Today's stencil hop is by far the biggest one yet! But man, the talent is going to blow you away! Here are the six amazing women who will dazzle you today: Diana Trout: Diana is the author of Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression. Her colorful blog is full of journal pages and a smattering of stitching and crochet. Don't miss her free online Watercolor Primer or her hour-long instructional DVD called "Playful Paper Backgrounds." Karen Grunberg: Karen is one of those "do it all" women. She works for Google, has two adorable boys, exercises, blogs daily, is on... Read more →

Project Life is a memory keeping system developed by Becky Higgins. Using divided page protectors you are encouraged to capture the mundane bits and pieces of life day-by-day. To read my previous posts on Project Life, please visit these links: January 4, 2012: Project Life & Days of the Week Stamps January 19, 2012: Project Life: Keeping it Low Key March 5, 2012: My Experiences with Project Life March 6, 2012: Custom Page Protectors I'm just shy of six months into the monumental task of recording daily life week-by-week. And I thought I'd share some thoughts on the process. I... Read more →

Can I call it "Spring Cleaning" when Summer is virtually upon us? I thought a bit of sprucing up on the old blog was called for. As you can see, a new header! I've also moved some stuff around and deleted a lot of extraneous content in order to try and make visiting an easy and intuitive experience. If you'd like a guided tour of the changes, watch the video below: Balzer Designs Blog Tour May 2012 from Julie Balzer on Vimeo. I hope that you like the changes. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping... Read more →

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. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! Today we have a guest post from Cathie Reed. Watch as she uses a collection of simple... Read more →

Hooray! Stencil hop time is here again! I've got four massively talented ladies lined up to wow you: Wilna Furstenberg: Wilna is someone whose work I've admired for about as long as I can remember. She is on the design team for October Afternoon and a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket, where she also sells lovely digital kits with a painterly feel. Tammy Tutterow: Tammy's shabby chic style is so beautiful and delicate and her blog is constantly full of wonderful step-by-step tutorials. She is the Design Team and Community Coordinator for Sizzix and teaches across the... Read more →

Several months ago a box arrived at my apartment. When I opened the box a styrofoam head was staring up at me. Very odd. I double checked the address. It was definitely addressed to me. I checked the sender. It was a name I recognized and so I sent her an e-mail: Hey Barb: I hope we're not re-enacting a scene from the Godfather, but I got a head in a box from you. Am I supposed to be doing something with it? :) J She wrote back in the affirmative, jogging my memory about a conversation we had had... Read more →

Thank you so much for all your kind comments on yesterday's post! I'm so excited about the stamps and stencils and I'm delighted to hear that you are too! Now onto today's post.... It's time for our May Book Club! Just as a reminder, each month I choose a crafty book from my bookshelf and create something inspired by the book. I hope you'll be inspired to do the same. This month I chose The Painted Quilt. This book was written by a mother and daughter duo: Linda and Laura Kemshall. And though it is a book intended for quilters,... Read more →

In March The Crafter's Workshop and Impression Obsession quietly debuted a line of six new matching stencils and stamp sets designed by yours truly. And now they are finally available for sale and so I am finally able to scream all about them from the rooftops! Clear Stamp Bird Set 6x6 Layered Bird Scene Clear Stamp Flowers Set 6x6 Layered Flowers Stencil Clear Stamp Circles Set 6x6 Layered Circles Stencil Clear Stamp Butterflies Set 6x6 Butterflies Stencil Clear Stamp Tickets 6x6 Layered Tickets 6x6 Rubber Stamp Circles 6x6 Layered Beads Template InLinkz.com I'm so so so so proud of this... Read more →

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. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! You may recall a post from me many months ago called "Letter Ladies" where I shared my... Read more →