Warm Winter Wishes

Hi there. How are you? 

This past weekend, I had my first craft fair of the holiday season, and I wanted to add another holiday card to my lineup.  

My newest holiday greeting card is now available! Click to purchase.

A fir tree pattern drawn in my sketchbook was the basis for this card design.

My Process

When I'm making a new greeting card, I often have a message in mind before I even come up with the imagery.  (Read more about that HERE and HERE.) That was not the case with this one! I knew I wanted to use the fir tree that I drew in my sketchbook,  but had no idea what I wanted it to say.

New card in process. I started with a more minty green and white trees.

Crowd-sourcing

I actually posted this image up on Facebook and Instagram and asked for suggestions. I got some really great and humorous suggestions:

"A Holiday Greeting Especially Fir You!"

"Frolic around the Festivas Pole (tree)"

"Tree-son's Greetings!"

"Wishing you a Woody Little Christmas"

"This season...see the forest for the trees!"

"Wishing Happy Holidays "Fir" You!"

Someone even suggested to keep the greeting as is! (I considered that.) In the end I went more traditional, employed my signature alliteration, and went with "Warm Winter Wishes."

Tweaking the Color

On the advice of Matt (my artist husband), I also switched up the color scheme. He didn't think the minty green I had chosen was :holiday" enough. Though I protested at first, I took his advice and reduced the amount of blue in the green. Good call Matt!  I also switched up the white trees and made them gold. I think this might be the first time I've ever used gold in my work!  I'm pretty much a silver girl, but gold has been calling me lately. (I even got a rose gold iPhone 6s!)

Warm Winter Wishes Now for Sale

You can purchase my newest greeting card as a single or in a set of 6. They are blank on the inside for your own holiday message. "Warm Winter Wishes" is an elegant way to send holiday cheer.

Go and buy me out today!! Ciao friends.

P.S. Would you like to carry my cards in your shop? All of my paper goods are available for wholesale. Do get in touch!

My Coloring Book is Here!

Hi there. How are you? Me? I'm so excited!

After a month of really hard work, I'm happy to report that my coloring book is here and ready for purchase! Take a peek inside my friends.

View fullsize

Pattern Play - A Coloring Book by Jennifer Johansson. Now available for purchase!

A glimpse inside. This page was inspired by paper lanterns.

View fullsize

My interpretation of wood grain.

Straight from my Sketchbook

If you follow me here or on social media, you'll probably recognize some of these drawings, as they came straight out of my sketchbook.  (Well, almost straight out of my sketchbook. I did a little cleaning and editing in Photoshop and Illustrator.) As most of what I've been drawing lately has a patterned aspect about it, I decided to title this "Pattern Play." As a big fan of alliteration, I think it works and describes what one will find inside.

View fullsize

A closeup view of my kimono inspired page. Won't this be fun to color?

View fullsize

For best results, use colored pencils, water-based markers or crayons to color in "Pattern Play."

The Details

"Pattern Play" features 20 pattern drawings, printed on just one side of the paper for optimum "colorabilty." You can easily remove pages from the book to share or even hang.  It was professionally printed at the Printing Plant right here in Carbondale, on a nice 70 lb. paper. For best results, I recommend you color with colored pencils, water-based markers, or crayons. Sharpies and other solvent-based markers work as well, but will bleed through. As long as you put a scrap piece of paper under your page, color away with your Sharpies!

#ColorWithJen

I can't wait to see my coloring book in action! I invite you to share your colored pages with my via email or on Instagram with the hashtag #ColorWithJen

Act Fast Friends!

I've had so many inquiries about my coloring book that I do expect them to sell out quickly. I opened sales up yesterday to my mailing list members and sold half of my stock! If you want one, I'd BUY NOW!

That's all for now! Ta-ta!