365 Days of Zentangles - Day 34

Day 34. I managed to work 12 hours today, go to dinner, go to the grocery store (dinner/grocery store w/ the husband!), started the beef jerky, did my tangle, did some dishes.

Trying out a new idea for beef jerky. I haven't been making it nearly as often (I think only 1 time) since giving up soy. The only commercially available jerky I can eat as of now is Kirkland Steak Strips (which are delicious, but I'd rather make my own). Tonight's marinade involved coconut aminos, fish sauce, and a secret ingredient. Once I actually taste the jerky I'll reveal the secret ingredient.

One of my co-workers commented on the fact I was eating a homemade breakfast (my "no"tmeal made from chia, sunflower seeds and coconut) and that I always bring my lunch. She wanted to know how I had time to do all that with work and school. Making good food doesn't always take a ton of time. It's a matter of planning. There are some days I can have dinner done in 20 minutes if I've given it forethought and spent a bit of time prepping on Sunday.

365 Days of Zentangles - Day 31

I've had skulls on my mind all day. I have this brilliant project I want to do but I have school on Monday and Tuesday and I need to study for midterms next week. BLAH BLAH BLAH. so mad.

This is my collection of black pens (I think there are about 20 pictured). And this isn't even all of them. I have more. I have a really great set of Rapidographs ($200 for  set of 5 pens? Yes. But they are refillable. And you can buy new nibs). I got them during my drafting class. Microns were recommended but seriously, they didn't get the job done for that class. Construction lines ultimately need to be hairline and even the finest Micron could get it right.

Of course, I go look up that same pen set now on Utrecht and it's on sale for $89. If you draw, get this. If you need a gift idea for me. Get this. I'll be honest, I'm really trying to run out all of my black pens. This project should be perfect for it.

Oh and where was this set when I was 12 and OBSESSED with calligraphy?

Oh, my amazon subscribe and save shipments arrived today. That means pie can happen this weekend. I've got sunflower seeds and arrowroot powder (oh and coconut milk, shredded coconut and coconut flour).

365 Days of Zentangles - Day 30

Day 30! I had to go on an epic journey to find some place to get a money order, so that ate a good portion of my morning (I didn't get Placerville apples).

I made a killer coconut banana mousse (I had planned it out to be pie filling, but am currently out of arrowroot - I made it anyway to test the flavor/texture).

I finally listed cupcake toppers in our Etsy store,

Justin posed an interesting question to me about the current project. Could the tangles be adapted to a 3D model environment, therefore allowing me to create 3D sculptures daily.

I don't know any organic modeling software, so I'm on the hunt to find one that I can learn easily.

I checked out the 123D suite from Adobe today, thinking "oh awesome. 123D Design would be an enhancement over some of the limitations in TinkerCAD. It's not.

There is no import/export feature. I use illustrator to create a lot of my line art and import into TinkerCAD. I thought "woo, I can add chamfers and fillets using 123D Design" Nope. Not at all. Because I can't bring my work from illustrator (another Adobe product) into the app.

So then I was thinking "oooo 123D Sculpt could be an option for this idea of digital tangles to print." To my dismay, it is only available for iPAD. WTF? Seriously? It can't be utilized as a web app? It can't be made available to android? No thanks. I'm not a fan of anything that is iOS only.

Keep an eye out for reviews of various entry level 3D tools. I'm pretty good with the 2D and illustration, but AAU's IDS program didn't really have a huge emphasis on 3D modeling (it was very much still grounded in the olden ways of hand rendering and hand modeling). 3D printing was entirely glossed over in my production processes class.

Do Work!

My posting has been spotty at best over the last two months or so (I was doing pretty well for a while though!). 

Semester is done. Wedding has happened. I have to say the last few days of no work, no school and no planning looming over me has been awesome, but it's time to get back to work. 

There are so many projects I want to get done this summer before school starts back up in September. 

We completed the honey do list this weekend (installed a shelf in one of our kitchen cabinets, fixed the back of a cabinet drawer that was completely missing, installed some bright tract lighting over the 3D printer, vacuumed with our new vacuum, etc), which means I can get down to some creative work (though I really hope to be able to paint our room in July - it's a weird mix of gray blue, purple and orange). 

