Dear People of my Blog,

Tonight is the closing reception of my latest art show and you’re all invited! I shot approximately one billion Polaroids and this is your final chance to see them before they come down forever.  It’s at Majestic Cafe in Detroit from 8pm to 11pm and it’s free to attend.

And so! Here’s a rundown of what you can expect to see from The Wayward Hussies Closing Reception.

Over the course of the summer I shot all my favorite spots inside the city of Detroit. This heart shaped Polaroid collage is mounted on an old salvaged door from Eastern Market and it’s one of my favorite pieces in the history of the world. I kind of want to see it go to a good home, but I’m also very selfish and want to keep it. But no, I should definitely sell it. But then again, it would look really nice in my living room. No. Yes. No.  Please help.

It was even spotted & approved by The Heidelberg Project!

I also did several Polaroid emulsion lifts mounted onto reclaimed wood from Eastern Market.

Some have already sold, but there are still a few more available! Come buy one and then you can stare at it inside your house and think of me every day. Forever and ever. Until the day you die. Just kidding, you’ll never die.

In addition to my work, there are also paintings from Lisa Marie Krug, Mixed Media pieces from Jessica Brown, and a portrait series by Kim Hoxworth. Below is the photograph Kim took of Mike D and I. It’s a social commentary piece in which we are expressing our feelings about Syria. Or was it Miley Cyrus? I don’t know, pick one.

So come on out and party with me, and maybe pick up a little something to bedazzle your walls. Or don’t, and then regret your life.  YOUR CALL.

Majestic Cafe
4140 Woodward, Detroit

xoxo

Ello there.  Remember me?

I’m back!  With a new blog!  And you can leave comments again!  Yay!  So please, leave as many comments as you would like.  Really knock yourself out.  Tell me about your day if you like.

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I have SO MUCH to blog about you guys.  In the past month or two, I have decorated, DIY’d, shot Polaroids, thrown a party, gone on a couple roads trips, and attended the Renegade Indie Craft Fair.  It’s been a time.  I can’t wait to share it all.

So put on your party hats and let’s kick things off with a Polaroid Heart Collage How-To.

Inspired by this photo I found on Pinterest (and this one and this one) I decided to grab a stack of Polaroids and turn them into a heart shaped collage for our dining room.

via

It’s the cutest.

By the way, I realize you may look at this collage and think that a tutorial is not necessary and that sticking a bunch of Polaroids to the wall in the shape of a heart doesn’t exactly seem like rocket science.  You would be wrong in thinking that.   Ok, so maybe it’s not as difficult as ROCKET SCIENCE, however this project took a lot of tweaking, and a fair amount of trial and error to get it to look like a symmetrical heart and not a giant blob, so trust me on this.   Lucky for you, I’ve written a handy tutorial so you can bang this project out in no time.  It’ll be a breeze.

Supplies Needed:

• 53 Polaroids or printed photos approximately 3.5 inches by 4.5 inches.  Because I use a variety of instant film, my Polaroids were not all the exact same size but it still worked out fine.  I also used two instax minis in place of one regular sized Polaroid for an entire row.
• A roll of painters/masking tape or command poster strips
• Measuring tape
• A long ruler (optional)

Keep in mind,  you don’t have to use actual Polaroids for this.  You can print out your own digital photos at home, or use a service like Printstagram to print out  instragram photos from your phone.  Be creative with it.  Maybe pick a theme.  You could do an entire collage of just your pets.  Or kids.  They could be all travel or wedding photos.  You could use all black and white photos, or if you want one big pop of color,  run all your photos through a colored filter before printing them.  Maybe you’re a weirdo and you want to use all naked photos of yourself because you’re very happy with how you look naked.  In which case, congratulations to you.  But I’m not here to judge.

I first constructed my collage on the floor so I could easily make tweaks and perfect it before sticking everything to the wall.  You should do this too.

Start from the bottom, laying your Polaroids out on the floor, and build your rows up.

Because I love you, I created this handy little diagram to help you lay out all 53 photos.

Once you have the collage constructed on the floor, feel free to swap the Polaroids around as you see fit.  You can group colors together, or just randomly mix them up until they look good.  That’s what I did.

After you have everything set up exactly the way you want it on the floor, snap a photo of the collage with your phone or a digital camera so you can reference the pattern and exact placement as you transfer each Polaroid to the wall.  This is very important!  I probably referenced my photo 532 times.

Next, mark onto your wall where you want the bottom Polaroid of the heart to sit.  I recommend measuring the entire collage first, so you can decide exactly where to place it.  My collage turned out to be 36 inches tall by 32 inches wide.

Then, simply take the very bottom Polaroid, add tape or a command strip to the back, and stick it to the spot you just marked on your wall.  Work your way up, one by one, row by row, from the bottom.  Use a ruler (if necessary) to keep a straight line.

Now go forth, people of my blog, and create Polaroid collages on every wall of every home.

Seriously, wouldn’t this be adorable in a little girl’s room?  Or a nursery?  Or your kitchen?  Every time I walk into our dining room it makes me smile.

I heart it.

ba-dum-dum-CHING!