Balzer Designs

Exploring Ken Oliver's Color Burst

The good folks at The Ink Pad here in New York City were kind enough to send me a set of 6 of Ken Oliver's Color Burst powders. The package was a complete surprise! I had asked Barbara, the store manager, about them many months ago (I had heard a lot about the Color Burst powders after CHA, but had not yet seen them in action) and she had said that she thought they were cool and I would like them. Imagine my surprise and delight when they arrived packaged with a note that said, "You had expressed interest in... Read more →

ScanNCut Foam Stamps

You guys, making foam stamps with your ScanNCut is a super duper easy peasy breeze! Watch the video for the how-to: Here are the stamps I made in the video, along with the doodle I scanned in to create the large and small "pods on a stick" stamps: Make stamps from your own drawings, clip art, the built-in designs in the machine...whatever you want! I love to use foam stamps for Gelli Printing or any other painty application. And now that I have such a quick and easy way of making unique foam stamps, I might quit cleaning them because... Read more →

Round Gelli + Stamps

Hey you guys! Today I have a quick tutorial video on creating really cool collage paper using the new 4" round Gelli Plate and Balzer Designs stamps. Hand Carved Flowers Hand Carved Elements Hand Carved Leaves Useful Stamps Circles Set Hand Carved Patterns Really Useful Stamps - Stripes Set Gelli Plate Speedball Soft Rubber Brayer Layout Bond Paper Golden Fluid Acrylics Blick Matte Acrylics Tim Holtz Acrylic Grid Blocks InLinkz.com Here's the black and white paper from the video: And here's a ginormous piece of paper I did in color, using the same technique from the video: The kind people... Read more →

A Pop-Up Floral Birthday Card

My friend Jenn just had a birthday, so I decided to make her a card. The motif from the card may look familiar. That's because after creating this card I also used the design to decorate the doodled sneakers I shared last week! I think creativity always inspires other creativity. I often find myself arting in my art journal and then taking that technique or idea to canvas or vice versa. It's all linked! Agree or disagree? Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Art Journal Every Day: More of April 2015

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! The pages that I'm sharing this week are all united by my ongoing... Read more →

100 Canvases: Canvas #32

This canvas is a redo. Here's the original: Besides the fact that "submerge" is spelled incorrectly, it just didn't feel like me anymore. It was hanging in my bathroom and I would see it in the mirror behind me every day. One day I just started adding paint to it. And then it just kind of evolved over several months. Every now and then I would catch it behind me and go running for some paint. This may be too much information, but a few times I found myself just out of the shower, standing in my bathroom naked, with... Read more →

Doodled Pocket Scrapbooking Cards!

I put together a quick little tutorial for Sakura of America using their Koi Coloring Brush Pens and I thought you might enjoy seeing it! It's all about how to create doodled pocket scrapbooking (or non-generically, Project Life) cards! Here's the page from the video: And as a happy gift for all of you, you can download a FREE high-res printable .pdf of my six doodled cards... ...by visiting the download area of the Balzer Designs Classroom. You will have to register for a free classroom account to access the download. The good news is that in the future I'm... Read more →

Cubism Class at MoMA

I recently took a 4-week course at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) about Cubism. My friend Nathalie talked me into taking the class. I'm not a huge fan of Cubism. In fact, that's something of an understatement. I have always actively disliked Cubism. However, Nathalie and I have taken classes with this particular teacher before and she promised me that it would be fun. And, it was. Classes were divided into three parts: Lecture with slides. Visit to the gallery (the best part). Studio time. Being in the museum without the crowds is a simply marvelous experience. You can... Read more →

Shoe Redo: Painted High Tops

I painted a pair of sneakers several years ago, back in 2010. I loved wearing them around! I always got lots of comment and questions about them. However, those shoes died of old age long ago and so I decided it was time to create some new ones. I came across these black high tops ($15 at Kmart)... ...and decided they were the perfect blank canvas! I used Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint and went to town with some doodles! I used the Tulip paint because it's meant for fabric (the shoes are canvas). The bottle says that after it cures... Read more →

The Weekend Five: Recent Good Eats

I often get e-mails asking for restaurant recommendations in NYC. I have a list on my FAQ page. But, I thought I'd share five good ones I've eaten at in the last few weeks. Restaurant: Balthazar Cuisine: French Bistro Location: Soho My Thoughts: Best french fries, excellent bread and butter, everything is tasty, don't skip dessert, make a reservation. Restaurant: Don's Bogam Cuisine: Korean Location: Korea Town My Thoughts: Go for the Korean BBQ and cook your meal right at your table, the bulgogi with cellophane noodles is super delish, best Korean pancake in town, bring lots of friends and... Read more →