Balzer Designs

New Kenner Road Digital Team!

I'm posting from Cleveland where we are currently being walloped with snow!  Though my husband tells me that New York City is getting it much worse!  I have been sick like you can't believe for the past week.  It has been quite an issue of mind-over-matter to get the taping of Scrapbook Memories TV done!  But, it is done.  And I am planning to sleep for about fourteen hours straight. 

Before I forget, the response was overwhelming to last Friday's question of which layout do you like better?  Everyone chose the second layout, including me!  It needed that little something to ground the circle and focus the eye.  And, as one commenter pointed out, to make the bump out of the photo (and the resulting dent) make sense!

Also, I wanted to point out this really great argument for better journaling.  Couldn't have said it better myself.  I know I've said it before, and I'll say it again: A picture is worth a thousand words, but everyone's thousand is different.  Share yours.

In any case, I will post some behind-the-scenes info about the new season of Scrapbook Memories TV as soon as I can.  In the meantime...

Two *amazing* designers have been brought into Kenner Road to form the brand new "Kenner Road Digital Team."

Cathy Pascual has long been a favorite digi girl of mine.  Her work is soft and beautiful and wonderfully creative (plus she had the cutest daughter)!  Here's an example of her beautiful work:

This layout reminds me a little bit of Ali Edwards' work (a style that I love - well, me and everyone else!)

The second girl joining the team is Diana Martin.   She scraps paper, digi, and hybrid.  One of the things that's way cool about her digi work is that she doesn't try to imitate paper layouts.  Her digi layouts are an entirely different creature.  Take a peek:

And here's a layout she did using Kenner Road's digital kits:

Here are a few of the kits that are available for purchase now:

And if you're not a digi person, no worries!  Dina has a great tutorial right here that's all about printing them out and using the elements like any paper embellishment! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Planes, Trains, and Pencil Lines

Just hopped off an Amtrak train from upstate New York.  I took lots of iphone photos that I'm planning on turning into a cool little mini album.  Just have to find the time!  I'm just stopping at my apartment long enough to change suitcases and pick up projects and then it's off to the airport and Cleveland, OH to tape Scrapbook Memories TV and Quilting Arts TV.  I'm having one of those hazy, blurry, hurry-up-and-wait kind of days.  

I'm hoping to blog a lot from the road this week.  Hotel rooms in strange cities do make for lovely places to sit and ponder, don't you think?  

I'm feeling a little un-ready for filming.  Nervous.  Anxious.  I haven't been sleeping well, plagued by anxiety dreams.  I'm not really a stage fright person and I've been on both these shows before, so what's up?  And I wish I knew the answer.  But there it is.  I'm unusually tense and bothered and scared.  Even now, just writing about heading off to Ohio, I can feel my heart pounding and the butterflies banging around in my stomach.  Perhaps it's a good sign?  My father always used to tell me that nerves almost always lead to a good performance.  Hard to believe that right now.  But hopefully I'll calm down and breathe deeply and banish my sweaty palms at the right time.

In the  meantime, I wanted to share a layout I did for Pencil Lines.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my interpretation:

I used Studio Calico's "Baker's Dozen" kit to create the layout.  Here are a few more details:

• Using a shaped piece of paper as a basic guide, I cut two different patterned papers into mirror images to create the center shape.
• The patterned paper on the left wasn’t contrasting with the background patterned paper enough, so I inked the edges with blue and brown ink.
• I stitched down the center shape, the photos, and the journaling card.  Stitching is such an easy way to add texture and dimension to your pages.  I'm becoming a junkie, I tell you!
• Here's a tip: If you have messy, blurry, photos (like I did), reduce the size, raise the contrast, and no one will notice!  

Check out the rest of the team's work right here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Randomly....

I've got some random bits and pieces to share today.

1. Here's a quick card I made for the hubs for Valentine's Day:

(I didn't realize that little birdie was even on the table until I looked at this photo!  How cute!)

2. Jennifer McGuire had a link on her blog to the product below:

It's a storage cubby for pens, which are supposed to be stored on their sides.  I love it!  Totally genius.  It's from a company called Studio 3 Solutions.  They say that a single tower (one five compartment section) will hold 120 Copic style markers (24 per cubby).  I'm seriously tempted to buy some...the only thing stopping me is my lack of counter space.  Right now all my pens are stored away in a drawer and I just don't think the cubbies would fit in there.

3. To answer a question from Monday's post:

On the party 33 layout (Happy Birthday, too!), how did you make the dotted background at the top? Inking or spraying over some kind of stencil?

Posted by: Betheroo | February 15, 2010 at 09:43 AM

I used a mask to keep everything contained to the same area, but the dots were made using punchinella.  It's sequin waste and basically you use it as a stencil.  

4. The "official" announcement is up on the Scrapbook Memories TV website:

New this season:

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer appears as resident artist and interviews other designers on the “artist to artist segment.”

I'm really excited and looking forward to knowing what you think of the new "artist-t0-artist" segment!  Scrapbook Memories TV airs here in Manhattan on channel 25 on Mondays at 3:30pm.  You can check here to see when it airs in your area!

5. I've got another before and after layout for you.

Which one do you like better and why?  I'll give my opinion after the weekend! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Because I'm a Tease

I've been hunched over a sewing machine all day.  Well, a sewing machine, an ironing board, and my paints.  I'm preparing to tape two segments on Quilting Arts TV (PBS).  I'm not quite done and things are in bits and pieces, but here are some peeks at what's to come!

Exciting stuff and totally new techniques for me!  Experimenting and finding new techniques is probably my most favorite thing to do!  And now it's back to the sewing machine for me!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Portrait Drawing: Class Five

I did two drawings during class yesterday.  After about 5 minutes, I had this:

Over the next hour I developed the portrait and ended up with this:

Here's a photo with the model (though he removed his hand just as I was snapping the photo):

Today's drawing was tough because the model moved a lot.  Previous to this, our models have stayed very still.  It was hard to get an accurate portrait, but the teacher told me to lighten up.  He told me to worry less about it being accurate and more about getting a pleasing picture.  So, for my second drawing, I decided to approach it a bit differently.

After about five minutes:

And then ten more minutes:

It's almost as developed as the first drawing (which took 5 times as long to do) and I like the energetic feeling of the line a lot more than the careful line of the first drawing.

Lesson learned.

I need to let go.  Stop holding on to the rules and the "rights" and the "wrongs" and just draw.  The second picture is less accurate as a portrait, but I think it's more pleasing as a picture.

Thanks for stopping by!