About Jowilna
I currently live in the beautiful town of Hartbeespoort in the North West Province. A beautiful farm in Africa with wildlife next door and beautiful mountain views – a piece of paradise.
I started my paper journey officially in about 2000 as a shop assistant in a specialty paper store in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa after having studied Pastoral Psychology.
Whilst I have been playing with paper and creating my own masterpieces at home for friends and family since the age of 10, the shop environment added the vast knowledge of handmade and imported paper
as well as the common commercial types of paper. I also started teaching card making, stamping and altered art in store at the time.
Traveling abroad to trade shows like Paperworld in Frankfurt, Germany and CHA in America gave me an even broader insight into paper and its many uses.
This prompted a keen interest in stamping, especially in the craft industry where scrapbooking seems to be my favourite. I gained a lot of knowledge of the industry and was fortunate enough to spend time with the owners of Ranger Industries
at their premises making the journey even more significant.
I have since gone on to be editor of two scrapbooking and craft magazines as well as being a contributing editor to several other craft magazines. In 2007 Jayson and I started our own scrapbooking Magazine “imagine” The art of Scrapbooking. This was a dream come true but soon we were faced with the harsh reality of recession in South Africa. We switched over to a digital version for a while.
I realized my dream of working in publishing while sharing my passion and knowledge of stamping, card making and scrapbooking.
While My work had been published extensively in local magazines and on the internet as well as in international publications such as Somerset Studios,
Take Ten magazine, and Catch Up Issues I realized that there was an even bigger spectrum to publishing.
My love for publishing and sharing ideas, tips and techniques shifted me onto another career
path and saw the publication of my first book in 2008.
My second book was released in December 2010 and has been on the 4th best seller in South Africa
since its release. In less than three months it has been sold out and is now in its second print.
Scrapbooking has been a natural extension of my love for card making and stamping that also accommodates my love and passion for photography. I currently teach regular classes and host workshops around the country that mainly focuses on different techniques and stamping, and how to incorporate them into your scrapbooking and card making. I have taught alongside many well-known and incredibly creative teachers in the industry and traveling to Australia in February 2020 to teach for CreativeLive for Couture Creations – an amazing honor and privilege.
I currently design for various distributors to promote their products including Art By Marlene, The Wholesaler, Rosie’s Studio, Couture Creations, Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko, Kaisercraft.
I teach scrapbooking classes weekly to grow the industry and hope that I am making a difference in the lives of others through my talent.
Creating can be a wonderful journey and therapy- making sense of things where life cannot, and I have tuned my life into this philosophy.
I am truly blessed that God is my provider and that He blesses me with this life and creativity!
God the Father is my inspiration and source of creativity.