The season is rife with tasks and obligations. Shopping, cleaning, cooking, and parties...you need some downtime. So, cue up your favorite holiday album and stoke up a blazing fire. Grab your preferred beverage and a bowl of freshly popped corn, and immerse yourself in murderous fun from a dozen goddesses of mystery, mayhem, and murder. Deck the halls with mystery, hear sleigh-bells in the bloody snow, wish for a merry murder, and make this holiday season your very own with this fun collection of cozy mystery novellas featuring Ava Mallory, Carolyn Ridder Aspenson, Jenna St. James, K.M. Waller, Laina Turner, Rachael Stapleton, Sam Cheever, Stephanie Damore, Susan Boles, Tara Meyers, Tricia L. Sanders, and Wendy Meadows. Get your copy now!

    Sachiko Umoto’s engaging, relaxing techniques include a primer on drawing basics, plus detailed steps for creating animals from start to finish, including deer, sheep, horses, giraffes, dolphins, and more. Learn about essential materials, then discover the best methods for starting and adding onto a drawing, and incorporating shading and color. Sachiko’s instructions are so easy to follow, you’ll be creating a whole menagerie in your sketchbook in no time. Create a marching dog, a sleepy bear, and a bouncy bunny. Trace or copy the designs, then enhance them with unique doodles and details to make them your own. Add color for even more punch. Sachiko’s illustrations will inspire you to incorporate drawings into art journal pages, book art, planners, scrapbooks, and cards. Connect with the world and share your creations with friends and family. Using these techniques, you’ll discover how to:Draw cute character faces that come aliveEasily incorporate details such as fur, patterns, wings, and hornsGet ideas for taking your illustrations further with cute poses and facial expressionsBe inspired by ideas for drawing animals in their surroundingsAdd fun scene-setting extras, such as footprints, food, plants, and moreTake this book with you wherever you, and have fun practicing drawing the cutest animals around. Grab a pencil and get started! Discover how the Illustration School series of books makes drawing enjoyable and stress-free. Using Sachiko Umoto’s fun, easy techniques for sketching quirky animals, plants, landscapes, and people in the Japanese character style, you’ll fill pages with charming illustrations that are uniquely you.

    Artist's Journal Workshop provides all the guidance, structure and inspiration you need to create a meaningful art-journaling practice. Starting with the question, What do you want from your journal? you'll build a sound journaling concept that will serve your unique creative needs and give you the freedom to practice, play and develop as an artist. Featuring rich visual examples on every page, you'll receive continual guidance and inspiration from:- 27 international artists who share pages and advice from their own art journals - More than 25 hands-on exercises to help you personalize your journal while developing new ideas and techniques - Journal pages featuring travel sketching, nature studies and celebrations of daily life - Prompts for visually commemorating life events and milestones - Support for working through creative doubts and blocks - A range of artistic styles and perspectives to study and admire - Instruction for trying your hand at new methods and materialsThis is the perfect opportunity for you to begin realizing your artistic potential--one page at a time. Begin the journey today!

    For aspiring artists who want to draw and paint but just can't seem to find time in the day, Gregory offers 5– to 10–minute exercises for every skill level that fit into any schedule—whether on a plane, in a meeting, or at the breakfast table—along with practical instruction on techniques and materials, plus strategies for making work that's exciting, unintimidating, and fulfilling. Filled with Gregory's encouraging words and motivating illustrations, Art Before Breakfast teaches readers how to develop a creative habit and lead a richer life through making art.

    In this book, artist and workshop teacher Patti Mollica walks you through surprisingly simple and efficient strategies for achieving that kind of powerful composition, whatever your subject. Complete with timed exercises and start-to-finish painting demonstrations, this book is for any artist who feels overwhelmed by where to start or daunted by the urge to paint everything in sight. Patti Mollica's mindful approach will lead you to better, bolder results, as well as greater confidence and joy in the process. So load your palette with ample paint, grab some fat brushes and get ready to paint fast, paint loose, paint bold. Start with a strong, simple value statement Get expressive with color Be brave with your brushwork 5 technique exercises 5 start-to-finish painting demonstrations Paint fearlessly!

    Almost anything you do on paper or canvas, you can do on a rock. Rock Art Handbook will show you how, with more than 30 step-by-step tutorials featuring dot painting, marbling, embellishments, and much more. It's the perfect opportunity to use your favorite craft supplies, from nail polish to puff paint to gelly roll pens, or to try something new. There are plenty of kid-friendly options--like chalk, washi tape, and glitter glue--too. And what do you do with the rocks when they're finished? Author Samantha Sarles, who blogs at ColorMadeHappy.com, has plenty of ideas!

