Milestone Celebrations

Hi Everyone,

As those of you who watch my videos know, I never leave the house without an assortment of Sakura’s awesome pens… at a minimum I’ll have 01 Microns, and several colors of the Koi Coloring Brushes with me. In addition to using the Koi Coloring brushes for coloring and painting ‘on-the-go’, I frequently use them to write names for people I meet. Here are a couple examples:

I also use the Koi Coloring Brushes to create background washes, as in the example below:

I created the wash, Dangle letters and Happy Birthday lettering by hand, and then composed the design in PhotoShop.

I especially enjoy creating “Milestone Messages” such as the ones below, which were drawn with Sakura’s Gelly Roll Metallic pens:

And this week Zenspirations celebrated two milestones: on Saturday, thanks to Carol Kimball, we hit 2,500 Instagram followers, and today Stephanie Sheeley Affield became the 2,500th member of the Zenspirations Create, Color, Pattern, Play FB group! Thank you ladies! Here is the design I created to thank all the Instagram followers. If you’d like to connect on Instagram, look for “Zenspirations“.

One of the very first people I connected with on Instagram was Gail Beck, who uses my pages as a springboard for her amazing creative undertakings. I am often awed by what she comes up with, and am delighted to feature her incredible work in several of my books. Happy Birthday Gail! Hope today is the start of a colorful, creatively satisfying, year.

I’m in Lancaster this week for product development meetings with Fox Chapel/Design Originals, the company which publishes my Zenspirations® books, and Wellspring, the company which publishes my new line of Coloring gifts & stationery products. Lots of great ideas are being shared! I got to see some of the prototypes, and wanted to give you a ‘sneak peek’ at the journal and post-it note folios.

I can’t wait to see the finished designs… I’m hoping they’ll be ready by the Stationery Show in May.

In closing, I want to congratulate the winners of the last contest; Monica Perez won the drawing of all the people who left a comment on the blog, and Genna Stead Wangsness won the FB group drawing. Ladies, please let me know which style you’d like me to use when I create your namesigns.

Although the contest is over, you can still download the Valentine designs if you want to make something special for someone you love. And please consider sending a Valentine note to someone you know who has recently lost a loved one, or is going through a challenging time… every day is a great day to let someone know you care!

Stay Zenspired,

Joanne