#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.

Welcome to my stuff!

What is this blog for?

Why did I bother?

Who is going to look at this?

How frequently will it be updated?

The list of questions goes on and on and for some questions I don't have a really good answer. But in the spirit of art, I will try.

I made this blog for a few reasons. For one, I love art. I love making things, trying out new techniques, and giving away finished products as gifts. That last part is one of the main reasons I created this blog--I give all my art away and then I never see it again. Sometimes I forget how I did something or I forget I made a piece all together. With this blog, not only can I share my work with the world, but I can also have a small archive for myself in case I want to revisit something later without having my house crowded with stuff. The pages at the top of the blog give an idea of some of my most common projects.

I also made this blog because there are very few male crafters out there--at least in the internet realm. I was noticing on Tim Holtz's blog (he makes really awesome paper craft supplies) that it was impossible to find another male commenter or submitter beyond the author and I wondered why that was. Sure, there may be a stigma against crafting for men, but as someone who crafts to keep my sanity, I think it's a stigma worth breaking. I love being able to use my hands to make something out of little and then be able to share it with someone else. After a hard week of work, I like to put on some music and just paint the hell out of something. Maybe with a beer and some friends (shout out to the #TipsyCraftNight crew!). I'm hoping to get some idea sharing going and maybe find some other dudes that like to make stuff. Of course, all gender expressions are welcome to my blog ;)

Who will look at this? Well me, for one. Maybe a few of my friends. Perhaps some students. Eventually a handful of strangers. Who knows? It's mostly for me, but I wanted to share as well so... you're welcome. I intend to post my art projects as well as some tutorials if there are things I'm really interested in sharing. I already have a post planned about a failed project I tried this afternoon (those are hilarious right?), but I have a lot of successes too. I also intend to take pictures of cool stuff I see around my world that might inspire a project.

How frequently will I update? Well if this goes like my video blogging efforts, I will post once a month until my account gets deleted... not that I'm still bitter or anything. (GIVE ME BACK MY VIDEOS!!!) Seriously though, I hope to update fairly regularly. If not with a project I finished or a demo for you to try, then at least with some life updates in case you decide to get nosey and want to know what's going on in my life. Speaking of which, the "About Me" page is currently blank, but I'm planning on making that my first project tomorrow along with collecting some pictures of things I've made in the past. I won't bombard the blog right now with them, but expect some #ThrowbackThursday crafts or something. 

If you have something that you would like to see in my blog or if you know of something I've made that you would like to see on the blog, feel free to comment below and I will try make that happen. I'm especially open to new project ideas or themes. I love a good challenge :)

I think this is a decently crafted opening post, so I'm going to publish it and then make sure it doesn't look like crap on the blog itself. Thanks for stopping by and I hope we can make awesome stuff together.

-Steve