Planning the 3rd Zenspirations® Blog-versary Celebration!

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Hi Everyone,

I want to start with a colorful welcome to everyone who has recently discovered Zenspirations®.

Our community is comprised of blog subscribers (click here if you’d like to subscribe) and members of the Zenspirations® Create, Color, Pattern, Play Facebook group, and together we have created a forum where people can share their work, their hearts, and where we support and encourage each other both artistically and personally. Over the last year our Facebook group has grown quite a bit; we now have over 4,300 members from 50+ countries!

I started blogging sporadically in 2012, but it wasn’t until April 22, 2014 that I made a commitment to share my spiritual and creative journey on a weekly basis. Although blogging takes a non-trivial amount of time, I feel blessed to be part of this supportive, compassionate community which shares my desire to make a difference in the world, and that makes it all worthwhile!

In honor of the upcoming ‘Blog-versary’, I’d like to invite you to help me come up with things we can do throughout April to celebrate creativity and the special connection we share. Here are a few ideas:

  1. A showcase featuring Zenspired art from some of our many talented members. This could include step-by-step instructions on how to create a particular design, as well as information about how each featured artist got started, and what they do to Stay Zenspired.
  2. Scheduled FB Live events at different times throughout the month, so despite being in different parts of the world, everyone would have the opportunity to participate ‘Live’, and the recorded version would be available to those who couldn’t attend ‘real-time’.
  3. A community collaboration– either of a piece of art, or perhaps a publication of some kind. For example, we could each print out an extra copy of April’s calendar blank (see below), and use it to record simple things we’ve done to make a difference this month, and then share our favorites with the group. I’d be happy to try to illustrate some of the ideas, and if we get enough great content, put together a booklet for everyone to download, color and share.
  4. Host a Zenspired Play-Day. I actually invited some creative friends to get together this weekend and share their art, as well as any new tools, tips & techniques. Here is the invitation I designed:

How would you celebrate Creativity, Connection & Community? Last year we did a ‘raffle’ give-away of some of my coloring products and favorite tools from Sakura of America. Would you like another raffle give-away this year? If so, prizes could include samples from two new Zenspirations product lines launching in April– rubber stamps for Spellbinders, and a series of designs for watercoloring for my favorite paper company, Strathmore. Please leave a comment letting me know if any of these ideas appeal to you– and what other celebratory suggestions you might have. As an incentive, I will randomly select two people from those who leave comments, and send them each a copy of the 64 page inspirational gift book I did for Harvest House, With God All Things Are Possible.

Before closing tonight I wanted to share the calendar page I made for April:

I switched to an 8.5 x 11 format so it will be easier for everyone to print out. There is room on the left to punch holes, in case you’d like to keep your pages in an album. Click the link below to DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY of the April calendar page:

Zenspirations®_by_Joanne_Fink_April_Calendar_Page

I’m not aware of any birthdays in our community this week, but two of our members have had health challenges, so I made them get well cards. This first is for Terri Brown, who broke her foot this week.

And this one is for Valencia Pernell, who had cervical spine surgery on Thursday.

Hope you both have time to Color, Create, Pattern & Play during while you recuperate! May God bless you with speedy and complete recoveries!

Stay Zenspired,

Joanne

 

27 thoughts on “Planning the 3rd Zenspirations® Blog-versary Celebration!”

  1. Awesome. This will be my 1st time being a part of the “Zenspiration Celebration”. I did have a suggestion for a creative theme for April. Out of all the things to celebrate in April, it is also National Humor Month. I’m all about spreading laughter, it’d be interesting to showcase it artistically.

  2. Congratulation on 3 years!!

    Facebook Live sounds fun! I look forward to your Zenspiration play days with special guests! Thanks for all you do to keeps us zen spired!

  3. Awww Joanne!
    How sweet of you to make us Get Well cards! I love it and appreciate you so much! Wish I could’ve made next weekend, but I know you all will have great fun!
    I really like the collaborative project, as it would bind our group together even more, and it would contain a keepsake from each participant. I also think the raffle is a good idea.

    Love and hugs,
    Terri

  4. WOW Joanne, I can’t believe it’s now 3 years! A HUGE THANK YOU for your dedication and gift you have given us all of this time.
    You have such good ideas, it’s hard to choose just one.

    I love the idea of a Facebook Live, watching you is so amazing and I learn so much.

    This Sun April 2nd is international Good Deeds Day which celebrates the value and importance of giving back to the community. I’d love to see our group embrace the entire month of April as Good Deeds Month, we already do so much to help each other. This can tie in either with the calendar page or possibly a coloring sheet you can create that can be customized by each of us adding some of what we did to give back to the world during April. It can then be put together as a book to share!

    I always like give always and ame excited about your new products. Can’t wait to see the stamps.

