Balzer Designs

A Layout and A Link

Today's question: What's your favorite holiday goodie to make and share? Can you believe it? This is my very first scraplift! I got an e-mail asking for people to lift layouts by Marci Lambert, the founder of Layout-a-Day at Two Peas in honor of her birthday. I've never scraplifted, for the same reason that I don't use sketches. I have a lot of trouble following somebody else's design sense. But, I have always loved this one layout by Marci. So, here is my interpretation. It's 100% digital. I had a lot of fun creating the background (though it did end... Read more →

Playing Catch Up

I got super busy and didn't have a chance to post my 25 Days Until Christmas pages. So, here they are... 7. What's your favorite holiday tradition? 8. What's on the top of your tree? 9. Do you have a nativity displayed through the holidays? 10.Candy Canes, traditional or flavored? Or Chocolate Covered Cherries? I've mixed some art journal pages with some digital pages. I'm having fun answering these questions and just playing with different techniques and ideas. I think I get into a bit of a rut sometime -- defining the term "scrapbook layout" very narrowly. It's memory keeping... Read more →

A Project for You and a Layout from Me

Every Tuesday, Serendipity Scrapbooks showcases a technique. Here is one that I posted for them this week: You can create an adorable mini album out of a single 8.5x11" sheet of paper! It's so easy! 1. Score your paper into 2.75x2.75” squares. There will be a .25x11” strip leftover. 2. Decorate your pages, being conscious of the page orientation (see the diagram above). 3. Cut off the .25x11” strip. 4. Cut two slices following the diagram below. 5. Fold your book as indicated by the arrows (P = peak and V = valley). 6. Glue pages 1-10 together. They should... Read more →

December 5: Do you hang mistletoe?

So, here's my layout for today: I pieced two pieces of Basic Grey together for the background. The journaling card is something I created in Photoshop. As for the photo, well that's me and my husband (when he was just the guy I was dating) way back in 1996 (I think). The page is about how we started dating (almost a year later) because we kissed under some mistletoe at a party in December 1995. Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Day Four: Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree?

Here's my layout for question #4... As part of my whole fascination with hybrid scrapbooking, this is another hybrid layout. I created the background in Photoshop, typed the journaling and printed it out. The tree is a brush by Sande Krieger that I printed out, cut around, and adhered to the layout. I drew the gift boxes with my Wacom tablet, printed, cut, and adhered them. Also, I had a couple things picked up by Ready Set Create today. It's an ezine. I hadn't heard of it before, but I got a free issue that I really enjoyed (300 pages... Read more →

Day Three: What's Your Favorite Holiday Dish?

So, I took some liberties with today's question. My page is more about cooking than about any specific dish. I discovered another new use for my Wacom tablet! Journaling on photos! This way, I can easily erase or change what I've written without ruining the photo! Pretty cool, right? Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Day Two: Hot chocolate or Egg Nog?

A quick art journal page. I sketched the cup in pencil, then went over it with pen. I erased the pencil lines and then used Walnut Ink TintZ to color the layout. I used watercolor paints to create the title and journaled with a white pen. Love my Uniball Signo! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

25 Days Till Christmas Challenge...

So, a lovely scrapper named Sophia posted a blogging challenge over at Two Peas in a Bucket today. Here's a little blogging inspiration for the next few weeks while we count down until the big day! This year, rather than one big meme about Christmas, use the questions below as a prompt. Answer one each day of December. It doesn't have to be your entire entry, add it to whatever you are posting. I'm posting them on this first day of December and will answer one on each designated day. I will also ask each day in the month. A... Read more →