I had really great intentions today to make the Frankenstein face card to match the vampire card.  Things started out well, but somewhere along the way, it started going downhill and then it was like a snowball.  It got bigger and bigger and bigger (in terms of ugly) and eventually, I just had to give up on it.  I’m not sure why it was so ugly, but it was.  I’m not sure about the mouth, but it looked demented and in the end, it was a trashed piece of junk.  It looked like there was something crazy going on, like it was a demented clown instead of Frankenstein.

I know that most crafting YouTubers are great at thinking on their feet.  Not so in my case.  I thought, “If I only did this” or “I should do this instead of that.”  In either case my card came out looking horrible and I’m just not that skilled at recreating a card once I have the idea in my head.  I try to stick to ideas that I know I can do fairly well, and I thought this card was in my skill set.  I’m going to need to rethink my skill set, that’s for sure.  I guess some days you just have to throw in the towel on a project  and not think about the mess you created.  That’s what I’m trying to do today.  Just let it go and not think about it.  It’s kind of like the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”  In my case, just do it has to do with using the trash can and never looking back.  I just did it.

I have been promising to make a Halloween wreath from scratch and today was finally the day that I accomplished it.  I wanted to make something for each of my great niece’s for their rooms.  One is going to college next year and the other is fifteen, so each wreath needs to be specific to the personality of the niece.  Maybe not their personalities so much as their needs.  Ashtin, who is going to college next year, is all about decorating her dorm room.  I thought this wreath would be a perfect addition to her room.  Erika is fifteen and when we were shopping together, she saw me get really excited about Halloween lights that are battery operated.  I thought they would be so much fun to include in some kind of Halloween project, although I’m not exactly sure what that will be yet.  She’s a swimmer and I have these really funny stamps of an old zombie couple in bathing suits that might be a perfect centerpiece to whatever I eventually make for her.  I’m not quite sure what to do with the zombies and the lights, but whatever I make, I hope she really likes it.

The wreath came out really cute and I think Ashtin will like it, although it will be really difficult to transport so I’m not exactly sure how to get it from here to Virginia and then from Virginia to her school (which she hasn’t chosen yet.)  I’m hoping I can figure out a way to get it to her that won’t destroy it.  Keep your fingers crossed, there’s a really good chance it’s going to get crushed.  Yikes, why do I make projects that are seemingly impossible to get from point A to point B?  I guess I’ll just go with the idea that it’s really cute right now.  That’s my plan and I’m sticking with it.  Maybe she can watch the video of the making of the wreath and think about how cute it was at that moment and not think about how bad it looks once she gets it.  I’m a horrible horrible crafter.

In order to leave a comment or like a video, you must be logged in to YouTube. If you are on the YouTube home page, (www.youtube.com), on the top right corner is a spot to sign in.  You can click that link and use whatever email account you have to sign in.  If you have a gmail account, the sign in will prefill with you gmail account.  You can use any traditional email account (I’m not sure if you can use your employer’s or college’s email.)  You will need to create a password and then enter.  Once you are logged in to YouTube, you can leave comments simply by clicking inside the comment box below a video and typing your comment.  Once you are finished with your comment, click the blue box that says “comment” and your comment should change colors.

To “like” a video, you need to be logged in to YouTube as well. Below the video, you’ll see a thumb up and that is the “like” button.  If you click on this, you are saying that you like the video.  The thumbs down is used if you don’t like the video.  I’ve never used this button because it’s my belief that if I don’t like a video, I just stop watching it.  I think it would make sense to use this if you find the video offensive or in poor taste.  It’s entirely up to you.

I hope you found this information helpful.

I’ve had a lot of people say they wish they could subscribe to my YouTube channel but don’t know how.  I thought I’d do a quick tutorial on just how to be a subscriber.

First, you need to log into YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com enter

The first page will give you the option to sign in that’s found in the top right corner of the page that says sign in.  You will click on the sign in box and if you have a gmail address, it may prefill it, but if not, put your email address where it asks for it and create a password.  You’ll be asked to put your password in twice and then click enter.  If you have a gmail address, you will use the password you use when signing into gmail.

Now that you have signed in to YouTube, you can subscribe to any channel by clicking the subscribe button that is sometimes in the bottom right corner of their videos or can always be found on the home page of the YouTuber you want to subscribe to.   At the top of their home page you’ll find the picture they use for their channel, below the picture is the name of their channel and to the right of their name, you should find the word subscribe.  Click the word subscribe and once you do, the word will change to subscribed with a checkmark beside it.  You might wonder why you should subscribe to a channel.  The best answer to that is it makes it easier to find YouTube channels that you like.  On your home page on the top left side will be the word YouTube and to the left of YouTube will be three horizontal bars.  If you click on those bars, there will be a list of several categories.  One of those written in red is “subscriptions.”  From here you can click on the individual name of the channel or the word subscriptions, and a large listing of your subscriptions will appear in the center of the page.

