Balzer Designs

A New Stamp

Last night I carved up a new stamp:

I designed it so that it could be printed in a repeating pattern two different ways:

I'm totally loving the way it turned out! 

In honor of Halloween I thought I'd make a little Halloween tag using this new stamp:

I'm looking forward to carving many more of these repeating pattern stamps!

Thanks for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day: Flickr Inspiration

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, all the posts can be found here.  Please read this post first.  There is a flickr group for sharing right here.  Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day!  No need to finish anything or even like it.  Just play! Linky list for October is right here.  I'll post the list for November on November 1.

Where has this year gone?  Can you believe that October is almost over?!  Eeek!  November and December can be challenging months to art journal every day in with all the holiday hullabaloo.  But if you're even thinking of doing a December Daily album, why not do a December Daily art journal?  I'll be doing one!

And if you're trying to psych yourself up to start an art journal or pick your art journal back up, how about some lovely inspiration?  I don't know how many of you peek in at the Art Journal Every Day flickr group, but it is just amazing and filled with so much good stuff.  So I thought I'd share a few of the gorgeous pieces that caught my eye. 

• I've included a link to that art journaler's flickr account. 
• The text in italics is whatever that art journaler wrote as a description of the photo.
• The un-italicized text is some commentary from me.

Let's get started!

By sandravandergeest:

The cover for my CJ, themed grids.  Made of a piece of cerealbox, aluminium tape, magic mesh and acrylic paint.  Inspired by this YouTube video from RachO113:

A reminder to use more than paper and paint in your journal!

And another one from Sandra:

An A5-sized collage I made for a circle journal, theme Quotes.

I love what imagination mixed with some collage and some pens can do!

By janellcl:

Tiles at the Beach House: Everywhere we looked there seemed to be tiles in Denia and Valencia. Used as simple decorative borders throughout houses or as street signs-they were all around us.

I love journals that are made up of drawings of the stuff around you!

By Marit's Paper World:

My son found a room in the city he studies, and will leave the house next week. It obvious was on my mind this week... I transferred a photo of him onto my weekly page, but it came out blur. I then outlined the image with a black marker and coloured his clothes with Caran D'Ache crayons. It's hard to capture his expression with just one or two lines, so his face came out a bit 'weird'. To me it still looks like my son though!

Marit's bold white writing and the cool image of her son combine to make this a stunning spread!

By sandeesart:

OUCH!!! Too long a break between journaling pages. I feel like I'm starting all over again. This disappointed me a little, but it's in my HeART journal and there she will stay. Background is metallic water colors, acrylics, Staz-on, hand painted deli paper, yada, yada, yada...it's pretty small; 2x4 inches, maybe......

It doesn't take much to get back into the swing of things.  I'm glad Sandee did with this small piece of art and you can too!

By NolwennP:

Butterfly cut with my Silhouette machine, used as a stencil with spray ink.

Art journal pages don't have to complicated and layered.  I love Nolwenn's simple and elegant take.

By Betheroo1952:

What fun to have some holiday themed pages in your journal!

By Nathalie Nayer:

I love the textured red and the red/grey combo.

By elvie studio:

another page in my pottery barn "wish list" journal

When you're drawing in your journal why not draw from a catalog?  Or any photo?

By marciadotcom:

Ooodles of delicious doodles with some bright colors!  Yum!  There's so much to love about this page!

By maricella2010:

Of course I love and adore all the layers of stenciling on this page!  Not to mention the colors!

There are so many different people doing so many different things in the flickr pool. Take a stroll through and get inspired. You can do this art journaling thing, whatever your style may be!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sizzix Blog Hop: Die Cut Your Own Foam Stamps

I'm delighted to be participating in another Sizzix Blog Hop featuring dies designed by Eileen Hull.  To see all the projects in the hop, simply click the "hop forward" link on the logo below:

Today's hop features the Sizzix Bigz Die - Flowers, 3-D #2:

You can use this die to create these cool three-dimensional flowers:

(image from the Sizzix website)

But you can also use this die to create a collection of cool foam stamps!

 

Simply die cut a piece of craft foam and glue it to a thicker piece of craft foam and you have a fun stamp!

