imdabitch

this is not a drill

Light a fire under it, already! YOU march, YOU read, YOU vote – so what the hell are the rest of these clowns thinking? Turn up the heat with this easy-to-make slap tag PSA. Perfect for dressing up that empty office lobby, parking lot exit, or public restroom door!

This under-the-radar beauty is right-sized at 7″x10″ and prints on an 8.5″ x11″ page. Beware of overpriced “Sticker Project” packets that go for $1/sheet – look for full sized shipping labels because for your purposes, it’s the same thing. Office Depot charges $30/per100 for their house brand; most office supply stores will have something similar. Avery makes a high-opacity sheet that sells for ten bucks more, but if you’re posting on a solid background, the cheap stuff should be fine.

Download your free sticker here
Slap it to me! I’m smart enough to know this is a damn graphic and the “sticker” part of things is up to me

Be sure to print your PDF with the “actual size” rather than “fit” option in the print dialog box. For outdoor use, protect your masterpiece by weather-proofing it with packing tape. Start at the bottom and add overlapping strips, one by one, til you reach the top. Cover, cut and serve.

Gratuitous Disclaimer: If you’re planning to put these anywhere besides your own backpack, lunchbox, or forehead, be advised that defacing public or private property is illegal, and illegal things are unlawful. Law-abiders and parolees may want to print these as repositionable stickers, which are totally a thing. VoteBitch does not condone criminal acts of any kind, including sticker bombing, piracy, or dressing dogs in stupid outfits unless it’s to mock them.

Dirty Money

Wtf, WF? After a series of unfortunate* scandals, Wells Fargo has promised to clean up their act. 350 Silicon Valley thinks they could start by reining in the fossil fuel funding. Yep, in addition to its portfolio of fake accounts and consumer abuses, Wells Fargo has been quietly backing Big Oil in a big way for decades. Surprised? Me neither.

Let them know the jig is up by downloading your free graphic here
Download in glorious 15×20 to make a big stink!
Download in 8.5×11 for a small-footprint fuss!

Then join the oilywells.com march this weekend to show them you’re on it! Or just print this li’l beauty out and do whatever it is you do with art people just hand you like it’s nothing.

Feeling fancy? How about lazy? You can upload a Jpeg to Walgreens.com and get a mounted print on paperboard, cheap, for same-day pickup. Easy peasey.

Download 16×20 Jpeg to print at Walgreens (Don’t worry. Further instructions on linked page. You’ve got this!)

*Unfortunate because they got caught doing something that was technically illegal. Banks abuse consumers all day, every day, on principal. My own bank charges me $12/mo for the privilege of letting them hold onto my money and lend it out, at interest, to others. They call this a “service fee,” which seems to be a fancy name for a inside job as far as I can tell.

Pick It Up!

You pick up your mess – why should the neighbors sit home watching football while you rock the whole civic duty thing? Tell folks to get with the program with this chipper yet irony-laden “Vote” sign. Then revel in the knowledge that you’re not just right, you’re rightest.

Download your free graphic here
Download in glorious 11×17 or
Download in classic 8.5 x 11

Feeling fancy? How about lazy? You can upload a Jpeg to Walgreens.com and get a mounted print on paperboard, cheap, for same-day pickup. Whoo hoo! And no, I don’t get kickbacks from Walgreens. I’m trying to spare you the heartache of trying to get stuff printed at ripoffs like Zazzle who charge $30 for a dinky little sign and jack up their “shipping fees” to $25 if you want it sooner than two weeks.

Download 11×14 Jpeg to print at Walgreens (Don’t worry. Further instructions on linked page. You’ve got this!)

Going Down

Government happens. And…yeah. It actually matters who’s in charge. Ashby BART station, Berkeley, Ca.

Thanks to the wonder of the Internets, you can print your own barricade tape. 4over4 is one option, but feel free to source your own. It’s not exactly cheap – even the outfits that draw you in with inexpensive pricing wind up jacking up the cost with “first time set-up fees” (eyeroll), but in the end, it’s worth having your say in Yellow Alarmer. The only thing to watch out for is that your artwork needs to be 20″ wide or less.

Pet Waste Reface

This jam is pretty easy – get a pet waste station and cover the “clean up after your dog” with a white strip of laser-printed heavy paper. The “Vote” is a little harder – this one is vinyl letters, but you could just cover the whole face of the box with your own printout and cut holes for the lock and bag slot. Come to think of it, for quick & dirty, a plain sign would pair with the prank poop as well. Hmmm…

Getting People to Give a Crap

Recent conversations with Millenials have been disturbing: I mention my blog on street art, talk turns to political street art (hey! follow our VoteBitch project on Instagram), then inevitably to the upcoming election. “Wait. There’s an election this year?” is the standard refrain. Oy! YES. There’s an election. Time to get the word out. It’s our democracy – our mess. Time to clean it up. No sh*t. (Berkeley, California)

Stencil Us In

Making stencils isn’t actually DIFFICULT – just a little time consuming. Set your typography how you want it (hell, you can draw it), then add in white “bridges” to keep it all together. If you’re not sure where you’ll need them, visit a font site like myfonts.com and search “stencil” to see how they work. Place your artwork over a robust substrate (poster board works; we’ll be trying out some plastics this weekend and tell you how it goes). Be sure to keep your art taped down to the substrate to avoid slippage – or just lightly tack it with spray-on adhesive. Then cut, using a sharp Exacto blade. Place a cutting mat or piece of cardboard underneath to avoid ruining your working surface. For fine work, change out your blades frequently to keep things looking sharp!

One and half hours to cut this bastard. Oh, my aching back. NEXT time, we’ll make our message shorter. Maybe, Vote, Bitches?

Post No Bill Cosbys

Bill Cosby’s fall from grace: with Cosby’s contract up for renegotiation in the “Post No Bills” fab four stencil meme, we’re wondering who will replace him. In the meantime, looks like the (probably) Toronto-based street artist has a clever dodge: upside down with a bleeding mohawk. I appreciate the support for his victims – but to tell you the truth, the image of a hanging Black man is pretty loaded in this day and age. Might be better to simply replace him. Ideas, anyone? We’ll try to pass them on!

Breaking up the Band?

The Bills quartet as seen in Portland, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Toronto is seeking a replacement for Mr. Cosby because…well, because of the horrible things he does, as Dorothy and the Scarecrow almost once sang. While a new batch of the fabulous four been seen out and about (see our next post), we’re wondering who the artist will replace him with. Any suggestions? In the meantime, let’s hope that Murray, Clinton, and Gates behave themselves.