I know you are probably waiting with baited breath, to find out if I actually put my craft room back together.  Ok, the answer is yes and no.  I had purchased a couple of cool wooden boxes at garage sales that weren’t in the best of shape.  I decided to cover them with paper, so they didn’t look so bad, and because one had nails that looked like they might catch something (me.)

It was a cool day, only around 60 degrees, but as soon as I started covering that box with decorative paper, I started to sweat like crazy.  Maybe I should change my YT name to Sweaty Crafter, because it’s starting to get ridiculous.  I did finish one box, then thoroughly washed another box and that’s when I threw in the towel.  I could have done more, but decided I needed a nap to recover from my sweat fest.

Rich edited and uploaded the video of my cousin making her fairy garden (yes, that was a month ago), but he has been backed up with videos.  He only has one more video left before I have nothing to show, so I need to get serious about that craft room.   I’m hoping tomorrow is another cool day and that I can get everything back in the closet and make some videos.

I’ve gotten some really nice gifts in the mail from viewers in the last few days and I really want to show them.  I also need to get my destash video done so we know how much money we will have to buy gift cards with.  I saw the Jennifer McGuire and a lot of her friends have started a go-fund-me page for people affected by the hurricane, but so far, I’m not sure what they are doing with the monies.  I think they are selling crafty things, but not donating them, so I’m continuing on with my original plan, and hope that we can make a small difference in at least a few people’s crafty lives.  I guess I look at it like this.  If we help one person regain their crafty tools, then that’s one more person who is getting back to a sense of normalcy, and that’s all we can ask.

My cousin Shelli, her friend, Linda, and I spent a day together crafting…Shelli wanted to make a fairy garden and was inspired by Crafting it up and Creations by Janet on YouTube.
You’ll need a planting pot and foam core for this project. You’ll trace the top of the pot on the foam core and then cut the foam core so it fits inside the top. You’ll buy a door and glue it on the side of the planter and then glue greenery around the door. Shelli found a lot of her fair garden products at dollar stores and Big Lots.
You’ll want to glue the foam core into the top of the planter with hot glue and then position the fairy garden pieces around the foam core and once you are sure that you like it, glue it all down. When gluing the greenery down, you should make sure you only glue small portions so the glue doesn’t dry before you get your moss glued in place.
If you glue anything and regret it, you can pull them back off and reglue them down. As for the door, Shelli placed hers in the wrong place (once her pieces were glued in place), so she pulled the door off and repositioned it so it was on the opposite side of the planter from her house.

Linda made a Halloween inspired fairy garden and I made a wreath with my fairy products.

Some days I just don’t accomplish very much.  Today was one of those days.  It seems like I’ve had a string of “those kind of days,” and honestly, wish I had less.  I didn’t sleep well, and I’m not really sure why, but decided at about 4AM, that I needed to do some laundry.  I know you should just lay there, and eventually you’ll fall asleep, but somehow, that doesn’t work for me.  I’m more of a, lay there until I get up and either make a list of the things I need to do, or get up and accomplish something kind of girl.  So this morning, I did laundry.  Just one load, but it made me feel like I could check something off of my invisible list of things to do, so I could go to sleep.  I probably would have laid there awake for a couple more hours if I hadn’t.

I slept late and then decided to put my closet back together, then, because I completely forgot about the closet, sent some emails and took Rich out to dinner and ran a few errands.

I did get a really nice surprise in the mail from Rebecca, the owner of Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the peg stamp people.  She sent me their new stamp sets that are almost all focused on succulents and cacti.  (I wanted to make sure that the plural of cactus was cacti, and it is.)  Whew, a load off my mind….It’s not like I’m a stickler for vocabulary, but I don’t want to appear illiterate if I can avoid it.  But in doing my research, apparently cactus is also acceptable as the plural of cactus, who knew?  These are the things I learn from doing this blog.

