Blogs, blogs and more blogs...

I follow & read several blogs daily. I like to get them sent right to my email inbox.  I save some for reference or inspiration.  I've found if they are sent via RSS feed I never get there to read them. Some of the bloggers have had quite an impact on my creative journey.  I thought I would share a few of them with you.

I'm a big fan of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and having been following her for a couple of years.  I started art journaling, using stencils and I am taking 21 Secrets because of her and the information she shares so generously on her blog.  Today her post title is "Tutorial:  Digital Photo Collages" and I wanted to direct those of you who are digi people to this.  Julie's tutorials are well done and easy to follow.  Check it out here   http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/
For anyone who is interested in stencils whether you use them regularly or are a beginner Julie has a lot of information regarding them including a free stencil workshop.  Julie also designs stencils for The Crafter's Workshop.  She also hosts Art Journal Every Day on her blog.

A diferent type of artist/blogger is Ali Edwards.  I've followed Ali for years.  I've been scrapbooking for about 14 years or so and used to read her articles faithfully in scrapbook magazines.  Now I read her blogs, take One Little Word, do December Daily & A Week in the Life and now I'll be taking her 31 Things class over at Big Picture Classes beginning in May.  You can find Ali here http://aliedwards.com/
She actually has two blogs on one website. 

More artist/bloggers tomorrow.

Whose blogs do you follow?

Scraptastic Giveaway

Ashley Calder, the author of Scraptastic is giving away a copy of the book on her blog.  Go here
http://ashleycalder.blogspot.com/2012/04/scraptastic-give-away.html  to leave a post for a chance to win.  To learn more about Scraptastic check out Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's review of it here
http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/04/book-club-scraptastic-by-ashley-calder.html
While you are at Julie's blog make sure you check out her other posts.  She covers a wide variety of topics.

Stencils 101

I started a free online class today, Stencils 101.  Julie Balzer, a mixed media artist, scrapbooker and more is the teacher.  You can check out her blog at
http://www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com
The information you need to sign up for the class is under the Sept 12th post - Click on the Stencils 101 blinkie at the right and scroll down.  There are 500 people already signed up so join the fun!