Happiest of new years to you all, and thanks for checking out this first issue of Stef Makes, a newsletter about my creative process, past and current projects, tutorials, life updates, and more. You’re the best!

I’m adjusting to life after the holidays (and being properly cold during the winter for the first time in seven years) with more passive activities: lots of reading, bingeing Man Down and Ludwig on BritBox, and making plans for warmer weather, all with heaps of blankets piled on top of me. But I’m always low-key in creative mode—who knows what projects might sneak up on me and demand my attention! Let me tell you what I’m thinking about lately.

During college, we’d hit up the Tom Jones Diner for its Blue Ribbon Special breakfast, which came with coffee, juice, pancakes, eggs, bacon or sausage, and toast for the now-unheard-of price of $2.50. (It’s now $10.35, making this memory sound extra old-timey.)

While waiting for our 10 PM brekkies, we’d play MASH (Mansion Apartment Shack House). "Who’s my soulmate? How many kids will I have? Where will I live?" This fortune-telling game answered those questions about our friends' futures, although we’d invent other categories as well, like Secret Alias, Grisly Demise, and Title of Autobiography. We were thorough with our soothsaying.

Another category was “Modes of Transportation,” and our answers inspired a series of drawings circa 2017, which in turn inspired the poem “Transportation” as found in my 2023 illustrated poetry book, It’s Fun to Be Weird! Take a look at the following alternatives to a boring ol’ car that we came up with—many of them are very eco-friendly.

We had additional ideas that I never drew, so you’ll have to close your eyes and imagine what the illustrations for the following would've looked like. But read the list first, or all you'll see is the inside of your eyelids.

And here’s a full-color, square version of the illustration that accompanied the poem in the book!

!!! It’s Fun to Be Weird is currently sold out! If you’re interested in a print copy or an ebook, please send me a message to learn more about a second printing.

This feature is unlocked for the first issue. To read this section in future issues, join the Newsletter tier or Newsletter + Annual Kit tier on Patreon.

Where do all the ideas for my art come from? Everywhere! But I'll get more specific about a few pieces.

I love the composition and limited palette of this balloon collection by @artofspanjer, so I wanted to put my own spin on it (and feature some different-shaped balloons):

Next up are these colorful pumpkins by @doodlebymeg, which fueled my own rainbow, patterned gourds:

And finally, I liked this vampire with a cape full of Halloweeny bric-a-brac I spotted during a Pinterest scroll, so I tried my hand at a similar idea during October in a piece featuring a vampress with a coffin full of trick and treats.

This feature is unlocked for the first issue. To read this section in future issues, join the Newsletter tier or Newsletter + Annual Kit tier on Patreon.

January 13 is National Sticker Day, an event my friend Sabrina and I have been celebrating for the past several years by mailing each other heaps of stickers. My love for stickers has been going on for a long time—I got in trouble in first grade for helping myself to several sheets from the teacher's collection when she invited each student to choose only one. I don't even regret this unabashed thievery!

If you’d like to send or hoard some stickers of your own, check out the ones in my Etsy shop—they’re 25% off all month long!

Thanks again for reading this newsletter—more to come in February! In the meantime, let me know if there’s something you’d like to write about in a future issue—I’d love to hear your ideas!

Stef Mates