Back to the peg stamps story….She also sent their new fall based stamp sets and one set with some gorgeous florals.  I’m a sucker for their flower stamps and must have at least fifty of them.  So tomorrow I’m going to put my closet together and then focus on making some cards.  I have several that I need to make for friends and family, and some that I just want to play with some new techniques.  All in all, I have a lot of card making and video making that I need to do, and I’m going to staple myself inside my craft room until I accomplish something.  Ok, I might not staple myself inside, but I am definitely going to make some videos tomorrow.  I feel really guilty, because I just keep procrastinating and I think it’s because I just don’t want to organize the closet.  It seems like an overwhelming task and I need to force myself to do it.  You’d think I would be really excited and would jump right on this, but for some reason I keep putting it off.  I’m really not sure why.  No more excuses, tomorrow is the day, that closet is getting done. Period.  Or I’ll find another excuse and postpone it again.

Today was the day that I was going to finish the house mouse card, or throw it in the trash.  But then bright and early, Rich said, I’m going to finish the closet, and did.  It took all day to sand it and paint, so I didn’t get a chance to go in the craft room.  Instead I spent some time spray painting one of my bird feeders (and myself).  I didn’t spend any time in the craft room because the paint smell was horrible.   So I did what I always do when it’s hot and I don’t want to do anything, I ran errands.  That wasted a couple of hours, but it made me feel like I’d accomplished something.

So I’m delaying making cards until tomorrow, when hopefully, my room won’t be smelly or hot, and I’ll be in the mood to make something.  I don’t know about other people, but when it’s 90 degrees, I don’t feel like doing much of anything, and today, I didn’t.

I decided I needed to get my craft room back together, whether or not Rich was finished with the closet.  So we put up a new light and repositioned my tripod and I was ready to roll.

I have a sunflower house mouse stamp that I really wanted to use in a video and so I started to watercolor it with Crayola watercolors.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m terrible at mixing colors, so my mouse and the sunflower looked very similar.  I played with it for a very long time, and I’m not sure if it’s going to end up in a video or the trash.  Sometimes making cards will go that way for me.  I have a great plan in my head, but when I try to put it on paper, it goes horribly awry.  Such is the case of the house mouse sunflower.

I thought I would let it sit overnight and then determine if it needs to go in the garbage or not.  That’s the beauty of making things out of paper…all that I’ve wasted is my time and a piece of paper, and that’s not so bad.  I guess I’ll think about it tomorrow.

Sometimes I just want to talk about things that I shouldn’t.  Today’s discussion is about hot flashes.  I know you don’t want to hear about them, but I’m going to share.   If you don’t want to hear the story, it’s ok, there are lots of normal people that blog on crafty sites, unfortunately, I’m not one of them.

One of my girlfriends asked me if I would help her reorganize a space that she and another woman share at an antique market.  She refinishes furniture and the other woman makes deco mesh wreaths, candles, framed art, and a variety of other crafty projects.  Their space is probably 25 feet wide and 15-20 feet deep.  It holds a LOT of stuff. The owner of the antique market doesn’t really believe in air conditioning, and yesterday, the temperature was almost 90 degrees, so it was extremely warm there.  Not only was it warm, but it was also very humid.  It was so humid, in fact, that we couldn’t get the metal tape measure (that normally retracts automatically), to retract.  It was humid and I was miserably hot.  I started with a minor hot flash and within a half hour of being there, my entire head was drenched in sweat.  I tried mopping my head, but that really didn’t do much (besides glue my hair flat to my head), so I just let it drip.  I looked and felt disgusting, but I was committed to helping, so I soldiered on.  The antique market was open, but they thankfully had very few customers, (so very few people saw how bad I looked.)  And then it happened.  A woman walked up to the booth (that looked like an explosion had gone off as everything was off the walls and either in shopping carts or on the floor), and says to me, “You look familiar.”  I immediately said the town I was from (which was about 40 minutes away), thinking that would end the discussion, and the woman said, “Rich Parker.”  This is the exact moment I tried to crawl under something and hide, because the sweat was now pouring down my back and I knew I looked like a wet dog.    She said “I met you once at a restaurant, and went to high school with your husband.”  Really?  What are the odds that I would run into someone who would recognize me from meeting me once and would remember me (even though I swear I didn’t look this bad the other time we met.)  She’s telling my girlfriend that she came specifically to see this booth as she is friends with the other woman that she shares the booth with and then looks back at me.  I decide to diffuse the situation by explaining, “hot flash, you know how these things go,” and she says, “I’ve never had one.”  I could have cried or karate chopped her in the throat for saying that, but I just smiled and said, “wow, that’s lucky,” but inside, I was dying.   I was just waiting to get home and have Rich mention that his facebook page was buzzing with all of his high school friends, talking me and my new wet dog look.

