Zenspirational colouring book delight

Those of you who have been following Jane's Journal for some time will know that I am a girl who loves to try new ideas, trends, designs etc with my crafting. I could not possible just churn out repeated projects as I would get bored senseless. I don't think I have a "style" (you may disagree?), as I dabble with every media and designer out there; from Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi, Barbara Grey, PaperArtsy, Visible Image right through to Lavinia, Penny Black and the cuteness of Lili of the Valley, to name just a few.

 There is so much talent out in the crafting world to be inspired by and in the last 6 months there is a wonderful person called Joanne Fink who has really been a bright light for me. If you are new to Joanne's work I seriously suggest you look at her blog Zenspirations, here. She has such talent. Her calligraphy is wonderful and the "dangles" (as she calls them) just add to her amazing work. She also has some brilliant videos on You Tube.

I have used calligraphy in my work before and after looking at her blog and videos I was encouraged to start adding it to some of my journal pages. You will have seen all these art journal pieces I made during this spring and summer which I shared in my blog. Here's a little collage of them.

In May I also came across Joanne's blog and started following it. The week before we were going off on holiday to Sicily I read that she was asking for people to colour her pages and be part of her new venture with her books. It was only a few days before we went away but I really wanted to join in.  I spent a couple of days coming up with a design and colours for one of her pages. I used Promarkers and markers and this is what I made.

 Below is the original before I coloured it. Joanne leaves her designs as an open canvas, her books are so much more that just colouring books. They encourage you to make each design your own.

I emailed her my design, went off on holiday and forgot all about it until our flight home....

We were standing in the boarding gate queue at the airport in Sicily waiting to board the plane to fly home. As there was free wi-fi I checked my emails and found an email from her saying that she would like to include my work in her next book! I certainly did a little happy dance in the boarding lounge. My Hb is so very patient with me and he was delighted too ;0)

Since then I have been eagerly awaiting the books publication on 1st October.

On Thursday I received my happy mail from the USA............

 .........yes my own copies had arrived.

 and inside...have you spotted me here in the bottom corner of the page ;0)

I did another happy dance as it really is so thrilling to see your work in print. Below is another design from the new book I coloured. This one is not in the book but I still like it. I even added some gems to it.

The excitement does not end there as Joanne has a new book coming out on 1 November and yes I have another colouring page in there too. I will post here once I get my own copy and I can share it with you. Would you believe that the colouring I did for the newest book was done whilst we were on holiday in Rhodes in September. I was super limited by my supplies and only took one copy of the design away. so if I made a mistake that was it.  The deadline was tight for this piece and I only managed to complete one but I was pleased how it turned out.

Colouring books are huge both here and in the USA. Joanne's  books are only available in the UK on line via Amazon.co.uk  at the moment but in the USA they are really going places and are on line and in book shops. I think Walmart have plans for stocking them in the run up to Christmas. If you see a copy..take a peep, say hello to my swan and be Zenspired.

There is a now huge Facebook Zenspirations "club" of happy colourists of which I am delighted to be a part of. Joanne only started it a few months ago and now we have over 1,700 members who regularly post their beautiful work.  I wish I had more time to devote to colouring but I still also love all my other forms of crafting and there are just not enough hours in my leisure time to do more.

In honour of this happy mail and as a thank you to Joanne, who is such a sweet person I drew and coloured this little piece.

I just used a little piece of mixed media card which I swished through a couple of blue distress inks to give a watercolour background. I drew the frames free hand using a black Micron pen and coloured using my Sakura glaze pens. I love these pens they look like glass when they have dried. I wrote the words and drew the little flower too. I added lots of doodles and pattering. A real Jane's Journal one off.

 Here's a little close up showing off that glossy glaze.

I think bloom and grow has to be a perfect sentiment for me...........and I hope I have many more years ahead of doing so.

Thank you Joanne for your encouragement and support of my work.

I would like to enter my bloom and grow card into the following challenges;

Country View  add some texture
We love 2 create anything creative/mixed media

Pixie's snippets playground #198 I used a snippet of mixed media card to create my watercolour background.
Simon says stamp Monday wonderful watercolour I used inks to make my watercolour background.
Allsorts getting sentimental, use a sentiment
The Craft Barn light my light for my final entry is the light reflected in the amazing glassy glaze of my pens, I also think my piece looks like a stained glass window letting the light through.

Thanks to everyone who visits me here too and supports my work with you kind comments. They are so appreciated. Have a lovely weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x