I needed a large piece of art to hang above my bed, and I wanted something cheap, quick, fun, and DIY.

Thanks to the internet and some international generosity, this doe-eyed gal is what I made!

I've had a soft spot for Blythe for a long time now, ever since I discovered Gina Garan's first book, This is Blythe, many years ago. That fabulous little doll is such a... doll, isn't she? (Click here to visit Gina's site and see tons of rad Blythe pics.)

For the image I used, I found a Blythe photo I loved on Flickr and emailed the photo's creator, one Alberto Rodriguez from Spain, to ask if I could use it. Alberto immediately replied and said I was more than welcome to use his photo - wasn't that nice?!

Next, to make the piece big, I used the awesome site with a terrible name, The Rasterbator. For the bargain price of FREE, you can upload any regular-sized image to this site, and the robots that work there will turn it into a huge image (up to something like 20x20 feet!) which -- this is the best part -- you print out at home on a regular printer, on regular printer paper. Then you piece together all the printed-out pages to create the final enormous image.

So I uploaded Alberto's image to The Rasterbator, and in mere seconds I had a pdf file that was about 30 pages long. I printed them all out in color on a regular office printer. The pages themselves looked like nothing but pixellated randomness - I totally didn't believe that the image would come together. But once I started laying them out in the correct order, a big, beautiful Blythe sprang to life before my eyes!



Next, I got a piece of foam core and cut it to the necessary size to fit my image. I adhered the printed pages to the foam core one by one, using double-stick tape. I wasn't as precise as I could have been, and so my grid got a little off, causing some gaps between the pages in some spots. I ended up coloring them in with a black marker and it wasn't that big of a deal, but next time I'll be a little more careful, maybe draw a grid on my foam core before I start taping.



And that's it! Isn't she cute?

Total time: a couple of hours
Total cost: whatever it costs to buy foam core + make printouts

The best part is that since I live on a low floor of my building, she can be seen through my windows from the street at night. I like the thought of sharing a little bit of art with the East Village. (Don't worry, I close my shades before it gets too late.)

Thank you, Alberto, for sharing your wonderful photo with me. It makes me happy every day!