Balzer Designs

Baby Shower Thank You Cards

You may recall that I asked for advice on making thank you cards for my baby shower. I got lots of good advice -- keep it simple, create a postcard instead of a folding card, etc. Well, I took the advice and these are the cards that I made: These were pretty simple to make. I took two large pieces of paper and did some indoor sun printing on them -- in two different color ways -- one dark and one bright. I cut up the sun printed paper and glued it to a white piece of cardstock. In some... Read more →

Thank You Card Inspiration

My baby shower is this weekend. (Yay!) Knowing that I'll have lots of thank you cards to write, I've been looking for inspiration. I think handmade thank you cards are always a really nice gesture, but I'm also short on time (we move in less than a week) and need to make a whole bunch ASAP. I thought I'd share some of my favorite cards I found online. There are a couple of styles I clearly like. STYLE ONE: Watercolor source source source source source STYLE TWO: Cut Outs source source source source source STYLE THREE: Text Based Design source... Read more →

Art Journal Every Day: August into September 2018

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. I'm delighted to be sharing some pages from August & September of last... Read more →

ScanNCut 4th of July Card

I'm super excited about today's project because it turned out even better than I imagined! Here's a lovely way to celebrate 4th of July: And the best part is that this card was made by slightly altering a free file for a New Year's Eve Card! Watch the video for the how to: Thanks for stopping by! --- 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: https://www.brother-usa.com/support/ Read more →

Project Life Update

Did you know that I still scrapbook? It's true. I no longer make the big 12x12 scrapbook pages, but I do try my best to keep up with Project Life aka pocket scrapbooking. I've been a Project Life participant since 2012! (You can read my very first Project Life post here.) After 7 years, I still love my Project Life albums. They're super fun to flip through because they're packed full of memories. It will not surprise you to know that I approach my Project Life albums slightly differently than other people do. Today I thought I'd share some recent... Read more →

Wine Bottle Flower

Here's a super quick and fun crafty idea for you. I made a paper flower with a wired stem: I wrapped it around a bottle of wine that we brought a friend's house. A fun and easy way to "wrap" the gift. The hostess was mightily impressed. And I never admitted that it took me just a few minutes to whip up this wired flower! If you don't drink, you could bring a nice bottle of balsamic vinegar wrapped the same way. I do have a tutorial on making paper flowers, if you'd like it. Otherwise, the internet is packed... Read more →

Collage Faces

On Saturday I taught my "Collage Faces" class to a great group of ladies. We had lots of fun cutting and pasting funny faces! Isn't it amazing how a group of people can walk into a room, receive the same instruction, and walk about with such different final projects?! I love that. Art making is such a personal expression of who you are and where you are at that moment! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Collage Face with Vintage Papers

As you know, I normally do collage work with my own brightly colored hand painted papers. But, I decided to see what would happen if I used only found vintage papers. Here is the result: And a hyperlapse video of the process: View this post on Instagram I love using my hand painted papers to make art, but you don’t have to! Here’s a more neutral collage face made up of vintage found papers. 🙌 . . . #vintage #vintagepaper #ephemera #collage #collageart #cutandpaste #whatjuliemade #balzervideo #contemporaryart #iheartpaper #bookpages #portrait #whatjulietaught #julielikeseyes #craft #papercrafting #abmcrafty A post shared by Julie... Read more →

Paper Flower Place Cards with ScanNCut

I recently made these gorgeous paper flower place cards with my ScanNCut: The flower, the leaves, and the "twigs" are all built-in designs from the ScanNCut DX225. I used one of the basic shapes in CanvasWorkspace to create the flag. I even used the ScanNCut to write the names on the tags! If you're interested in making a similar project, here are some resources: Two Videos on Making Flowers with ScanNCut: Two Videos on Drawing with ScanNCut: Thanks for stopping by! --- P.S. I am a paid spokesperson for the Brother ScanNCut. It is a machine that I love and... Read more →

Collage Faces: A One-Day Workshop

I hope you'll join me for a new in-person class I'm teaching on Saturday, April 6, 2019 at a private home in Hanover, MA. Collage Faces is a super fun one-day workshop. To begin, you will learn all about the basic structure of the face. Then through a series of easy exercises you will learn how to render a face in cut paper collage. We will cover the subtleties of shading, eyes, and all the details that make your collage face really pop! We'll discuss abstraction versus realism and I'll help you discover and embrace your own personal style of... Read more →