Christmas Blessings

Merry Christmas, everyone. The birthday of the Prince of Peace! xoxoxo

Dance!

New painted heart to go along with old saying. Have a great weekend everyone!

Serenity Prayer

This picture is part of my new redesign of all the products that I sell. I have sold this saying for many years. Today I painted the paper-white flowers and added the brush lettered "Serenity" word. You wouldn't think that the leaves would be the hardest part but I had to paint those leaves several times. Maybe yesterday just wasn't a leaf day!

Leaves

I painted these leaves as a background for one of my calligraphic pieces. I thought I would share them with you. Thanks so much for looking at my blog! Have a great day!

Beginning the Redesign

Since my show season was SO bad, I decided to reinvent my artwork. I did that at the beginning of the 90's so I guess it is time to do it again. Now starting that process. I think that will take most of the winter!

My new artwork will feature more illustration and smaller calligraphy. I started with redesigning my business card and these flowers will be used on my card. Stay tuned for more! Thanks so much for looking at my blog. xoxox

New Flower Vase

Hi, this is one of my new flower vases. It also looks pretty with a little votive candle inside. My big, huge, artshow this weekend was an unmitigated disaster except I was able to spend the weekend with my precious daughter from California. On Saturday I thought I was going to throw all my work in the waste basket and hang it up. On Sunday I got excited about recreating myself. Who knows what today will bring. Have a great day every one!!

Take the Risk

This is a little saying that I put on a bookmark a long time ago. I love the quote, more love, we all could use more love!

Fall Butterfly

As I turned my calendar page over for the month of November, I thought that this is one of my favorite butterflies. I think the watercolor was really a happy accident but I like the way the tips of wings are green and then turn yellow, then orange, just like leaves in this season. I also like the quote too. To me, the quote signifies that we are all interconnected. Have a great Monday!

MY Website!

Last year my neighbor in Hawaii, Donna, graciously designed a website for me. It was wonderful. But I wanted to be able to sell from it too and we were not able to add a shopping cart to the old site. So when I came back to Spokane this year, I hired Case42CreativeMedia to design a new one for me. It is now pretty much complete with a shopping cart and everything!

www.Jandesigns.net

Thanks so much for taking a look at it. xoxo

Halloween 2011

I have never been too crazy about the Halloween thing. Witches, goblins, uck. I wanted to draw and paint a pumpkin and was looking for a quote and ran across this little prayer. Of course, I had seen this many times before but had forgotten about it. So hope you like it, a prayer for protection from all the scary things out there. Have a great weekend.

Friendship Leaves

I have been so neglectful of my blog lately. I have been working on my website. The unveiling hopefully will happen this week. Stay tuned. In the meantime, this is one of the verses from one of my friendship greeting cards with some fall leaves. Have a great week!

Which Way Your Heart Draws You

i just have always loved this quote. I hope you like it too.

WIth Sympathy

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs, you will be surely missed!

Lamentations -- Hope

This artwork was a commission from my friend, Marg. She is giving this to her friend, Jamee, a young mom with 2 small children battling brain cancer. Please keep her in your prayers!

Under His Wings

I was reading this Psalm the other day and was struck by the comforting image of being under the cover of His wings. It felt so safe. I hope your Sunday is a great one.

Light and Love

This page has been blank for too long. We took a "road trip" to Iowa and Minnesota, visiting friends and cousins along the way. Now back to work and filling my blog and getting ready for studio tours and show season. This quote and artwork was done for a customer bookmark. Have a great day!

Little Fortunes

You know you have some, hiding in your purse, your pockets, your wallet, your drawers. i am talking about Fortunes from the cookies and when you have 15 of them you can make this little book. Isn't it fun??

Miracle

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a house concert. Before the concert began, my hostess told Cary, the singer/songwriter, "This is Jan, she can always be counted on to cry at just the right moments." I was enjoying the concert a lot when Cary began to sing a song she wrote about her daughter called "Miracle." It was so touching and it reminded me so much of my daughter. I was crying my eyes out before the song was over! I asked Cary if I could letter the song for her and also one for me daughter. She graciously said, "yes!" So here it is . . . .