    From the Chinese New Year to April Fools' Day, Father's Day to Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s Eve - this book covers over 100 fun days, holidays, seasons and events, and offers simple lessons that will teach you how to draw like a pro and get you in the spirit of whichever season it may be! The third book in the How To Draw Cool Stuff series, this exciting new title will teach you how to create simple illustrations using basic shapes and a drawing technique that simplifies the process of drawing, all while helping you construct height, width and depth in your work. It will guide you through the creative thought process and provide plenty of ideas to get you started. The lessons in this book will also teach you how to think like an artist and remind you that you are only limited by your imagination!

    There's a Russian Shawl Quilt, inspired by traditional motifs of Russian folk art, a Floral Frocks Quilt inspired by summer dresses, flower gardens and herbaceous borders and a Suits and Ties Quilt reusing sober woollen suiting contrasting with extravagant silk ties designed in an Irish Chain.Finally, a practical section covers all the knowledge you’ll need – from chainpiecing, hand-quilting and sandwiching to binding, storage and caring for your quilt. Armed with the design tools, you can embark on your quilting journey and begin creating your own personal masterpiece.

    Packed with delicious recipes from the original book like Smoked Salmon Canapes, Hot Cheese Squares, and Brandy Alexanders, the book also includes popular picks from the current pages of Southern Living as well as Elizabeth’s treasured recipe box. The Southern Living Party Cookbook is an entertaining handbook loaded with lifestyle tips and hilarious Heiskell stories, along with lush photography to help you get the look from table setting to plated dish.

    This beautifully illustrated and inspiring guided watercolor-a-day book is perfect for beginning watercolor artists, artists who want to improve their watercolor skills, and visual creatives. From strokes to shapes, this book covers the basics and helps painters gain confidence in themselves along with inspiration to develop their own style over the course of 30 days. Featuring colorful contemporary art from Mon Voir design agency founder and Instagram trendsetter Jenna Rainey, this book's fresh perspective paints watercolor in a whole new light.

    Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year's worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way to learn and gain expertise in drawing through experimentation and play. There is no right or wrong result, yet, the readers gain new skills and confidence, allowing them to take their work to a new level.

    Now everyone can share the same access to the newest YA voices the publishing industry is broadcasting for the fall/winter season. At the end of most excerpts, you will find a link to the full galley on NetGalley!Excerpts include new work from established giants of the field (Ellen Hopkins; Garth Nix; Scott Westerfeld), authors best-known for their adult books (Carl Hiaasen; Michael Perry; Ben Tripp; Meg Wolitzer), and genuine newsmakers—including the first of James Frey’s attention-getting Endgame trilogy, which will include interactive elements developed in association with Google’s Niantic Labs.You will find a full range of YA titles previewed here —dystopian, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, humor, literary and more — and you will even find some works for tweens and middle-grade readers (Vivian Apple and the End of the World, Zoo at the Edge of the World, and The Rogue Knight. As always, many are sure to make bestseller and “best of” lists.We’re especially proud to announce that two of our titles will be featured at this year’s Book Expo America convention on their own YA Editors Buzz panels: Frank Portman’s King Dork Approximately, and Robin Talley’s debut Lies We Tell Ourselves. In addition, a grand total of 15 out of our 21 Buzz Books: Young Adult authors will be in attendance at BEA.In addition to the excerpts, there’s a great round-up from Publishers Lunch of dozens of noteworthy fall/winter YA books to add to your must-have list.Start reading some of the best future books right now, and then share the fun by telling your friends and family to download this free edition of Buzz Books for themselves at any major ebookstore or at buzz.publishersmarketplace.com.

    Marie Boudon's beautifully presented creative course will give you a good grounding in this new-to-you medium and teach you all you need to know to get started with painting flowers in watercolor. Find out about paper, brushes and paints, color mixing, wet and dry techniques, blending and gradients, contrast and even how to digitize your work. Then learn to paint roses, peonies, carnations, dahlias, anemones, poppies, leaves, details and textures and how to bring all of these together into beautiful compositions which make lovely art pieces, journal pages, handmade stationery and greetings cards, inspirational quote frames, personalized gifts and more.

    This stunning new coloring book by Johanna Basford takes readers on an inky quest through an Enchanted forest to discover what lies in the castle at its heart.There are drawings to color and embellish and hidden animals and magical objects to be found along the way.Happy coloring!

    From facial expressions to creative coloring, this book contains all the know-how you need to create anthropomorphic cat, dog, horse, rodent and bird characters.Step by step, you'll learn how to:- Draw species-appropriate tails, eyes, wings and other fun details - Give your characters clothes, poses and personalities - Create the perfect backgrounds for your furry antics--with two start-to-finish demonstrations showing howPacked with tons of inspiration--from teeny-bopper bunnies and yorky glamour queens to Ninja squirrels and lion kings--Draw Furries will help you create a world of crazy, cool characters just waiting to burst out of your imagination.