ITS TIME FOR ....Art Journal Every Day with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I played in my craft room most of the weekend.  I have been playing with different techiques, metal, wire, paper, paints, etc. I don't have much to show you so this week will be pretty light until I can get in my craft room again.

Here is art journal pages that I made today for Art Journal Every Day.  It started with something in the middle but I used sprays, inks, paints, and stamps to change it.

Here the song that lives with you.

Looking at these pages I realize that I've been using these colors all weekend. It seems once I start with a color combo I use it until I'm tired of it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

It Whispers...Listen Closely

I'm a hoarder of quotes. Every time I see one I write down, print it out, or tear it out of magazine. I need to try to organize all of them some how but I everytime I start I just give up.  This one I saw in a magazine and I believe it is actually from a larger quote that I searching for so I have it complete.

For this canvas (8x8) I started with gel medium and tissue paper to add texture to the canvas. The heart I cut out of handmade paper someone gave me years ago. Once everything was dry, I colored the heart and background with acrylic ink, sprays, rub ons, archival inks and stamps. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Every now and then life needs to be turned upside down!

I have a wonderful friend who has lived with her family in Alaska for almost 25 years. When my daughter was 6 we took a vacation to see her. It was a wonderful vacation and my daughter enjoyed it so much. Now due to her husband's job, they have moved to North Carolina. Talk about a weather change! There are not sure if they like the heat yet. I for one am thrilled she is closer to me. Today I have a card to show you that I sent to her.

I also decorated the envelope which I haven't done in a long time.

Supplies: BasicGrey Wander paper pack; Tim Holtz townscape die, craft card, Dylusions Rubber Stamps, and a couple paper punches.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Strings Attached

Any time I have left over paints or sprays on my craft sheet I use a tag and to clean it up. I now have quite a collection of tags to use with some added inspiration.  I needed I tag to attach to a gift so I closed my eyes and picked a tag.  This one had paints and some leftover distress inks on it. I also had leftover is the strings attached to smaller Manila tags that I just keep for that perfect project. Well, that container is so full that no more will fit in so I pulled a few out and this is what happened.

I made a string flower for the tag. I just tied the strings in the middle, sprayed it with ink and added some stickles in the center.  It's a weird, funky and abstract tag but I do love it.

This tag has hand drawn strings for the heart shaped balloons. I used Tim Holtz umbrella man die but I cut off the umbrella and decided he should hold the balloons.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inchie on a Twinchie Swap on Splitcoaststampers

I had a bad day at work. You know one of those days that everything you seem to touch goes wrong? Well, thats what I had. What made the whole day seem brighter is a package full of swaps! I was so excited to get my twinchies. 

This swap was all about Tim Holtz. So I used grungeboard, distress inks,  his stick pin. My Inchie on a Twinchie for this swap on Splitcoaststampers was this:

That wonderful package in mail contained these:

Aren't they all wonderful? It was a wonderful surprise on a very bad day!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day - Do You See Gods Tears or Your Own?

Hello! Today I have a two page spread in my journal that means so much to me for Julie's Art Journal Everyday.  Both my parents died in 2004 and my daughter took it very hard. She was very close to them. In fact, we didn't really know how hard until later when she battled depression. I believe when you lose parents it leaves a heart shaped hole in your heart that doesn't completely fill up. For my daughter the heart shaped hole was quite large and hard to handle plus it came at a time where she was going through so many other things. During this time she wrote a poem that I love so much. The poem tells you about her feelings of sadness and loss, very raw, very real.

Here is the poem.

Through Your Eyes

When I was younger

I knew rain as God’s tears
When I grew older
They became tears of sorrow
Now when I look at the rain
I see my tears, my sorrow
For the raindrops symbolize
My insides of remorse
Remorse that stays in the middle of your heart
Like a block of hard cold stone
Which is so heavy it cannot be moved
On the outside, the sun may shine
My eyes and smile give a light so bright
Trying not to show the real me
The rain is pouring in my heart
I lost people I love
I lost friends and gained enemies
Never knowing why
My heart is torn in two
And the rain is drizzling down
Though my veins
Running in my blood
Infecting me
With the way I think and act
When I look outside at the water leaking from the sky
I see my insides
I see my tears
I see my heart breaking open to let the tears roll down
on my life
I have one question to ask though
When you look outside at the rain
What do you see?
Do you see God’s tears or your own?

By Kaylyn A. Henderson

2004

I love this poem for some many reasons. It shows her true feelings, those feelings she couldn't say in words. Some day I will put it on a canvas when I figure out what I want to do. In the meantime I can experiment in my journal.

The raindrops are put on the journal pages with modeling paste. Here is a closeup so you can see the dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Love Letter 101 - Joanne Sharpe

I started a new workshop called Love Letter 101 by the queen of lettering Joanne Sharpe. It's a month long workshop. The best part of this workshops is once you pay and gain access, you have access forever! FOREVER!  It is perfect for me. Its tax season and I don't always have time with the busy work schedule to be able watch a lesson. I love her work. You must go over to her blog and join in on the fun!

