Experimentation: DIY washi tape

I want to convince a couple of friends (okay, I sort of want to prove to myself) that it's possible to art journal without breaking the bank! But in my opinion, washi tape (Japanese, repositionable, decorative masking tape) is an absolute must-have. I am a liiitle bit obsessed. So this morning, even though I already have a TON, I attempted to make my own.

There are, of course, bazillions of tutorials on The Intarwubs for how to make decorative tape out of double-sided, peel-y tape, but I didn't have any of that, and the idea was to use what I have, so I had to improvise. First I tried several types of paper with regular old, scotch brand, double sided tape, with wax paper from the kitchen on the backside (in order to store it). It works okay, I guess, except that it's hard to see where your tape is in order to cut the paper to size. I ended up with some pretty wonky, not-very-straight, rather short lengths of narrow tape. The pattern on my tissue paper was too big to really see any fabulous detail with how narrow my tape was. Also, I discovered that the napkin I used had so many more plies than I thought it did, so I ended up with a white piece that I will probably stamp on later.

I was not a fan of this technique. On to the next!

I don't have a picture of this misstep, but the next thing I tried was to paint directly on some masking tape. I felt like a genius, until I realized that my paint was not sticking AT ALL to the tape. Duh.

So I got out my gesso. You know? That fabulous white stuff that you can paint on almost any surface to make it suitable for paint? Oh wait, I don't have any gesso. Cue Pinterest! Turns out, you can make your own gesso!!

I won't put the whole tutorial in this blog post because you can just go here, where I found it. But all you need is glue, white paint, and baby powder!

Okay, third time's the charm, right?

I tore seven strips of masking tape and stuck them to a piece of wax paper. I gave them a good coat of the gesso I made, and let them dry completely, which took about half an hour. THEN I really got started!

This was either going to be awesome, or a disaster!

I put the tape-on-wax-paper in a shallow box and gave them a light spritzing with my homemade glimmer-y spray paints. (will probably make a tutorial for that at some point, but not today)

Hint: do not try to speed up the drying process during any of these steps with heat! I almost fused my tape to my wax paper by melting either the wax, or the adhesive, or a little of both!

Here is what they look like all dried and on a fresh sheet of wax paper!

Next I decided I wanted a little more pattern/activity, so I got out my stamps!

I divided my stamps into two categories for this project. Backgrounds, done with colors similar to the ones already on the tape, and foreground, which I decided to do in black.

Here is a close-up of the background step. Starting to look kinda cool!

Annnnd, drum roll please?! No? Whatever.

The finished tape!!

The birds were hard to align, and next time I think I may try some white stamps, but I am pretty happy, overall, with how this project turned out! What do you think?! I think I may send some in some future happy mail!

I feel like posting a little bit of my art.

A Bento Box

So after working on this gift for over a year, I finally managed to accomplish my goal and finish my first quilt ever! It ended up being quite a bit larger than I intended, and I think I ripped out a thousand stitches before I got it right, but this may still be the most satisfying thing I've ever done!

Things I Learned
1. How to use a seam ripper
2. That it is difficult to make a quilt look random when it isn't
3. It is very hard to make a quilting machine make a circle
4. How to make a mitered corner
5. Measure three times, cut once
6. It is only almost impossible for me to keep a secret
7. Sticking yourself with a pin hurts
8. It's worth it

The Plan:
The execution:

The Result:

for cadence and charlize

I am not sure how I feel about this piece. It feels like something's missing. what do you think?

Highly Prized

This is my first page that i did for the sketchbook challenge, and the theme for january was "highly prized." One of the things i prize most is my journey to becoming a healthier, happier person, the journey to becoming the more real me. the big white rectangle on the left page is actually an envelope with a letter in it. the sketch is a picture of now-me kissing the cheek of little-me. yay!

portrait of the girl inside me. and an old journal page.

for nie nie

I don't normally include this, sometimes I feel like it detracts from the finished piece, but above is the original I used, from the beautiful and talented Stephanie Nielson's blog. (Go here to read her.)


And here is the finished product! This one was the most difficult so far; it had the most colors. And I have to tell you, it looked quite a lot like crap during the process. Cutting and gluing one color at a time seems to proceed very slowly and it looks rather awful right up until you paste the very last color (in this case, Janes red hair) and it brings the entire picture together. I think this is a metaphor for life. :)

two more!

Saige and Lovely

Charlie playing the piano

bubbling

and another

Emily Grace

a new thing i learned to do!

I cut them out of paper, I didn't do them on the computer. The top is Saige, and the bottom is Charlie.

an ode to a stranger, and to myself

an ode to charlie love

sorry about the poor scan. i tried.

art journaling

My proudest moment

i FINALLY got the pictures from my camera to my computer after at least a dozen different attempts. don't ask me which method worked because i have no idea at this point. The picture i want to share with you tonight is of the best piece of artwork i have done to date. it took a grand total of about 84 hours, was 22"x28" and cost my friend a neat $880 (not including the custom frame). he says it was worth it though. here it is hanging in my very first art show.





i have only one thing to say about the process: plaid is flipping hard to draw.

Artistic Genius