It's Thursday!  Yay!  Or maybe I'm just happy for no reason at all….or maybe it's because there's a lot in the world today that has me grinning.  So, how about a list?

1. Art Journal Page

YinAndYang-sm

Just messing around without any design rules or acid free thoughts makes me happy!  I chopped up a wedding photo, added some collage bits, dyed some ledger paper and doodled some happy letters.

2. My Friend Riv

Everybody needs a friend like Riv!  She came over last night and stayed up until 2:30AM helping me rearrange the furniture in my "office."  The little second bedroom in our apartment is meant to function as my home office, but it has been overrun with crafting supplies.  Riv is a genius with organization and spatial relationships and she helped me take everything out of the room and put it all back in a much more effective manner.  So now I have clear "working" and "playing" spaces.  Yay!  Plus, the rearrangement has totally encouraged me to start purging and cleaning (always a good thing).  And did I mention that the room looks like a bazillion times bigger? 

3. Clip It Up!

Okay, I'll say it.  I *hate* my Clip it Up.  Sacrilege, right?  The Clip it Up has taken the scrapbooking world by storm and every post on every message board has raved about it.  I'm an organization junkie, so I totally bought one.  Ugh.  I detest it.  It doesn't hold as much as everyone said it would. It's enormous and takes up so much space.  It's wonky and hard to turn (and feels like it might fall apart).  I was going to get rid of it today – just sell it to the highest bidder – but when I googled "clip it up" (to find the original price) I saw a site that suggested using it to hold fabric.

Whoa.

Genius!  I spent some time today putting all my fat quarters and small bits of fabric onto the bottom tier (sorted by color of course) and am using the top tier for stuff like Angelina fiber and Sulky Solvy.  Check it out:

ClipItUp 

This is such a more practical use for this contraption!  I'm a happy, happy girl!

4. Three Small Happy Things

I feel very lucky to have had (1) a layout win the "silver medal" at the Sketch Book Olympics' first event; (2) a layout chosen by Gallery Standouts; and (3) a layout chosen for the"Catwalk" at SIStv.

It's always nice to have complete strangers tell you that you're on the right track!  LOL!

5. An Award

Christina from Rubba' Stampa' and Scrapbooka's Attic gave me this award:

I_love_your_blog 

Now, I'm supposed to pay it forward with seven links, so I thought I'd share seven blogs of folks who are also attending Ranger U.

  1. Jack And Cat Curio
  2. A Spoonful of Sugar
  3. Creative Chick
  4. Aimee in Ohio
  5. Distinctive Touches
  6. Special Editions Studio
  7. It's All in the Details

Have a great day!

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Based outside of Boston, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a mixed-media artist who constructs vibrant compositions. Passionate about connecting with and inspiring other artists, she shares her expertise through in-person workshops, her online classroom www.balzerdesigns.com, and through monthly membership at www.MyArtPractice.com.

24 thoughts on “Things That Make Me Happy…

  • That art journal page is the best ever- I love the feeling and colors- and it looks pretty textured. Wonderful!

    Reply
  • That art journal page is the best ever- I love the feeling and colors- and it looks pretty textured. Wonderful!

    Reply
  • That art journal page is the best ever- I love the feeling and colors- and it looks pretty textured. Wonderful!

    Reply
  • That art journal page is the best ever- I love the feeling and colors- and it looks pretty textured. Wonderful!

    Reply
  • The art page is gorgeous! I love doing art journal pages. I agree about the clip it up thats why I never got one. Taking up counter space is always a no no in my small area I have to work with. I had to make one on my wall to use. I think your solution with the fabric was a great idea so that it can hold more.

    Reply
  • The art page is gorgeous! I love doing art journal pages. I agree about the clip it up thats why I never got one. Taking up counter space is always a no no in my small area I have to work with. I had to make one on my wall to use. I think your solution with the fabric was a great idea so that it can hold more.

    Reply
  • The art page is gorgeous! I love doing art journal pages. I agree about the clip it up thats why I never got one. Taking up counter space is always a no no in my small area I have to work with. I had to make one on my wall to use. I think your solution with the fabric was a great idea so that it can hold more.

    Reply
  • The art page is gorgeous! I love doing art journal pages. I agree about the clip it up thats why I never got one. Taking up counter space is always a no no in my small area I have to work with. I had to make one on my wall to use. I think your solution with the fabric was a great idea so that it can hold more.

    Reply
  • Julie, it’s blog entries like this one that make me smile! So much fun stuff to share. Congrats on the kudos that you have received and I love the LO with you and hubby (such fun). Thanks again for all you do for the scrappy/art community.

    Reply
  • Julie, it’s blog entries like this one that make me smile! So much fun stuff to share. Congrats on the kudos that you have received and I love the LO with you and hubby (such fun). Thanks again for all you do for the scrappy/art community.

    Reply
  • Julie, it’s blog entries like this one that make me smile! So much fun stuff to share. Congrats on the kudos that you have received and I love the LO with you and hubby (such fun). Thanks again for all you do for the scrappy/art community.

    Reply
  • Julie, it’s blog entries like this one that make me smile! So much fun stuff to share. Congrats on the kudos that you have received and I love the LO with you and hubby (such fun). Thanks again for all you do for the scrappy/art community.

    Reply
  • It’s nice to see a happy blog post today since mine so wasn’t happy. I love the journal page and the way you used your clip it up. Congats on all the props, you totally deserve it

    Reply
  • It’s nice to see a happy blog post today since mine so wasn’t happy. I love the journal page and the way you used your clip it up. Congats on all the props, you totally deserve it

    Reply
  • It’s nice to see a happy blog post today since mine so wasn’t happy. I love the journal page and the way you used your clip it up. Congats on all the props, you totally deserve it

    Reply
  • It’s nice to see a happy blog post today since mine so wasn’t happy. I love the journal page and the way you used your clip it up. Congats on all the props, you totally deserve it

    Reply
  • Aha! The Clip-it-Up makes a comeback. I do agree that it’s bulky, but I find it holds quite a bit. I use it for all of my unmounted stamps and that way they’re always in view. I also use the extra clips to hang up my layouts all over my room.

    Reply
  • Aha! The Clip-it-Up makes a comeback. I do agree that it’s bulky, but I find it holds quite a bit. I use it for all of my unmounted stamps and that way they’re always in view. I also use the extra clips to hang up my layouts all over my room.

    Reply
  • Aha! The Clip-it-Up makes a comeback. I do agree that it’s bulky, but I find it holds quite a bit. I use it for all of my unmounted stamps and that way they’re always in view. I also use the extra clips to hang up my layouts all over my room.

    Reply
  • Aha! The Clip-it-Up makes a comeback. I do agree that it’s bulky, but I find it holds quite a bit. I use it for all of my unmounted stamps and that way they’re always in view. I also use the extra clips to hang up my layouts all over my room.

    Reply

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