Some people asked if I take commissions, and the answer is yes, but for cell phone cases, I feel weird even offering. This did not seem to take enough time/effort/skill for people to not do it themselves.
Supplies: a $5 cell phone case I bought off the street, a jar of Mod Podge and a sponge brush I used to apply it as I went, a pair of scissors, and a few pages from a comic book. It took me under three hours total.
But if, after reading this, you still want to commission one, just let me know. Making this is a lot of fun.
I couldn't decide what theme I wanted for this, but I love this page from the comic, so even though I had a few panels from other pages and even other issues picked out, I decided to stick with these, and to use entirely pictures from this issue.
Because the edge had some curves I wasn't 100% sure of, I took everything off the phone, put a piece of copy paper over it, and rubbed over it like when you're in preschool and you make an etching of a leaf. It's stupid, but it works. (And yes, I did use an Avengers pencil.)
Then I used an Exacto knife to cut it out. It isn't a perfect copy, but it was close enough that I was able to use it as a model without any major overhang or blank spaces.
I selected my panels 100% based on content (in that I only wanted panels of Carol and Kit, no other characters and especially no villains) and color. Because I was cutting up small pieces, I wanted to make sure I'd have some yellow, some red, and some blue, just like Carol's uniform (although as I got farther into the project you'll see I focused on the reds and yellows, because the phone itself fulfilled the blue).
I ended up cutting most of the pieces smaller than they are here, but this at least gave me an idea of the raw materials I was working with. (Cutting most of the pieces up was not hard. Cutting up Kit's face made me feel like a monster.)
I was trying the thing I have often heard about but never done, which is to apply top layers of mod podge AS I'M GLUING. It turns out this is very effective and I should have listened to people for ages. At this point I didn't really have an idea of how if at all I was going to tie together background images, but I liked Carol's uniform on the left and her face right at the top, even though in theory I'd been planning to just make it unrecognizable symbols.
Continuing to add, with thicker coats of mod podge as I go because I am terrified it will fall apart while I'm using it and I won't be able to repair it. People generally say to do the outside border before filling in the inside, which is one of those things I try to do but then get distracted because making things fit in spaces! I like that game! Luckily I didn't end up having any problems because of that.
Also, before fully completing any section, I wanted to make sure the quotes would look okay on them. Here, I did enough of the layout to make sure the first quote fit, and in the fragments of Carol's face I was starting to see a potential story from the background images.
So in addition to adding the filler images, I made sure to add a few pieces of Carol, which I thought of as mirror shard versions of her face, showing her at all different angles. And then I added the picture I'd focused the whole thing on at the bottom, but it seemed like it was missing something. So I went back to the issue and cut out the "and how she inspired" from the Kamala page.
After all of this I did a few more very thick coats of mod podge and used a Magic Eraser to remove the excess from the sides. I'm currently trying to decide if red glitter around the border there will enhance or take away from the design, but other than that, I think this is good to go for Comic Con.
I was sorting catalogs I got from BEA and realized I'd never posted these pictures here.
This is the first box I collaged, and in the spirit of "go big or go home" it's about 15x15x15. Which, if you don't know, is a LOT of images to glue to stuff.
All pictures come from back issues of schoollibraryjournal, publishersweekly, Booklist, Horn Book, and various publishers' catalogs that I rescued before they got thrown out at the office.
I use this box to store all my other children's book-related crafting supplies, including half a dozen used books I use for text (which I'll probably use for the inside rim of the box when I have some spare time), Printz and Caldecott stickers I ordered from the ALA, magazines I haven't torn up yet, and various illustrations I haven't found the perfect place for. The champagne box in there is full of already-cut-out pictures of book covers.
In honor of Widow Week, and to celebrate the first issue of a brand-new Black Widow ongoing, I collaged a wallet to give away!
Sides are black and white newsprint pictures and quotes (from "Essential Daredevil 4"); front and back are glossy color pictures from various comics (including panels from Black Widow: Name of the Rose, Black Widow: Homecoming, Captain America and the Black Widow, Marvel Fanfare, White Tiger, Secret Avengers, Daredevil, Avengers Assemble, Black Widow and the Marvel Girls, and Black Widow: Fear Itself). Has been covered with a few layers of mod podge; will be covered with several more before I send it out.
Rules:
I don't really care if you follow me, but I do post a lot about Black Widow at allofthefeelings and all of my collages at i glue stuff, if you're interested.
