Balzer Designs

Whimsical Collage in the UK: Part One

My friend Nat Kalbach and I taught a three-day workshop in the UK called, "Mixed Media Circus: Whimsical Collage."  Nat and I have taught together several times -- in Germany, New York City, Australia, and England.  We had a wonderful time with a fabulous group of students.

Day one and two were dedicated to color mixing, making custom patterned paper, and learning the principles and elements of art.  And before I forget (and since it's the first photo), Art Foamies is having a week-long sale.  If you want some of these awesome foam stamps at a discount, use the code COLORMEHAPPY in both their regular web shop and their etsy shop.

We covered all kinds of tips on layering patterns and creating "mud-free" papers full of crisp color!



Paint was provided, so everyone in class used the exact same colors.  We also provided all the stencils and stamps for students to use.  And even though they were all working with the same supplies, everyone's work turned out so different!  Isn't that cool?!


We did a collaborative painting exercise that was so much fun!  We had these long strips of paper and kept rotating them through the room.  It was great fun to see how they turned out and then divide up the paper for students to use!


Working collaboratively is a great opportunity to relax and loosen up.  It takes some of the preciousness out of your work when you know you don't get to/have to keep the finished product.  If you have some friends around you who like to make art, it might be a fun thing to try some day!

There was so much self-discovery in the room.  After the day-long lesson on elements and principles of art, one student said that she felt like she had just learned a new language and was excited to be able to practice and use it.  I loved hearing that!

The six collages you see above are the (unfinished) demo collages that Nathalie and I made in class.  Each one demonstrates a particular art principle.  If you're unfamiliar with the elements and principles of art, they're worth learning.  They are the building blocks of all art and knowing how to use and/or abuse them can empower you to create work that you love time after time. 

As a side note, I can easily tell which of those collages are mine and which ones are Nathalie's.  I think we each have a distinct style and it emerges even in the simplest of exercises.  It's in the colors we choose, the patterns we gravitate towards, and even the way we hold the brush.  The advice I gave to each of the students and I will give to you too is: Don't run away from the things that make you unique, odd, different.  Run towards them.  That's your style.  That's who you are.

I have three existing online classes that cover some of the things from class:

• Getting Started with Color Mixing
• Getting Started with the Design Principles
• Getting Started with Collage

In addition, two of my new online classes (starting Dec 1) cover some of the skills from class:

• Notan or Expanded Square -- focus on design and composition
• Book of Color -- exploring monochromacity

Tomorrow I'll share day three of our art adventure!

Two Classes at the Ink Pad

I taught a weekend of classes at The Ink Pad in NYC and they were wonderful!  I'm always delighted to be back in NYC and back at The Ink Pad.  They've been in business for TWENTY years!  It's amazing.  Let's all agree that it's vitally important to shop locally so that we can keep all of these wonderful independent art and craft suppliers going!  I'm very guilty of ordering from Blick or Amazon because it's easier than schlepping to the store, but I want to be better about it.  We need these lovely independent retailers who offer sage advice and lots of education!  

Now, it's time to take a peek at all of the colorful fun we had. 

On Saturday, I taught my "Interesting Faces" class.  Every time I teach a class, I try to make it even better than the last time I taught it.  I take the questions that students asked and I roll them into the curriculum, hopefully anticipating the next students' reactions.  This was the fourth or fifth time I've taught this particular class and it was wonderful!  The students were so talented and so willing to take risks.  It was fantastic!

Aren't those faces so fabulous?!  Just full of color and texture and energy.  I love it!

On Sunday I taught "Patterned Paper Collage."  This is a class that I have been teaching for years.  It was one of the first classes I developed after discovering deli paper.  The first half of the class is all about creating a palette of papers.  The second part of the class is all about creating beautiful image-based collages.  Take a peek:

Yum!  So many delicious colors and textures to dive into!

If you would like to take an in-person class with me, you have just two more opportunities in 2018:

• October 13-14, 2018 Boston, MA area: ScanNCut for Artists Workshop (bring your own machine - more info) - just a few seats left!
• November 2-4, 2018 Mixed Media Circus: Whimsical Collage (3-days co-teaching with Nathalie Kalbach) outside of Coventry in England

Thanks for stopping by!

