Balzer Designs

100 Day Project Ideas

The 100 Day Project begins on Sunday (January 31). Are you planning to join in? Have you picked your topic yet? Here are some ideas of subjects that might be fun to tackle for 100 days: Here are some tips from my own experience: Choose a wide enough subject to give yourself creative space. Choose a narrow enough subject to give yourself focus. Choose something you either love or want to improve at. It's best if it can be both! Choose something that will take you less than 30 minutes a day to do, photograph, and post about. You don't... Read more →

Around Here: January 2021

Hello, friends! Today is my birthday... Opening birthday presents circa 1984. My brother is in the red overalls. ...so it seemed like the perfect time to share a little bit about life around here right now: What are you working on? Me. I feel like 2020 was a year to survive. I'm hoping 2021 can be a year to thrive. Or at least focus on taking care of my own needs. I shared this poem to instagram and facebook last week and it really resonates with me in my current season of life: I also ordered new business cards and... Read more →

A Year of Gelatin Printing AND Bookbinding

The first time I tried a gelatin plate, I became an addict. Literally the first time. It was love at first sight! And that was in 2011! I have been gelatin printing for ten years and I want to share every single thing that I have learned about the process of gelatin printing over those ten years, with you, in my new course, "A Year of Gelatin Printing." Although, I might have mis-named the course. It should be "13 Months of Gelatin Printing AND Bookbinding." It's more than a year. In fact, there are THIRTEEN months of lessons. 13 months... Read more →

A Busy Weekend of Teaching

I had a very busy weekend packed with people, which is certainly an amazing thing to be able to say in these days of quarantine. But, don't worry, it was all from the comfort of my own home. On Friday I taught my live online class "Friday Night Art Journaling: Let's Make Faces." Here are some of the demo faces I created as part of that class: My next Friday Night Art Journaling class is on March 5. It's all about hand cutting lace pages in your art journal, like this one: On Saturday I taught my "ScanNCut DX: Super... Read more →

Art Journal Every Day: If You Don't Like It, It Simply Means That It Isn't Done Yet.

Hey guys! There are a few seats left in my Super Basic Beginner ScanNCut DX class tomorrow (Saturday)! And now on to today's post: If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, the concept is simple: It's a commitment to take ten minutes each day to do something in your art journal. No need to finish anything or even like it. It's about making the time to nourish your creativity every day! If you have the time to flip through your phone, you have the time to Art Journal Every Day. If you'd like to share what you make, use... Read more →

Little Free Art Library

I love this idea! Read the article all about this communal tiny art gallery. It works just like any tiny library, but it's art instead of books. You leave a piece of art and take a piece of art! What do you think? Would you put a tiny art gallery on your front lawn? I think it would be super duper fun! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Mini Mixed Media Collages

Jane Davies shared this super short (1.5 minute) video... ...and it got me inspired. Instead of painting my paper the way that Jane did, I gelatin printed some deli paper with plain colors. I cut out a bunch of shapes and then cut down some white cardstock to 8x8. I followed Jane's rule of 3 pieces of collage per background. Here's what I've got so far: And I'm actually stuck. Some of these I like just as they are. A shocking statement for a maximalist! I think I'm going to sleep on it and decide if they need to be... Read more →

Yes, I'm Still Pocket Scrapbooking!

Pocket Scrapbooking is the generic term for "Project Life" -- a commercialized term coined by Becky Higgins. In essentials, it's a form of scrapbooking in which you use page protectors with pockets to wrangle your memories. I started doing Project Life and sharing the pages on my blog back in 2012: 2013: 2014: 2015: In 2016, I stopped sharing photos from my albums, but I did keep doing it. I took some of those albums off the shelves to snap a photo or two and here you go... 2017: 2018: 2019: And I just finished my 2020 album: So, why... Read more →

Some #CarveDecember Faves!

Today I wanted to share just a few of my personal favorites from the hundreds and hundreds of hand carved stamps that people made in December as part of #CarveDecember. (These images are embedded from instagram. If you don't see them, click HERE to view this post on the web.) At the moment, there are almost 20,000 #CarveDecember posts. If you're looking for inspiration, it's a great hashtag to visit. There are drawings/illustrations, patterns, color choices, style choices...so many things to inspire you, even if you never carve a stamp. Finally, if you haven't read the rave reviews for the... Read more →

Art Journal Every Day: Pages Without Journaling From March 2019

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, the concept is simple: It's a commitment to take ten minutes each day to do something in your art journal. No need to finish anything or even like it. It's about making the time to nourish your creativity every day! If you have the time to flip through your phone, you have the time to Art Journal Every Day. If you'd like to share what you make, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek. You can find new Art Journal Every Day posts here on the blog... Read more →