iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 18/09/2026

I made a paper doll Big Walker! I'd forgotten how great it feels to make someone small and silly just for fun!

A paper doll version of the walker character from House House's Big Walk video game. The head is a red circle, the chest is a yellow circle with yellow arms ending in circle hands, and the trunk is an orange circle with long orange legs ending in oval feet. It's held together with colored brads so the arms and legs can move.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 17/08/2026

I continue to love toner reactive foil 🖤

A small open handmade box. The label on the inside bottom is black foil on black cardstock and has a drawing of a wave and the title "The Deep"

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 19/06/2026

If you'd like to send letters very slowly and appreciate birds, I am on roostsocial.app

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 13/06/2026

I think this is box #6 so far this year and my first with a drawer. I love the colors (the gold cook cloth came with the kit and I had the purple paper and silver book cloth in my stash)! This was a class from Herringbone Bindery called Fancy Clamshell.

A collage of three images of a clamshell box made by Jenn. The box is covered in marbled paper in purple, silver and gold, with silver book cloth on the spine and gold book cloth on the fore edges. The top image takes up the full width, and shows the box open from the top. The tray on the right is divided and there's a drawer opened part way underneath it. The bottom left image shows the box closed and the bottom right image shows the spine and cover standing up.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 27/05/2026

I've been keeping an eye out for a wood letterpress tray for just this thing xpert.b-cdn.net/denveronline...

A wooden letterpress drawer propped up against a white background. It is divided into many small compartments, some of which hold small figurines, trinkets and toys.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 19/04/2026

My community college 200-level History of Art in Architecture class does not require this level of critical thinking, but where else am I going to put this hot take?!? I hope the instructor actually reads this one:

Screenshot of text that reads:
"I think comparing speed versus craftsmanship can also be thought of as function versus form. Architecture in the 19th century increasingly came to value function over form, and so we see buildings that have more glass (for light), longer interior spans (for machinery, stock and transportation) and much less ornamentation (unnecessary, not worth anything to business). Once could argue that the goal of 19th century architecture was, in fact, to facilitate the worship of a god, it was just not a religious one, it was profit. "

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 17/04/2026

It looks like you can still bid without a Canadian bank account if you can put a cash deposit down in person!

Screencap of 403auction.com/startrek
Text reads: You must be a local Ontario resident to bid without a deposit.
Out-of-province customers and those located several hours away may still be eligible to participate by submitting an Interac e-transfer (available through Canadian banks) or by leaving an in-person cash deposit in accordance with our terms and conditions. If your account was not automatically approved and you wish to proceed with a deposit, please contact us at online@403auction.com

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 10/04/2026

She's done! I planned to put the red foil on a black background, but realized there wouldn't be enough contrast to read the title, so white it is. The foiling came out so good, I don't think I'll ever shut up about it! This is the first box I've designed from scratch and I learned a lot making it!

A handmade box- red book cloth on the outside top piece and black book cloth on the bottom lip. The inner box is covered in red and black marbled paper. In the rectangular debossed area, a white card with red foiling says "For the Queen, a story building card game by Alex Roberts," with a crown line drawing. The bottom text reads "proofread by Jenn Martin"

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 06/04/2026

I'm planning on gluing an insert into the front with the title, but I'm not sure which one I like best! The blue cardstock was just what I had on hand for the foil test, but I can't decide which layout I like best! What do you think?

A collage with 6 title layouts, 2 across and 3 down, with red foil on dark blue paper. Each says "For the Queen, a story building card game by Alex Roberts" the bottom right has an image of a crown.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 06/04/2026

I need help deciding on a cover for my rebox of For the Queen! This is what the box looks like so far:

A small box covered in red book cloth, with a rectangle debossed into it. Opening from the bottom, the inner box is covered in a red and black marbled paper. The bottom lip of the box is black book cloth. On the upper right corner of the pic is a stack of blue cardstock with different versions of "For the Queen, a story building card game by Alex Roberts"

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 25/03/2026

If you are at PaxEast this weekend, @sidequestbooks.bsky.social has the last dozen print copies of my goose ttrpg where players who break the rules get honked at!

