Balzer Designs

A Formula for Making Art Quickly

If you want to make art quickly, you need to have all the supplies on hand. I'm not talking about paint and brushes...although those are useful to have. I'm talking about pre-made "art parts." What are "art parts?" Well, it's a term I made up. But in essentials, it's substrates and bits and pieces that are ready to go into your art without any work. It's the kind of stuff you make when you have a bit of free time, without any end result in mind. If you've bought a scrap pack from me, you know what I'm talking about.... Read more →

Currently Prototyping Paper Birds

I spent a big chunk of yesterday prototyping some three-dimensional paper birds. I am planning to cut some out of white paper and experiment with different surface design techniques on them. Then once I have a menagerie of lovely birds, I'm going to climb a ladder and hang them from my ceiling! I really enjoy this kind of contemplative making. Experimenting. Trying new things. Learning what works and what doesn't. Problem solving is my happy place. And that's a lucky thing since most art making is just solving problem after problem! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Mixed Media Page Marker/Bookmark

I stumbled across these fabric bookmarks that looked cool and super simple to make: source But I didn't feel like dragging out my sewing machine and ironing board. So, I made one out of paper! I cut a 3"x3" square and then cut another 3"x3" square into a little bit more than half. Because I'm using adhesive and not stitching it, I knew that I would need a bigger corner area, which you can see on the piece on the right side. And then I decorated the papers and simply glued them together on the top and left side. This... Read more →

Valentine's Day Ideas From The Archives

I wanted to share a round-up of just a few of the fun Valentine's Day DIY projects I've shared over the years. You can find the links to all the project tutorials below: Stamped & Masked Valentine's Day Cards Pop-Up Valentine's Day Card Valentine's Day Flipping Photo Cubes Gelli Masked Heart Prints Valentine's Day Explosion Card Heart Boxes And finally, a post from the archive and a challenge to you! In putting together this post, I came across a post from 2014, which I had totally forgotten about: In the original post, I set out a challenge for myself: Using... Read more →

Have You Heard of Februllage?

I accidentally stumbled across an online challenge called "Februllage." The Scandinavian Collage Museum and Edinburgh Collage Collective are the hosts of Februllage -- a combination of the words "February" and "collage." The challenge is to make a collage a day throughout the month of February, using the prompts from the Februllage Official Word Prompt Calendar: The challenge is hosted on instagram. Even if you don't wish to participate, I think the work that people are doing is super inspiring. So I thought you might like to see a few of the entries from the first two days (these images are... Read more →

Valentine's Day: Photo Puzzle Card

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and so here's a cute idea for a sweet gift to give a loved one: a small puzzle that he or she can put together that features their loved ones or a hidden message! You can find a step-by-step guide to creating your own custom puzzle by hand cutting HERE or by using an existing puzzle HERE. I made mine using my ScanNCut. It's something I figured out how to do because of a question in January's Member Livestream. It's a simple process: Use a wet adhesive to glue the photo to a piece of... 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 →

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 →

From the Archives: When Do You Stop?

This post originally appeared on this blog in May of 2011. My process is slightly different these days, but my thinking is very similar. If you're interested in getting some help on your journey to honing in on what you like and don't like and your personal style, consider joining my Design Boot Camp class this Spring. :) --- For me, one of the complex and really interesting things about art journaling is that it isn't really easy to explain how to stop art journaling to another person. I can get you started and talk about supplies and teach you... Read more →