I am going to do a post with all of our wedding stationary featured. We did all of the save the dates, invitations, reply cards, map cards and the like.  Our Save the Dates were some of the most awesome I've seen to date (not that I'm biased or anything).  I am going to start printing the face of our thank you cards this week so I can send them out. They will, of course, match the rest of the set.  

I've been doing some work on a few jewelry pieces using the 3D printer. The first two pieces I made were for my bridesmaids. In my haste, I didn't really take any good pictures though. Hopefully some of the others have captured the necklaces. Or I have a really good excuse to get together with my ladies.

Another project I'm working on is some garden markers. I got moved to a full sun plot so I'm going to have something more than just herbs and lettuce.  I am going to 3D print the markers, but am working out the process of utilizing fonts I have installed on my computer (TinkerCAD has a default font but I don't want to use it). There are a few steps to it, but I'm working on a tutorial video to post (as much as I HATE videos - I realize most people would rather watch something than read/look at still images) showing how to utilize your own fonts in TinkerCAD. This gives a lot of people a great platform for working out their designs and since not everyone has a 3D printer handy, they can still go to MakeXYZ or contact us regarding 3D printing services. Our printing services cover a range of resolutions to choose from depending on your needs.  LaserGnomes has the following resolutions available: Low, Medium, High and Ultra. 

Keep coming back for updates on my projects as the roll along this summer. We here at LaserGnomes have some great things in the works. 

Rejoice!

Rejoice!

TinkerCAD is BACK!

I was so excited a few months back to have found TinkerCAD. I had great plans for blog posts, tutorials, even having my mom "test" it out to show how easy it is (not to mention teaching the kids at work a thing or two about 3D design). All of these plans were dashed when TinkerCAD announced their closure.

I canceled my paid account and moved on to trying to find something else with what little free time I had. I had very little free time and found nothing. I'm not sure which is to blame: my lack of free time or the lack of resources.

Well, then came the email. TinkerCAD found a home at Autodesk.  OMG!  I was so excited (as was Justin - He has done some AMAZING things using TinkerCAD). TinkerCAD is back!

"The shutdown plan has been rolled back and effective immediately new users are again able to sign up for the site. Even better, at the request of Autodesk, we have supercharged the free plan. You can now create unlimited designs, all import and export functionality is enabled and ShapeScripts are turned on for free accounts. We have automatically upgraded all existing free accounts to this new powerful plan. This account will be offered for a limited time only so make sure you sign up as soon as possible."

Again, I ran into the problem of too little free time. Trying to finish up finals AND finish planning a wedding (at the same time working) takes a lot of time. And energy.

The wedding is this coming Tuesday, after which I will be free to play with TinkerCAD (and M0rt)

Like I've said previously, TinkerCAD is an amazingly powerful tool. Justin has used it to create parts for NERF blasters. He's currently working on a super rad project for our wedding next week.

I was all ready to go and finish up some work to get prepped for some stellar jewelry that I am making for my bridesmaids.  I logged in and lo and behold, my account status is suspended. I had a paid account that I cancelled upon the news they were closing down.  Apparently the fix is as easy as emailing support, but it's after midnight and I'm sure I'll have to wait until sometime tomorrow to get my status back to unlocked.

An important part of the message from TinkerCAD that is quoted above is the announcement that the free plan is basically "unlocked" to allow you to create unlimited designs, import/export features are fully functional and ShapeScripts are enabled. When I signed up a few months back, those options were paid account only, so I signed up. At $20 a month, I sort of balked at the payments. I didn't really have enough time to get to know the program to take full advantage of the paid account, but I really didn't want to be limited to ONE design at a time.

Even if you don't have a 3D printer, do yourself a favor and sign up. Learn how to use it. Develop your ideas. You know someone who has a 3D printer and we're here to help.  LaserGnomes helps fulfill dreams. Use your imagination and let us help you fulfill yours!

Sooooo EXCITED to cut paper!

I put M0rt1m3r to work yesterday as soon as he arrived.

