This instructables is dedicated to the lovely Emily (emilyvanleemput), with whom I arranged a holiday gift swap. :)



The 18th of August this year began as a normal day. Granted, it was only a few days before I'd be making the physical transition to university life, but still--a fairly normal day. However, upon checking instructables.com I noticed an inbox message titled "Hi!" from the previously mentioned, ever so interesting emilyvanleemput. She had messaged me to introduce herself beyond the few brief comments we'd posted on each others' instructables. Before long we had shared little details about our days and weeks, and the more I learned about and shared to the amazing girl across the world from me, the more I wanted to keep learning and sharing. In an unassuming, simple message she had managed to gift me with something I didn't realize I wanted: a companion to talk to during the tumult of a college transition.



But relating back to this tutorial...



In one of our correspondences, she sent me this link along the topic of inspiring Etsy shops, and my mind immediately flashed to the bag of steampunk supplies that I purchased from the East Bay Mini Makers Faire. By the time I finished reading that message, my mind had already walked through the steps to recreate it for her, and well, the rest of the story is told in the next steps.



So I hope you enjoy your present, Emily!



I hope this project and the story behind it inspires others to reach out to others in the instructables community (or other forums); you may find someone living across the world sharing similar interests. One day out of the blue, I saw a message in my inbox from a courageous fellow instructables member wanting to say hi. Messages and messages later, we'd gushed about our shared appreciation for BBC's Sherlock, exchanged horror stories about tests, sharing our frustration with being women interested in STEM fields, and much more leading up to this holiday swap. So who knows; perhaps our holiday story can be yours in due time?