Organization: collage ephemera

Hello all!

Today I am extraordinarily proud of myself because I finally tackled a lingering problem area in my (newly, and mostly organized) craft room! I'm talking about the daunting pile of collage papers that I've accumulated, both big, and small. I don't have an accurate "before" picture, unfortunately, but perhaps you can imagine? My collection was mostly photo boxes, and paper trays stuffed with hundreds of pages torn from magazines.

I wasted a lot of time looking at organizing boards on Pinterest before finally deciding that nothing I saw would work for me, because I had a budget of exactly $0 to work with, so again, I was forced to improvise. Luckily a few weeks ago, I spotted some little metal bins at Five Below, and snagged them, knowing that I would eventually find a use for them! Today was that day!

So here is some of what I was starting with.

It may not look so bad, but I had at least half a dozen of these paper boxes filled to overflowing with inspiration that I couldn't access!

I tried first to organize by color, but that didn't suit me, so I ended up organizing EVERYTHING by category! For the pages that were roughly 8 1/2 x 11, I punched holes in them, and put them in a binder, alphabetized by subject. Luckily, I already had a pack of alphabetical tabbed dividers!

I love dem! And not just because they're pretty and rainbow! But also because (sor far) they work great!

Next came the smaller bits and bobs! I decided to divide them one more time, into two categories, so that the smallest things wouldn't get lost in the files with the slightly larger items. I made my own dividers out of cardstock and washi tape, and set to deciding what categories I wanted to use! I knew I couldn't alphabetize every tiny piece of inspiration, so I came up with more general categories, like "inanimate objects" "places" "people" et cetera.

I cut down and organized almost every bit of my ephemera, and these bins aren't even half-filled! 

I am so excited to go to make a collage, and see if my organization system works! Also, now I have room to cut up eeeeeeven more of my magazines that are just sitting, waiting for me to rip them apart and collect the beautiful bits!

How do you organize your collage ephemera??

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!

Hello Blog World

Guess what!? I'm not dead! Hooray!

So much has happened, and I could TRY to catch you all up on what's gone down in my life for the past year? But for tonight, I think it seems much more manageable to tell you what's happening with me now.

1. Moved to a new home. Away from my history and past. New beginnings. Freshly painted walls.

2. Have my own craft room! It didn't have a table in it for quite some time, and so I was doing my art at the dining room table, which was less than ideal. When my roommate (very kindly) expressed that it might be better for me to get a table IN the craft room, so that we could put all of my things not in the dining room, I realized I have a huge job ahead of me.

I struggle with depression and anxiety, and I had a really low several weeks before she made this suggestion, and so the craft room, (and pretty much the dining room too) got to be in pretty bad shape. Here are a couple of before and after shots for your viewing pleasure.

2013 in progress

Long time, no see. It may be time to face facts... Hi, my name is Kendralu, and I am a terrible blogger. But... I'm back again, with notions of actually keeping up with this blog. I know what you're thinking. "I'll believe it when I see it." Honestly, I'm right there with you. We shall see.

But for tonight, a couple of highlights from the beginning of 2013?

Business in the front

Party in the back!

Cutie!

I spent a good 20 minutes to half an hour with Cadence strapped into her high chair, grandma distracting her, so that I could pull this off. Doing a two year old's hair is hard work.

Look at this tall girl! This was taken at her second birthday party, in February!

The Night Before, rainbow cake in progress...

Birthday display plus a giant cake with a surprise inside!

Surprise!

Yum!

Sugar rush!

Auntie 'Raina MADE this fabulous sweater for Miss Cady! Isn't it lovely!?

Art For Christmas

I am officially going to start selling my artwork. As of now. I figure Christmastime is as good a time as any!

SO! Here are some samples of what I can do for you!

I can do Custom Colored Silhouette Collages of a treasured photograph!  We can decide together which of your pictures will make wonderful Collages!

$40.00 for an 8x10

I can also do Traditional Black Silhouettes of your loved ones

$10.00

I can also do lovely, detailed Black and White Portraits of you or a loved one! $25.00 base price for an 8x10 b&w plus $10/hour (click the picture to enlarge it!)

Or, you can have a beautiful Color portrait of yourself, or a loved one! $45.00 base price for an 8x10 plus $10.00/hour

Other things I can custom make for you include Hand-drawn Paper Dolls to look like your child, (on magnetic paper, thick cardstock, or book board) and Lovely building blocks for your toddler, personalized with a theme you choose!

If you're interested you can contact me at kendraluogzewalla@gmail.com

Backward, Glass Looking The Through (teaser)

Holding tight to her teapot, The White Queen looked around. The looking glass, that fickle contraption, was nowhere to be seen. Where was she? What was this mysterious place on the other side of the mirror?

dearest blog followers, i have abandoned you again, and i am sorry. life is life and things continue to be complicated and busy and satisfying. i have made a big decision. i am not going back to school this fall because i want more time with the kids. i don't know if i even mentioned my plans to go back to school, but i had them. i was going to study social work, and become a play therapist (one of a few options i've been considering). i've thought about it, and prayed about it, and i've decided that even though they're not my kids, they need me in their lives right now. and even if they didn't, i need them. so school will have to wait. i may have to find another way of supporting myself and my foster babies when my five years are up, but i will do it, because i KNOW that they need me. i also know that being in my nieces and nephew's lives now is more important than any psychology class that i could take.

so. maybe when i have my foster babies, i could run a daycare. then i could stay home with them. or maybe my business (when i get it up and running) will be enough to take care of us. i realize that i have a lot of options, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it. right? plenty of people with just a bachelor's degree (which is what i could have in five years, if i go back to school next year instead of this) support and raise children. right? and plenty of people support and raise children WHILE going to school. it can be done. it won't be easy, but i am motivated. my future children need me.

i have plans.

I'm not sure what this blog post will say, but I did promise (myself and you) that I would write more regularly, so here I am.
This week has been insane. An exceedingly intense metaphorical rollercoaster. Some really wonderful moments have happened this week, also a major devastating one that made just about everything else feel inconsequential. The majority of it I can't blog about, but sufficed to say, things is crazy up in here y'all.
What do you do when the worst thing you can possibly imagine, happens? Not to you, but to someone you love more than anything in the world. How do you deal with the emotions that come with that? How do you react?
I tell you what we do.
We stand up, and we fight.
We say no.
I can tell you what people have done for me. They have stood next to me on the battlements and cried the war-cry right alongside me, even when I have insisted that this is not their fight. They have lain in the mud with me when I've been beaten, and bloodied, promising me that if I want to get up again, they will help lift me. And they have lifted me to my feet each and every time I've fallen.
Now it's my turn. I've been beaten down, I've been lifted, and I've been carried to this place so that I can be. Here. Now.
You're not alone in this. Not for a moment.