DIY Colored Pencil holder

Previously I posted about my love for my inexpensive colored pencils.

I’ve continued my sketching and coloring habit and I really enjoy it – every evening after I get home I sit for about 15 minutes or so and draw an “object of the day.” 

Mr SuzerSpace helps out by recommending random things around the house. I think he finds my drawings entertaining (who else does he know that sketches seltzer cans, spice jars and shoes?), and I am POSITIVE he enjoys how quiet I am when I’m coloring.

The only thing I really don’t like about my setup is trying to find the right colored pencil for the finish work. I had them in an upcycled jar, and that was OK, and I cut some cardboard dividers to try and keep it organized, but it was fiddly and didn’t really work.

So of course I spent several evenings browsing Pinterest and You Tube looking for a new solution.

As always, there was an overwhelming assortment of choices. I was really drawn (see what I did there?) to the wood blocks that had holes evenly drilled across them to hold the pencils. And I have plenty of scrap lumber and Mr. SuzerSpace loves to drill holes in things.

But here’s the thing. I know how to set my expectations. And the possibility of either him or me (or a combination) drilling 50 evenly spaced, perfectly straight, all at the same depth holes is absolutely zero. And I can almost guarantee that we would get tantalizing close to the end and THEN muck it up, leaving us to grumpily try and decide whether to start over again and again.

That’s not going to be good for my emotional health, my marriage or my pencils.

So I continued looking for a simpler option; one that had the possibility of discarding any goofs before assembling the final project.

I spied this video:

And I really liked the concept. I love to make things with paper, it seemed infinitely customizable and I was ready to launch into it when I discovered I do not have any posterboard in the house. But I did have a lot of construction paper, so as I usually do, I heavily modified the tutorial to suit what I had and my patience level and I’m super happy with the end result.

I very much recommend watching the above video (it’s short and doesn’t have crazy loud music or anything). There are some great measuring and assembly tips in it, and without knowing those, I would have definitely had to start over at least once.

In addition to subbing construction paper for the posterboard, I cut my strips of paper shorter than shown in the video. That let me roll them without them spiraling too much, which meant I didn’t have to hide the tubes since they all ended up at the same height.

Closeup of a paper tube sized to hold a colored pencil

To my astonishment, my tubes exactly fit a small cardboard box I had hoarded away in the basement (Hi, I’m Susan, and I’m recovering Box-A-Holic!). Exactly 52 tubes fit in the box, and I have 50 colored pencils plus two mechanical pencils. It was like I had a plan all along!

So if you have a pile of pens and pencils that need organization, some paper and glue, watch the video and then start rolling!

Cut a shape right where you want it

At the beginning of the month I finally replaced my aging computer. I’d been thinking about it since January or so, but the weekend before I wanted to do something simple and it took so long to start up and then crash that I finally realized it was time.

Also at the beginning of August, I started a new bullet journal.

How are these two things related, you ask? I’ll give you a hint – SuzerSpace is a craft blog.

If you have bought any Apple product in the last -cough-cough- three decades, you know you get at least one Apple sticker included in the package. Fun fact – I actually own an original rainbow sticker from my first Macintosh, the one I bought in 1988.

My new computer came with two stickers, and I tossed them in the pile and once I got everything set up (man, that was easy – I am a big fan of the Apple Migration Assistant), I turned back to setting up bullet journal spreads for the first week of August.

I like to put a sticker on the front of each book, and for the first half of the year I cut a nice little double circle with an “S” in it.

Well, wouldn’t an “S” look awesome in the middle of an Apple sticker for my second half of the year book? Yes, yes it would.

I know Silhouette has a fancy mat that you can use to line up artwork, but I went the old school way.

I positioned the Apple sticker so that the center was aligned at cross hairs of the 3” mark across and the 2” mark down on the mat. And then I measured the approximate height and width available for an “S’ in the center.

All I had to do was set up my letter at that same spot on the “mat” on the screen. You can either eyeball it or use the X and Y positioning at the top of the Silhouette tool bar.

I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be perfect, but Apple gives you two stickers so I used the first as a tester, then moved the artwork over slightly and cut my second one right on the money.

And now I’ve got an upgraded digital and analog setup!

Summer Sketch Project

Every year I somehow stumble upon The #100 day project.

And every year I swear I’m going to do it … next year.

I’ve talked before about how I am no fan of summer. The entire season is too hot, sticky and buzzy buggy for my tastes. For unknown reasons, I never noticed all the marketing around the concept of 99 days of unofficial summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day), but this year I saw it and it really sparked something …

If a 100-day project appears to daunting to join, how about a 99-day “tester” project. It’s like “charm pricing” – you know where $3.00 is too much to pay for something but if it’s $2.99 just take my money?

And thus, the SuzerSpace 99 Days of Summer Drawing Ordinary Objects Edition project launched.

I started on Memorial Day Monday by drawing an empty Tequila bottle.  It was easy – it was on the table to be recycled, it was a day off from work and I have a new mechanical pencil. Because I like small things, I cut down a forgotten watercolor pad to 3 x 3 squares and got a little box to keep my collection safe.

