My name is Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and I am a recovering perfectionist. My business, Balzer Designs, is all about helping other people explore and hone their creativity. I live outside of Boston in an…
Art + Life by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer: craft & art tutorials, explorations, projects, and fun!
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
I have asked a few of my creative friends to help me out with my blog here and there during my time with a new baby and today's guest post comes to you from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer I love making something out of nothing! To make these earrings grab some paper. I’m using deli paper, but you can use anything, including fabric) and cover it with paint. Draw all over it, add stenciled images, whatever makes you happy! Fold the edge of the paper over and draw your basic earring shape. Keep it simple. Cut out the shape, and because of the fold, you’ll now have two matching pieces! I like to glue my pieces to a book page for some added stability and a bit of interest on the back. Once the glue is dry, cut out the pieces. Pre-heat your Melting Pot and melt some clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) in it. Once the UTEE is melted, place each piece into the pot and make sure that both sides are coated with UTEE. Pull the pieces out of the Melting Pot with tweezers (do not touch with your fingers – the UTEE is very hot). Let some of the excess UTEE drip off Place the hot piece onto a Teflon sheet. It must be Teflon so that it doesn’t permanently stick. If you have bubbles or weird bumps you can heat them away with a crafting heat tool. You can either do it directly on the Teflon craft sheet, or punch a hole and suspend the piece as you heat it. Once the pieces are cool enough to touch, you can punch a hole and set an eyelet in the hole. Add your earring hooks and you’re done! Note: The UTEE will make the paper fairly water resistant, but I wouldn’t submerge them in water. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a self-taught mixed media collage artist and avid scrapbooker. She is currently the co-host of Scrapbook Soup TV (PBS) and beginning in January 2011 Julie will be writing a column called “Adventures in Arting” in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Julie’s hour long instructional DVD “Collage Fast & Furious” was released in July 2010 by Interweave. She designs rubber stamps for Stamping Bella and stencils for The Crafter’s Workshop. Julie and her husband live in a tiny apartment with a big art studio in the middle of New York City. She blogs her art adventures at www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com. Follow her Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/BalzerDesigns.
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
I have asked a few of my creative friends to help me out with my blog here and there during my time with a new baby and today's guest post comes to you from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer I love making something out of nothing! To make these earrings grab some paper. I’m using deli paper, but you can use anything, including fabric) and cover it with paint. Draw all over it, add stenciled images, whatever makes you happy! Fold the edge of the paper over and draw your basic earring shape. Keep it simple. Cut out the shape, and because of the fold, you’ll now have two matching pieces! I like to glue my pieces to a book page for some added stability and a bit of interest on the back. Once the glue is dry, cut out the pieces. Pre-heat your Melting Pot and melt some clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) in it. Once the UTEE is melted, place each piece into the pot and make sure that both sides are coated with UTEE. Pull the pieces out of the Melting Pot with tweezers (do not touch with your fingers – the UTEE is very hot). Let some of the excess UTEE drip off Place the hot piece onto a Teflon sheet. It must be Teflon so that it doesn’t permanently stick. If you have bubbles or weird bumps you can heat them away with a crafting heat tool. You can either do it directly on the Teflon craft sheet, or punch a hole and suspend the piece as you heat it. Once the pieces are cool enough to touch, you can punch a hole and set an eyelet in the hole. Add your earring hooks and you’re done! Note: The UTEE will make the paper fairly water resistant, but I wouldn’t submerge them in water. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a self-taught mixed media collage artist and avid scrapbooker. She is currently the co-host of Scrapbook Soup TV (PBS) and beginning in January 2011 Julie will be writing a column called “Adventures in Arting” in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Julie’s hour long instructional DVD “Collage Fast & Furious” was released in July 2010 by Interweave. She designs rubber stamps for Stamping Bella and stencils for The Crafter’s Workshop. Julie and her husband live in a tiny apartment with a big art studio in the middle of New York City. She blogs her art adventures at www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com. Follow her Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/BalzerDesigns.
Art + Life by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer: craft & art tutorials, explorations, projects, and fun!
