Blog Hop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer & the Crafter's Workshop

First, a little business...our Challenge Winner for our Under the Sea challenge is all the way from the Netherlands...Miranda from ‘Mir’acle Art Inspirations. Congrats Miranda!

And now for today's fun...in March we began manufacturing a line of stamps that coordinate with stencils from The Crafter's Workshop. Designed by the unbelievably creative Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, these six stamp sets are designed as such:

Each stamp set works independently.
Each stencil works independently.
Each stencil has a matching stamp set. Each stamp set a matching
stencil. And they work together.

This is way out of my comfort zone, but I thought I'd play along to challenge myself. Stencils obviously lend themselves to being used with paint, and when paint is involved anything goes. I played around sponging backgrounds with some pearlescent acrylic paint. I decided to really just play with them and see where it took me. Ultimately I sponged and layered a bunch of different designs on a big sheet of watercolor paper and then cropped out the bits that I liked. I kept my card designs simple to really feature the designs and did a little bit of a closeup that shows the pearlescence better.

Today the IO design team and Julie are doing a blog hop. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is giving away an entire set of stencils and stamps to one lucky commenter!  So check out everyone's blog for more ideas using these fun new products:

 Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Jeanne Streiff

Daniela Dobson

Laura Fulcher

Vicki Garrett

Jenny Gropp

Dina Kowal

Julie Koerber

The lovely and talented Jeanne Streiff created a little photo tutorial of the stenciling process and I will include it below as well.

The stamps and stencils are available at many of our retailers across the country and overseas.  We will also be releasing several new designs at the Craft & Hobby Association show in July.

 

Comments

[Miranda]

Hello Mitra and Shirley, thanks for winning the prize of this drawing!! I am a lucky girl and it will be difficult to choose......warm greet Miranda

[Nicole Mullen]

Amazing cards, I love the colours and the simple but vibrant style!

[Johanne L.]

Love those projects. It's great that we can combine stamps and stencils in our projects. Thanks for sharing,

[Donna Russ]

Beautiful cards, thanks for sharing, ....

[Mary Tilman]

Gorgeous, shimmering cards! Love the birds especially. Thanks for the tutorial on stencils.

[Carol G]

Beautiful projects. Especially loved the bird in cage.

[lisa hampton]

Love the hops. Soooo much inspiration from all you lovely ladies! I want to do it all!!! Thanks

[Roberta Stokely]

Love the shimmer! Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing!

[Craftyfield]

I like your idea to play on a large sheet of paper, much less daunting ! Love the shimmer too..

[Linda K]

Really lovely cards!
Funny too -I just used an older red rubber stamp of yours on my prayer flags and posted it today. It was a quote from Proust about being grateful and cherished gardeners-can't tell you how often I've used that stamp :)

[April]

Your projects are wonderful! I love seeing how the stencils are used.

[Lisa]

Beautiful!

[Dottie]

These are so fun!! Don't know how to choose.

[Miriam Prantner]

Wonderful! Love that step by step that you show at the end. What a great set!

[Tammy Murdock]

oooh pretty! Like the step by step!

[Jan B]

Beautiful projects - thanks for sharing!

[Shirley Deatcher]

Hello Mitra & Shirley. Gorgeous artistic creations. So colourful & fun ! I love to create backgrounds using inks, stamps & these stencils are intriquing & exciting. OK now off to check out the DT creations !

[Julie]

Thanks so much for being a part of the hop Mitra! Love how you created the background of the card with the randomly placed circles!

[Miranda]

Hi Mitra, I was so excited about my win that I totally forgot to react on your creation with the new stencils and stamps, they are great!You've made some really artistic creations with them! greet Miranda

[Barbi D.]

Wow, So fab! Love the colours and the shine!

[Heather]

I love the new stamps and your pearlescent backgrounds are fabulous! LOVE the shimmer. I think I NEED the new butterfly set!

[zehra]

beautiful, love the stamps set with the stencils. what a great mix

[Katie B.]

Mitra, your cards are awesome! I love your idea to start with a bigger canvas to try different things and pick and choose. I love the torn edges on your bird on a branch and that gold swipe and the backgrounds behind both birds are so neat! I also love the tutorial and the DT card as well, such great ideas and I have not hopped yet. I will get to that soon. Thanks for sharing.

Katie B.

[Karla Schroeder]

Wonderful cards!

[Karen Rice]

Lovely work! I am so excited that these stamps and stencils have come out! Thanks for sharing your work--just beautiful!

[Wanda H]

All the stamps and stencils are fabulous!!! I'm especially excited to get the butterflies!!

[April]

Cool idea.