I used the more scallopy of the two flowers and the small flower to stamp out this background paper:

Which I used as the background for this layout:

I hand cut the title:

And I made a dimensional flower using the die, book pages, and some watercolor:

You can see that I used two Balzer Designs for TCW stencils: the Leaf Frame (for the leaves) and the Herringbone (hiding behind the flower) -- both in 12x12.

This is a great die with lots of possibilities.  Hop on to the next blog to see lots more creativity! 

And be sure to visit the Oh My Crafts blog if you'd like a chance to win a die!

Thanks for stopping by!

Fifth Anniversary is Wood

My husband and I recently celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.  When I looked up the traditional gift for a fifth wedding anniversary I discovered that it's wood.  What a lucky coincidence that I was reading one of my favorite blogs and saw a piece of art for sale that is made from wood!

It's a beautiful piece of art from Tammy Smith (her etsy shop, her blog), whose gritty style I just adore!  And it's huge!  Almost three feet tall and even better in person than in the photos above (both are photos Tammy took of the piece).

Here's what she wrote about the piece:

The businessman paces in his cubicle, feeling like a cog in the machine. Tiny sprouts of wings are just starting to show on his back-the question remains if he will fly free one day. Mixed media with clay, found metal gears, padlock, wire on found wood-14" x 31".

I saw it and loved it and just felt that it was perfect for my husband.  You may recall that I mentioned that he started his own law firm at the beginning of this year.  And he is definitely now soaring free of the cage!  I have to confess to being rather prodigiously proud of him.

Plus, I love being able to support a fellow artist when I need to give a present.  Be sure to check out Tammy's etsy shop and blog for lots more eye candy (I particularly love this piece of hers)

Thanks for stopping by!

More From The Art Students League

WARNING: There are drawings and paintings of female nudity in this post.  Please do not read any further if this is an issue for you.  Thank you.

I thought I would share some more photos from my adventures at The Art Students League:

The left side of the painting felt empty, so I sketched in a profile of the other model.  I liked it, so I added some paint.

And here begins the 'battle of the nose" -- just can't seem to get it to work.  Sigh.








And at the beginning of week four, we got two new models.  This time I parked myself in front of the female model.
 





I am most proud of that horrible hand.  Man, hands are so very hard to draw!

I moved onto painting after just two days of sketching.

Something about this painting just wasn't sitting well with me.  So I changed it up:

And one dark and creepy image led to another:

Very raw and unfinished.  And honestly I was very frustrated and stumped after a week.  And then I realized that it was because the model simply wasn't inspiring me.  I don't know if it's because she has her eyes closed or what, but I wasn't feeling the creative muse. 

I did catch the model during her break time with a book and drew this sketch in about five minutes:

And it's my favorite of all the sketches and paintings of her.  Nonetheless I left class feeling very frustrated.  So I skipped about four days of classes.  And then I decided to come back with a better attitude and "make it work."

The model was out sick the day I came back!  So we had a substitute model and I did these two drawings (the first photo is the first drawing in-progress):

Almost looks like two different guys, doesn't it?  I was experimenting with two different drawing styles.  The first one is a bit more controlled, really working on getting the proportion right and a very strong resemblance.  The second drawing was more intuitive and about the general feeling of the model.

I went back for one more day with the model-who-doesn't-inspire-me.  I did a bunch of sketches and decided to try putting her hair up and adding some flowers to her hair.

Wasn't loving it, so I added her real hair, but kept the imaginary flowers.

The instructor came over to help me at this point and told me that I had more than enough paint on my canvas and needed to start toning the image so that the lines were softer and less harsh.  He painted on my canvas and softened (and darkened) things:

And although I believe that my personal style is much more about hard lines and not soft gradations, I decided to try toning things.  After all, as I'm always preaching, class is a great place to experiment and learn to love new things!

I'm not sure if it's done or not.  And I'm not sure how I feel about it.  But I can see the difference in the drawings I did of the substitute model the day before and this painting.  Just another reminder about how important inspiration is. 

Before I go, I thought I'd share this silly photo.  One day, during class, I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror...

Hmmmmm...charcoal on my forehead, nose, chin, and neck (and paint all over my hands).  What a mess!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Week (or so) That Was

On Friday I flew to San Antonio, TX. 

We changed gates several times, so I got a really good look at JFK.

On Saturday I drove the three-and-a-half hours to Houston, TX, taught a card class (got in trouble for swearing)...

...and ran some make-and-takes that evening.

