DESIGNS TO COLOR by Betty Schaffner is REleased

NEW YORK, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ THE ORIGINAL ADULT COLORING BOOK SERIES

By Betty Schaffner

DESIGNS TO COLOR - OVER A MILLION SOLD

NEWLY REVISED AND UPDATED

Published by Tallfellow Press, Softcover, $9.95 (printed in the USA)

About the Author:

If only she were alive to see it!! Headlines abound:

The popularity of coloring books for adults has exploded in the last year, with an estimated 12 million books sold in 2015 for people looking for ways to relax after work or satisfy their artistic side. In Washington, D.C., one meet-up group has 190 members, and weekly events often have waiting lists. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

Betty Schaffner was way ahead of her time. Her fascinating coloring book pages from over 50 years ago: @DesignsToColor are now being liked and loved on Facebook, Twitter, and other #adultcoloringbook forums world-wide.

Single Mom, entrepreneurial, open-minded, not afraid to express herself. Betty was a registered nurse, Texas housewife, and mother of 4, who studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the University of Houston.

From her daughter Deborah: "So beautiful that she left such a legacy. We all have felt her presence very much with us, especially through her designs"

In 1959, Betty Schaffner knew she was on to something when she heaped single page drawings of her designs in a box to sell for 25 cents each at her local Community Art Bazaar and sold out in less than an hour. Mother of four - Betty would doodle when on the phone and her children would take the doodles away and color them. Soon neighborhood kids were asking for the doodles. Inspired, Betty colored in kid's white tennis shoes, the front door of the house, the fence, the shed, garbage cans, the fridge, and even a car! She put her designs in a book, loaded up that car, and drove them around to bookstores in eastern Texas. Then, publisher Price Stern Sloan joined the fun with a first printing of 500 copies, which sold out quickly. The six-volume series went on to run from 1965 to 1987, selling over a million copies and making Price Stern Sloan the first to publish what was probably the original coloring book for adults as well as kids.

Betty is no longer with us, having died of cancer in April, 1972, age 46. Betty's children are grown up now, and want to keep alive their Mom's passion for art (and nourish the belief that we are all creative).

Betty Schaffner believed that people of all ages had an innate imagination and artistic talent that conventional coloring books failed to spark and nurture. Her varied line drawings, sometimes abstract and sometimes recognizable - flowers, faces and animals - lead any "color-er" into winding paths and jungles of form and into their own worlds of imagination. And she was right. People from all over the word mailed their completed artwork to Betty. Larry Sloan's daughter, Tallfellow publisher Claudia Sloan, is bringing the designs back into wide circulation. Betty Schaffner's children have gone through the collection, and discovered never-before-seen designs for the compilation. And new to this edition are "Finish Your Own" designs, allowing imaginations to run wild. All the designs are sure to be appreciated by coloring aficionados old and new.

Family available for interview Deborah (Arizona), Barbara, (Portland), Sharon (Denver), and Ron (Houston).

Perfect story for MOTHER'S DAY Sunday May 8 th
(Original archive photos available)
For more information, a review copy, an article, extract, to arrange an interview/blog/Q&A

Media Contact: Coleen Hatrick, TALLFELLOW PRESS, 646-724-1228, coleen@hatrickPR.com

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Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160506/364841

SOURCE TALLFELLOW PRESS

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