, the coloring pages website seems to have reached a plateau of $50 a month more or less in adsense income – and has been there for three years now. That’s nice, but it won’t support us now that hubby cannot work.
I have managed to keep the digital coloring book store open for another month. If it doesn’t pick up enough to at least pay for itself – $10 a month – this month, then it’s gone. So if you were one of the people writing and saying “Oh, you should make coloring books and I would buy one or more” then you better get in there and get one, and share that link and such like and so on.
The next couple of weeks look pretty hectic as far as doctor’s appointments and new job stuff going on so you may not be seeing much in the way of new coloring pages. Rest assured, I will continue to draw when I do have the time.
Blessedbe
Summer Fey Foovay
February 20th, 2010
Search and rescue dog on a snowy mountain
Many people owe their lives to brave search and rescue dogs and their handlers. While doing the research for these drawings I found an amazing variety of breeds being used from German Shepards to Pit Bulls, Aussies, Golden Retrievers, Newfoundlands, and of course Bloodhounds. It was hard to decide but I finally settled for a Shepard type that could be used for many breeds or mixes, and a long haired dog that could be a Golden Retriever or other shaggy sort of breeds. The coloring pages are linked to the thumbnails or use the links below
Search and Rescue Dog
February 17th, 2010
Airport Detection Dog Coloring Page
Airport Detection Dog - Beagle
Detection dogs have become a familiar site at many airports. Some are searching for explosives or drugs, others search for other types of contraband such as certain types of fruits. Many different breeds and some mixed breeds are used from the German Shepard type dog on the left to the smaller Beagles on the right.
Here where I live in New Mexico, the German Shepard detection or sniffing dog is a familiar site at Border Patrol stops where they inspect vehicles for drugs, guns, and other contraband.
Detector Dog inspecting a vehicle coloring page
The thumbnails are linked to the full size coloring pages, or use these links:
Enjoy!
February 16th, 2010
If you were one of those people who went on and on about how great it would be to have a coloring book from the Color-Your-Own.com line drawings or coloring pages you have until March 2nd before the store closes and I toss the whole wasted mess into the recycle bin of my computer to buy the coloring book you claimed you wanted so much. Here’s the link to the coloring book store for while it lasts.
Yes, it’s easy to say – oh I would buy that – and find when the time comes to cough up the small fortune of $6.00 it is just impossible to do. Too bad that I wasted about two weeks, as well as someone elses time and effort, to create these coloring books – and then more time and money to set up the store and pay for it. Luckily, I did NOT spend $600 or more on the AdobeInDesign program to make them. Really really glad I did not do that. That would have paid our rent for a month, or bought groceries for six months or gas for four months and we need our roof, food, and transportation a lot more than a wasted investment right now. 
Live and learn. One more “make money on the Internet” scheme eliminated from the list of possibilities.
Anyway, if you really did want a coloring book, you have two weeks left to get one before they are gone.
Blessedbe
Summer Fey Foovay
February 16th, 2010
Bomb Sniffing Dog Coloring Page
[caption id="attachment_276" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Military Bomb Detection Dog Coloring Page"]
[/caption] Continuing with my theme of service dogs this week, these two new coloring pages are of the courageous bomb detection dogs that work with our military in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Not only do they save soldiers lives by sniffing out bombs and bomb making materials, they also improve morale in the units they work with. You can read an excellent article on them
here. Click on the images for the full sized coloring pages.
I am so glad I did not spend $600 on Adobe InDesign to find out that you folks are not actually going to BUY my coloring books so many correspondents said I should put out. If you did actually want one, you better get it soon as I plan to let the store expire the end of the month. Live and learn. Here it is, enjoy while you can
February 15th, 2010
Human Remains Detection (Cadaver) Dog Coloring Page
Human Remains Detection (Cadaver) Dog Coloring Page
Of all the wonderful and amazing ways dogs assist us poor humans, the Human Remains Detection or Cadaver Dogs have one of the most unusual and fascinating jobs. Unlike Search and Rescue dogs, Cadaver dogs are trained to track and find human remains. Dogs sense of smell is so sensitive they are able to find human remains that are hundreds of years old, buried, or even under water! You can read more and even see videos of some Cadaver dogs at work at these two sites:
Cadaver Dogs
Cadaver Dogs – Videos
You may know or remember that I originally set up Color-Your-Own.com to create line art for the players of Orbis Games, including Sandbox Farm. I am still playing over at SandboxFarm because part of the fun is being able to create new animals and add them to the game. This weekend I added several types of service dogs, such as the cadaver dogs and I will be adding corresponding coloring pages or line art to the collection at Color-Your-Own.com this week, too.
Don’t forget that after being asked by so many people to create coloring books you can download and print out I finally did – they are on sale here Of course, only one has sold since. LOL. I have to pay monthly for the shop itself, never mind the time I wasted, so if sales continue to be this bad I will soon close it and the coloring books will go into my computers recycle bin. So where are all you people who kept saying I ought to make coloring books?
Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day weekend!
February 6th, 2010
Scorpion coloring page
The request for a scorpion coloring page was greeted with rather a lot of snide snickering in this house – both my husband and my roommate are Scorpios. So in the finest tradition of scorpy revenge – I made hubby find the reference photos I used for the scorpion coloring pages. He did pretty good if I must admit. Enjoy!
Scorpion coloring page – side view
Scorpion coloring page – front view
February 4th, 2010
This coloring page of a huge stand of prickly pear cactus growing up a mountainside here in New Mexico was created in response to the request for trees and shrubs. We don’t really have a lot of trees – but these huge prickly pears always amaze me. Hubby took the reference photo for me. It is a very complex line drawing so probably best for older children and adults to color. Here is a link to the prickly pear cactus in rocks coloring page with a thumbnail and a thumbnail of the reference photo linked to the large one on Flickr if you want to use it.
prickly pear cactus on rocks coloring page
February 2nd, 2010
Here is another tree coloring page created from one of my original watercolor paintings. I loved the tiny little tree coming up right at the feet of the big mighty oak, as if the big tree were protecting the little fellow. Here is the link to the tree coloring page, along with a thumbnail and a thumbnail with link to the painting posted on Flickr in case you’d like a reference.
Tree coloring page
It occurred to me that you might be wondering why the last two paintings have “fre-ecards.com” on the bottom. I used to own and run that website featuing my own art on eCards. Sadly when my old webhost went out of business I was not able to get the eCards set back up. I still own the domain and someday when I’ve got a spare $200 or so to pay for the software and installation, I’ll get it going again.
February 2nd, 2010
You guys are always challenging me with your requests! In the last two days I’ve gotten three exciting requests that have made my heart warm, made me think, and challenged my drawing ability. Keep ‘em coming! You can always email requests to me – be sure and put Color Your Own in the subject line so they don’t get shuffled off to junk mail tho.
Linda wrote to tell me her husband loves to color trees and shrubs. I love trees, too – especially ones with very interesting shapes. I told my husband about the request and he responded by taking some photos (which is what he loves to do) and I’ll be sharing those later. The first thing I did was go look back in the archives for some old watercolor paintings I had done of trees. This is the first coloring page – a tree fallen over a stream. One of those hardy willows, when I drew it it still had green leaves on it! Here’s a link to the fallen tree coloring page as well as a thumbnail linked to the painting on Flickr so you have a reference if you’d like one.
Tree Fallen over a stream coloring page
