I'm Back! Sorry for the long hiaitus

Edit: If you came here from Tim's website looking for my tag/card, scroll to the end!

Well, here we are. The day after election day. Now that I've started to get over the initial impact of everything and have had time to focus on work and some productive things, I thought I would take a moment and update my blog because... well... I haven't in a while.

Since June, a lot of things have happened. My roommate at the time moved to Toronto, so I had to move into a new housing situation, that then required ANOTHER move at the end of July, so there was a lot of moving going on.

Professionally I had some awesome opportunities to work with some great students in a program called Camp College that helps underrepresented kids explore college options in a weekend sleepaway camp of sorts.

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Jul 15, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

Of course I HAVE been creating a little bit too. Here is a quick update of some of my art projects I have completed.

I made a lantern and "old passport" project for PortalBurn, a regional Burning Man event that I attend every summer:

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Jul 24, 2016 at 9:57am PDT

Casually sewing a book together with floss because wax string isn't in my budget haha

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Aug 2, 2016 at 4:38pm PDT

And then I went off to Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada, which was life changing (cliche though it is to say). Here are some of the art projects I either made or was involved with:

Well, to no one's surprise I made a fun travel document holder instead of packing for my big trip tomorrow. Oops. #BurningMan2016 #timholtz

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Aug 21, 2016 at 7:25pm PDT

It's heeerrreeee #KindredSpirit

A video posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Aug 4, 2016 at 8:43pm PDT

And two pics of me in the desert:

My daily look basically

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Sep 9, 2016 at 3:44pm PDT

Space whale

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Sep 10, 2016 at 12:06pm PDT

You can check out lots of other awesome pictures and videos of my time at Burning Man here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByJiFrFAyylQeHhqM1pnNE9heEU

I also made some cards:

Up wayyyy too late, but finished building my bed and made some cards for Facility Services Appreciation Week and a colleague who got a promotion. Love that coffee die set from @tim_holtz

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Sep 15, 2016 at 10:46pm PDT

Otherwise I haven't been super creative to be honest. Working on my penmanship and read some books (finally). But I did manage to get back on the tag challenge boat. This is my entry for the Tim Holtz tags of 2016 remix challenge for November:

A photo posted by Steve Jenks (@centaurofattn) on Nov 6, 2016 at 6:48pm PST

So with that, I hope to update you all more regularly (and perhaps use the fun blog tab I created on this thing and then decided not to use... whomp. But I guess this can go there soooo I shall tag it as such.

Get excited for the holidays and get started on your cards if you haven't already! Pro Tip: use www.Postable.com to keep track of all of your addresses. Every year you can click a refresh function and everyone gets an email to update their addresses if they moved!

Till next time,
Steve

I got a new calligraphy pen and now I can't stop!

Greetings friends! So I have been using a flat-edged ink pen for some of my fancier writings for a while now, but finally broke down and bought an actual pen and nib to do nice calligraphy with. And now I can't stop! But that's okay because lots of people have been getting great little gifts and letters. I think I may have mentioned recently that I try to write two letters every Wednesday for More Love Letters, and so I try to get some practice in there to send a nice note to a stranger or two.

Recently, Lindsey Bugbee over at The Postman's Knock challenged her readers to create four things using our creative juices. Some of the projects even came with some great extra stuff that I will link to as relevant.

The first task was just to illustrate something. I drew a lotus with my pen and then water colored it in with Distress pens and a water brush. Then added a small reminder to relax so that I could place this on my desk haha.

Next was to make a card for someone. I made this for my boss after a nice chat on the bus. She likes peonies and wanted to be a radio DJ when she was in college. Tried to throw that together with my usual stuff and TA DA!

Then we had to make a goal sheet that showed off what we wanted to accomplish in the new year. This beautiful work is faux calligraphy by me, but awesome template by Lindsey. You can check out her post on how to get it FREE here: Printable Goal List

Finally, I needed to make an artsy envelope. For this I used a ton of stamps, some washi tape, texture paste, and my fancy pen. This envelope didn't take my nib too well so it looks more like a love letter from a pirate than some of my nicer penmenship, but I'm sure it will be well-received all the same (it's for a card for this weekend, obviously! But I won't share the card until next week as to not spoil all of the surprise).

So that's all for now. The next post will hopefully be my tag for the month because I haven't done that yet, but it could be something else. Who knows?!

-Steve

Congrats and Good Luck Cards

Quick post of some cards I made recently. One of my colleagues got a new position and had her last day on Friday. Saturday was another co-worker's audition for a masters program in viola. So naturally I stayed up super late on Thursday to make some cards :)

The Good Luck card is on the left and features a music paper background and then watercolor paper with Distress Inks and stamp. The Good Luck card is on the right and is ink and watercolor paper as well. All of the stamps were from Tim Holtz collections.

