Did you ever have one of those crafty times where everything seems to go wrong?  I was working on a very small Styrofoam wreath form and trying to turn it into an ornament of a wreath (oddly enough!)   It should have been a simple project. I covered the wreath with ribbon and then I put ornaments on it and surrounded the wreath with a really beautiful ornate red ribbon.  I was using a new glue gun that people had recommended to me from Aleene’s.  It has a palm feed and it was supposed to make my life so much simpler.  Instead, I couldn’t pull the trigger with my “palm” or one hand, I had to hold it in one and pull the trigger with the other.  My cheap little glue gun never gave me any problems and this is a $30 glue gun.  I was so frustrated that I’m pretty sure I’ll be scrapping the video because I sound exactly like I felt, and by the end, almost chucked the glue gun into my trash can.

I’m normally pretty mellow when it comes to a crafting fail, but this one was epic.  I swear it looks like a five year old made this ornament.  The Styrofoam has some kind of treatment on the outside of it so it’s almost impossible to push pins into.  That should have been my first indicator that this was going badly.  I thought that by putting some charms and pearl topped needles into the Styrofoam, that it would take on the look of an actual wreath.  Instead, it just went downhill from there.  I added some green baubles from an ugly pin.  I used the finest tip on the glue gun, and it put out huge dollops of glue instead of a thin stream.  I was hoping to hide the glue, but instead, had to pull it off and retry and then retry then retry.  In the end, I glued the green baubles onto that wreath at least three times each and none of them look good (in my opinion.)  Rich tried to make me feel better by saying it looked good, but sometimes I think he says things just to calm me down.  By that point I was looking at the trash can and contemplating both the project and the glue gun and their worth to me.

Can you return a glue gun once you’ve used it?  I’m so disgusted that I bought it and now I have no idea what to do with it.  Stupid glue gun!  I promised I would do a video product recommendation on the glue gun.  I’m not sure what else I can say other than, it was hard to use and I hated it.  I’ll still do the product video as I don’t want others to have the same issues I faced.  I’m pretty sure you’ll never see the wreath video, but if you do, rest assured, it won’t look like it does right now and I’ll be pulling out my trusty $3 glue gun.  It’s not pretty, but it works like a charm!

I began making this project last year and thought I could make a wreath out of this idea.  Unfortunately, it never occurred to me how long it would take and how many of the punched flowers I would need.  The wreath is still sitting where I left it, with about ten flowers in it and no hope for completion.
You’ll need about 100 straight pins with a decorated head.  I chose a box with red pearl tips.  I used a 3″ Styrofoam ball and almost 100 punched flowers out of cardstock.  I used two plain straight pins to adhere a 6″ piece of ribbon the I tied a loop into and then pinned into the ball as the hanger for the ornament.  I started on the line that marks the equator of the ball and began by using a foam mat and pushing the pin into the flower and then pushing the pin into the ball.  I didn’t push the flower all the way onto the pin until it was in the ball and that was a big time saver.  I put the flowers close enough together that the petals overlapped each other a little bit.
It’s easier to work around the ball, but I chose to do small portions at a time and ran into some problems with having to move existing flowers.  If you work around the ball in rows, you shouldn’t have any problems.  If you do, just move a couple flowers until they cover the ball.

I’m starting to get confused about what I’ve said on the blog and things I’ve been thinking about talking about.  I’m sorry if some of the things I say are repetitive.  It’s not my intention to repeat myself, but I think my brain gets in a loop and can’t move on sometimes.  Does that ever happen to you?

My friend Elishia has started a YouTube channel called WanderingDreamer555.  I’m not sure of the significance of her YouTube name, but she’s made a few videos and is doing a great job for just trying her hand at it.  She did a craft room tour and I seriously wanted to cry at the amount of organization she’s done.  I can’t tell you how often I can’t locate something and that’s when my room is clean.  It was an amazing tour and you should definitely check it out.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas for some inexpensive gifts for the holidays.  I’ve said repeatedly that I’m trying to find ways for people to save this Christmas, so these crafty ideas are in keeping with my master plan.  I’ve been watching videos that other people have put online using a nice frame and then putting designer Christmas paper in the frame and then decorating that.  I’ve got some great ideas to correspond with this and can’t wait to try them out.  I need one small trip to the Dollar Tree and I’ll be ready to put that video up.