Reblog or like to enter, one entry per. I don't really care if you reblog more than once, but don't be a jerk. (If you reblog to signal-boost instead of wanting it, though, maybe mention that in the post so you don't get a wallet you don't want?)
I'll ship anywhere
Winner will be chosen randomly from notes on January 22, which happens to be the day the SECOND issue of Black Widow comes out. (See what I did there?)
If you win I'll ask-box you for your address; if you don't respond within two days I'll go to the next person.
If by some miracle this gets over 250 notes, I'll make a second wallet, with the front and back entirely out of pictures from Black Widow (2014) #1, also to give away. First winner will get to choose if they want this one or that one; second winner will get the one the first winner doesn't choose. If this happens, I will notify the second winner after the first winner has claimed theirs.
If you don't feel the odds are in your favor, I've got an etsy store and should be adding more Black Widow wallets to it, and/or you could commission one, so keep an eye on that.
Hey so totally hypothetically and not at all because I want to open my Etsy store in the next few days and have some free time today and tomorrow to make some examples, what kind of comics wallets do YOU wish you could buy?
Daisy Razor sent me an awesome comics collage wallet of Bucky and Natasha, and after I got a ton of compliments on it, I realized that this might be a great medium for using all of the pictures of children's books I've saved up over the years.
So I contacted a good friend, who likes kidlit as much as I do, and said, "Friend, I have this idea. It could turn out very awesome or very terrible. In either case, you will be required to give me updates on what you think frequently." She agreed, because she is a good friend and/or because she is a masochist.
I bought a copy of The Westing Game used for a dollar, cut up a few pages, and used them for the sides. I cut up issues of publishers' catalogs, as well as several Horn Books and School Library Journals and Publishers Weeklys, to make the front and back of the wallet. I was interested in both visual harmony and using books my friend didn't hate. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, and am considering making some more to sell on Etsy if I can get comfortable with the idea.
Annoyingly, I cannot add a "read more" to a picture post, so I have posted the list of books used in this wallet collage as a separate page.
When I first made this table, I thought it was pretty damn awesome for a first attempt, and not something I could improve upon for a good long while.
Then on the Sunday of New York Comic Con, I went to Artists' Alley and I got it signed by some of the amazing creators whose work appears on it.
It's awesome that it's signed, but what was even more awesome was watching them go through the table, turning and turning it to find their art. So thanks to Alex Maleev, Chris Sotomayor, Felipe Andrade, Paul Mounts, and Matteo Scalera, the artists who humored me and signed my giant wood-composite collage and made me a very, very happy fangirl.
After yesterday's failed attempt at collaging knee-high boots, I bought cheap sneakers and collaged them instead. Considering I bought the shoes last night around 6:45, I'm pretty pleased that they were finished and ready to wear by 1 PM today.
I don't think they look as awesome as the boots did, but they stayed together all day, so overall it's probably a win. After a day of wear, they aren't in perfect shape, but I'll be able to wear them again tomorrow.
Then, starting tomorrow, I get to go back to what's really important: collaging an Iron Man table.
When Kelly Sue DeConnick announced she was going to be at NYCC, I decided I wanted to make something for her. I decided this for two reasons: one, because Captain Marvel is one of the two reasons (the other being Black Widow) that I got into comics, which is what got me back into collage, which I had missed a great deal. And two, because now that I have gotten back into collage, I am running out of places to store them, so any reason to give them to someone else is good.
Some things are hard to say with words. But hopefully this collage says "Thank you for bringing me Carol, and Carol Corps, and for showing me that even though comics seems scary from the outside they can also create a community where women are welcome and even encouraged, and for leading me back to creating things myself, even if those things are largely created through bits and pieces borrowed from other people." If not, I hope it at least says "punch holes in the sky."
(Fun fact: I was originally going to actually use a star-shaped hole punch to punch holes in the sky, but it felt a little on-the-nose.)
Failure because of the hilarious way that, it turns out, there is a reason most people do not collage boots. Namely, after a day at NYCC, they have fallen apart and are a mangled mess.
But success because dude, I COLLAGED BOOTS. And for the time before I completely destroyed them, they were mine, and they looked pretty fucking awesome.
Hey, Tumblr, I realize I haven't actually started taking commissions yet, but on the assumption that I'm going to soon, if there's something you might be considering requesting from me (as a magazine collage, not a cardstock one), let me know so I can buy them at NYCC.
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