Balzer Designs

HUGE news to share!

I've been bursting!  Dying to share!  Rosy and Linda over at My Kits & Pieces have asked me to design some acrylic stamps for them!  Eeeeeek!  The first ones come out this June and I can't wait!  I might be a little too excited!  One of my big goals (you know those "someday" daydream type goals?) is to design product (digital kits, paper, stamps, etc.) and this is such an exciting opportunity to do that!  I'm just over the moon!

Thank you for letting me share my excitement with all of you!  And, here are some quick projects I made with the beautiful March kit from My Kits & Pieces, which should be available on March 1!

I know this layout (above)  is a little weird for me -- so linear -- but I had a great story to share!  Here's the journaling:

He’s the Lucy to my Charlie Brown.

I’m not sure why I trust him. Why I keep going back for more punishment!? And yet, every time he tees up that ball, I go to kick it. And sure enough he pulls it out at the last moment. I’m the big sister, shouldn’t I be the one mercilessly teasing him?

Last Christmas, he gave me a “printer pack” for the Epson PictureMate. It has ink and paper for this little photo printer. I said, “Oooo! Where’ the printer?” He said, “Oh, I couldn’t afford the printer.” Used to his tricks, I said, “No way! I know you wouldn’t give me the ink and paper without the printer!” Nonetheless, he insisted that he did.

After much pushing, he finally capitulated and went upstairs. He came down with a box. I eagerly opened it, an expectant smile on my face.

It was empty.

He laughed and laughed. And so did everyone else. I sulked, but decided not to push it. It would only make him keep going. When we were finished opening presents, he said, “Okay. Do you want the printer?” My face lit up! “Of course!” He went upstairs and came down with a wrapped package. I tore off the wrapping.

It was empty.

He laughed and laughed. And so did everyone else. I refused to play into it. He said, “Okay, okay. I’ll really get it.” I said, “I’m not interested.”

About an hour later, he came into the kitchen to apologize. He was very contrite and brought a box with him. I stuck my nose in the air and refused to open it. “Aw, c’mon Julie! I’m sorry. Really, here it is.” After a few minutes of my refusing to open it, he waked away and left the box. I couldn’t stand it. I opened the box.

It was empty.

He burst back into the kitchen laughing and laughing. Both my husband and my Mother joined him, tears running down their faces.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

I did get the printer eventually. But, man oh man, I kept falling for it! And this is not an isolated incident! I trust him every single time! I know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” But, I can’t help but think the reason I keep trusting him is because I love him and I know that he loves me too.

And finally, here's a little wall hanging I made:

Thanks for stopping by!

Kitchen Sink Stamps Rock!

I am in love.

Last year, I had the opportunity (through Craft Critique) to review two sets of acrylic stamps by Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I gave them a rave because I think the quality is amazing and I totally dig the designs. Well, Maria Colosimo, the fabulous owner/designer of Kitchen Sink Stamps offered me a guest design team gig and I jumped at the chance to play with her fabulous stamps!  She sent me three amazing sets of stamps and I had a very good time!

First up, I chose "Playful Christmas."  As you can see from the image on the far left, it's a very fun set of Christmas Tree stamps.  I love how you can layer the patterned triangles over the plain tree bases.  And Maria includes so many fun extras like the stars, the "happy holidays" and "peace to all" sentiments as well as the "to" and "from" options.  However, it's February and there's not a Christmas tree to be seen.  What's a girl to do?  I want stamps that can work for all the seasons!  So, here's what I did...

I like the way the stamps create paths -- like when you shovel snow.

The next set I worked with was the center set, called "Playful Frames and Journaling."  It's a HUGE set of stamps.  Not that the stamps are huge, but there's so much to choose from!  Maria is a genius!  She gives you the pieces to put together, which just provides you with so many options!  I can use just the journaling lines, just the frames, just pieces of the frame.  It's awesome!  For my first layout with this set, I went pretty traditional....

I started with a blank sheet of white paper.  I drew a grid of 2.25” squares.  I added eight photos and stamped three journaling blocks.  The title is made from vinyl stickers I bought at Staples.  The remaining four blocks are a combination of doodling and small star and circle stamps.  The red border is stamped (the set contains corners and strips in two sizes) and then doodled.

This next one is more out of the box...

I was playing around with the stamps and discovered that you could make words out them!  How freakin' cool is that?!  Maria provides you with curves, straight lines (in two sizes), and corner stamps IN  THREE PATTERNS (circles, stars and flowers).  WOW!  I'm so in love.

Finally, I dug down to find my inner girly-girl and played with the set on the far right, "3 Step Daisy."  This is the coolest concept ever!  The set contains a daisy (in three sizes) made up of three layers.  I need absolutely zero artistic skill to layer these flowers together and create these über cool multi-colored flowers!  There are 2 step leaves too (both a single leaf and a double leaf)!  I love that this set has many sayings in an absolutely adorable handwritten font.  The sayings include: "Flowers of true friendship never fade." and "Memories are held in our hearts forever."  Maria also includes an adorable "handmade for you with love" stamp.  Here's what I did....

I really had such a great time working with these stamps.  I know that I will be using them over and over again!  They're just so versatile!

Thanks for stopping by!

Photoshop Elements Tutorial

Next Monday, my four week course on using Photoshop Elements for Hybrid Scrapbooking will begin at My Creative Classroom.  I thought that I would share a quick tutorial from the classroom to give you a taste of the class in case you'd like to sign up.  It's a QuickTime video.  If you don't have QuickTime, you can download it for free.  If you're having trouble viewing the video, try using Firefox as your browser. 

You can pause and rewind the tutorial as needed by using the controls at the bottom of your screen.  If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me!

January and February at Just Let Me Scrapbook

Just Let Me Scrapbook has a brand new website (and she just uploaded a ton of fabulous American Crafts' goodies).  Here are my January and February design team projects:

Finally, I just wanted to point out a great article for scrapbooking newbies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ten From Photo-a-Day

After almost two months of doing Photo-a-Day, here are ten things I've learned:

1. I am embarrassed to take photos in public.
2. Your flash is not always evil.
3. I need to have my eyes checked (or my manual focus is broken, I think it's the former rather than the latter).
4. I think like a scrapbooker and not a photographer. (I think about the story I'm going to tell about the photograph rather than the story the photograph is going to tell.)
5. Not editing my photos is killing me!
6. My camera is not as delicate as I thought.
7. I am using one sixteenth of my camera's cool features (if that).
8. The lighting in my apartment stinks.
9. Have I mentioned that I'm embarrassed to take photos in public?
10. Know that I was going to upload the photos to the internet has definitely made me censor myself (unflattering pics of people or taking photos of other people's kids, etc.).

How about you?  Have you taken the challenge?  How are you doing?