I’m also making a wreath using a wreath frame and clothespins that should cost the maker less than $6 to make.  It’s cute and will looks great as is, or using it as a Christmas card holder.  I’m pretty sure that I’ve gone into detail about this in an earlier blog.  (I think my mind just went into that loop I was talking about.)

 

I’ve been doing absolutely no crafting the last couple of days as it’s been a serious whirlwind of shopping for the family that Rich and I adopt for Christmas.  I try to make sure that most of our shopping is done before the end of Cyber Monday as I like to do a lot of my shopping online.  I’m not big on crowds and hate the lines that this time of year brings to stores.  I’ve been thinking of a lot of different crafts I’m going to pursue, but just haven’t been able to get into the craft room to accomplish anything.  I’m going to make collars for the dogs for Christmas and think my idea would work for sliding onto headbands for little girls as well.  I think I’m going to take a long piece of felt and wrap it around a dog collar and then hot glue it so it is basically a circle.  After I’ve done that, I’m going to make felt flowers and leaves for the collar.  I think it will be really cute and as I said, would work on a hair band as well.  I might try to make flowers and attach them to small barrettes.  Anyway, that’s one of my ideas.

I’ve got to get serious about making some videos as I feel like Rich might eventually catch up with me.  He’s putting up a video tomorrow and it’s a short one.  I have several small videos that need to go live, so he’s probably going to have a chance to bridge the gap.  Darn it, I better get into the craft room.

I hope everyone had a really great Thanksgiving.  Rich and I met some very good friends for a late lunch and had a lovely day.  Of course I hurried home to do some online shopping.  I never knew that the stamp sites would have so many Black Friday specials!  I’m definitely going to have to do a haul after the shopping I’ve been doing.  I started by watching Jennifer McGuire’s crafting things video on stamps and then went to her video on inks and finished with her video on tools.  I have to say, she makes me want to many things, it’s really ridiculous.  I definitely shouldn’t have watched those videos!

My first stop after watching, was to go to Simon Says Stamp, where I bought several of the stamp sets she mentioned.  Then I went to My Favorite Things and bought some stamps and finished my day with Joanns.  I’m trying not to freak out by the sheer volume of things I purchased, but that’s just not my style.  I’m going to lose my mind when the stamp sets start rolling in.  Did I need them?  No, but I REALLY wanted them and one of my friends convinced me that I also need to have them.  She said I should consider them a late birthday gift to myself.   I can easily talk myself into this kind of logic, can’t most of us?  Now I need to go find more cd cases as I’ve used all of the ones I have and still have more sets that need to be placed in cases.  I guess I’ll worry about that another day.

Of course I also went shopping at my local Joanns where I found some Fiskars punches I wanted and more Halloween things on huge clearance.  I promise that’s all the shopping I’m doing for at least a couple of days.

I jumped back into crafting today.  Rich hasn’t given me the go ahead to start making videos, but I can’t sit around any longer without accumulating more videos for Rich to fret about.  Our great niece’s birthday is today and I wanted to finish the video I made for her card as well as a card I made for a good friend of ours.  I decided to make both cards similar in look, but with different folds.  I think both came out very unique and I’m pretty sure both girls will like them.

I’m trying really hard not to go to Joann’s for their big black Friday sale as it started today.  I made it until 4PM and then cracked and decided I needed to check it out.  Luckily, when I got to the garage, I could hear the rain falling on the driveway and knew it was ice.  With that in mind, I decided Joanns needed to wait, darn it.

Friday is another day, although I’m not a black Friday shopper, preferring to shop from home rather than fight the crowds.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for all of the people who read my blog and subscribe or view my channel.  It means so much to me to know that there are people who appreciate the content I provide.  I hope all of you have a very happy Thanksgiving and will post another video on Friday.

I wanted to make some videos for kids to do while they are off on Thanksgiving break and this is an easy one.

You’ll need one or more pinecones, a jar of cheap smooth peanut butter and bird seed.  I found my bird seed in the bulk section of my grocery store and only bought a pound of it.  I made two pinecones and the project used the entire jar of peanut butter and most of the bird seed.

On one pinecone I used floral wire and wrapped it inside the pinecone and twisted the wire so no edges were exposed.  On the other, I used a jute or twine and tied it in a knot.  I used a spatula to fill the peanut butter into the pinecone then put handfuls of bird seed on it and pressed them into it.  Rich thinks it would work better to microwave the peanut butter and pour it onto the pinecone, but I was afraid it wouldn’t stick.  You can try it if you think it will work for you.

