Bliss

Ciao, I am posting from my holiday in Tuscany. I hadn't planned to do this, as I have scheduled some posts whilst I  am away, but my great friend Joanne Fink is celebrating her 1st anniversary on Facebook of her Zenspirations, Create, color, pattern, Play! Group. As one of its founding members I just had to be a part of the celebrations.  I have been lucky enough to have my work published in 3 of her colouring books. Joanne is the most generous of artists and I have also enrolled on her new calligraphy on line course too. I am so glad I met her via blogging....she has such a pure heart and I am proud to call her a friend.

Daisy and I are creating scrapbook journals here in Tuscany, so I have a few crafting supplies with me. Luckily I put a few tags in my bag too.

I wanted to create something using one word to sum up my holiday, family and also  the inspiration Joanne has given......I looked around the idyllic setting I am sharing at the moment with my Hb, darling daughter, SIL and Daisy.

I created a simple sunny background for my tag using some distress inks and some floral stamping.

My darling Daisy held this up, mid background, for you to see..

and then the word came to me......bliss.....yes pure bliss.

I got out my sakura pens and added my word and some zentangles.
Here is what I made;

I can't really show the details of the sakura glaze pens but they really look like glass hearts. You can see my floral stamping in close up below.

Below is the tag my sweet Daisy made, complete with zoo stickers ;0) . My photo was not taken in my photo tent but on a table....

 right here by the pool..and that's where I am heading now.

I would like to enter this into the 1st anniversary celebrations over on the Zenspirations FB group and also to the following fun challenges;

Anything but cute summertime fun
Allsorts anything but a card
Colour crazy anything goes
Craft stamper take it make it anything goes
An inky mess Challenge 1
Uniko flowers
Try it on Tuesday make us smile

Thanks for joining me on my truly blissful holiday....I have lots of photos and posts planned for when I return. My giveaway post is still scheduled so don't miss it on Tuesday.

Back soon,

Bye for now, or should I say, " arrivedierchi !"

Jane x

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

Bed in Summer

The nights are still quite light and I always enjoy the long daylight hours in summer. However I am mindful that September starts tomorrow and that the nights will quickly start to draw in. There is a poem which I learnt as a child at primary school about light summer nights but I can never remember the last verse. I decided to look it up and find that missing 3rd verse.

It is called Bed in Summer by R. L Stevenson and it reminds me of those daylight bedtimes you endure as a child in the summer when you think it is far too early to go to bed!

Here it is in its entirety.

Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candlelight.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree
And hear the grown-up peoples' feet
Still going past me in the street

And does it not seem hard to you
When all the sky is clear and blue
And I should like so much to play
To have to go to bed by day?

I am so glad I found it and I have now learnt the last verse. Inspired by this vintage poem I decided that I would use it for some new art journal pages.
I looked around my garden and decided to use the bright floral colours still proudly showing off from my pots as the base colours.

My lawn has really greened up too with all the recent rain we have had. Off I went to my garden studio and I chose some really bright bold distress inks and made some inky pages;

 I think sun glasses are needed here :0)

I then made the brave decision to try hand writing the poem using a Micron pen and white highlighter.

I also decided to add lots of doodles including a doodle frame inspired by Joanne Fink.

So here are my finished pages.

With some added strawberry stamping, some stencilling, Zenspirational dangles and my doodled frame with some Cheery Lynn die cuts.

These new pages in Jane's Journal will really make my heart sing even when it is cold and dark and winter is at its worst. I will be reminded of  the summer colours of my garden, the warm summer sunshine and the long light evenings....and strawberry Pimm's ;0)........

I would like to enter my AJ pages into the following challenges;

Artistic stamper anything goes

Mixed  media world gorgeous textures

Country View Crafts summertime

Papertake weekly take your pick I have chosen vintage/distressed

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Pixie's Snippet Playground week 192 here I used some tiny snippets of card to die cut my leaves and flower.