I hope this helped you in understanding the whys and how of subscribing to channels on YouTube.

Today is World Card Making Day.  Not just a national holiday, but worldwide.  It’s a big deal.  I didn’t know a lot about it  so I googled it.  Here’s the scoop.

History of World Card Making Day
Cards have played an important role in social circles for hundreds of years, playing a role as a thoughtful gift all the way to a necessary part of proper etiquette. Consider, if you will, the calling card of the Victorian era, a term that has become so ubiquitous that the signature element of a bomb-maker or a criminal is said to be their ‘calling card’. A small piece of paper bearing ones name and often a decoration of some kind, the calling card (Also known as a visiting card) was presented to the servants of a household that it might be delivered to the masters of the house to announce visitors.

It was this era of propriety that also developed the concept of a dance card, a card specifically carried by women to fill out with the names of the men they intended to dance with that evening. After all, with so many interested parties it just made sense to keep track of them so that you could, in earnest, indicate that your dance card was full and thus politely decline an interested suitor.

Calling Cards, Dance Cards, Business Cards, Greeting Cards, RSVP Cards, there are a million and more types of cards and could there be anything more exciting than learning to make your own? World Card Making Day encourages you to do just that.

How to celebrate World Card Making Day
The best way to celebrate World Card Making Day is, of course, to learn how to make your own cards! There are often card making classes to be had at craft stores nearby, and if you have friends who are into scrapbooking they’ll be more than happy to teach you how to go about making your own cards. The only limit to your cards is your imagination, so let your creativity fly and send your friends and family personalized cards on World Card Making Day!

 

Back to my blog.  I guess if you go through my blog, you’ll find a lot (over one hundred) cards to consider making, with the tutorials on how to do so.  I’ve got lots of idea on just about any kind of card you’d like to make.  So Happy World Card Making Day and I hope it inspires you to make your own cards.  It’s a lot of fun and really is a great stress reducer as well.

I have to say that I was pretty pleased with my vampire face.  I had to come up with punches that I had and a design that would work for me.  It started me thinking about other options and I really liked the idea of making a pumpkin face and a mummy, a bat, and of course, Frankenstein.  There are so many great things you can do with the characters that are current for this time of year, and I really love making them.

On another note, my sister’s birthday is November 2nd, and I promised her a box of greeting cards, all pretty much the same.  She really liked a card I made on video called “Primrose Petals” after the Stampin’ Up colors that are in the card.  It’s a relatively easy card to make and I think what I’ll do is make a bunch of sentiments in different colors and make a bunch of the cards in different colors and then send her the cards and the sentiments so if she runs out of a sentiment, I can easily send her more of them, rather than this year, when she ran out of the cards and wanted me to make more for her.  I have another girlfriend whose birthday is the same day as my sister’s, and I’d like to make her a set of cards as well.  I don’t think I’ll make all of hers the same (only in different colors), but I will include some of the primrose petals type cards in her set.  She said she mainly uses get well soon and with sympathy.  Isn’t that the sign of our ages, when we aren’t making baby cards or shower cards, but get well and sympathy.  It’s the sad side of getting older.  So my plan for tomorrow is to get serious about making another Halloween figure as well as using my Tableau of Terror stamp that I really love.  I think I’ll make a card with a tag on it using the stamp on the tag.  I hope it comes out great, as the stamp deserves a really great card!

I saw a card on the internet that someone was selling and I thought I could recreate it so this is my attempt.
Using Mellow Moss Stampin’ Up paper and the same color ink, I started with Mellow Moss paper that I trimmed to 3 5/8″ wide and 11″ high scored at 5 1/2″.  Round the bottom corners.  I stamped a sentiment inside with from PTI Been Boo’d stamp set in Onyx Black ink.
You will need to make eyes next:
1″ black circles you’ll need two
1 1/4″ white circles you’ll need two
glue them together with the white meeting the bottom edge of the black circle.  I used a glue stick from Stampin’ Up and I like using a glue stick for this project.
Next punch little white circles out with a hand punch like you’d use when you need to make a hole for ribbon or a typical hole punch that we used in school.  Attach the two little white circles to your eyes and I made them look like they were cross eyed.
Next we are making the eye brows out of mellow moss paper and use 1 1/4″ circle and make two of them.  Cut about 1/4 of them off and distress around the circle part and not the side where you cut off using Mellow Moss ink.  You’re doing this so the ink and paper are very similar.  Put these aside.  Punch one more 1 1/4″ circle and cut it in half and really distress this circle.  It would be easier if I had distressed it before I cut it in half, but didn’t.   Distress this a lot all over.
To make the nose, I made a big oval and punched half of a 5/8″ circle punch side by side in the middle of the bottom of the oval for the nose holes then trimmed it down until I liked the size of it.  It ended up being 2″ wide and 1″ high.  I used the mellow moss ink to distress around the edges of the nose.
The black hair template is 3 5/8″ wide at the bottom and curves out and is about 2 1/2″ tall.  Make your  template starting with white paper that is 4″ wide and 2 1/2″ tall and folded it in half and I drew a curve that looks like a right parenthesis ) on the 4″ side (that is now folded in half)   I made a mark at the bottom so I would know where 3/16″ is (which would be 3/8″ when you double it and having it folded in half, you are cutting off double).  Sorry if that didn’t make sense but it should work out if you make one mark 3/16″ from the right side (your fold is on the left side) and start your curve that looks like this ).  The curve is slight as you can see from my hair.  This is your template and cut it until you are happy with it and then trace it on another piece of black paper and cut it out.
Next you’re making your ears.  I used an oval punch that was 3/4 x15/16″ and took mellow moss paper and slid it into the punch about 3/4 of the way into the punch and then punched it out. I distressed the edges of those as well.  Unfortunately the video cut out for this part, but I put glue on the cut side of the ears and put glue on that part (not the curved part) and glued the front and attached it to the back of the card front about halfway down the eyes on the same level on left and right.