12 Tags of 2016 - January!

So this year Tim Holtz is doing a "remix" theme on his tag challenges where he takes two older techniques and remixes them together to create something a little new. I don't know if any of my readers are tag makers (or, like me, just do this challenge) but I have a ton of tags and nothing to use them for. Or so I thought...

Here is my tag:

Not only did I remix the techniques, but I took my thriftiness to a new level. Here are some fun facts on this tag:

• I didn't have any black paper, so this is a blue chalkboard. Get over it.
• People always jokingly ask if I'm going to reuse my holiday paper...I did. In fact, the person that gave me that present then received this tag made from the paper out of spite so I hope he noticed :)
• I needed a birthday card and also a way to make this wonderful tag disappear. So I turned it over, added some calligraphy paper and wrote a nice message on it. I then slipped it between the gift and some yarn. Ta Da! Birthday Card, One less tag, and no need for an envelope!

Here is the tag that inspired this:

Hope everyone had a great New Year and I'm excited to share a bunch of new things this year. I've taken up calligraphy recently so expect a ton of writing samples to randomly pop up.

-Steve

12 Tags of 2015 - December - AND MORE!

Okay first off -- HOORAY! I DID IT! I made a tag every month and even managed to win one of the months. YES!

Okay, with that out of the way. Here is my tag along with adorable snowglobe mason jar thing that Tim inspired.

12 Tags of 2015 - November! - Turned Card!

Okay, I know last month was a really short post and I just quickly threw up my tag and won a shout out... but... I'm doing it again. Sorry. But this time I'm taking it a step further and I didn't even make a tag (??!!!). I made this Thank You card at the beginning of the month and then took a picture and mailed it out and then procrastinated on blogging again. I did preview the pic early though on my Instagram @CentaurOfAttn. But this month has been crazy fun because I have been putting together a really cool Christmas/Holiday gift that I will blog about later. I'm super excited about it and I'm sure the recipient will love it too.

Here is my card:

I really loved the way the ribbon felt, even though most people won't really notice the embossing. I also used a textured stamp that I was hoping would look like fabric but actually ended up looking like blueprint guidelines which...well... worked. Here is Tim's example tag:

Oh yeah, annnddd the winner of last month's giveaway is... Pigglet4822! Shoot me an email and I will work out the shipping so you can maybe make a Christmas Zombie? Or just save it for next year? Or re-gift it? Anyway, congrats! And thanks to everyone for the supporting words.

Stay tuned!

-Steve

12 Tags of 2015 - September - Card Edition

I have really started liking this process of making the tag and then using the technique to make cards that I can use later. As usual, here are the finished projects and Tim's tag. Details after the jump.

BURNING MAN! Postcard Project

So this past week was the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, NV and tragically a lot of my friends went but I am in a transitional time in my life where I couldn't take the time or money to go this year. Next year. Next year is the year. (I say that now... we shall see..).

Anyway, I was super sad I couldn't go, but wanted to send a fun note along with another friend to meet my main camp folks. Ultimately she wasn't successful (Thanks anyway, Mikale! You tried!) but I will mail it to someone in the group and they will help share the wealth. Not picture is some stationary with our camp name (ElectroBrew) on it. You can see the stamp on the card though. Okay, let's take a look!

So this is the finished front, which will be explored further later. If you're on the main page, follow the jump to see more!

12 Tags of 2015 - July!

Alright, here we go. I am going to include a whole bunch of projects on here because I was lazy and haven't uploaded in a while.

Here is Tim's tag for inspiration:

I always try to start using the inspiration as literally as possible and make a tag. So here is this month's tag:

I used my travel inspired blue print stamps to create this look and then liked it so much I didn't want to add any of the other flair aspects. This looked better nice and simple.

Then I used the same idea but different stamps to make a Get Well card:

I have to be honest, I am loving sewing paper together. it looks pretty awesome. So I made some more cards. Two were condolences cards and one was a thank you card.

So there you have it. One cool idea seen a bunch of different ways. If you have any questions about any of the tricks used for these cards, post in the comments below! One freebie though - I don't have the Distress Micro-Glaze and probably will never have it locally to pick up, but I managed to "waterproof" my stamping and coloring with petroleum jelly. A quick and cheap fix to not having all the same supplies!

-Steve

BONUS: 12 Tags of 2015: June... Turned Card!

I was a crafting maniac last night and in addition to making my tag, I also made a second tag with the intention of making my dad a birthday/Fathers Day card. The two holidays are close together so I figured making a combined card would be a fun challenge. As usual, I will start with my project and Tim's inspiration:

My Tag/Card:

And Tim's tag for June:

Retro Sketches : A Challenge #154

It's been a while since I tried my hand at this, but now I'm at it again. I needed to make a "Get Well" card anyway, so I used this week's Retro Sketches challenge as inspiration. Here is the sketch:

And here is the card I made:

I like this card because I got to use some scraps I had laying around (the daisy print, the blue, and the burlap) and I also just happened to have one button and some scraps of twine. Threw it all together and here it is!