A picture of multiple copies of a ttrpg game, printed as a pamphlet. The Goose of Grillner Grove features one tri-fold panel entirely dedicated to a picture of a Canada goose, with a speech bubble over it that says "HONK"

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 11/03/2026

You can't tell from the crowdfund page, but I'm writing an underground newspaper the government can't seem to get rid of (where is it printed? Nobody knows), a radical craft circle slash community aid org (inspired by Meg Baker), and some suspiciously well informed old ladies with unusual skills.

Screen cap of my stretch goal for Blades '68:
Jenn Martin (she/her)
A game designer and editor who's read over 1.5 million words of game text, she lives in the Midwest and collects pens. She's a proud member of SFWA and AFT local 604.
The stretch goal is listed vaguely as "New Blades '68 Factions"

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 02/03/2026

Second box of the year is complete! This was a kit I modified to add a hidden compartment and magnets to hold the spine closed. I also added book cloth on the corners of the covers, since I hadn't done that before. Next up is my first project I'm designing from scratch!

A collage of 5 pictures of a handmade box. The box is covered in marbled paper looks like agate stone in shades of pink, blue and cream, and bright pink book cloth on the spine and outer corners of the covers.

The top picture takes up 1/3 of the height and shows the box with the lid open (but the spine is held closed by magnets).

In the middle 1/3 is two pictures- one of the box closed and the other with the front cover open and the spine dropped to the table.

The bottom 1/3 shows an angled look at the box, under which is a short compartment that is hidden by the spine in the top picture

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 27/02/2026

There is a lot of bad in the world these days, but sometimes I get to read sentences like this one by @jmstar.bsky.social and I am reminded that there are still good things in this world.

Text from a PDF that reads, "Noris is your partner like combustion chamber residue is partner to a rocket engine. They're sticky and corrosive and you wish they weren't there. You took Noris on as a favor to your former" (text cuts off there). The first sentence is highlighted yellow, indicating a comment on the PDF.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 08/02/2026

Tool box is done! I'm glad I ran out of the white paper, since the black & metallic print looks great on the covers!

A collage with 5 pictures, featuring a drop spine slipcase-like box. The spine is black bookcloth, and the front cover is black lokta paper with line drawings of art supplies screen printed on it with gold, silver & copper ink. The inside of the box is covered in white paper with the black lines in the same print. A short divided tray is lifted out of the deeper tray in one part of the collage.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 30/01/2026

I'm getting into the box making corner of book arts and I'm nearly done with a tool box! (Gotta go to the art supply store tomorrow, since I didn't buy the extra fancy paper- lesson learned!)

A collage of 3 images. The top half of the square is one image of a handmade box that looks similar to a drop spine slipcase. The brown book board is mostly covered in white paper with art supplies drawn on it. The bottom left photo is a shallow divided top tray sitting in the deeper bottom tray. The bottom right photo is the bare book board cover closed with a black spine.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 24/12/2025

I went back to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium for my birthday to meet their new Giant Pacific octopus and she was initially a bit shy, but came over after she got her shrimps and it was *amazing*!

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 23/12/2025

I forgot to get cake for my birthday yesterday, so I made @smittenkitchen.bsky.social's Gingerbread Snacking Cake today! I don't know that I mixed the flour enough (you can see little lighter flecks on the top), but it's still very tasty!

A dark brown square cake with no frosting on a piece of parchment paper sits on a green ceramic plate on top of the stove. Not visible is the intense molasses and ginger smell of this gingerbread snacking cake.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 07/12/2025

I knitted a similar hat and it was wild to get such real time feedback about my tension- I pulled out so many rows! For a bit I just let the rainbow travel around so the other side wouldn't all be all white.

