Phoenix Metro Area – Page 6 – Travelcraft Journal

May 24, 2014May 23, 2023

Weekend brunch in Tempe

Phillip and I don’t always do brunch but when we do, it’s because I dragged him somewhere kicking and screaming.

But he likes it once there’s food in front of him.

I finally got him into Ncounter on Mill in Tempe a few weeks ago. It was pretty busy, but the line went quickly. And even though the cashier was moving customers through lickety-split, he still smiled when I joked that he must’ve known Phillip’s name since he handed us the letter P to identify our order.

Phillip ordered the meat and potatoes yin to my fruit and veggie yang. (Does that even make sense? I’m just gonna roll with it.)

The food was good. The coffee was good. We went to Tempe Town Lake to walk it off.

It was a nice day.

Hope your weekend is as lovely as brunch and a walk around the lake.

PS In case you’re wondering about this project, I need to keep you in suspense about awhile longer because of reasons. Keep guessing!

April 8, 2014December 9, 2025

Southwest Maker Fest wrap up

So Southwest Maker Fest turned out to be eclectic and awesome. They had a street (or maybe it was two) in downtown Mesa blocked off for a live music stage and a whole variety of booths. In a matter of minutes, you could stroll by an open-source car, handmade flutes, geeks with 3D printers running, and an overalled man showing people how to weld.

There were presentations and demonstrations going on throughout the day at nearby venues. I gave my travel journal talk at an art gallery/event space.

Afterwards, I went to help out at the Gangplank booth for a bit. (Yep, I was one of the geeks at one of the 3D-printer-equipped booths.) I did my best to answer people’s questions about the collaborative workspace – but there’s really more going on there than I can keep up with.

By the time I was done there, I was so tired and hungry. Phillip and I took a quick tour of the booths on our way out, but we weren’t able to engage as much as we would’ve liked.

I’ll have to learn to weld another day.

All in all, it was a good start for Southwest Maker Fest and great to see a sampling of Phoenix’s diverse maker community come out of the woodwork and get together. I’m looking forward to the next event.

If you weren’t able to be there this year, you can get on the list to be notified about next year’s event. I’ll also be presenting about travel journals again at Craft Hack in May (watch the Facebook page or sign up for the Travelcraft Journal newsletter for details).

Photo of my talk by Trish Gillam.

July 8, 2013May 23, 2023

Craft Hack and mini envelopes

We stayed in town for the Fourth of July, which was a good thing for us, because our friends Bryan and Joanna made us a wonderful brunch. And it’s a good thing for you, because this blog has been a little heavy on the travel and light on the craft, and it’s time to balance things out a bit more.

So the first craft-related thing I wanted to tell you about is Craft Hack. I mentioned going to Craft Hack when I had my journal fail (I do want to follow up on that, since I ended up finding a journal-making solution that I think turned out pretty well.) Basically, Craft Hack is a time for people to get together, work on and show off their art and craft projects. If you aren’t working on anything currently, every month there’s a demonstration, and you can try that out.

It will be this Wednesday (and the second Wednesday of every month) at Gangplank Chandler at 6pm. You can get more details on the Craft Hack East Valley Facebook page.

I also created a flyer, using this envelope template and modifying it a little. You can print off the flyer, get the info, and then fold it into a little envelope for your business cards or to tuck into a scrapbook for small mementos of your summer travels (a presssed blossom? coins? ticket stubs?).

We handed these out last month when Craft Hack had a booth at the Chandler Art Walk (which has moved to different indoor locations to avoid the summer heat). I wish I could have stuck around longer and explored the other booths a bit more. It looks like there was some great stuff there! I’ll have to go another time, when I’m not getting ready for a camping trip the next day.

If you want to make your own envelopes, here is the envelope template I used for the flyer. I scaled it down quite a bit from the original 3″ x 6″ size, so that we could fit 2 on a standard 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper. And also because the mini-envelopes are so stinkin’ cute!

I also came across this page with a ton of other envelope templates and tutorials. That could keep us all busy for awhile!