ISSUE 12, February 2022

Welcome to my February monthly newsletter! :)

I'm grateful that February is a shorter month and I'm sure I'm not the only one in the northern hemisphere eagerly waiting for spring!

The good thing about the colder season is that it provides more time for journaling, as there seem to be fewer distractions outside :). I definitely feel less guilty about spending my time inside playing in my journals.

If you have any suggestions or ideas you want to see here, please just drop me an email at 49dragonflies@gmail.com. 

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INTRODUCING 2 NEW DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS!

In today's Junk Journal Snacks episode playing in my personal junk journal made by Nadja, I'm adding a beautiful card and envelope I received from my friend Luise Heinzl. I'm trying my best to decorate the envelope to make it worthy of her gorgeous card! :)

BRAND NEW IN MY SHOP!

My latest kit is called "Secret Forest Society". It's a fun woodlandish theme with lots of animals in combination with jewellery, clocks and metal hardware. Unconsciously this fits with my current love of an urban-nature theme and also has a dark academia vibe :). In addition to my monthly background pages and ephemera pages, I of course also created the monthly planner kits: February monthly, weeklies and trackers with backgrounds, planner pages without dates, fun planner notes, and of course my monthly planner freebies. 

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK

WHAT'S ON MY DESK

This is one of the pages of my new planner I made for February. I wanted to challenge myself to do some calligraphy. I used a 1 mm nib and black India ink.  The font I used is a Minuscule alphabet, which is beautiful, but needs a lot of practice (my former teacher would cringe haha). I cannot even tell you how much I'm enjoying working in my new planner. I can't stop adding things! Just goes to prove that the love you put in is the love you get back! :)

FREEBIES

I wanted to share another freebie with you. I have recently started trying out the software Procreate on an iPad and I'm taking lots of tutorials to understand how it works. There is definitely a learning curve, but it's so much fun! This is my first mandala I created after watching a tutorial and I'm super happy with how it turned out. I hope you will enjoy adding it to your journals as well! It's the same version in black and in color. Enjoy! :)

A VIDEO YOU MISSED?

Do you feel stuck? Unmotivated to work in your junk journal? Maybe your current journal is not sparking any joy in you? That's ok! And it's probably easy and fun to fix. I had that feeling with my previous planner because I had stripped it down to the bare minimum and didn't put in any love. I wanted it to be functional and not require a lot of effort, which totally backfired and I felt no joy using it. The solution was to make a new planner from scratch reflecting my current style and adding all the things I currently enjoy. Now I can't stop myself from working in it and it makes me so happy. Give it a try!

FEATURING Shimah from India

In this section I like to present projects created by my viewers.

Here is some info Shimah sent me:

 I am Shimah and l live in India.

I got into junk journalling because of the love l had for art since childhood and l used to doodle a lot but one day l stumbled upon a lovely channel called 49dragonflies which led me to a beautiful universe of junk journalling and since then l never felt alone in my creative journey.

My favourite style is inclined towards vintage with a touch of modern style pastel shades. I like off-white and jade green. I also adore pastel shades of brown!

I tried making handmade stamps using a commendable video by Barbara (49dragonflies) CLICK HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL

I loved the idea of having your own handmade stamps and l thoroughly enjoyed the process. They were super easy to make and they stamp very well.

LOOKING FOR MORE INSPIRATION?

Thank you so much to all of you who have treated me to some coffee in the past couple of months! Your generosity helped me afford an iPad with the Procreate software. This enables me to make more digital art for you! You are the best!