I have wedding invitations to get out this week.  Let's just say my printer (who has not been named like all of other other mechanical items) was not cooperating, so I have to go back to the paper store in the morning and get more paper. Luckily, I can use the cards I cut with M0rt1m3r for other purposes since the printer won't cooperate with the size requirements.

Some really cool stuff I found out about M0rt1:  M0rt1 is dual head.  I knew he could draw and cut, but I didn't know he could draw and print at the same time!  Most craft cutters require you to swap out heads from a cutting head to a pen head to draw vs cut.  Not M0rt1!  He switches back and forth between a ballpoint tip and cutting tip flawlessly.  I tested some of the preloaded designs on the SD card provided with him.

Granted the designs are fairly simple, but the bird turned out cute! With other craft cutters, I would have had to try to print the line work, get the page lined back up and then cut after swapping blades. With the e-Craft, it was as simple as selecting the design and letting it print/cut.

I also made Trogdor the Burninator stickers last night.  I had some issues with the page shifting while cutting the second pass (I probably should have used a heavy card stock backer as the sticker paper is considerably thinner than the other paper I've cut so far), but they turned out AWESOME!

First I created the cutting template in Illustrator and saved it as an SVG file (scalable vector graphic - this is what you will import into the e-Craft software to cut from).  I scaled and placed my Trogdor images in Photoshop and printed without the outlines from the template.  I placed the sticker sheet in M0rt1 and hit cut in the e-Craft software.  I set the pressure at 2, trying to just score the paper for a sheet of stickers. That wasn't QUITE enough, so I sent it through again at a pressure of 4, which was too much (it cut clean through).  Also on the second pass, the page skewed (hence the thought I may have needed a card stock backer), which messed up the cuts on the second row. I got six usable stickers from one side.

I'm going to try using manual mode to cut out the rest of the stickers that didn't get messed up (which was only one sticker, but it threw the cut pattern off for the entire thing, so I canceled the print.). 

Unfortunately, I had homework to work on this weekend, so it was a mix of trying out M0rt1 and doing work.  I have to tell you, I wanted to blow it off completely and just cut paper!  I want to blow everything off and cut paper! 

Welcome M0rt1m3r

We welcomed our 3rd robo-child today (as Justin termed it) to the Gnomery today.  M0rt1m3r, my new e-Craft arrived today.

I have wanted a craft cutter FOREVER.  Wedding invites turned out to be the best excuse to get one.  

Here is the unveiling video: 

In addition to cutting it also does "printing" with a pen plotter.  A lot of the other cutters have the ability to do that, but you have to switch out heads.  

Well, not with M0rt1m3r!  He has a dual head (upgrayedd)!  R2-D0nt is also a dual head machine.  This is how we roll in the Gnomery.  

I've done some test cuts and it takes a bit of getting used to (I had pretty good results using 12x12, a few issues with 8.5x11, but moving a paper guide solved the issue).  

I'm getting ready to test print an invitation on cut paper.  I'll let you know how it worked! 

My Quad Copter~

Justin is obsessed with quad copters.  The joy he gets from his tiny quad copter and his plans to get a more advanced one are great.  He asked last week "what is your quad copter?"

I have to say I found it. At least for now anyway.  I can't have an Epilog Laser in my room.  I wish I could. Seriously.  That would be the most bad ass thing ever. I have laser envy. We went to visit Type A last week and I saw they got the Fusion. I wanted to hang out there forever (once they got it working!).

Well, tomorrow I'm getting a new toy. The Craftwell e-Craft.

I have used the Cricut and was super disappointed that it doesn't work with Sure Cuts A Lot anymore (Provocraft sued the pants off SCL because it was a way to circumvent the stupid cartridges and allowed people to cut their own designs).  Obviously, I am going to want to cut my own designs. It would be stupid to rely on cartridges. 

I was going to get the Silhouette Cameo.  I saw it a few months ago at Blick and thought I'd wait until a 40% off coupon came out.  Well, I did that, and lo and behold, they put the dang thing on sale the same day the coupon started. No Coupon For YOU! 