"Steven, will you be my Bridesman?" Acceptance Card

As alluded to in another post, my best friend Dani is getting married this summer! She sent me a pretty awesome box of fun stuff to ask me to be in her bridal party and I love having a good reason to send a card. The box had a fun "golden age of Hollywood" theme to it so I pulled together some film-inspired ideas and then got to work. I had intended to use a die-cut and make a small pocket for the tickets.

I sort of anticipated the theme so I had already planned what I wanted to do. But then the box arrived and it had some really cool blue paper and it was wrapped in a film strip so I ditched the die-cut idea and used that instead. There was also a fun reference to us finishing each other's sandwiches (a line from Frozen) so I took that idea and ran with it. So I did some fun stamping to make some vintage-looking tickets and then wrote a little something on the inside. Here is the result!

Someone Got Engaged! A pop up card of sorts

My best friend, Dani, got engaged over the winter season and so I wanted to make a special card for her to celebrate! I got the idea from The Craft Spa through the wonders of Pinterest. You can check out that page for more of a tutorial, but for now, here is the card, the card folded up, and the card packaged with ribbon (which was then mailed):

Now I just have to be patient until the big day in June! See you soon Best Friend!

-Steve

Thank You cards for staff at an Art dorm

I just wanted to quickly share the fronts of these thank you cards I made for my staff. We run a creative and performing arts dorm so I figured a fun and artsy card would be appropriate. Enjoy!

This was a fairly simple card to make and allowed me to use some of my watercolor paper scraps. First I stamped a whole bunch of butterfly/moths on scrap squares using the watercolor stamping technique. I aged the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and then tore the edges off. Then I put some Walnut Stain Distress Ink on the craft mat and got it super wet with my mister. Then I drug the torn edges through and dried with my heat tool to get the darker effect. I attached it with foam tape.

The right hand side was just a stamp from Tim Holtz and then I used the "splatters" stencil to dab in some cool color blobs on the side. Nice and simple, but fun.

RetroSketch Design Entry!

So I really like these challenges and this week I also wanted to tie in some quilling along with making something for Dia de los Muertos since there really aren't a lot of cards out there for that holiday and I have a friend that I know will enjoy it. (Spoiler alert if you're reading this, Angel!).

So the sketch this week from RetroSketches was pretty fun:

It was crafter's choice! Which meant I could go through the Archives and pick out a sketch that I wanted to use and design around that. Since I'm new to this blog, I haven't done many of the sketches so there were a lot to choose from. I knew I wanted to do quilling, and I knew I wanted to use this festive washi tape I bought soooo I went with this sketch:

And 6 hours of meticulous paper curling and gluing later, I got this beauty:

Feliz Dia de los Muertos! (On November 1st anyway. No shame in being ready early right?)

My first RetroSketch Challenge!

Well I am being a horrible blogger when it comes to getting my posts up in any sort of timely manner that feels like there is regularity. Sorry about that.

This week I tried my hand at a challenge from the RetroSketches Blog where they essentially give you a sketch of a project, and you turn it into a real thing. After a week or so, they pick a stand out project and a few other awesome honorable mentions. If you win, you can use a fun button on your blog that basically tells people that you made something cool and sort of award worthy. You will see from my project that I could really use a gift card (so few supplies... sigh...) but pride is also cool ;)

I also needed to make someone a thank you card, so this worked out as a good starting point for my inspiration for what to make.

So this is the sketch for the week:

 And here is what I created:

I used a basic card and envelope set that I inked with Vintage Photo and some green and orange chalk inks. Then I used some fun "autumn" paper for the first layer and the blue side panel, and then ran some brown cardstock through the Big Kick to make the embossed texture. The stamp was a coordinated set that came with the cutout dies and then I painted the edges a little for fun. Then, typical me, I went and distressed the edges of everything, then regretted it, but alas, I did it. The "enamel dots" are actually just a few brads from a big pack that I bought once. I'd love to use dots instead (probably a lot easier than creating little holes for brads) but if you need a quick fix, there you go!

Make your own enamel dots

This is not an original idea, but the experience I had was original and definitely worth sharing. It was a lesson in "quality" shopping and life with a gas stove that I figured was worth sharing. And if you have never seen this process, then maybe it's something new for you.

So to start, you're going to need a glass pan, parchment paper, and Perler beads. The kind that you iron into weird floppy shapes when you're a kid and then lose or maybe use as a coaster or something. BUY THE BRAND NAME BEADS. I will show you at the end what I ended up with when I used beads from Oriental Trading (it's bad).

Preheat your oven to 450. You're melting plastic.

While that is happening, sob softly while you try and get your Perler beads nice and spread out and stood on their ends in the glass dish on some parchment paper. It will take a while, so turn the oven on and by the time you hate handling these beads it should be ready! (Side note: I had to buy Wilton's parchment paper because it was all the grocery store had, but are there other brands? Cheaper brands? I could totally use some money saving tips, that stuff was expensive)