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

Calligraphy at Denman College

My Mum is an avid WI (Women's Institute) member and many years ago she treated me to a weekend away at Denman College, Oxford. This is an amazing retreat where you can learn or improve any skill you can think of....cookery,  computers, history etc etc. At that time we attended a card making course and we had such a good time that we decided that on another occasion we would love to learn Calligraphy. Well this weekend we did just that and returned to Denman and spent from Friday night until Sunday afternoon being taught this wonderful skill.

The main house is a listed building set in 17 acres of stunning gardens. At this time of the year the daffodils were in full flower.

There were drift upon drift of my favourite flower to greet us. 

The accommodation is set in the grounds in small units named after different trees. Our rooms were in Holly House and they were so modern and comfy. My room was the top left window and my Mum's the bottom right.

This is my room and you can see the crafts centre where the courses are taught out of my window.

On the very first evening after dinner we we started our course. The first letter we learnt to draw was the letter O. We were learning Foundation Script which is a lovely rounded script which dates from the 10 century.

We learnt to write the alphabet in lower case, first with a large nib.

   

and then started to use a smaller nib and introduced capital letters.

Over the weekend we enjoyed delicious food, cakes and lots of walking in the sunshine in the grounds. The weather could not have been more perfect and the sun shone from dawn to dusk.

Our finished piece was to be a piece of poetry and I am sure those of you who know me well will guess my choice...yes "Daffodowndilly" by A.A.Milne. I chose it at home and it could not have been more apt for seeing the displays of daffodils at Denman.

We had a few practises and then we cut out the lines to check how they would look on the final copy.

And then it was time to write the final copy which we finished with pastel chalks.

I am hoping to use this new skill with my card making and also any signs that need writing for the wedding. It was such a great weekend. For those of you in the UK, Denman in now open to anyone, WI member or not; including men. It was such a real treat to learn something new in such wonderful surroundings. I can very highly recommend it (and I am not a W.I member). 

After such a sunny weekend I feel the need to share a cheerful Spring card for my card challenge today. This one is the card I made for my very dear Mum. 

I used one of Penny Black's Betsy Bluebell stamps and coloured her using my trusty Promarkers and Prismacolor pencils.

I cut some lovely yellow butterflies using my new Martha Stewart punch and added lots of Spring touches.

I even spritzed the flowers with Glimmer Mist glitter to give then some sparkle.

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

Scrapbook Sisters Anything Goes

Flutter By Wednesdays Open #195

Paper Sundaes #113 Spring Blossoms

Joanna Sheen Spring is in the air

Papercrafting Journey  #5 Pretty Pastels

Cupcake craft challenges Music or inspired by a song My song is the old hymn I sang as a child, "All things bright and beautiful".
The Secret Crafter Shabby Chic/vintage #178
Simon says Stamp Bingo my line is the middle line; glitter, lace, punches

Papertake Weekly Bingo my line is the right line; flowers, punched shapes, lace

Our lovely weather is still continuing today and the sun is up and the sky is blue. Sending some of it to you all wherever you are. Happy Spring and if you have any near you enjoy the Daffodowndillys which are bursting from their buds everywhere here :0)

Bye for now,

Jane x