Okay, so you want to write things. Many things. Beautiful things! Things that seem so awesome in your head! But you have just one tiny, itty-bitty problem:
Everything you write is total, complete shit. It’s so shit you want to print it out just so you can set it on fire so nobody else will ever see it. Maybe someone told you your writing was shit. Maybe you have a bad writing habit or something that plagues you constantly (mine is typos. Horrible, horrible typos). Maybe your idea is so awesome that you’re afraid you’ll ruin it. Well, I have a awesome, wonderful news just for you. One of those secrets that people forget to share. Here it goes:
Writing crap is good for you.
You don’t believe me. Crap is crap! Writing isn’t worth it if all you’re going to write is crap, right? Wrong. Fucking wrong. Fuck that shit so hard. Fuck it until it burns. Writing crap is good for you. Crap is the fertilizer in which your ideas grow. Your shitty first draft will become a beautiful flower, even if it takes many washings to get the stink off. What is crap now can be remade into not crap later, even if that later is much, much later.
Or maybe your crap isn’t worth rewriting. Maybe it’s just best to bury it quietly, with a fond farewell or a bottle of whiskey. You know what? It still did you good to write it. Crap today will improve your writing in the future. It will! You’ll learn where your strengths are. You’ll improve your weaknesses. You’ll reuse ideas you buried, or retweak them in ways you like.
Don’t be afraid to write crap. Don’t feel bad if you think you are writing crap. Everyone writes crap. Your favorite book had a shitty first draft. Your favorite authors had bad writing days. The journalist you admire had her stories rejected. The blogger you follow left his shitty posts on the drawing board.
Everyone writes crap. Don’t let it stop you from writing at all.
Okay so I followed this video about foreshortening and…
Sycra. I love you so much for making this video.
YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING SHITTING ME
THIS IS FUCKING MAGICAL
Cannot stress how important it is to learn about what you are looking up beyond what it looks like.
A wise someone once said, “Learn something with the goal of being able to explain it later. If you can’t explain it, you haven’t actually learned anything.”
Cloak references
Cloak of Winterfell by Xavietta
who else feels like the hannibal fandom came out of fucking nowhere
Re-learning how to draw hands and arms, since I’m struggling with them. PROPORTIONS ARE FUN
this is really cool
It…it’s so simple
thaaaaank yoooooouuuuu
Yessss good finally
In my experience, RPers and Writers alike enjoy one thing: Making characters suffer. This little guide is supposed to help you with keeping injuries and the First Aid - in case you want to patch your character back together - realistic.
I am no medical professional, but I dare say I picked up a thing or two during my First Aider training ;)Under read more for length! Also, trigger warnings for blood, I suppose?
I know a ton of you have been waiting for this one. Teaching you to make your own plastic keychains!
To start off, I think the biggest question everyone has is what I use to make them. I work with shrink film. You might be familiar with Shinky Dink brand shrink film as a kid. I use Grafix brand white inkjet shrink film. The inkjet kind is relatively pricey compared to the regular kind. If you’re using regular, I don’t recommend you stick it in your printer. Sharpie markers would be good for that.
Alright, now open up the file with the images that you’re working with. Make sure your images are a lot bigger than you want your finished product to be since they shrink significantly.
You’ll also want to lighten the opacity to about half. I go somewhere between 50-60%.
Now print your image out! I’ve found that it works best for me when I have it at the plain paper setting, and standard print quality.
Holepunch with a 1/4” holepuncher BEFORE you shrink them. It’s so much more work to have to punch holes when your plastic is thick!
Cut out your design, leaving the amount of border you want.
Set them on a tray for convenience. An aluminum foil sheet works too, but I recommend cookie trays because they are easier and quicker to get out of the oven.
Preset heat. Your shrink film package will tell you what temperature to set it at, but I find that it isn’t always accurate for me. I generally set temperature to 350 degrees or so.
Put them in the oven. Remember to keep track of time! I leave them in for about a minute and a half.
After time is up they should be super small! Magic!
If your charms are not flat, put something heavy on it right out of the oven when they are still hot and malleable.
If you’d like to, you can seal them now. In my last two batches, I used clear topcoat nail polish. The problem with that is that I need between 3-5 coats of it, and it takes a while to dry. I’ve been experimenting with modpodge.
For lariats, you can use jump rings or lobster clasps.
Here is one that I made that wasn’t sealed. The finished texture after shrinking is a little bit rough. There’s nothing wrong with leaving them unsealed, but because they are inkjet printed, the colors wash right of without protection.
This is one that was sealed with modpodge. The colors become a little more vibrant and smooth and water resistant. Things often get stuck on when applying or drying so be careful.
These ones down here were sealed with clear nail polish. They come out shiny if you put enough coats, but the grainy texture will still be there.
Well, there ya go! Have fun making your own keychains!
Hi, I’m a writer. My hobbies include not writing.
