I'm Still Fuctioning!

It’s been a while since I posted here, which wasn’t the intent. I actually wanted to at least post once a month.

Things have been busy. I’m waist-deep in planning the wedding with my fiancé and working on stuff for that. Save the dates will be the first designed thing, but I’ve been working on plenty of other creative stuff for the wedding in between like the bouquets for my bridesmaids and me.

The bridesmaids will have light bouquets with some dark accents.

My bouquet is dark with light accents.

I’ve also taken up nail art. I’m not a licensed technician, but I’ve been doing own nails again and creating sets to sell on Etsy.

My 2023 birthday nail set.

Medium coffin, color changing pearl and caviar deisgn

Neon marble set, medium, square

Medium blue coffin nails, elegant wedding style

Warm neon jawbreaker style, stiletto, medium

Winter penguin set sold to a regular client.

Royal blue queen set, short almond

Orchid/aqua tribal-inspired nail set.

 

Java swirl, medium coffin

XL Black and white coffin nail set

 

I also started dabbling in other crafts, like creating phone grips.

Moon crescent bow phone grip

Moon sceptre phone grip

Cute face phone grip

Multicolor dot phone grip

So I’m still around, just…not around.

Work is exhausting—mentally, emotionally, and even physically. While it doesn’t seem like it would be, sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, talking on the phone for the better part of those eight hours, reviewing insurance claims, benefits, calling doctors’ offices and hospitals, explaining to billers why they need to correct the claim or write off the bill for patients is really taxing.

I’m very much in the market for a new role. My job isn’t a bad one, it’s just not what I want to do and it’s staring to wear me down. It’s time to move on and I’m ready for my next challenge.

New Hobby Alert: Casting Resin

Aside from working full-time again, I recently picked up a new hobby that I briefly touched on while in college many years ago: casting resin.

I’ve only been doing it for a month or two and I’ve already poured hundreds of dollars into it. The chemicals themselves are very expensive, then you have the inclusions (glitter, dried flowers, gems, etc.), and things to help color your resin (mica powder, alcohol inks, paints, etc.). By the time you’re done, including the time put into it, you better be selling your pieces for DOLLARS.

While the act of casting the resin isn’t difficult, playing around with the inclusions and colors takes time and effort to learn. The first set of dominoes I cast were way too translucent, so they’re not playable unless I add paint or vinyl to the back.

All in all, though, it’s a healthy obsession. Eventually it’ll pitter out and I’ll find a new hobby. But for now, here’s a peek at what I’ve been making. All of these pieces at some point will be on my Etsy for purchase. (And yes, most of these are self-defense weapons.)

50 Years of Chino: A Biographical Photo Book

My boyfriend turned 50 years old on January 1st.

While decade birthdays are usually special in my book, a half-century decade birthday is triple special! COVID-19 ruined all hope of being able to throw my handsome SO a surprise birthday bash—something I was really looking forward to. I came up with what ended up being the next best thing: a family gift.

His kids will tell you it was all my idea, but the truth is, I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without their help. I also got his aunts and grandmother to contribute and in the end, a masterpiece was born.

The entirety of this book was handmade: the cover (binders board, book cloth, photo paper, PVA glue), the interior (invitation paper) and the text block (Epson Presentation Paper Matte). I collected images and messages from everyone and designed the layout in InDesign, printed everything out in-house (literally, in my house), and assembled the book on my own.

This project was the most emotionally invested project I’ve worked on in years.

IMG_7215.jpg

Special thanks goes to Titis Liz, Luz, and Penny, Grandma, Jocelin, Jasmine, and Ricky. Without you, this gift wouldn’t have been as special. <3

Proposal Pumpkins

You always see on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok how these people get these lavish, elaborately planned and laid out engagement proposals from their significant others. Some of them might be less elaborate than others, but the planning is there and it is absolutely one of the sweetest things you might see in your lifetime, even if you see multiple versions. It sometimes gives you ideas of what you might want or want to do.

