Jill Sprott inspired by Jenni Bowlin

All this month, the layouts featured on the JBS Mercantile blog have been, collectively, a homage to a person who has been a driving force in shaping our crafty sensibilities: Jenni Bowlin.

Jenni's page designs often feature asymmetrical balance and a single photo that focuses on family. There is often a central, simple yet bold accent and, at times, the repetition of a few smaller peripheral accents, like a button line, scallops, or row of tiny flowers. Her pages almost always include handwritten journaling, which enhances the homey feel and amplifies the emotional core that exists in every one of her layouts.

Here is my own attempt to pay tribute to the master (while also learning from her in the process):

My layout focuses on a treasured family member, my grandmother. The photo of her hands inspired me to reflect upon all that they have held and done in a single lifetime. Though Jenni's layouts often focus on family faces, this single photo says more about my grandmother than her face does. These hands tell her story.

The "simple yet bold" central accent is a green bow, and the peripheral accents include a row of pearl flowers.

There is usually some kind of vintage element on Jenni's pages, and so I worked in papers and accents that had a vintage feel, pulling a few items from a hodge podge book. There is a reason for the inclusion of the onion packet. It's not just random. My grandmother grew up on Maui, which boasts the sweetest onions in the entire world, and when I was a child, she used to sing me a song in Portuguese about going to the store to buy some onions and coming home to eat them all.

Jenni has a knack for seamlessly incorporating rub-ons, and I tried to follow suit, working in a gold floral rub-on as one of the layers on the page.

The handwritten journaling adds to the power of the words.

Trust Jenni to know what works, every time.