✨New blog post: April recap

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Monthly Recap: April 2026

A snapshot of April and a look into May.

Published: May 7, 2026

In the Monthly Recap: March 2026 post, these were my plans for April:

RMRRF 2026: Making pins and MakerChips to share at the event
Snapmaker U1 3D printer: Testing and refining print settings for my models; try out Full Spectrum for extra colorful prints (use promo code karen_chau for 5% off at Snapmaker)
Designs for collabs

Read on to see how April panned out and what's coming in May!

April Highlights: RMRRF 2026, organization project, designer collab

RMRRF 2026

I attended the Rocky Mountain Rep Rap Festival (RMRRF) in Loveland, Colorado

It was an awesome event with cool projects to see!

I loved meeting people in the 3D printing community in person -- I even met people who have printed my designs!

I wanted to design a more unique MakerChip to bring to RMRRF

I designed a MakerChip with a duck cutout, where one of my 15mm tall Baby Ducks could snap into it.

This MakerChip was such a hit! Some claimed it was their favorite MakerChip or "the coolest MakerChip" -- it was so fun to see the excitement 🥰

People were even asking me for additional MakerChips for their friends and also requested the MakerChip model to print for their kids to give to friends, so I've published the model (along with blank and single-color variations) -- enjoy!

I kept my Snapmaker U1 pretty busy once I decided on this MakerChip design with the ducks.

MakerChip with Duck cutout

Snap in 15mm tall Baby Ducks!

View details

I also made kawaii mountain pins to hand out at the Rocky Mountain Rep Rap Festival (again)

RMRRF 2024 was the first 3D printing convention I attended, and I had made the initial mountain pins where I used super glue to attach the pins.

This year, I enhanced my mountain pin design with my glueless pin mounting slot, so I was able to assemble these pins so much faster and less messily, with the added benefit of them being so much sturdier than the ones I made 2 years ago!

As I was preparing to print all these things to bring to RMRRF, I took a side quest (read: procrastinated)

I wanted to prioritize finishing a project I started about a year ago -- organizing my markers and pens.

Thanks to the RMRRF prep procrastination paired with my new model publishing targets, I was able to publish models for several configurations of my modular and stackable marker & pen organizer design.

I love how tidy and colorful my shelf looks, and it's so easy to access all my markers and pens now!

Marker and Pen Organizers

Print these organizers to store your markers and pens beautifully while having convenient access to them!

View details

If you visited Bearded Printer's booth at RMRRF, you may have noticed a duck with a saddle on his motorized carousel

I designed that duck for the collab! The other animals are by Built Over Bot. This collab turned out so cute!

I also designed a stand so you can have a carousel duck on its own.

I designed these carousel ducks with optional saddles, underbelly and legs, so you can choose your configuration.

The underbelly and legs print separately, so no supports are needed, but a little glue is needed to attach the legs (and optionally to attach the underbelly).

Carousel Duck

Choose your duck configuration -- optional saddle, underbelly and legs

View details

Some more things I posted in April

What to 3D Print in April

Published: April 7, 2026

✨In May, I am building better workflows and setting targets -- I'm aiming to publish models and creating content more consistently.

Twitch streaming?

I frequently get asked if I'll start streaming again.

Part of me wants to, but a big part of me will want to overcomplicate everything and make it too much work and pressure (again). What's changed is my availability to do daytime streams, so that may bring in different audiences and allow for different types of streams.

I'll have to rethink stream formats I'll want to try that will be simple enough to start and to be consistent.

Thank You

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