    ((Hugs)) Toni

  5. First of all, thank you for the beautiful April calendar download!
    All your ideas sound wonderful! Any of them would be a blessings.
    I especially like the raffle idea.
    Blessings..
    Deborah

  6. I like your Play Day idea. I’m putting that on my calendar. And we always love when you share your favorite things with us.

  7. Congrats ! 3 years goes by fast ! !
    The idea of live FB events sounds awesome !! Just think how many would feel like they are part of a circle of friends getting together to have fun and create !!
    Thanks so much once again for your kindness and willingness to share your creativity with us !!

  8. Happy 3 years. I think those are all some great ideas. I think the collaboration or calendar ideas could be a fun way to celebrate and share creativity.

  9. Your books are awesome. Thank you for all this work that you do and sharing it with us.

  10. A collaborative project sounds good to me, or some kind of online get-together. For the second one, I think it might be difficult to find a time when everybody is up? But I’d try to somehow participate.

    Thanks for all you do here, Chris

  11. All terrific ideas, but I think I like the step-by-step tutorial one the best. Thank you so much for the April calendar page. Your work is just so uplifting……….

  12. Happy 3rd Birthday for your AMAZING company! You are an inspiration to us all!!! I love all your ideas about giveaways, I know the Lord will guide you so be blessed! Love, Love, Love all you do!!! And thanks again for my birthday card this year!!! Made me feel so special 🙂

  13. Wow 3 years of weekly blogging- thank you for the commitment you have made to this wonderful community. I love the thought of Live Face book event – doing a group project together during an event would be very unifying and zenspiring.

  14. Congratulations on 3 years! Every post has been inspiring and I am so grateful for all the wonderful things that you share.

  15. Wow – 3 years – that is awesome! I feel like I have been here for most of that. I am not coloring or creating as much as I have in the past but I do love reading your blog and seeing what everyone else is creating and rising to some “color challenges” here and there!! Any way you choose to celebrate will be great and I will be watching or participating as I can. I am also looking forward to your new stamps and really like the calendar pages.

  16. Being a newbie and complete admirer of Joanne Fink I think a raffle for a printed, framed, hand drawn, colored personalized Zenspiration by Joanne would be an awesome prize to win!! I personally would LOVE it!!
    Congratulations Joanne on 3 years!!

  17. Happy 3rd Blogaversary for Zenspirations, Joanne! I can’t believe it’s been 2 months since Phoenix. At any rate, I wanted to pop over and say hi! You’ve been on my mind and I hope all is going well in your colorful, colorful world!!

  18. I’m very excited for you Joanne. All of the time and energy you put into your blog surely is paying off.
    I’m also very excited for the watercolor collection and stamps coming out as I teach card making with a group of women
    every week.

  19. I LOVE NUMBER 3 LIVE EVENTS AT DIFFERENT DAYS AND TIMES. I REALLY ENJOY WATCHING THEM AND DO MUCH BETTER WITH A VISUAL LESSON. GOD BLESS YOU AND ALL YOUR ENDEAVORS.

  20. I am new to Zenspirations. Over the past few months, I’ve been learning dip pen calligraphy, and stumbled across some of the Zenspirations books when I was looking for resources. I love that your work honors the Lord, and I love having creative ways to write God’s Word to share with others. I look forward to seeing whatever you come up with – I thought all your ideas were wonderful!

  21. WOW Joanne, Congrats on 3 years already! I have been following you from the beginning I believe. 🙂
    My favorites would be FB LIVE events and/or the community collaboration.
    And of course, I CAN’T WAIT until this weekend so we can have our PLAY-DAY!! <3
    I always love when you do some kind of raffle and looking forward to getting the new stamps when they come out!!
    Thanks for all you do for the group and keeping us connected as a Zensational family.
    Love to you and see you soon friend! <3

  22. Congratulations on 3 years! I just started Bible journaling about 2 months ago, and I just LOVE your inspirational lettering, images, and encouragements. I bought the “Complete Guide to Bible Journaling” and having a great time going through it and learning techniques (just for your information, I ordered the book from Amazon and it arrived printed backwards and upside down 🙁 ) I’m guessing that you’ve had other folks receive bad printings too. Hope it’s easy to fix.
    Looking forward to purchasing your many of your other books!

    1. Hi Martha,
      I’m so sorry that you received an upside down book. If you tell me your address I’ll send you a copy that’s properly bound. You can e-mail me at [email protected].
      Stay Zenspired,
      Joanne

  23. You have such wonderful ideas, Joanne, and they all sound good. I like raffles and seeing what other people are doing. I don’t get much time to do any coloring, but I love to see what you create. There’s just such a feeling of love that comes through. Thank you for all you do.

  25. Thank you for all of your beautiful artwork that inspires us all! I think a live Facebook event would be great! I am a visual person, and learn faster when I can see creative work done in real time! Thanks!

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