On Tuesday at work, I sketched out my glass jar full of markers.. Much better time spent than doom scrolling at lunch.

On Wednesday? My very favorite bag.

On Thursday, it was my facial tissue box that caught my attention. Even added the background on that one.

And so I’ve been rolling ever since.

At first I was just working in pencil, but then I went back and started coloring in some items using a set of watercolor pencils. That was fun, but I only have a few of those.

So when it appeared I was going to keep at this for a bit, I treated myself to box of 50 Crayola Colored Pencils (this is similar, non-affiliate link). I liked the price, the variety seems pretty good and they are soft to draw with (you can tell I’m not a colored pencil snob). But the annoying thing about them (and most colored pencils and markers) is that it’s hard to tell what color they are going to be when you use them. It doesn’t always match the tip that shows or the color they decided to coat the sides with.

At work I rely on my trusty Pantone Guide for choosing or matching colors for print work. So I figured I’d make myself a Crayola Swatch deck. It was fun to make, and I’m sharing the work. All you need to do is download the file and print it out, and color in the squares. Cut them and out and bind them however you like. I have a slightly too large binding screw holding mine together with plans to hunt down a binder ring or keyring to make it a little easier to use.

So now I sketch out my ordinary object on my 3 x 3 square in plain pencil, and then come back and colorize it in the evening while watching TV. If the object is something at work, I take a photo to help with the color matching with my swatch deck.

Today’s in process drawing?  Glad you asked:

Friday on My Mind

Today is Friday the 13th, and while I’m not a victim of Paraskevidekatriaphobia or Triskaidekaphobia, the date really puts Friday on my mind and if there’s an excuse for a craft, I’m in.

Over the last several years I’ve been working on my hand lettering, and at first I was concentrating on brush lettering. In fact, I kind of thought Brush Letter was the ONLY form of hand lettering, but boy was I wrong.

I’ve branched out quite a bit, and lately I’ve been fascinated by Graffiti style lettering. I don’t know if it was because a co-worker asked me if I wanted to work on a logo that required it, or the trains covered in it on my daily commute, but all of a sudden this year I’ve been doodling a mix of balloon/cartoon/graffiti letters.

Also, this morning, I received a notification of a purchase in my Etsy store. Three years in, I still get pretty excited by every purchase, and I like to see what was chosen. It was one of my Fri-yay designs, so that meant I wasn’t the only one with Friday on my mind today!

So during some downtime today at work, I doodled up a Fri-Yay lettering idea on a scrap of paper. This evening, I took a photo of it and brought it into Vectornator on my iPad (here’s the link – it’s free!). After redrawing it with the Pen tool, I began to experiment with path offsets, combining sections and inverting colors until I came up with a design I really liked.

Because I have jut the basic version of Silhouette Studio (still haven’t upgraded!) I had to jump a couple of hoops to get this design into the cutting software. I saved it as a SVG, then used my desktop computer to export that as a DXF. There’s probably an easier way, but this works for me and it gave me a good stopping point to enjoy dinner and some Stanley Cup Playoff Hockey Action.

I really just use the Silhouette Studio software to position my artwork and then cut it – it has a ton of features and if I didn’t have 30+ years of Adobe Illustrator experience, I’d probably work just in it. After sizing the art and sending it to cut, I waited to see if my design would work.

Spoiler alert. It didn’t. The fine lines were way too difficult to cut and weed. Nobody wants that, so I went back and thickened them up, and tried again.

Big success! I cut this test file from matte vinyl and added it to a notebook cover, but I have big plans for next week’s Friday outfit!

I have links to share…

I’m a sucker for lists. 

And lists of links? Oh man.

I kind of think I might not be alone, and I like to be helpful, so here’s where I’ve been recently:

Quick note – NONE of these links are affiliate. I’m just sharing because I want to.

  1. So last month I posted my mini bujo, and my the algorithm  that feeds my social media accounts flooded with real bullet journal information. Somehow I never read the actual instructions from the original founder of the system, and it turns out it’s not all about making pretty layouts to share on the ‘gram.

2. My feeds are also full of some $99 face brush that vibrates and promises to keep your pores clean. I’m in my mid-fifties (OMG that hurt to type!) and still struggle with acne . I bought these which are not sonic powered but are also a fraction of the cost. I keep one in the shower and one at the sink and I feel super influencer-like when I use them. No wait. I feel like my skin is clearer than it used to be, and that’s a good value for 9 bucks in my view.

3. I have made this recipe before many times, and it’s great as written, but if you want a much quicker version to make on a worknight, just use a jar of good pasta sauce, a can of white beans and a bag of shredded cheese.  Mix in proportions that make you (or your cheese-loving family member) happy (reserve some cheese for the last broil) and bake in a casserole pan until bubbly. Add that last cheese and broil until until golden brown and volcanic hot.

4. Have you been using Canva for creating artwork? If not, you should check it out. The free version has a ton of features, and some great templates for setting up web art for social media or even flyers and logos. I’m an Adobe snob because of work, and even I liked it. And now, Adobe has a competitor product which also looks like it would be worth checking out. 

5. We are super late to the party, but we finally installed a video doorbell. If you happen to have a Ring, you might be interested in this little spare parts kit.