All I’m saying is some days it’s just not worth getting out of bed when you have a four hour hot flash ahead of you.

I started with card stock that is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2″ and put the 8 1/2″ length in the score board and score it at 4″ and 4 1/2″. This is the outside cover. You’ll need some scraps for the accessories for your notepad cover. I used Halloween type papers..
Trim two papers to 3 7/8″ wide and 5 3/8″ tall, for the front and back covers, plus one more piece 5 3/8″ tall x 3/8″ wide, making sure your pattern goes in the same direction as the two papers you just cut. This is the center piece for the outside cover. Cut another decorated paper to 4 3/4″ wide by 3 1/2″ high, then leaving your paper on the 3 1/2″ on your paper trimmer, turn it on an angle in the trim bar, and trim off the top on an angle. You’ll want to score three sides at 3/8″ (except the angled side, leave that alone)..Score it on the back of the side of the paper you want as the front so you fold it correctly and it doesn’t crack.

Craft Chameleon sells “ugly tape” tear tape for 99 cents a roll and I bought a lot of it as it’s a great bargain because you get a lot of it.

I used tear tape on the back of the 3/8″ wide strip and take the backing off of it and add a small amount of wet glue to make sure it stays well adhered. Take your 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ cardstock that is scored at 4 and 4 1/2″ and lay the thin piece between the two score lines. Then take the two pieces you cut to 3 7/8″ x 5 3/8″ and put tear tape on the back of them and add some wet glue to ensure they stay on the 8 1/2 x 5 1/2″ sheet, as these will cover the front and back cover of your note pads.

You’ll need two mini writing tablets from the Dollar Tree (they come in packs of five) as well as a pack of five gel pens by Jot from Dollar Tree. You’ll separate the writing tablets, making sure you have a piece of cardboard underneath each pad you use. You will want to use thicker card stock (any you would use for a card base, that is 1 1/4″ high by 6″ long , and wrap it around the cardboard backing for your note pad leaving a small gap on one side, so you’ll be able to slide the notepad out of it to replace it when your pad is empty. Trim the length, so that each side has about 1 – 1 1/2″ cardstock wrapped around the back, then put tear tape on the flaps that face you.. I added wet glue to the flaps and then press them into the inside of my notepad cover. Do the same for the second pad and make sure they are centered and near the top of the cover and both lined up so they appear to be the same distance from the top and insert a pen into the center between the two pads..
I took the piece of cardstock that we cut and scored to make a pocket, and folded under my scored edges, and cut out the bottom corners so it looks professional, add tear tape to the folded up bottom then fold the sides onto the bottom piece and put tear tape on the folded sides (as well as wet glue) and adhere it to the back outside of the cover. The top is angled, so there is a piece of backing that will show, and you’ll want to cut that off before adhering it to the back.
Next, make bookmarks to match. Use 2″ wide by 4″ long scraps and a tag maker punch…If you don’t have a tag maker punch, you’ll want to snip off the top right corner on an angle, and put that piece on the left top corner as a template, and cut the cardstock at the edge of the template, then punch a hole in the center to create a tag. I use thin satin ribbon that’s about 3″ long and fold it in half, push the folded ribbon through the center hole and then pull the free ends through the loop and pull. Snip the ends to make them look angled and use some wet or hot glue to put under the loop to hold the ribbon in place.
To embellish paper clips, I take a small silicone rose mold from Amazon Prime $4.19
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Chocolate-Sugarcraft-Decorating-Fondant/dp/B00YWL02TC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506187403&sr=8-3&keywords=silicone+rose+mold
or Aliexpress $1.02 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4-Pink-Rose-Shape-Cake-Mold-Cooking-Tools-Christmas-Decoration-Silicone-Mold-Fondant-DIY-Wedding-Cake/32771795658
I use LA Colors eye shadow in white, and a paint brush and rub the inside of the silicone mold and then fill the mold with hot glue and shove a plastic covered long paper clip into the hot glue while it’s wet, and hold it in place until it is a little bit cooled, maybe 20 seconds. Let the paperclips sit in the mold until the are cooled. Wipe off any excess eye shadow.. To create a holder for the paper clips, use a 1 1/2″ wide strip of matching card stock and score the length at 3/4″ (fold it in 1/2 and glue to make a strong fold), then score on either ends at 1/4″, fold under and add tear tape/wet glue and adhere it to the front of the notepad cover. Don’t glue it tightly to the cover, as you’ll want to attach the paper clips to it..I use two paper clips on the front and one, clip to the back pocket and put a page of the pad in the back pocket with a bookmark and paperclip. Decorate the front as desired.

