Monday, January 24, 2011

Ode to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Apparently, I have been living under a rock or maybe in a cave or maybe under a rock in a cave since I hadn't heard of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer until recently.  She rocks!!  Her fabulous creations inspired me to buy some watercolors and try my hand at painting - - I think I did an AWESOME job if I say so myself!!  So very different than anything I've done before - so bright and colorful!
I assembled my goods - these stamps come from Impression Obsession and were purchased in Mt. Dora, FL more than three years ago - at the time I remember debating whether to buy the wood stamp that had all these elements connected or to buy the clear stamps.  Several times since then I'd wished that I had bought the wood mounted stamps until I finally got smart and realized that I could. . .
just stamp the elements and doodle them together with a Sharpie!!  Duh!  Wish I'd figured that out sooner.  In my first pic you see StazOn ink but the ink I ended up using was VersaFine Onyx Black by Tsukineko.  That is THE BEST ink - I LOVE IT!!!!  So crisp and black - easily cleaned off my stamps with water and according to the packaging "produces 5 times more impressions than other pigment ink pads".
Anyhoo - I attached my finished watercolor to my brand, spanking new Art Journal (made from a composition notebook) - yet another inspiration from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  She is featuring Art Journal Every Day on her blog.  I've always been fascinated by art journals but the word "journal" scared me since I am intimidated by attempting to write stuff and then the word "art" is intimidating in and of itself!!  BUT I like to have fun and try new things so I'm gonna use this as a medium to do just that!  I even have my first page finished! 
THANKS for the inspiration, Julie!!

8 comments:

jen said...

this is gorgeous! I watched that video you'd linked to the other day too! :) almost made me pull out the watercolors... almost!

Jen W. said...

Wow! Are you sure this is your first time with water colours?? This is stunning! Can't wait to see what else you come up with! :)

Kimberly Jones said...

Wow! This is so pretty and vibrant! I am very impressed by your skills! I love art journals too and I was so happy to discover Julie's work through your blog. I hope you will share some of your journal pages with us!

milkcan said...

Fantastic! And I'm so delighted that I've inspired you! Keep going, baby! You've got the knack!

veronica said...

your coloring is beautiful.

Deborah Frings said...

Wow! Wow! Wow! Totally amazing colouring and I love this image.

It's beautiful.

Ayana Posadas said...

I just adore the colors in this card. Absolutely brilliant!!!

Lynda said...

That's beautiful. Glad you found Julie! Thanks for dropping by my blog. Lynda