Love to create anything mixed media #18

Cheery Lynn Frame it I drew a frame for my flower and leaves

Anything but a card celebration mine is a celebration of summer

That Craft Place Mixed media, anything goes

The weather was on our side over the weekend and we enjoyed such a fun day out yesterday with our friends. We visited Standen in East Grinstead, West Sussex, such a gorgeous National Trust home. I will share some photos and a post really soon. Today the weather has other ideas and we woke up to heavy rain which has now eased but looks set to fall all day.  However it's bank holiday Monday here in the UK so no work and as it needs to be an indoor kind of day. I am spending time in my garden...in my studio....crafting! Yippee!!  Enjoy your day too.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

To have and to hold...for 34 years

My Hb and I recently celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary and I decided that I wanted to make some pages in my art journal to remember our special day. We spent 25th July at Scotney Castle in Lamberhurst, Kent, owned by the National Trust. The sun shone and we enjoyed a wandering around the house and grounds and a had a lovely picnic too.

Here are a few photos from our special day. The main house was built between 1835-1843 and replaced the cold damp original Scotney Castle. It was lived in until 2006 when it was given to the National Trust who opened it to the public in 2007. I visited it that same year and since then there has been lots of gorgeous renovation both of the house and grounds.

A few of the inside rooms

It stands in beautiful grounds looking down to the original castle. This was built in 1378 and occupied for 450 years until the new house was built. The original castle was left as a folly and a very spectacular folly it is too.

We sat in the grounds of the old castle and admired the beautiful flora and fauna.

The tree above and the photo below were our views from a bench where we sat at 3pm, the exact time of our wedding in 1981

and this little fellow walked over to wish us a happy anniversary.

This is the view looking back towards the house.

We had such a lovely day there and I was inspired to make some new pages in my Art Journal.I wanted lots of floral texture so I added die cuts and book pages to start.

 I started to add green acrylics to represent all the gorgeous trees we saw

I also added some purples and pinks as these were the main colours in the gardens at the time of our visit.

I also stamped out my Tim Holtz flowers and watercoloured some of them with distress ink

So then it was time to put on my creative hat and make my journal pages.

Here they are. I am really loving adding doodles and Zenspirational dangles and ideas to my pages, inspired by the great Joanne Fink.

I decided to write some of the words, with a micron pen, of the marriage vows we made 34 years ago. Below are some close ups;

a close up of my "butterfly" tree with it's crackle and butterflies for leaves. These are an old MS punch.

and one last "arty" shot

I would like to enter my art journal pages into the following challenges;

Scrap around the world.  I was inspired by the lovely textures of the footprint and waves on the beach photo and used these colours on the tree and butterflies with lots of crackle texture. I used an arrow inspired by the sign post photo and my words are inspiration to me just like those of "explore, dream and discover". My journal pages are each 6"x 8" as required .

Artistic stamper anything goes

Anything but cute making magic again I was inspired by all the gorgeous textures in the photos.

Mixed  media world gorgeous textures

A vintage journey things with wings

Country View Crafts summertime

Dies R Us the great outdoors

Words to scrap by Book inspiration mine is The Good Earth

Vintage utfoldring add a butterfly

That craft place anything goes mixed media

Papertake weekly to die for, use a die I used several!

Memory box cool thoughts for warm days the fairytale border and flower are both Memory box dies

Vintage Uttfordring vintage with a butterfly

Pixie's Snippets playground week 191 This is a new challenge I have found and really looks great fun. I certainly used lots of die snippets in my pages.

Thanks for visiting today me here today. My Hb and I so enjoyed our anniversary. Now when I look at my pages in my journal I can relive that wonderful July day we shared.

We enjoyed at great day on the beach this Saturday with Daisy and Co.....such a sunny day but yesterday the rain returned so we were very lucky indeed. I have plans for some more art journal pages from the day....stay tuned ;0)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x