Balzer Designs

Portrait Bug Week: Day Two

Happy Tuesday! Today's project is a layout that I love. Supplies: Cardstock (Canson); Pens (Zig and Uniball Signo); Patterned Paper (Basic Grey) Click on the play button below to learn a method for creating your own handwritten titles! Finally, check out this article if you get a chance. It's all about how to be able to keep having fresh ideas for your crafty endeavors. Here's a quote from the last paragraph: "Knowing the basics allows you to apply them. Reading up allows you to see how other people find solutions to problems. Experimenting allows you to find solutions to your... Read more →

Portrait Bug Week: Day One

Yay! It's Portrait Bug Week! What is Portrait Bug week you ask? Well, every day from today through Sunday, I will be posting a project I made for Portrait Bug along with a tutorial on how to create some part of the page. First up, a fairly simple page. I'm going to show you how to create the rolled ribbon beads I used to create the photo frame. Supplies: Cardstock (Bazill); Paint (Winsor&Newton); Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels); Chipboard (American Crafts); Pens (Zig, Uniball Signo); Ink (Ranger Distress Ink); Miscellaneous: paper, fiber, and ribbon scraps Click the play button to watch... Read more →

Scrappy Happy

I stole this image from the Label Tulip site. That's me, third from the right, making an absolutely ridiculous face! When I found out that my lovely home for the past year (My Kits & Pieces) was closing its doors, I was devastated. I've been on several design teams, but this was the first board that really felt like home. So, I started looking around for a new place to hang my hat. I'm a daily visitor to SIS and 2Peas, but they're both so big. So, I started cruising around to see what I could find. At the same... Read more →

Homemade Gallery Wall

A picture frame in my living room broke today. I have long wanted to have a space to hang a few recent layouts and this seemed like the perfect opportunity not to fix the frame and to fill it with my own art instead! So, I made this quick and easy little "gallery wall." I just used what I had on hand and it took not time at all! (Although when I was hammering, a big stack of books from the shelf above did come crashing down onto my head. Ouch!) I used armature wire to create a long rod... Read more →

Three for Monday

Mmmmm...Fall is here in NYC and that makes me super happy! Perhaps it's from years of school, but Fall always feels the beginning of a new year. I love that! Of course, I'm buried under a pile of work right now, but I'm feeling ambitious. So, it's all alright. Sharing three things today... 1. Class starts today! My seven day design boot-camp, "The 7 Elements of Design," starts today. To read more, or join in, just click here. 2. I'm channeling Ali Edwards. I can find no other way to explain this page. I love it, but it's definitely a... Read more →

La La La - I Lost a Day

I lost a day. Don't know where it went, but yesterday was a total and complete loss. And somehow, that has thrown my entire week into an upside down mess of, "Wasn't that due yesterday?" Sigh. But, the beat moves on. First up, I taught at The City Quilter today. (I must tell you that Chris March - of Project Runway fame - came into the store while I was teaching, but they didn't tell me! I love him and I would have fallen over if I had actually gotten to say "hi!") I had a great class and they... Read more →

Today

Today was one of those magical New York City days when the weather is just right - clean and crisp and oh so pleasant. The City was humming and I was in high spirits. Maybe because I did some crafty shopping? I bought the new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and 2 books: I'm in an art journal kind of mood these days. I find myself wanting to try new things and bust out of my comfortable box. I feel like things are creatively changing for me. It's internal right now, but I hope to see some external manifestations soon.... Read more →

Just Let Me Scrapbook: September

I'm excited to share! I had a lot of fun with the month's products from Just Let Me Scrapbook. I'm trying to push myself to think outside the box and go one step further, you know? It's hard to see the dimension on the paisleys in this scan, but the center sections are popped up, which gives it a really nice active feeling. The layers consist of a mixture of patterned paper and doodling. I had a lot of fun scrunching and stapling all the ribbon on the perimeter of this layout. I'm not thrilled with the title lettering being... Read more →

Wacom Tablet: A Rave Review

This is a review that I wrote for Craft Critique. It appeared on that blog last week. Several months ago, I began digital scrapbooking. I kept reading about this Wacom Tablet thing that people were raving about. And then a gal I scrap with brought her laptop and tablet to a crop. She let me try it out. I felt like a three-year-old learning to hold a pencil for the first time, but I was hooked! I bought a Wacom Intuos 3 Graphics Tablet (6x8), which retails for $329. It is compatible with both Mac and PC (including Windows Vista).... Read more →

In Brief...

An art journal page: Also, I've been working on my upcoming class, "The Seven Elements of Design" and I discovered how to put in a live chat feature! Yay! So now that class will feature the ability to chat with me and your classmates in real time! How cool is that? Thanks for stopping by! Read more →