As you will read from 2 blogs ago, this weekend I took part in an outside show. It was described as an "Art and Craft Show" with over " 30 arts and crafts vendors!" I believed that, when will I learn to ask the right kind of questions. Most of the booths had large antique furniture and knick knacks and there were also several commercial booths: Scentsy candles, 31 totes and Miche purses plus a booth selling just fabric.

It is not that I did not sell anything, I did sell a little but two of my biggest sales were friends of mine. Part of the joy of showing my work is having people fall in love with it. It is the oohing and the awh-ing that always makes me so happy. Most of the people did not even stop to look or read. And if they did stop to look at a greeting card, they were shocked at the price. Quality handmade items made with expensive materials cannot begin to compete with items made in China.

it is not that people were not buying. I saw many large pieces of furniture being carried out the gates. It did not even dawn on me until this morning that possibly most of the customers that came to this show were antique D-E-A-L-E-R-S!

And ok, it really was my very LAST outside show. The hot sun put moisture inside the bags of my journals and sayings. I could not believe it. Especially on a hot, dry day, you would not think that paper items inside plastic could "sweat" but "sweat" they did. Not good for my paper products. Every day I keep learning!

Baptism

Just yesterday I received this job from a classmate of my son's. Such a small world sometimes. She wanted a specific wording for a baby plaque for a Godchild. I really like the wording used. I hope she likes it too. Have a great Saturday!

Out on a Limb

I wanted to write a little blurb about my upcoming show this weekend. I started out doing shows over thirty years ago. I started small, sharing a table with a friend. I progressed to high school craft shows, traveling around my area and then to a very large show at our local Fairground. I did all kinds of shows, inside, outside, in cafeterias and Fairgrounds. I found out that the little shows take just as much set up and tear down and time involved as the big shows and I made a lot more money at the big ones. I stopped doing the small ones.

Then in the 80's I was doing an outside show and was given a patch of dirt. During the weekend, the wind came up. The wind deposited dirt on every single one of my art pieces. Those were the days before clear bags ( Clearbags.com) and I had shrink wrapped every single one of my products. It was very time consuming and expensive to tear them all apart and redo them all. That was my last outside show for the last 20 years.

I retired from shows in November of 2008. I sold all my walls, my tables, my table cloths. And I thought retirement was b-o-r-i-n-g! And my artwork is in my soul, I need to keep creating!

This coming weekend I am doing a very small outside show and it is VERY hot here. I am breaking all my own rules, going out on a limb. I don't know anything about this show, it is outside, it is hot and it is small. But I was invited and that was so special. I will take pictures and tell you all about it next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

From the Rising of the Sun

This piece of paper was marbled years and years ago at a class that I took in Seattle. I like the pattern the inks make as they float on the paper. Too bad I do not have more of this. Happy weekend!

Onion Pop-UP

This is my first attempt at a pop-up book. It has the quote on the end sheets of the book. "Life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." Carl Sandberg

Then the center of the book has 8 layers of translucent paper in smaller and smaller shapes. I sewed them together in the center and then glued the largest "onion" shape to the sides of the book. Even though it does not have a lot of color, I think it is kind of perky. It was fun to make anyway, the things I do to amuse myself and use some calligraphy!

Family Tree

This is a project that I have been working on the last few days. It is a prototype of a class I would like to teach. I will furnish the tree, and the students get to do everything else. It has writing, pictures, stamping for the leaves, accordion book, and two little inside books with family story in them. Fun.

2012 Calendar

Yesterday morning after the gym, I picked up my 2012 Calendar from the printer. Here they are stretched out on my dining room table. When I see a finished project that I have been off and on working on since February, it is so exciting. Here are all the months stretched out on my dining room table, ready for putting in order, bagging and pricing. This year is all about flowers and HOPE. Have a great day everyone!

Making Journal Books Today!

Making Journey Books today in my studio. It is filled with 12 tags and tells a great story about who you come to be at the end of a journey. Great words of wisdom!

Amaryllis

Another little flower painting today for December page in my calendar. And its my friend, Lori's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Lori!

Lily

I have been working on my yearly calendar lately. This year the theme is "Hope for the Flowers"! Today I painted this Lily for the month of March and all the quotations are about hope. Don't we all need a little hope? Thanks for peeking at my blog today!