A knit hat with a white base yarn and a smeared rainbow of color.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 02/11/2025

If you donate food/money/time to a food bank or to help folks who didn't get SNAP benefits, I want to mail you a print copy of my goose game! DM me your address and what you donated (I don't need receipts) and the goose will be on its way! International is ok! I have a dozen to send out! HONK

A picture of multiple copies of the tabletop RPG game The Goose of Grillner Grove. The game is printed as a tri-fold brochure, with one inner flap showing a picture of a Canada goose and a speech bubble that says "HONK".

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 22/10/2025

Hand bound copy of Spine by @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social This game deserves the hardcover in cloth or leather treatment, but I don't have the materials and I wanted to start playing tomorrow, so coil binding it is! Printed in signatures to feel a little fancy.

A collage of 5 pictures of the solo TTRPG Spine by Asa Donald. The cover, plastic coil binding, a hand written notebook page spread, a spread with a torn page, and the back cover.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 23/09/2025

I got to see a building I've wanted to see for decades last weekend and it was very good! (Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA)

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house- a stone and stucco house perched over a stream. The surrounding trees are mostly green, with a few changed to yellow for autumn.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 13/09/2025

All set up to run Zhenya's Wonder Tales at Demo Expo in Chicago!

A long rectangular table covered in brown paper. On the table are cards set up to play Zhenya's Wonder Tales. In the center is a black and white map and a rules booklet.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 22/07/2025

I've been buying Tom Bihn bags for years, but visiting the factory and seeing the faces of the people who actually make them was powerful in a way I had not anticipated!

The storefront of the Tom Bihn store in Seattle. A warehouse building with several different colors of corrugated siding, the store in question is yellow, with a light blue sign with a red plane on it.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 10/07/2025

Thinking about Octopus Bill (she/her) today 🐙💖

A Giant Pacific octopus in an aquarium tank. Her skin is textured and bumpy and appears pink and purple under the blue lights of the tank. You can see a few suckers on her arms, one gill, and one of her eyes.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 23/06/2025

Getting back into hand sewing! These are thread catchers that collapse (except I made the bottom too big on the first one, so it doesn't stay collapsed).

A collage with three pictures. The left picture takes up half the square and shows a fabric thread catcher cup in pastel geometric fabric. The top right takes up a quarter of the square and features a different thread catcher made with the same fabric, showing the seams matching up perfectly. The bottom right picture takes up a quarter of the square and shows both thread catchers, with the one on the right folded down into a disc.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 17/05/2025

I've been mostly off doomscrolling apps these days, channeling anxiety about my government into knitting socks. These 3 were all made with yarn I already had, which definitely means I get to buy more yarn now, right?

A pair of ankle length hand knitted socks, in white with pink variegation. The cuffs, heels and toes are solid blue.

A pair of ankle length hand knitted socks, fading from variegated dark colors at the top to the toe. The toe is light pink and yellow, the heel is dark pink, and the cuff is green.

A pair of crew length hand knitted socks, fading from variegated dark colors at the top to the toe. The toe is cream and yellow, the heel is gray and teal, and the cuff is brown and green.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 13/04/2025

I saw Jupiter through the same telescope that Carl Sagan and Nancy Grace Roman (and many others) observed the cosmos with and it was pure magic.

The inside of an astronomical observatory, cast in red light. A large telescope points at a dot of light through the dome's opening.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 02/04/2025

The last time the public voted to increase my library district funding was 1929. I'm *so stoked* about this!

Screen cap of a patch.com article with the title "White Oak Library Referendum Protected to Pass: Election Results"
The subtitle reads "With just a 103-vote difference, the referendum is projected to pass, according to unofficial results."

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 20/03/2025

We had 80 degrees last Friday, a tornado watch yesterday, and today everything is covered in snow again. Fool's Spring gets me every damn year.

Picture of a suburban cul-de-sac covered in snow. Snow covers the lawns, the trees are bare, and the sky is gray.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 18/03/2025

Post your favourite Doctor Who. Wrong answers only.

Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote, played by Angela Lansbury, sits at her kitchen table in front of a typewriter. She looks at the camera, perhaps in a self satisfied way. There is no text.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 15/03/2025

Zhenya's Wonder Tales is funded! 🎉🔮🧙‍♀️ 🃏 To mark the occasion, Zhenya gave @segedy.bsky.social & @jmstar.bsky.social their most terrifying curse yet. bpglink.com/zhenyas

Drawing of the evil witch Zhenya and the curse they laid on Bully Pulpit Games, "May your crowdfunding become a catastrophic success."

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 04/03/2025

I got some prototype boxes for my Regency Desperation game and I really love the small magnetic one that looks like a little book.

A collage of 4 pictures of a small, white magnetic box and a deck of ttrpg game cards. In the top left, the box sits closed laying on the table. In the top right, it has a card on top for scale. In the bottom right, the box is on its side with the card for scale. The bottom left has the box open on the table, holding poker sized game cards.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 25/02/2025

I finished my clamshell book box this weekend and I'm pretty proud of it! I wish I knew why it's so much harder to make the thing at home than it is at a class.

A collage of 5 pictures of a clamshell book box and a Coptic book that fits inside it. The box is green bookcloth and green faux leather, with the 'page' edges antique looking stamps.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 28/01/2025

I've tried and ripped out multiple attempts since going off-pattern and finally made some progress today!

Mandala-inspired crochet blanket, in progress. Textured with geometric stitch patterns, it starts as yellow in the center of the circle and fades to orange, then pink, then purple, then teal, then dark grey. The outermost row of loop stitch is incomplete.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 25/01/2025

I went off pattern for the last row, since it had 3x as many extra tall stitches and I just cannot.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 24/01/2025

Just shy of 2 rounds completed today, it's pretty slow going at this point.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 23/01/2025

Nearly at the last color- I have a second ball of yarn, so I'll have to decide how big I want to make this blanket.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 22/01/2025

Work was remote today because of the cold, so I could crochet in meetings. The bobble round is worked backwards!

A mandala-inspired work in progress crochet blanket. The center is pair yellow, blending to orange, then pink, then purple, with a little blue on the outside edge.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 21/01/2025

Feels like I should have made more progress, given that I worked on it most of the day, but I messed up the popcorn stitch round and had to rip 600 stitches out and redo it.

A work in progress crochet blanket, resembling a mandala. The yarn in the center of the circle is yellow and gradually changes to pink on the outside edges.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 19/01/2025

Staying off insta and back on my crochet bullshit means wip pics! I don't like the feel or plies of the yarn, but the gradual color changes are pretty good.

An in-progress crochet project, "Mandala Madness" blanket by Helen Shrimpton. The circle starts out pale yellow in the middle, and includes textural stitches that mimic geometric mandalas, with petals, circles and triangles. The yarn shifts to pink of the outside edge.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 27/12/2024

I had an octopus encounter today and it was a dream come true! Highly recommend making an octo friend if you're near Dubuque, Iowa!

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 22/12/2024

My cat decided to give me a hairball for my birthday, right in the path between my bed and the bathroom, so thoughtful of her!

A small gray cat with yellow-green eyes sits on a lighter gray blanket, looking to the right of the camera. She resents the interruption.

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 22/11/2024

My cat is not affectionate, but she sits on my lap on weekday mornings (when her favorite human is unavailable) and I now know to have any breakfast/coffee/meds within arms' reach, because moving her is an Unforgivable Sin.

A medium grey cat with green eyes, curled up on a light grey fuzzy blanket, both on top of Jenn's lap. The cat looks to the right of the camera, as if to say "you may love me, but I tolerate you, and you're lucky to get that, human."

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 21/09/2024

I got my playtesting decks and I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

Prototype decks for my new game, Aldsworth, 1811. You can see two character cards (Miss Sophia Carter & Mr. Algernon Haddington), the First Dance card, a location card (Sherborne House), the rest of the cards stacked in a deck, and two other boxes (saying Speak Your Heart and Tales of Desperation).

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jenn martin is not trying so hard @tenpenjenn.com · 06/08/2024

Crossposting from Tumblr because this is too good not to share.

A red and blue poster in the style of Obama's famous Hope style of Minnesota Governor Walz with the caption "Ope"

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