Tag Archives: Procreate

Well, 62 was a good number.

21 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by in Arts & Crafts, sticker making

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I’m not calling it failure because I didn’t put a number on it. I’m really just amazed I lasted as long as I did, even with a little cheating. But last night, after working on several different things, I forgot and went to sleep.

Here’s a list of things I did tonight.

  • Created a store front for sticker sales.
    • There are two stickers by myself and two by The Kid.
  • Made my Cricut work
    • When I tried to use it to cut stickers the other day, it messed up. I used some tips from TT comments to figure it out. I had to turn off my lights to do it.
  • Figured out how to keep Cricut Design Space from adding a bold black line to my images.
    • It has to do with transparency. Now I just gotta figure out how to fix the stickers I’ve already designed.
  • Completed The Kid’s stickers.
    • The only thing I did was create a white background with a distinct and clear border for CDS and the Cricut to cut.
  • Published the storefront and sold two stickers!
    • They were the kid’s but still. She earned $4.
  • Learned how to and made a stamp/brush in Procreate to easily add “The Kid ‘23” to her images.
    • At some point I’ll get her to help.
  • Printed two of each of The Kid’s stickers, and one of mine, just so I didn’t waste paper.
    • I then used the Cricut to cut said stickers. While they were cutting I got two separate notifications that two of hers sold.
    • We packaged those up in a sweet envelope, after she wrote a little message of course, and they’ll be hand delivered tomorrow. Ah, the glory of knowing your customers personally.

I have some to make for my nephew, he only gave me guidance on one, requested an edit on another, and liked one more but didn’t say if he wanted it. It’s not ready anyway.

I’m sure this will be yet another failed side hustle did me, but it’s fun. And if I don’t print something every day my stupid printer acts a fool.

I’m not planning on beating my streak for a while. Gonna post as they come. But I’ve got a few in the pipeline. Another page of Cora’s story. A review of some Oats Overnight flavors, and some Spite Diet updates.

Anyway here’s Wonderwall some stickers.

Language? Not complete.
Sleep is beautiful.
Mo the Cat. First sticker sale. Available
Original. Need to change the font. Available
Pink for some reason
First sticker. Still love it. Available
Background Not Included. Available
Mr. Beast. Background not included. Available
Stickers. Some WIP. Some Available.
My Bob I’m tired.

I made some stickers

18 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Arts & Crafts

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Sorta

Well, really not sorta. But it was a struggle.

The goal was to make them to sell, but my Cricut is being absolutely stupid.

First, I had to do some warranty violating things to my printer. If I go for more than a few days without using it (honestly it’s typically six months to a year), it wants me to clean the print beads or nozzles or whatever and that uses an ungodly amount of ink.

But I figured out why that has to be done. It’s because of the amount of in that just sits in the nozzles between prints that doesn’t even get used, dries out and clogs it. Then it ushers the most inefficient way of unclogging, which is I assume, blading an ungodly amount of ink through the nozzles to force any clogs out. This way the manufacturer gets more money because you run out of ink faster. Plus, when it says the ink is empty, it’s 100% not empty.

Anyway, I eventually got it printing well, reminding me that it is a really good printer, despite its faults, after all. I waited until almost bedtime to work on it, they printed fine.

I had to dig my Cricut out and plop it on the bed.

It was only after one cut attempt, a calibration and another cut attempt that I gave up and hand cut out these six stickers. One was sliced from the poor cut, leaving me with five.

I’m keeping the damaged one for myself. Saving one for the sister, that would have left four. However, I just realized I slapped a perfectly good one on my water bottle, leaving three. I miss counted that twice so that’s a sign I should probably give up and go it bed.

In other news, I finished the most recent drawing challenge. It’s awful but it’s done. I’m going to start working on the video as soon as my iPad stops being a spaz. And I’ve had some sleep.

It really is too bad I’m.l not wealthy enough to be unemployed

Most Frequently Used

21 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by in Arts & Crafts, Gadgets

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Apps and Devices

This is a list of the things I currently use most frequently on this misguided and pointless journey to doing something amazing.

Procreate for iPad

Precreate is a paid app on the Apple App Store for digital art. It’s a non-subscription price of $12.99 I’ve made all sorts of art with it. I am currently obsessed with making poorly drawn stickers. Mostly because it took me forever to figure out how to get the white outline without hand drawing the whole thing.

You can download new brushes and textures for use in your app, and create your own. And since it is a widely used app, there are a million tutorials all over the internet for anything you might not be able to do.

VideoLeap for iPad

VideoLeap is a video editing app for iPad. It is subscription based, and I pay $35.99 a year. if you’ve ever used iMovie, it’s fairly easy to lean but with a ton more features. It also has its own section of music and images to add into your videos!

I’ve created multiple videos and posted one, the first drawing challenge, to YouTube. It’s only gotten, like, ten views but that’s only cause I’m unpopular.

Canva

Honestly it’s been a hot minute since I’ve used Canva, which is a free app, but if you pay for a subscription (monthly or yearly) you get way more features. I’ve created digital book covers, intro videos, featured images for blog posts, and covers for my podcasts

Even if I haven’t used it in a while its another subscription I don’t plan on letting go of for a while.

Apple Pencil

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit there are MUCH cheaper pen style stylus’ that work perfectly well with iPad, and also that I grief purchased this and my current iPad not long after my mom passed, but I don’t think I could go back or give up this bad boy now.

