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

First attempt at Quilting?

Okay, so there was a contest and a sale at Joann's so I figured it was a sign that I needed to try something new. I have a friend with a sewing machine and I had some free time so all the pieces fell together and I got to try my hand at making a "quilt block." After some searching online for what the heck that meant and how to make a quilt and thinking about what I wanted to do, I got to work. I really wanted to use my die cut machine to do some shapes. So I made some coffee cups :)

Things I learned:
1. The fancy tools for quilting are probably really helpful.
2. Cut everything too big and measure a lot.
3. If you needed a 12x12 square and it comes out too short, just add a border.
4. Embroidering (maybe? Is that what I did? eh...) is actually sort of fun.
5. Buy good thread. My thread broke and required re-threading the needle like 50 times. Grr.
6. There are some cool tricks to make multiple squares at once. I made four extra triangle square things in case I don't win anything from this contest and then i can just turn this into a small pillow.

Here is the quilt block!

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.

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!

Door Decorations! Past Lives of Staff Members

So I wasn't going to make door decorations for my staff this year, but then I changed my mind and couldn't help myself. Here is the final set for my staff:

Here are some close ups of the different tags (I made some for our sister staff as well):

I don't usually make gender specific crafts, but I had a limited number of bottle caps and didn't realize until after I made the male tags. Not to worry... the tag here is how the female tags turned out. They have a distressed photo from a photo strip that was stamped and embellished, some washi tape on a stamped background, a small label made from a stamp, a distressed ticket, and some lace with a letter for the staff member.

The male version was pretty similar, except instead of lace I used a button and some tissue paper and instead of the ticket, I used a bottle cap and a piece of film.

I was really excited to give these too my staff :)

3 "Quick" Holiday Crafts

So over a few days I had to whip out some crafts as gifts or just for general decoration. Here are three things I made in various levels of easy and how you can do it to!

I found some paper that looked nice at the store. Ran it through a tag die-cut and TADA! I accidentally made a really nice tag with the tiny "love" on it. I added a nice red ribbon and now it's a tree ornament. Inked the edges because it's me.

This next one is sort of a silly level of easy... I took a pipe cleaner and made a circle.

 I added some glue (glossy accents here) and some glitter. I then tossed it around in a bag to remove excess.

 Then I added a little ribbon, a dot of hot glue that I painted and added a pin back. TADA! It's a really REALLY easy festive lapel.

This next one isn't quite AS easy, but the components are really simple and it LOOKS really hard, making it a pretty cool gift for someone needing some wall or office decor. Here is the front:

This was literally made from scraps and things I had laying around (the bottle cap was removed from the soda I was drinking while making this...). Take a burlap panel (any craft store has something like this) and then start laying things on it to see how the space works out. After I decided where everything was going, I cut and inked paper to fill the space nicely. The top right is a "found relatives" card from Tim Holtz (not actually someone I know... that would be creepy. Or is this creepier?). I think my favorite parts of this design are the bottle cap that I added alcohol ink to for an aged effect and the key that is glued down, but "taped on" with tissue tape that I have recently become obsessed with.

I also had some other scraps and stamp samples laying around, so I used them to make a nice baking for the project. It's very "Steve."

This project took about an hour and half after I figured out what I wanted to do and rearranged everything a million times. It doesn't help that my craft space is a wreck. Sigh... Maybe in the new year I will do a "craft space before and after" post. Get excited! Or scared...

-Steve

Holiday Configurations Book (a Gift)

Tis the season to accidentally decide to make really complicated gifts for all of your friends! Yay! So with late hours and lots of ink and glitter stuck to me, people will be getting all sorts of fun things this holiday season.

One bigger project this season was this configurations box. I used paper, tape, and then whatever I had laying around to fill the spaces. There are some views and commentary on the book after the jump:

Halloween Re-Cap 2014...AND BEYOND!

So every year I try and find something cool to do for Halloween and depending on how I'm feeling that week I either go big, or go tragically low-effort. Luckily, this year I was excited and had two opportunities to dress up. (Click photos to view larger) But first, let's travel back in time...

The first event I had was Masquerave. The students at my job create this giant pre-Halloween rave every year and I have to work it so I dress up but have to find something functional. My first year I was a steampunk airship pirate thing. That costume was too hot for the event, but I did make a really cool pirate pin that I just sold as my first sale on Etsy (yay!).

Steampunk Airship Pirate Pin

Three years ago, around this time, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a costume for some events I had. I was reading the Myst series and was awkwardly obsessed with all things steampunk at the time, so I wanted to be an Airship Pirate. I bought some cool victorian pants, a flannel shirt, suspenders, and some cool additions to my glasses that I found in the jewelry workshop where I work. Then I just wanted something that said "pirate." So 6 hours and a lot of epoxy and gears later I ended up with this. (click to enlarge)

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?)

Creative Chemistry 101 - Day 2

So I finally did it -- I signed up for Creative Chemistry 101, an interactive online art class taught by Tim Holtz that teaches you the chemistry behind different crafting products and how they work together to achieve really cool techniques. For anything that produces a visual I will share it here (as well as trying to catch up with showing other cool projects I've been working on).

Day 1 was an overview of the class and explaining how different mediums work (dyes vs pigments for example) and then I went through what I had and filled out a cool chart to help me choose the right tools in the future.

Day 2 is where the projects started. I won't share the secrets of how to obtain these techniques because 1) Tim asked me not to, and 2) you should sign up for the class! It's super cool and only $35.

But I AM allowed to share my own projects showing the techniques, so here we have (From left to right) Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick Technique, Brushless Watercolor Technique, and Wrinkle-Free Distress Technique.

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)

#TBT - Drinkable Art (21+)

If there is one thing I really like about a holiday, it's that my friends want to get together and have some drinks. I like to offer an array of options for people by infusing my own liquors. This "craft" (going loosely defined today, sorry) is super simple. You need alcohol (I prefer vodka and bourbon), mason jars, and stuff you think is tasty.

#TBT - Quilled Freeway

So this was my first attempt at quilling:

He didn't turn out that bad! Check out my About Me page at the top to see the picture this was based on. It took about 6 hours of work and a lot of that time is just holding tiny pieces of paper together with tweezers until glue dries. It's a very slow process. The shapes could have been a little better, perhaps some smaller, and the colors are a little Simba-esque, but overall my students see it and know it's my dog, so that's success to me.

This could have gone on a card, but instead I attached it to a piece of paper on my office door that let's people know when my dog will be in my office. Most people come by to see him, not me, so it's nice to let everyone know when "the Dogter is In" (I just made that up, and I might use it in real life).

I will try and do #TBT (throw back Thursday for those of you new to the internet) every Thursday or every other Thursday until I run out of things to throw back to.

Kicking it off with a Meta-post, sort of

I'm not gonna lie, I don't really understand the whole concept behind the term "meta" but I think it just means things that are self-referential. With that, I thought I would use my first actual post to reference the blog itself and do a quick tutorial of sorts about how I created the blog (the header and the social media buttons).

The Header

The header was a fun project using a few tricks in photoshop and a little patience. Most of what I do is a combination of things I picked up from other blogs or youtube videos so when appropriate I will try and give credit to those folks as well.