Two Wolves

One of my friends asked me to letter this quote for her. I have spent about a week and a half trying to draw two wolves to illustrate this quote. It is obvious to me that I can't paint wolves. The drawing wasn't too bad but the painting was terrible. My husband said they looked like fat horses. Ha ha. I think my friend is going to get this feather! Have a good weekend.

God's Plan

This is a piece that I started in Hawaii a couple of years ago. I finally finished it. Zeesh, what's with unfinished projects! I am not usually like that. Happy Fourth of July Weekend everybody!

Choose Love

I have been MIA recently. First the Market which did not work out. I guess that is not where God wanted me to be. Next a trip to California to see the grandsons get promoted from 5th grade. They were adorable. Then today I created the words of this artwork for my daughter, Dana. You all know that this style is not my most proficient but hope she likes it anyway. Love to you all, have a great day!

The Public Market

There has not been a lot of new art on my blog lately because I have been preparing to go into our brand new Public Market. I have spent the last two days there, selling my artwork. I am not sure, at this point, if this is the right place for my artwork since my sales have been very slow but I learn something from every new experience and have met some great new friends. Today is supposed to be the busiest day. Have a great Saturday!

Welcome

This is the artwork for a long, accordion book that I designed many years ago but always hand painted each one. Very labor intensive! Now I had it printed so that should speed up the process a little bit. Still have to make covers and score and fold but that is fast compared to painting each individual one. I have been slow at posting lately because I am going back to work tomorrow at our local Public Market. I will share and take pictures so you can see. Very exciting. Have a great day!

Springtime

This has long been one of my favorite Springtime quotes. The image of God breathing warmth, flowers and Spring back into the world of winter is beautiful to me. ( Especially since today is cold and raining! ) Those flowers are out there somewhere! Have a great day everyone.

Faith, Hope, Love

I have been wanting to do one of these "multi-layered pieces" for awhile now. I am mostly a straight line kind of girl but every now and then I have to break out of the shell! I hope you like it???

Psalm 118 and the Tulips

I painted these tulips yesterday afternoon and I was so happy about how they turned out and then my Blogger site has been down at least 24 hours. I wanted to post and could not. These little tulips are going to be triple duty as a blog, greeting card and calendar page I think. Love multi purpose artwork. Have a great, happy weekend everyone!

Flower Class

Yesterday I took a paper flower making class from Anemone Paper Flowers. Their work is so gorgeous. We made a rose that is pictured above and a dahlia. The dahlia is still in progress. (-: It has lots of petals. Have a great day!

Letters of Joy Slinky Book

These are pictures of my first class at Letters of Joy. But I only finished it today. It uses a 4 needle method of binding and anyone who knows me would know that I am just hopeless with a thread and needle. I kept knotting my thread, putting it in the wrong holes, had to take it out again, and on and on. It was an exercise in patience, FOR SURE, to finish this book. There are over 50 pages, a lot of sewing!! And the pages were all colored using a "sink art method." And it is really tiny, measuring only 2 inches by 2 inches.

But it is so cute. It is called a slinky book because you can actually go from front to back like a slinky. The loose fitting sewing structure allows for movement. I can't wait to write in it!

May Day

I love this little poem and I actually gave away flower baskets when I was a young girl. So fun. Happy May Day!!

Letters of Joy 2011

This weekend I was so fortunate to attend the 29th Annual "Letters of Joy" in Edmonds, Washington. I have not been able to go for the last 3 or 4 years. This small, but mighty, calligraphy conference is wonderful. They bring in renowned speakers and offer a whole day of classes with a catered lunch and vendors! Calligraphy shopping, yipee!!

The speaker this year was Pat Blair, chief calligrapher from the White house. She gave such a wonderful presentation with slides of examples of Calligraphy invitations dated clear back to Abraham Lincoln! I got to take three classes and reconnected with an old friend that I had not seen in over 20 years. Fabulous.

Here is a picture of my last book class. This is called an Australian Flat Piano Hinge Book and the best part about it is that you can take each page apart and write in it and then put it back in. It uses popsicle sticks for the hinge. Very ingenious design. Showing a picture here.

All Flowers Are Beautiful

This painting was painted with watercolors on my arches hot press paper and then enhanced with some color pencils. I love this quote and have done it now about three different times. It so applies to life as well as flowers.