While the weight of it isn’t like a regular pen, and I purchased silicone tips because I didn’t love the TAPTAP of it on the screen, it really does make life easier when you need precision to do something, like drawing or video editing.

Honorable Mentions

  • Any kind of jump drive/flash drive that can connect to an apple device: I own two speedster flash drives with Apple connections. They make transferring of data—images, videos, documents—between devices and/or computers a cakewalk. Especially handy when emailing it to yourself seems cumbersome.
  • PopWallet+ MagSafe: these have nothing to do with work or productivity, but I have been an avid and adamant pop socket user for years. And I ordered a popwallet with interchangeable popsocket for myself last year and it became invaluable. But I recently obtained a new iPhone with MagSafe I didn’t want to lose my wireless charging capabilities with a stick on wallet anchor, so I risked my funds and purchased a MagSafe wallet, and case (case not pop wallet brand) and it’s absolutely perfect. The magnet is strong enough to hold and I have my cards where I need them, without any issues with the magnet.

This has been yet another quickie post. It is the holidays after all and I can’t be bothered with being productive before 11pm!

Coming soon: Drawing Challenge No. 2: The Video, Fiction Friday (still haven’t figured out what fiction), and my Year in Review (picture, if you will, a dumpster fire…).

Eat My Hat

20 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by in Non-Fiction

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Of course it’s Randomly Generated

If I don’t just lay around in my bed all day tomorrow I’ll EAT MY HAT.

Did I do that right?

Anyway, this is me doing the third post in a row. If we’re being technical, I cheated. I could have sworn I hit publish in yesterday’s post. But when I opened up the app, it was still in drafts. I was falling asleep when I finished it. But I cheated and gave it yesterday’s post date.

Anyway, it’s not like I work for some major news outlet that I could get in big trouble with for fudging the numbers. I’m just little old me.

But I have confidence that I can succeed at posting every single day. It just might not be quality.

Here’s what might come to you this month.

(By “this month” I mean the next 30 days or so, not by the end of November. I’m not that confident)

  • Holiday History: Thanksgiving: Yes I know I flubbed up in the Halloween one. I had it scheduled to publish, thinking I would be forced inspired to complete before publish. But I forgot about it and it auto-pub’d incomplete. I realized it when someone LIKED THE POST and I unpublished it. Like, it was poorly written, and I was mid-depressive episode, my dude! Anyway, Thanksgiving is a juicy one and I’m not referring to the Turkey!
  • Possible PFN short story: I haven’t worked on it in a week, but it’s there, in the back of my mind.
  • More drawing challenges???
  • More “flying by the seat of my pants???

To be honest I’m going keep going with my trademark ABSOLUTELY BONKERS “content” until someone forces me to stop. And even then they’ll have to drag the internet away from my clammy clutches.

GOODNIGHT

BMB: The Things I Use

21 Thursday Jul 2022

Posted by in BMB, Non-Fiction

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Day 21: In which I discuss what programs, apps, and websites I use to do the things.

ProCreate for iPad

I use ProCreate for iPad to create a lot of different images. The BMB banner I’ve used at the top of all the posts was created with Procreate.

Gif before my truck stalled and Gif after my truck stalled. Spot the difference.

Canva Pro

I’ve used Canva Pro for a lot of the things you see on my blog. From video intros, to banners, to logos. Several book covers used here were made with Canva.

VideoLeap

After my first “I’m Crafty…” video I started using video leap for all of my video editing. I pay for a subscription to access all the features. It didn’t take a whole lot to figure it out, if you’ve worked with video editing before. My first “I’m Crafty…” was made entirely with iMovie, again, on iPad. Voice over was recorded with Voice Memo. Listen, I can’t afford to make this a career, and that means I can’t afford the fancy stuff. All my videos and images are taken with my iPhone.

Screen Recordings put together in Video Leap of choosing a randomly generated topic for a post. From Random Word Generator. lol

Cricut

I’ve used my Cricut and Cricut’s Design software to create a lot of things, from decals for cups I used to make, to decals for my truck. I also used Cricut to create my earring cards for my handmade jewelry. Listen those bad boys took me FOREVER. Because my printer is crap, I had a lot of things I had to do to make it work, and I may or may not have wasted a sheet or two of clear sticker paper.

One of the wheels for Randomized Fiction

Spin Wheel Decisions

Completely free wheel spinning app for (you guessed it) iPhone. Yes, it is ad supported but I wasn’t about to spend money on that.

Microsoft 365

Of course I use Microsoft 365. I use Word to edit any writing I do in bulk, like if I plan on self-publishing. I’m currently using One Note on my iPad to organize all my Pretend Fantasy Novel notes so I have them all in once place.

Frequently Used Websites

  • Random Word Generator: I used this with Randomized Fiction, and on “The Bug Catcher”. And to be honest I’ll probably use it again.
  • WordPress: Of course I have to mention WordPress. They’ve been my website host since before I had my own domain name. Pretty sure its been YEARS. To he honest I’ve considered other hosting services, because money. But it turns out I know wordpress pretty well and, honestly, I’ve put a lot of work in.

I’m Sure There’s More

But these are my most frequently used apps websites. I won’t even list social media, as well I spend to much time there anyway! For now, its time to sign off. Hopefully I’ll have something more interesting for tomrrow!