Hello! My name is Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and I am thrilled that a scrapbooking store is opening in Manhattan! Even better, it’s just five stops away from my apartment on the 1 train, although I have been eyeing the bus shelter outside the store. I live between Broadway and 8^th Avenue, and I’m thinking that when I’m carrying my crop bag, a scenic ride up Broadway on the M104 might be in order!

For me, every page starts either with a story to tell or a technique I want to try out. That pretty much sums up my divided scrap personality.

On the one hand, I journal a lot. While it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, everyone’s thousand words are different. I believe that the heart of scrapbooking is expressing yours. I kept a daily diary for years and years, but stopped when I started scrapbooking. In many ways, my scrapbooks are simply very artistic journal entries.

On the other hand, I am wildly passionate about playing with my supplies. I consider myself something of a mad scientist when it comes to scrapbooking. I’m always trying to push my supplies and see what happens if a little of this mixes with a little of that. The result is that my pages are full of paint and plaster and metal and fabric and anything else that I can get my hands on. I love to cross-pollinate, pulling supplies and techniques from other crafting disciplines into scrapbooking. For example, the background and title of this page are needle felted:

As for my style, I call it “cultural anthropology with a hand made look.” I’ve already talked about the first half of that description. As for the second, a scrapbook is something made by you, not by a machine. I think it’s vital that you put yourself on the page. I don’t want my pages to look “perfect” and sterile and made by a machine. I want them to be colorful, textured, hand made, and imperfect. Just like me! So, I ink and tear and paint and doodle and sew and have a really good time!

I’m sure you’ll get to know me through my pages, but in brief: I also quilt and make jewelry. And I’m bi-scraptual – meaning I do traditional paper scrapping as well as digital. I’ve lived in Manhattan for the past nine years (5 years on the Upper East Side and now Midtown West). I’m the Artistic Director of The Milk Can Theatre Company, a company dedicated to the development of new plays, and I am happily married to John, who is my college sweetheart.

I hope you’ll check out my reviews, tutorials, and craft-related ramblings on my blog, Balzer Designs!

Tags: bio, Design Team

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