I started looking at the e-Craft when I saw it on Joann.com.  I found a 15% off coupon and was ready to head over after work to pick one up.  Wouldn't you know. Coupon is IN STORE ONLY and the e-Craft is online only. 

Seriously, the world was conspiring to keep me from having my craft cutter. 

I go to Amazon because Amazon loves me and always has what I want and I get free 2 day shipping with Prime.  But really I want the cutter like yesterday.  I need to cut my wedding invitations, RSVP cards and maps and get everything sent out this weekend.  

One of the perks of living in San Francisco is Amazon Saturday delivery.  For only $8.99 I am getting my e-Craft delivered to me tomorrow.  No $20-$50 shipping and still not getting it until the middle of next week.  I paid $8.99 and I get it tomorrow. 

For me, one of the selling points is the fact that it's mat free (and there is a roll feed attachment).  What does that mean? All of the other craft cutters utilize sticky mats to hold the material in place while cutting.  It's a pain.  The mats are pricey. They smell something awful. All your parts get stuck to the mat (I think I've ripped more paper trying to pull it off the mat than anything else using the Cricut).  

e-Craft can be used with a mat (from what I've read) but it leaves tiny tabs to hold the cuts into place without a mat.  I'm totally cool with that.  Some other bloggers totally bitched about these tiny tabs. Seriously?  You can clean them up. No big deal.  I've got enough tools of various types (cutting, grinding and the like) to remove a tiny nub. 

I will post more as I figure it out (consensus seemed that there was a bit of a learning curve - but there seems to be two camps: the scrapbooker that wants cartridges and artists who are willing to figure it out. Guess which one I am?). 

All I can say right now is "I'm Ready! I'm Ready! I'm Ready-eddy-eddy!"

Tinker....... CAD?

I've been playing with TinkerCAD here and there for a few weeks now.  TinkerCAD is a web based 3d modeling application.

It's pretty easy to learn and work with through a series of lessons that lead you step by step through building a model.

There is a limited use, free version (which I had been playing with until last night) and a paid version ($19/mo is the entry level up to $499/mo for enterprise level).

As far as the free use version goes, I was able to make a few things, but not able to save them should I want to make another.  I was able to export the .stl file to print using R2-D0NT, so that was pretty sweet.  If you don't have a 3D printer in your bedroom, they do offer print services through several 3D printing companies. If YOU want to have your object printed, be sure to contact us through MakeXYZ.

While we were working on Save the Dates for our upcoming wedding, we REALLY wanted to send something awesome. Which, of course, meant 3D printed.  While we were playing with ideas, I designed this key chain/tag pretty quickly, especially considering I don't really have any 3D modeling skills (I can draft the heck out 2D images but hadn't really gone too far into 3D work yet).  I have to say it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes of work to make.

We even did a test print of it (I have it hanging on my Alpine Mail Bag) and it was pretty awesome.  What made it most awesome though was the fact that we printed it in Glow in the Dark PLA.  

That was the first project I had created using TinkerCAD exclusively.  There is an option to import 2D .svg files as well as using the shapes provided by TinkerCAD. I had a lot of trouble importing .svg files when I first started using it.  I haven't tried it out in a while though.  Sometimes it would not be able to upload the file at all, while others it would distort the line work, but I'll save that for another post. 

I haven't really been able to test out the new features that have unlocked when switched to a paid account last night.  I'm planning to spend a bit of time each day checking it out and really evaluating the free v. paid features.  I'll also eventually compare it to software such as Autodesk Inventor. 

A few things that have me excited about TinkerCAD (even right away) are the simplicity and accessibility of it.  You can be up and creating relatively quickly through playing with it and the tutorials. It's simplicity can get anyone designing in no time.  I'll have my mom test that out.  That should be interesting.  Maybe she'll fall in love with 3D design and printing. 

TinkerCAD is web based, so you can pretty much work anywhere you have access to a browser that supports WebGL. Browsers that play nice with TinkerCAD are Chrome 10 or newer and Firefox 4 or newer.  

Think about how great that is for just a minute.  Not only can someone with no experience in 3D design get their feet wet, but you can work anywhere you have web access and a browser with WebGL support.  Your software isn't tying you to your computer any longer.