Altered Book Class

I wanted to share photos from the Altered Book class I taught in July.  One of my students, Marissa, was kind enough to host the class at her beautiful home!  It was a wonderful weekend of art play!  Take a peek:

We glued, cut, carved, collaged, built, painted, and reshaped our books into mini masterpieces!  Long before I kept a regular art journal, I altered books.  I love the mixture of books & art!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Upcoming in-person classes:

• September 22-23: I'll be at The Ink Pad in NYC.
• October 13-14: ScanNCut for Artists in the Boston area.
• November 2-4: co-teaching a 3-day class with Nat Kalbach in the UK

I hope to see you in class!

ScanNCut Tips & Tricks: Single Line Cut, jpg to fcm, Fabric Cutting

Hey everybody!  I've got a bunch of ScanNCut tips & tricks for you today!

Did you know that you can cut stencils from a wide variety of materials when you have a ScanNCut?  I often get asked about the "right" material to use for stencils and there isn't just one.  It's all personal preference.  Generally speaking, I tend to use either readily available stencil film:

Or the Brother Adhesive-Backed Stencil Sheets.

They both do a great job!

You can watch a video of the two methods I used for stenciling this tag here.

You can also use your ScanNCut to cut stencils from transparencies, thin chipboard, acetate, cardstock, and more!  My ScanNCut is a stencil cutting beast!

The most popular ScanNCut video I've ever done is my "how to transform a .jpg to an .fcm file" video.  I decided to update the video by showing you (a) how to do that process in CanvasWorkspace for PC and (b) how to edit what you get from the transformation!  Enjoy!

I love that I can easily turn my old artwork into new cutting files. 

CanvasWorkspace for PC gives me all kinds of tools to get the results exactly as I want them!

Speaking of getting the results you want, I'm showing you how to create single line cuts or "slits" using CanvasWorkspace Online, CanvasWorkspace for PC, and your ScanNCut machine:

Why would you want to cut a single line?  How about to make this card with ribbon woven through it:

A single line cut is useful for creating boxes and envelopes -- anything requiring a tab being inserted -- and more!

Finally, ScanNCut makes it "sew" easy for me to make fabulous fabric crafts of all kinds, like these pillow covers:

I scanned a simple sketch into my ScanNCut and manipulated it using the built-in software to create a larger more complex shape.

Notice the smaller shapes?  I welded two hearts from my ScanNCut's built-in designs to create them.  All of the pieces were cut from hand-dyed fabric and then stitched in place.

I think it's so cool that ScanNCut makes it so easy to create personalized designs from so many materials -- including hand dyed fabric!  

Tips on Cutting Fabric:

1. Always cut fabric on a High Tack Fabric Support Sheet.
2. Stiffer fabric is best for intricate designs. Starch your fabric (I like Terial Magic) and/or use fusible back on the back.
3. You can cut fabric without fusible or starch.  Basic shapes are best and be prepared for some fray.
4. When cutting fabric that has fusible web on it, I remove the paper backing from the fusible web and put the fabric face down on the mat (i.e. fusible side facing up).
5. Start your cutting using a Standard Blade at a depth of 4, pressure of 5, and speed of 1.
6. Always do a Test Cut and adjust your settings afterwards.

Happy fabric cutting!  

Oh, and did you see the big news?

Thanks for stopping by!

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P.S. I am a paid spokesperson for the Brother ScanNCut.  It is a machine that I love and use.  All projects and opinions are my own.

Product Registration: https://www.brother-usa.com/registermybrother/
Brother Customer Support: http://www.brother-usa.com/support/

Art Journal Every Day: November into December 2017

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.  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, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek.  Even if you're not on social media, you can see everything (from twitter, pinterest, instagram, and facebook) that uses that hashtag here. 

Today I am sharing some more of my daily art journal pages from November 2017.  You can see that I am still fascinated with cutting up my journal pages!

As you know, I work in a junque journal -- a journal made up of all the papers and pieces from my art life.  This particular page had a stamped image on it -- my Mom's face -- and so I worked around that stamped image to create the rest of the page.

I kind of wish that I hadn't put the flower on her, but that's okay.  The great thing about an art journal is that you turn the page and you've got something new to play with!

Speaking of turning the page...

I love the way this pink haired girl turned out!

Gotta' love that gold headband!  ;)

I loved the peeping face so much that I used it on the next page too!

The eyes are one of my hand carved stamps from #CarveDecember -- and so are the dash lines on the right.

More hand carved stamps for the date.

The tree trunk is also a hand carved stamp.  I added watercolor to create the leaves.

Did you notice that this is also a shaped page?

I really can't help myself.  I just keep cutting my journal up!

Thanks for stopping by!