Rich has been true to his word, uploading a video every day, to get caught up with me.  He’s only three or four behind now, so I’m going to have to get serious about making some videos.  He’s pretty sneaky, though, because he’s still working on the closet conversion and since my cousin came to make videos, hasn’t put the camera and tripod back on top of my desk.  This is his way of catching up with me because he knows I can’t lift the tripod, so I will need to wait for him before I can make more videos.

I do have some great ideas though, and more are swirling around as we speak.  I’m going to make a marbling technique video, where I show how to do marbling with everything I’ve ever seen used to do it.  That’ll be a lot of fun, because it involves nail polish, men’s shave cream and, well, marbles.  I’m really looking forward to making some really fun backgrounds with them.

Then I have a house mouse laying on a sunflower that I’ve put off making a video with until I considered it to be fall.  Now’s the time to pull that out and play with it.  Plus I have so many dies I want to try, and of course there’s the magic card die, that’s going to be a lot of fun, plus stamps with witches shoes….So many ideas, so little time.

First off, though, we’re working on getting the closet converted to my craft space (and that involved ripping out a metal closet organizer and patching a ton of holes, then painting.)  I’m not sure what happened in the process, but at some point, my maintenance guy just stopped working in there and went onto another project.  Drat, he’s sneaky.  Seriously though, Rich’s been working really hard, putting the metal closet organizer into another closet in the basement–one we had built but never use.  He used his electric drill, and drilled a small piece of his thumb into the wall, attached to the closet organizer, so I don’t blame him for taking a rest.  His thumb looked terrible and I felt awful about it.  It’s been almost a week, and it’s just starting to look like a thumb again.  Geez, I never knew closet organizers could be so vicious…

Nothing crafty today, we met college friends for lunch and a movie…American Assassin.  Oh yeah, I know what you are thinking…that’s quite the date movie..when you’ve been married for almost thirty-five years, you begin to notice a movie trend about fifteen minutes into your marriage.  Chick flicks are movies you watch on NetFlix, and action movies are saved for theaters.   I’m not going to explain this in male-think.  Ok, my only real point of reference here, is Rich and his thinking goes something like this.  If you want to see a great action movie, you need the big screen, the high-defnition, the surround sound etc., and none of those things are required for a love story or comedy.  You can see a love story or comedy on a fifty inch screen and it’s “like” you are in a theater.   I’m not saying we never go to the theater for movies I’d like to see because he lives and breathes popcorn with a ton of butter, but if we were looking at the percentages, I’d say it’s probably 80% action/super hero/adventure and 20% everything else.  Rich would be more than willing to take me to the theater for comedies or love stories, but after all of these years, he’s got me brainwashed into believing he is right.  Darn these men, they know all the tricks!