Our birds are loving these and sit on it almost all day long.

Today is my birthday and I had a terrific day.  Friends invited Rich and I out to lunch and then my close friend came by with a cake for me for dinner.  It was one of the best birthday’s I’ve ever had.

I’m taking a break from making any videos today and tomorrow so that Rich can catch his breath.  He’s so far behind and I’m feeling a little guilty because I haven’t even opened the boxes I keep my Christmas stash of craftiness inside.  Just think of all the ideas that will come to me for Christmas once that happens.  I don’t even want to think about it.  I’ll definitely be putting Rich into a state of shock if I add another five to ten videos to his ever-growing stack.

I am going to make another peg stamp video as well as buy a bunch more on the 29th when they are selling everything in the store for 25% off.  You know I can’t resist a sale like that!  I already have a list ready for Friday of probably twenty more stamps that I really need to narrow down to the ones I truly have to have.  But then again, what’s the point?  I should get the stamps I love and be done with it.  I mean after all,, who can resist a sale so great?

 

 

I wanted to help with ideas on how to save money and here are my ideas.

Blackfriday.com is a website that allows you to view the black Friday ads weeks before they are available in paper.  It also gives you the start date for the sales and some of the stores have already started their sales, including Kohls and Amazon.  Blackfriday.com  is a terrific tool to help you locate the things you want to buy at your pace, not frantically searching the night before the sales start.

Retailmenot.com  is a website that shows you the coupon codes available for online stores.

Ebates is your first stop to shopping online.  It pays you to shop at stores online and now some actual retail stores.  If you go there first then input the store name where you are shopping online, and click on that site, you will automatically receive monies back for your purchases.

Splitcoaststampers.com is a website that has a lot of great tutorials, ideas, galleries, and you can find great deals on crafting products.  Once you find the buy/sell listings, I’d save it as a favorite on your computer so it’s easy to get to.

Credit cards can save you money in a couple of ways:
1.  If you pay interest and your rate it high, you can contact the credit card company and ask for a better product at a lower rate.  In order to get a lower rate, you must pay on time every month.

2.  If you pay your credit cards off monthly, use a cash back credit card and research them by googling “best cash back credit cards” and find the one that works best for you.

3.  If you don’t use credit and have a debit card that is connected to your checking account, your bank may have a rewards program linked to it.  If you aren’t sure, call your bank and inquire about it.

Walmart Savings Catcher–price matches local ads just by putting your receipt information into it on the walmart.com site.  They will pay you an e gift card for any prices that are lower elsewhere in your area.

Loyalty Cards-make sure you have them for the stores you frequent so they can tailor offers to your buying habits as well as sending you offers via the mail and email.

I hope my ideas are of some help to you and that you find ways to save money from them.  Please let me know if you have any other ideas that I forgot to cover or didn’t know about.

I shouldn’t have watched Jennifer McGuire’s favorite things for 2016.  Specifically stamps.  Why oh why does she have to put that video up just when I made myself stop buying any crafty things.  Ok, not many crafty things, minimal crafty things.  Geez, I’m a crafty shop-a-holic and can’t help myself.

Every once in a while, I find myself thinking that I have every crafty thing I could possibly want and then something happens and I snap and buy anything and everything in sight.  Maybe not everything, but close.  That’s what happened when I saw her video.  I saw so many stamps I didn’t have and wanted and lost my mind.

The other problem I have is when I have a crafty friend who sends me emails about things they’ve bought and I stupidly go to the site they found their treasure on and can’t control myself.  I am an addict.  There’s nothing to stop me.  I would love to blame my shopping on someone else, but it’s all me.

Something great did happen to me.  I got my first handmade birthday card from my first cousin’s daughter.  (My birthday is tomorrow.)  Does that make her my first cousin once removed?  I never know how that works out.  Anyway, she’s been watching my videos and decided to attempt her first card and send it to me.  It was terrific and I am thrilled to connect with a family member, especially over crafting.  I have a very small family and I’m not sure if any of them do anything crafty except Shelli.  I’ll have to show her card on one of my videos.  It was so creative.  She said I made it look a lot easier than it really is.  Frankly, I say that about every other crafter, and never think anything is as easy as they make things look.  Shelli and I are planning to spend an afternoon together before the holidays and I’m hoping it will include some crafting shopping.  It would be so much fun to shop with a new crafty friend!  I can’t wait.