On Sunday I demoed stencil techniques from 10am-5pm...

...and then drove back to San Antonio, TX.

On Monday I taught a fabric collage quilt class at Crafty Girls Workshop in San Antonio.

There were lots of dirty hands.

On Tuesday I flew home to New York City and taught Art Journaling Club at The Ink Pad.

On Wednesday it rained and rained and the wind blew and blew and my umbrella had to be thrown away by the end of the day.  I bought 14 pairs of scissors and taught a Vision Board class for The Learning Annex.

On Thursday I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more.  The good news is that I found some things I had been looking for, like this painting:

How big a mess does it have to be for me to lose a painting?!

On Friday I taught "Surface Design with Stencils" at The City Quilter. 

Nat and her husband Jim arrived from Germany (via New Jersey and Cape Cod) and we ate steak and stayed up way too late talking.

On Saturday Nat and I taught our "Book of Techniques" class.

And on Sunday, glorious Sunday, I rested. 

And man, was it good.

Thanks for stopping by!

Winners!

The winner of the Clouds Stencil in 6x6 and 12x12 is...

And the winner of the Rain Stencil in 6x6 and 12x12 is...

Congratulations, ladies!  Send me your mailing address and I'll get those stencils out to you!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Art Journal Every Day: Make Your Own Collage Papers

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, all the posts can be found here.  Please read this post first.  There is a flickr group for sharing right here.  Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day!  No need to finish anything or even like it.  Just play! Linky list for October is right here.

One of the first things that I did when I got the prototypes of the stencils I designed for The Crafter's Workshop was to test drive them by creating tons of gorgeous collage papers!

Not only did this give me a chance to play with the stencils and experiment with how they worked/looked, but I've been using this collage paper in lots of projects for the past several months including my art journal.  Here's a spread that originally started as "just a background." 

But the more I look at it, the more I'm thinking that it's already complete.

Creating collage papers outside of your journal is a wonderful low stress way to experiment.  There's no pressure to get it "right" or make something "perfect."  And they make creating a journal page so darn easy.  Just rip and adhere and you've got lots of color and pattern!

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Designer: Once Upon a Sketch (again)

I wanted to share my second guest layout for the sketch and journaling challenge site Once Upon a Sketch.  (Find the first one here.)

Sketch:

Journaling Instructions:

A most embarrassing/awkward/uncomfortable moment. Journal at least 2 sentences on a moment that you will remember for all the wrong reasons. Examples: something you said/did, something your child said, something your pet did etc.

My interpretation:

I really love the separated photos on this layout.  I tend to clump my photos all together and so I'm digging this.  You can see that I used orange to unite the two halves (strip, asterik, title).  And I used the Julie's Perfect Circles stamp to create the background pattern on the layout.

Once Upon a Sketch has some great prizes they're offering, so be sure to check out the challenge for a chance to win!

Thanks for stopping by!

30 Days in Your Journal: What Do I Need?

By far the most frequently asked question about my new online class 30 Days in Your Journal is, "What supplies do I need?"

I haven't released a full supply list for a couple of reasons:

1. One of the focuses of the class is on using what you already have.  That's why every single lesson comes with a guide to possible supply substitutions.
2. We are using an enormous range of products.  I would hate to have you go out and buy a product, then see it demonstrated in class, and not even like the way it works!  My intention is for you to see the product in action and then decide whether you want to buy it, or make a substitution.
3. I think a big supply list is intimidating.  I want this class to be as friendly and relaxed as humanly possible.

All of that said, here are the few supplies it would be hard to find substitutes for:

That said:

• Use StazOn instead of Archival Ink.  You just need an ink that dries quickly and won't run when it comes in contact with water.
• Use Sakura Pigma Microns instead of Pitt Pens.  Like the ink pad, you need a pen that dries quickly, writes on lots of surfaces and won't run when it comes in contact with water.
• Skip the heat tool and patiently wait for things to dry.
• Instead of tube watercolors and a watercolor palette, use a set of pan watercolors.
• Instead of tube watercolors and a watercolor palette, use a set of acrylic paints and a paper plate.
• In terms of the brushes and the gesso and the tape and the journal and the stamps, the brand doesn't matter, that's just what I use.

I hope that helps answer your questions!

 ---

P.S. Had a great time in Houston and San Antonio, but I've got a crazy week, so I'll share a bit about my trip next week.