I’ve always wanted to try an acrylic pour, so my great niece Erika and I did one. But we needed gesso to coat our canvas, so I had to make my own gesso so, here’s the recipe I used to make it. Homemade Gesso Recipe Sitr all wet ingredients together 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup white acrylic (cheap) paint from craft stores You can make gesso in different colors, but I chose white. You can use acrylic house paint too, but I went with the craft paint since I’m only making a small amount of gesso. 1/4 cup white glue but not school glue, regular Elmers or Mod Podge (I used the shiny kind of Mod Podge because i’m trying to get rid of it) Mix your wet ingredients together then slowly stir it into the Plaster of Paris. Don’t do this in reverse by putting the Plaster of Paris into the wet ingredients or you’ll have a lumpy mess. Put your wet ingredients into your Plaster of Paris (or baby powder) and make sure you stir it really well until all lumps are gone. 1/4 cup Plaster of Paris (buy it at a hardware store) or baby powder (I don’t like my projects to smell like a baby, so go with the Plaster of Paris) It should be a pancake batter consistency, so if it isn’t thick enough, add a little bit more Plaster of Paris until it is thick enough. If it’s too thick, add more of the wet ingredients. Homemade Texture Paste 1/4 c Mod Podge or white glue (not school glue, just Elmer’s) 1/2 c homemade Gesso 1 cup Plaster of Paris or baby powder Add your wet ingredients that you’ve mixed well into the Plaster of Paris and make sure you get out all of your lumps, or you will have lumpy texture paste. I added small amounts of wet ingredients and stirred, then added more, until all of my wet ingredients are well mixed together with the Plaster of Paris or baby powder. I took a very small canvas and covered it with my homemade gesso and set it aside to dry. To do an acrylic pour, you’ll need to do a mixture of acrylic paints, white glue, water and silicone and we used popsicle sticks to do our stirring. 3 parts white glue (Elmer’s or Mod Podge, but not school glue) we used 3 tsp. 1 part water, we used 1 tsp. 2 parts paint, we used 2 tsp. Once you put your glue, water and paint together in a small plastic cup, (we used the cups you buy at the Dollar Tree for jello shots) stir it for a very long time, and it should be really watery. Leave the Popsicle stick in the cup you stirred it with, as you’ll need to stir it again. You’ll add a long squirt of silicone spray, that we bought at the Dollar Tree auto department, into each cup, and stir again until well mixed. You need to make sure that you stir these really well as you add ingredients. Then you will need a larger disposable cup to pour all of the paints into.Once you start pouring into this cup, we did not stir the paints again…Start with 1/3rd of your white paint mixture and pour it into the bottom of the bigger cup, then pour another color from up to one foot above the cup into the larger cup, then pour another color from the same height into the larger cup, and repeat all colors until you’ve used some of all of your paints, then add more of the white mixture into the cup, again from about one foot above the cup. To do a “dirty pour”, you’ll take a small canvas that has been gesso’d, and put the canvas on top of your cup, holding it tightly, flip everything over. You’ll need something to hold any excess paint–we used an aluminum pie pan and you’ll also need something to hold the canvas above the pie pan, we used small plastic cups turned upside down so the bottoms face up. After you’ve flipped over your canvas and are holding your cup of paint upside down on top of the canvas, put the canvas onto the small overturned plastic cups and lift the cup of paint off of the canvas, making sure to get paint over most of the canvas. Tilt the canvas so paint covers all of it, make sure you have paint covering all edges of the canvas and use your popsicle sticks to pick some paint off of the aluminum pie pan to coat the sides as well. What we found when we did this was that you need to stir your individual paint mixtures for a very long time until there are absolutely no lumps and it is watery. Then spray some of the silicone spray into the cup and stir it another long time. It probably took us 1/2 hour to stir everything correctly. We definitely didn’t stir the gold paint mixture long enough and that’s why our first pour looked so lumpy. It was a great learning experience and we did much better stirring our second batch, but didn’t put enough silicone into the mix, so didn’t really get any good cells. Our very last attempt was tremendous and had lots of cells. Erika added a lot more silicone in the last canvas and we stirred her paint mixtures a lot more than before.