Balzer Designs

Your Favorite Craft/Art Books: Part One

A few weeks ago I asked the question, "What is your favorite art/craft book?" There were lots of great suggestions and I thought I'd compile them into one big list (in several parts) in case you're a book junkie like I am! Tales of Adornment by Kristen Robinson From Amazon: "Tales of Adornment will guide you through incorporating resin into your jewelry designs with stunning results. Kristen Robinson shows you, step-by-step, how to use resin in jewelry construction, providing a wide range of options and applications: from floating words to encapsulating objects, and from casting new elements to replicating sea... Read more →

Book Club: More Fabric Art Collage by Rebekah Meier

It's time for our July 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 More Fabric Art Collage by Rebekah Meier. I also own the first book in this series, Fabric Art Collage. And that book is the reason that Rebekah and I met. Come with me on a trip down memory lane: At one of my first CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) shows, I saw a woman in the ladies room with... Read more →

Book Club: Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz

It's time for our June 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 Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz: As you can see, the full title of this book is Cover to Cover: Creative Techniques For Making Beautiful Books, Journals & Albums. This is not a sexy book filled with glossy pages, big text graphics, and huge photographs of brightly colored art. Rather, this is a straight-forward book binding manual. There are... Read more →

Book Club: The Painted Quilt by Linda & Laura Kemshall

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 →

Book Club: Scraptastic! by Ashley Calder

I loved reading all the comments on this post where people shared their favorite art and craft books. And I was immediately struck by two things: I was shocked by how many people didn't own any craft or art books. I realized that I buy a ton of art and craft books, but I don't read them. And well, I got to thinking. Thinking is such a beautifully dangerous thing, isn't it? I got to thinking and I decided that I wanted to rectify those two things. So...I'm starting a brand new feature here on the blog! Yay! Each month... Read more →