Free download Walk for Peace zine

You can download two pdfs and make your own Walk for Peace zine. There are instructions to make the zine linked to the page with the pdfs.

Between November 2025 and February 12, 2026, a group of 19 monks walked from their monastery in Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D. C. They were led by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara and their rescue dog, Aloka the Peace Dog. I watched a lot of their progress on social media. It was moving to see people standing on the side of the road, offering fruit and flowers. Some were crying, some bowed to show respect. The monk's selfless gesture was so heartwarming. This is a collaboration I did with Marti Haykin. She did the beautiful monk drawings, I added the backgrounds. I wish you all peace and awareness. It is so amazing that we are here at all, living in the world, which is sometimes horrible, but also sometimes beautiful.

Tibetan Cham Dance Mask - a DIY free download

My first sketch of a Cham dancer.  The background is a piece of discarded architect's tracing that has layers of different colors of acrylics, with a thin top layer of white applied with a rib.

Happy New Year! This mask is inspired by Tibetan Cham dance costumes. Skeletons represent the disintegration of the body and states of mind. The stylized dance shows the liberation that follows acceptance of the impermanence of life. The dancers usually have crowns with 5 human skulls on their heads and fan shaped ornaments on their ears. I took some liberties to make the mask easier to cut out and fit in a regular sized envelope.

Tibetan Cham dance mask modeled by innocent but willing bystanders.

There is a video of the Cham dance here.

After testing several ideas for this year's mask, this one was the most appealing. Although Tibetans don't see the skull as terrifying, I think my western feelings about death and the current state of world affairs have crept into the mask. Yes we can be liberated by accepting the idea of death. But I am also thinking about the potential death of our world and our democracy. Is this a time to dance? Probably not in happiness, but maybe in protest. Download the mask here.

I hope you all find some peace and joy in these crazy times.

Judy

A Krampus Mask you can download and make yourself

For Christmas cards last year - in 2023 - I made a Krampus Mask. You can go here, download a pdf, and make your own mask. If you don't know who Krampus is  - He used to be Santa Claus's sidekick. Maybe a balancing of good and evil? He seems to have been part of pre-Christian Northern European customs. I believe he was called Knecht Ruprecht in parts of Germany. There was a fad for Greetings from Krampus postcards for awhile - and now there are modern, very creepy versions. Check wikipedia for more info.

The mock-up Krampus masks and sketches.

I started with several mock-ups and a quick sketch - trying to get the eyes in the right place and correct proportions. The sketch ended up looking sad rather than scary, so I took it into Procreate on my iPad and made some alterations.

After altering he may be a bit more scary, or angry. I'm not fond of creepy.

Then I added color by layering the sketch on a red gelli plate print - again in Procreate. The final step was to add some white hatching so there was more dimension. This one was much easier to cut out and assemble than last year's Green Man.

Enjoy your new identity. I hope you all had a great holiday. 

You can download and make this Green Man mask

 

Green Man mask Christmas card. You can download the pdf and make your own.

This was my Solstice/Christmas/New Years card this year. I still haven't mailed them all out. But here it is - you can download it from my website and make your own. There are instructions on the web page. It turns out the mask looks good either way. Turned over it covers your mouth and chin. It's a very effective disguise.

Free mini-book based on A Child's Introduction to the Wonders of Space

Free Mini-book by Judith Hoffman based on
A Child's Introduction to the Wonders of Space

This one is based on A Child's Introduction to the Wonders of Space. I took some of my favorite pages and cropped them to make a one sheet mini book. Download it here. You can find instructions to make this book here.

Free mini-book by Judith Hoffman based on
A Child's Introduction to the Wonders of Space

The original book was inspired by a copy of The Golden Book of Astronomy we found in Jim's brother's room when Alan died. I love the marks Alan made as a little kid. In the image above he has drawn the constellations pictured with a red crayon. To make sure we know which constellations they are, he also drew arrows. And he x'ed out Perseus, who was apparently not interesting to Alan. The whole story can be found at the link above to the larger one-of-a-kind book. You can view more free download books by clicking on the "Free for All"  and the "Zines" label in the sidebar.

Free Mini Book based on Stolen Shadows

One of my goals for this year is to make some free mini zines available on my website. I had hoped to finish the new site and then reveal all these new books. But of course the website is taking longer than expected so I am putting them on my blog for now. This is a four page mini zine you can download and make yourself. Click here to download the pdf. The instructions to make the book are here.

How to make a one sheet book

Here's a little book you can make that shows you how to make the little book. Download the pdf here and print. Or you can use a blank piece of paper and make your own book. Light paper like inexpensive printer paper works well. You also need a bone folder or table knife or even your thumbnail to go over the folds. And you need an exacto knife or a pair of scissors.

If you download and print a book from my blog or website, trim off the white margins. If you are starting with a plain piece of white paper you won't need to trim the margins. Note: all these images will enlarge.

Fold the paper in the long direction. For all these folds I go over the fold with a bone folder to tighten it. Is it necessary? Probably not.

Open the paper out and fold in the short direction.

Fold a short side up to the center fold.

Turn the paper over and fold the other short side to the center. Your paper makes an "M" or "W" if you look at it from the end.

Flatten your paper and find the points where the center fold crosses the folds across the short direction. You want to cut between the two points indicated with red arrows in the photo above. You can cut with a straight edge and exacto knife as I did, or fold the paper in half and cut with scissors. I like to put two small dots at the intersection of the folds to make them easier to see.

Now fold the paper the long way, with the slit you made at the top. Push the two ends together to bow out the center.

Keep pushing the ends toward each other to make an "X."

Find the front cover of your book. Fold all the pages around in a book form. Go over all folds one last time with a bone folder or the handle of a kitchen knife. If your book is blank now you are ready for the fun part.

Some free stuff

23 Sandy (Laura Russell) just posted a free book you can print and make yourself.

I also wanted to pass on several free downloads from Marc Taro Holmes - these are drawing and watercolor tips. The one called Tea, Milk, Honey is a small one sheet book with watercolor tips.

In the vein of free downloads, I have a free pattern for paper spectacles on my website. There are two versions - one has a few collage elements, another has just a map of Mars and some stars.

And there is a little one sheet book called Dreaming Made Easy you can download and assemble.

Dreaming Made Easy was in an online show Marc Snyder did of free downloadable books.

I love the idea of sending books out into the world this way!