My boyfriend’s daughter sent me a text one day asking if I’d be able to do her a favor. She decided she was going to propose to her girlfriend and asked if I could put words on some decorative pumpkins she bought at Target. She had three of them and wanted them to have three specific sayings on them: “V-ever” (5-ever, but with the roman numeral), “will you marry me?” and “be mine”. Super cheesy, but at the same time, super cute.

So I agreed. I had just shipped off all of my extra art supplies (basically all of them) to California to a longtime friend who decided she wanted to go to art school. At the time I was working and figured she could use the things more than I could—after all, I had been out of undergrad for several years at this point and most of the supplies sat unused.

However, now that I wasn’t working, it would be an extra expense for me to get the paints for this project. She offered to pay for them, but seeing as I’d be keeping the paints, I decided to just make it rain on Hobby Lobby and go get what I needed plus some.

I remember buying white and silver and black acrylic (along with ultramarine blue, canary or cadmium yellow—can’t remember, and some sort of “real red”) to paint the pumpkins. Small tubes is all, as the pumpkins were white and I didn’t need to gesso them or anything.

I started with sketches (that I no longer have) and sent them to her for approval. I did this for each pumpkin. When all was good, I mapped out the pumpkins with graphite and sent her photographs of those as well. With the thumbs up, I began applying the paint. Part of me wanted to etch the surface so the paint would grab. However, I was also afraid I’d ruin the pumpkin, so I just took a chance and left the pumpkin’s surface alone.

I sent photos of the first pumpkin—it was OK, but the silver was very, very flat. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure entirely what I was expecting. Luckily, I had some glitters on hand (silver and white iridescent craft, as well as some cosmetic grade ones, if need be). I started mixing in the iridescent glitters, and while it looked great, the consistency became very dry. After a few minutes of adjusting ratios and even introducing water into the mix, I got a consistency I could work with.

I thought painting these things would be easy, but I wasn’t getting an opaque result with just one coat, and now that I’ve changed the consistency of the paint, wasn’t getting the coverage I’d normally get. These pumpkins ended up taking me a couple of days to knock out, but in the end they were worth it. She loved them and said she would pick them up from her dad’s when it was the day of the proposal.

Fast forward—she ended up changing her proposal plans and did something that included her now fiancée’s two sons. The pumpkins were never used and we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of what should have been their engagement in a month. In fact, the 19th day of this month is when I started working on the pumpkins. It’s taken me a year to get this blog post up because I was waiting for the pumpkins to be used! But it’s the perfect time now since we’re already into fall and ‘tis the season, right?

In hindsight, I should have painted the words on with black first. Let it dry, then apply the silver. And if it needed more glitz, apply a layer of clear or something, and sprinkled on the glitter. Instead, what I concocted ended up being thick and difficult to paint on, so I ended up dabbing it on to keep the opacity. They didn’t come out bad, but they weren’t my best works of art. Oh well, I’ll do better next time! (Anyone need engagement pumpkins painted?)

Butterfly Bridal Package

One of my best friends got married in 2018 and because she was on a super tight budget, I did what I could to help her DIY everything.

As her maid of honor, my job was to be her right hand man (woman?) in everything she wanted—dresses, expos, decorations, invites, etc. So, I did just that—we started with save the dates (pictured), then I worked on the bridal shower invites with the other bridesmaids, then came table decorations for the guest tables and signs for the prop tables.

The easiest part about all of this was the access I had to the equipment that would make my life easier: a laser cutter, wide format printers, jump shears, paper guillotines, vinyl for stickers, etc. I could use all of these for free and whenever I wanted!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of everything, but the package was color themed: black, white, purple, pink and silver. We used butterflies (her favorite), flourishes, script fonts (whomever designed Autumn in November—thank you), and other delicate elements.

The full package included: save-the-dates, invitation set (main invite, RSVP, directions), envelopes (purchased!), script table numbers cut from 1/4” scrap acrylic on the laser cutter and painted with silver glitter spray paint, informative signs for guest photos on social media made with scrap Dibond, black vinyl and silver glitter spray paint, the bridal shower invites (shh, those were a surprise!), and Cricut-cut seating cards.

The wedding was a success and with all of the tangible elements being hand-made, it all had a personal touch. It was super fun making everything and I would 100% do it again if I still had access to the right equipment.