Her blog: Whimspirations by Joanne Sharpe

Since I just started I'm a little behind. She has a video with her lesson plus homework!

I will show you some of my creations as soon as I can!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fragmented Flower

Hello! Yes, I have another frame to show you. I love the blue color and basic grey papers were the perfect match.  I took the fragmented flower template from Balzer Design for Crafters Workshop and traced it onto paper and took the template again and traced it onto the front of the frame. I cut out all the parts of the template and glued the paper to the frame with Mod Podge.  I outlined the template in white to match the white in the paper.  I love the way it came out. It took some time to cut out the pieces and made sure they match the right spots on the frame but it was worth it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Valentines Day

A quick tag to show you.  Just some fun with stencils, distress inks, crafters Workshop template and a little bakers twine!

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day - Embrace Love

Today I have a journal page for Julie's Art Journal Every Day challenge. I've been working on this page for a couple of days. I started on this page because I had some funky lines at the top so I challenged myself to do something with them.  I tried my hand at some lettering. Once I put the quote on the page I was at a stand still now knowing that to do.  That's when I go to my Crafters Workshop templates.

Quote:

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep

because reality is finally better than your dreams.

Dr. Seuss

I put everything on the page with black permanent marker including the stencil and hearts and they were all colored in with Pan Pastels.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See beyond the imperfections

Hello! Today I have another frame to show you. I know more frames but I'm having so much fun with them.  This frame I used a Crafters Workshop Template by Balzer Designs for the frame.  I first painted the frame using the stencil with blue paint and then used the stencil again to outline the flowers in black. The flowers are made from painted grungepaper and using Tim Holtz tattered floral die.  The sentiment is a stamp by Dylusions Rubber Stamps.

Thanks for much for stopping by!

Background Paper - Easy Peasy!

Hello! Today I'm going to show you how I make my background paper.  Please keep in mind that you can use anything to make background paper, paint, spray inks, stamps, stencils, pastels, acrylic inks, markers, etc.  This is just one example.

I make most of my papers on 12x12 watercolor paper. It can withstand everything you want to put on it.

To start I choose my colors which sometimes is very hard. I actually never used the distress stain.  

I sprayed the paper with a good amount of water and sprayed it with spray ink and then dropped blue acrylic ink on the paper.  Then sprayed it again with water to move everything around. I decided to let the water move the colors around and let it sit for a few minutes then dryed it with my heat gun.

Next I chose the rest of my colors to make the background. As you can see here I have a couple of tops from containers, a rubber wheel from a laser printer, and punchnella to help make the background.

Here is what it looks like using all the tools shown in the picture. After each layer of texture/color I use my heat gun and dry it before going on to the next step.

Using a Crafters Workshop template from Balzer Designs I add more layers of color/texture.

Pretty cool looking right? BUT not done yet. Needs something more.

It's needs some stamps. These are one of my favorite sets of stamps that I use all the time. I use Archival Ink with these stamps because the ink is waterproof.

FINISHED! What do you think? 

You can use the paper for cards, scrapbook pages, and anything else you can think of.  The one thing you can also do is scan your paper in and print it on cardstock at anytime so you can use it over and over again.

This is what I made with this paper. I took a small wooden frame and painted it with acrylic ink.

With some grungepaper, music paper, stamps and more ink added to the frame, I then added the background paper in place of a picture.

Here is the finished frame.

SOLD!

I hope you try making your own background paper.  It's so much fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I love Purple!

Hi everyone! I've been working on wooden frames and love them. I will have a few to show you this week. Today I'm going to show you a frame I made for my friend's birthday plus a little gift box. The inspiration for color of the frame was this background paper that I made.

I'm in love with Liquitex Acrylic Inks. The colors are amazing and it because they are inks it stains the wood beautifully.

The quote is a stamp by Dylusions Rubber Stamps and it fits perfect for our friendship.  We have known each other since our girls were in kindergarten and now they are both 23.  The heart is music paper covered grungepaper but with a heart shaped die.

Here is the gift box for her other gift.

The box is a little triangle paper mache box that I added music paper, painted with liquitex acrylic ink and added some small dots of white paint.  The butterfly is grungepaper, wire and crystals.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

February 2012!!!

Hello! It's February and time for my February calendar for Kate Crane's calendar challenge.  It didn't come out as planned.  You know what you see in your head but your hands don't cooperated.  I love the stamped background and the colors but when I finished I didn't have enough room for the stamped image I was going to add.  Oh well, maybe next month.

I actually completed January's calendar. I didn't think I would be able to fill in all the days of the week but I surprised myself.  Here is January's completed.

Thanks so much for stopping by!