🌼 Creative Hump Newsletter 🌼

Thank you, for being a loyal subscriber to Creative Hump.

This June marks three months before our big event—and we’ve got updates! I’ve created a mini website to collect everything in one place. You can visit it here:
🔗 creativehump.carrd.co

🎨 Event Resources: Handmade Cards & Creativity Tools

I’ve started gathering inspiration and techniques for handmade cards—perfect for holidays, birthdays, or your own mental health rituals. These won’t require starting from scratch; instead, I’m curating flexible methods you can personalize based on your mood, time, or even your current paper stash. Expect ideas like:

• Folding techniques for pop-up cards

• Handwritten affirmations with calligraphy apps

• Printable templates for neurodivergent-friendly designs

• Community-sourced examples (want to share yours? DM me!)

I’m also experimenting with Cosmos.so, a new platform that feels like a calmer, more modern mix of Instagram and Pinterest—just for creatives. It’s been refreshing to explore mood boards somewhere that feels already curated, less cluttered.

🧠 Reflections: Games, Sleep, and Grief

Lately, I’ve been struggling with late-night work spirals, naps at odd hours, and the ever-present tension between workaholism and the need for rest. I’m also grappling with aging—mine, and my loved ones’.

I’ve found myself returning to Duolingo, not just for language, but for Chess game strategy. It sounds strange, but their gamified system helped me rethink my usual approach to both play and productivity. It made me realize: Maybe games aren't the opposite of work. Maybe they're how I learn to survive work.

Also: I’ve been using ChatGPT to help me write and rewrite my memoir, and it helped me reflect on a time when my cat was dying, and I chose to sleep on the couch just to be closer. What it thought was "good writing" was something I was gleaning from my environment, and just dark. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.

Maybe grief, like creativity, is something that doesn’t feel right as memoir material until I feel better about it with some more temporal distance. Her death was too soon, and I’ll need more time to process it.

🛠 Cool Tool Spotlight: The Future of Printing Is…Curved?

I stumbled upon a Kickstarter for a new contour printer—basically a machine that can print directly onto curved or uneven surfaces. Think mugs, rocks, wood slices—perfect for those of us who think of a blank canvas as anything but a flat page. It’s like UV printing made accessible, and if it delivers on its promises, it could open doors for all kinds of small, independent makers.

🧠 On Dementia, Delusions & Mental Self-Care

Aging is on my mind lately—especially the fear of dementia. I'm not sure if I’m experiencing symptoms or just being paranoid. But I want to be kinder to this version of me who forgets things, who obsesses over games, who keeps working even when tired. Maybe you’ve felt this too. You're not alone. And if you’re like me—oscillating between hyperfocus and mental fog—that doesn’t make your creativity any less valid.

🎥 Side Experiments & Play

• Been dabbling in TikTok filter creation—as well as HeyGen Ai Videos.

• Planning to feature some animations later this summer based on Creative Hump's original characters (yes, including Chicken Wolf).

• Started using StudioBinder to help to planning for my next projects.

• Considering starting an autobiographical zine.

Here is another attempt at using my own Ai avatar to republish my soft voiced stand up comedy from Laugh Factory back in early days. I hope it helps you laugh.

🔜 Coming in a future newsletter:

• Printable templates for community card-making

• Crocheting vs knitting experiments with fingerless gloves

• A list of resources for website design and more inspirational designs

Until then, take care of your hands, your heart, and your works in progress (WIP) projects, with emphasis on care and not on time.

With support, cookies, & care,
💛 Sandra Cheese @ Creative Hump
creativehump.com