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
I have asked a few of my creative friends to help me out with my blog here and there during my time with a new baby and today's guest post comes to you from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer I love making something out of nothing! To make these earrings grab some paper. I’m using deli paper, but you can use anything, including fabric) and cover it with paint. Draw all over it, add stenciled images, whatever makes you happy! Fold the edge of the paper over and draw your basic earring shape. Keep it simple. Cut out the shape, and because of the fold, you’ll now have two matching pieces! I like to glue my pieces to a book page for some added stability and a bit of interest on the back. Once the glue is dry, cut out the pieces. Pre-heat your Melting Pot and melt some clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) in it. Once the UTEE is melted, place each piece into the pot and make sure that both sides are coated with UTEE. Pull the pieces out of the Melting Pot with tweezers (do not touch with your fingers – the UTEE is very hot). Let some of the excess UTEE drip off Place the hot piece onto a Teflon sheet. It must be Teflon so that it doesn’t permanently stick. If you have bubbles or weird bumps you can heat them away with a crafting heat tool. You can either do it directly on the Teflon craft sheet, or punch a hole and suspend the piece as you heat it. Once the pieces are cool enough to touch, you can punch a hole and set an eyelet in the hole. Add your earring hooks and you’re done! Note: The UTEE will make the paper fairly water resistant, but I wouldn’t submerge them in water. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a self-taught mixed media collage artist and avid scrapbooker. She is currently the co-host of Scrapbook Soup TV (PBS) and beginning in January 2011 Julie will be writing a column called “Adventures in Arting” in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Julie’s hour long instructional DVD “Collage Fast & Furious” was released in July 2010 by Interweave. She designs rubber stamps for Stamping Bella and stencils for The Crafter’s Workshop. Julie and her husband live in a tiny apartment with a big art studio in the middle of New York City. She blogs her art adventures at www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com. Follow her Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/BalzerDesigns.
From time to time I grab some of the garbage rubber -- i.e. rubber cut away during the carving process -- and create "garbage stamps." It doesn't mean that the stamps *are* garbage, rather they have been created *from* garbage! Here's my most recent batch: The process is pretty much the same for each of the stamps: I take a scrap piece of rubber and trim it down to a shape or size I want to work with and then I attack it with my carving tools! All in all, this entire collection of itty bitty stamps took me about...
Curious about what these cool templates can do? Spray with ink and emboss, sponge ink through the template, try bleach discharge on batik fabrics, direct to paper using an ink pad and the template! These are just a few of the many uses! Includes one 6 x 6 inch stencil. Designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
These 10 tips for stamping feature unique techniques and ideas for using stamps, including embossing metal, carving designs, and using found items.
I have asked a few of my creative friends to help me out with my blog here and there during my time with a new baby and today's guest post c...
TCW836 Texture Love by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12") and small (6" x 6").
TCW762 Shapes by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12") or small (6" x 6").
Have I mentioned that stamp carving is dangerously addictive?! I came home from Scrapbook Centrale and unpacked my bag. To be clear, I unpacked my class bag. My suitcase has been ravaged for parts and pieces, but it's still sitting on a chair waiting to be properly unpacked. Priorities, people. Anyway, when I unpacked my bag, I found a stamp I had started as a demo in class and I simply *had* to finish it up. Carving this stamp warmed me up and I immediately wanted to try out an idea I had. I wanted to carve a rotating repeat...
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
Since I got some questions about it, I thought I'd share a bit more information about the Thermofax printing process today. You can take any image you want. For this example, I painted a quick quote with some watercolor and then photocopied it. (You need a toner-based image in order to burn the Thermofax screen.) I cut the copy down to size... ...and then cut a piece of Thermofax screen to match. I created a sandwich of cardstock, photocopy, and mesh, and fed it into the Thermofax machine. When it came out of the machine, the screen was attached to...
TCW678 Flower Tiles by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12") and small (6" x 6").
Fabric ATCs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's. Celebrate Spring with a watercolor fabric and freestyle stitching tutorial by a mixed media artist from NYC.
TCW1055 Bubble Scribble Stencil by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12") or small (6" x 6").
TCW885 Cut Outs designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12") or small (6" x 6").
TCW323 Stencil Aboriginal by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Available in large (12" x 12")
