If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. 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! As I mentioned before, when we were at our little Art House retreat... Read more →

For my first canvas of 2014, I painted over this abstract: Here's a process photo: And it evolved into this: It's collage and stenciling and painting all mixed together and I love it! It's a more sophisticated version of some work I've previously done. I'm happy to see that I continue to evolve. I hope I always keep evolving and changing as an artist! Here the painting is, hanging in my apartment (ignore the mess, please): It's a large-ish canvas: 30x30 and so the face is larger than real life and I think that makes it quite powerful. The size... Read more →

Today I've got a quick round up of things that I keep meaning to share and then don't. So, I figured I'd collect them all into one big post. :) 1. Top Ten Things We Learned in Julie Balzer's Workshop Check out this awesome post from Jenny Doh about the mixed media collage class I taught at her studio. I'm still busy editing photos, but will have a full report of my own very soon! 2. How To Make Paper Feathers for a Heart Wreath This is a tutorial I wrote for I {Heart} Paper magazine and it's now online!... Read more →

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes yesterday! Much appreciated!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm a total instagram addict! Here's a peek at some of the art I've posted over the past few months: I love the immediacy of sharing photos through instagram. I create it and I share it right away! The other night I was looking through my instagram history and it was really fascinating to see how my art (and my life) have changed over time. I love that I have that record in an easy-to-digest photo timeline. And, of... Read more →

My Mom is here in NYC visiting me because today is my birthday. Yesterday we were sitting in my living room and she said, "You know, I think you're starting to look like that painting." About a year ago I was snowed in in Colorado. I was there for the photo shoot for my book, Carve Stamp Play. My friend Ronda kindly took me in, and while hanging out with her I created this face with my beloved Neocolor IIs: It has been happily displayed in my living room for the past year. I walk past it every day and... Read more →

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. 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! In December I shared a post called "How I Start." In that post... Read more →

Thanks for your enthusiasm about my Ranger Designer Challenge Project! So many of you asked for the how-to that I decided to put together this quick step-by-step tutorial. Supplies: Embossing Folders and a Die Cut Machine (not shown) Distress Paints Metal Tape (from the hardware store -- it's actual metal) Fun Foam (I like the adhesive backed kind) Black Permapaque Scissors Sandpaper Apply the metal tape to the fun foam. Slightly overlap the pieces as needed and then trim the excess tape away. Cut the foam/metal tape into smaller pieces, so they'll fit inside the embossing folders. Apply Distress Paint,... Read more →

I was honored to be asked by Tim Holtz to participate in the Ranger Designer Challenge. (You can see all of the entries on the Ranger Facebook page.) We were sent a canvas board and a selection of Tim's Distress Paints. The only instructions were that the board had to hang vertically, your project had to stay within the boundaries of the board, and that you needed to show off the Distress Paints. Here's what I came up with: I wanted to showcase the Distress Paints blendability, how they work on non-porous surfaces (like metal), and use as many colors... Read more →

After CHA, I wrangled three friends into renting a house for a few days so that we could sit around and make some art together. The night we arrived at the house, we piled all of our luggage in the entry way and it was absurd. Four women for two days with fifteen bags. Admittedly, we had all been traveling and teaching and had plenty of excuses, but wow! All of that luggage meant that we had to rent this beast... ...just to deal with the luggage. It was hilarious for the four of us to be driving around in... Read more →

One of the best things about having my friend Nathalie move closer is that we can now do fun things, like teach together! Nathalie and I will be teaching a one-day mixed media collage class at The Ink Pad here in New York City. Here's the official description: In this one-day workshop Nathalie and Julie will share their favorite techniques for experimenting with paint, stenciling, layering, and composing pleasing collages. Nathalie and Julie’s approaches are different but similar and this is a unique opportunity to get both points-of-view in the same class! I know that we're both super excited to... Read more →