Now we will glue down the hair almost 7/8th of it on the (Make sure you are gluing it to the folded part of the card.)  Next glue down the eyebrows which should have the cut part horizontal and about 1/2″ into the hair.  Next glue the eyes onto the eyebrows about 1/4th from the top of the eyebrow.  Then glue your eye lids to your eyes.  Glue them so they cover the whites of the eyes.  I added blush to the sides of the face with the Mellow Moss.  I glued the nose down below the eyes and then took embroidery floss and rolled about a 5″ long piece in glue stick and then laid it on the card with two hills and one valley.  I used a black Sharpie to make the lines at the corners of his mouth.  I glued the ears on the sides near the bottom of his eyes and put glue on the front of the cut part of the ear and stuck them to the back of the paper face.
I hope you like this card and if you do, please let me know as I will make more for Halloween.
I also decided to give you all of my contact information for every form of social media.  You can always get to them by clicking on the links on my home page on the right bottom corner of the photograph.

Email:  saundralparker@yahoo.com
Blog:  craftingforalmosteveryone.com
Instagram: crafting for almost everyone
Pinterest: saundralparker
Google+: crafting for almost everyone
Facebook: crafting for almost everyone

I’d like to talk for a minute about social media and my total lack of understanding of most aspects of it.  First let met give you some background on myself.  I left my job eleven years ago after almost twenty-five years in banking.  I was a vice president in charge of seven branches.  The reason I’m telling you my position is so you’ll understand why I needed the following technology.  At the time, this was state-of- the-art.  The bank had a central voice mail for management that we needed to check as often as possible for updates and information from senior management and our direct managers.  We also had a voice mail connected to the telephone in the branch that was our hub (I made that term up, it was the branch we considered our home branch if that makes any more sense than hub.)  We were given pagers so if we were out of the office or at a meeting and someone needed us, they could page us.  We also carried cell phones because what good was the pager if you didn’t have access to a telephone. My email at work generated 75-100 emails a day.  Of course I had my own private email at home as well as a home phone with an answering machine.  So if you are keeping track, that is a pager, cellphone, two email addresses and three voice mails.  The minute I left the bank, I stopped using technology to the point that I had no email and had my friends email Rich and I would use his email until last year when I started the YouTube channel.  I bought a pay-as-you-go phone and almost never use it as I don’t give the telephone number to anyone and only use it when I need to make calls when I’m out and about on my own.  I have no idea how to text and try it from time to time, but think it takes me too long and would rather talk to people than text them.   I’ve never had a Facebook account until I started the one for Crafting for Almost Everyone.  I’ve never used Pinterest or Instagram until I’ve used them related to the YouTube channel.  I don’t really fully understand most of the technology I’ve just mentioned because I don’t fully use them for anything other than uploading images for the channel.

I think I wanted to explain all of this because in the age of social media, I’m a dinosaur.  I’m not exactly sure how to grow my YouTube channel in an age when everyone else is so far beyond me in the social media curve and I don’t have the ambition to expand my knowledge to the extent that I should.  I love YouTube because of the ability to learn and find new ideas and thoughts to ponder.  There used to be a series of books called “Microsoft for Dummies” or “Ebay for Dummies” where the subject was explained in laymen’s terms and maybe I need to find a book called “Social Media for Dummies” but then again, do they even make books or should I look for it on Kindle?  I need to look into it.  Oh, and tweeting was something birds did.  I am a dinosaur.

 

I needed a fall card for a friend and it’s hard to find cards that are masculine so I found this stamp from Inkadinkado that doesn’t have a name but is #0604 93161.  I also used a stamp from Stampin’ Up called Fantastic Foliage.  I used craft card stock that is 5 1/2 x 4 1/4″ or 8 1/2″ tall scored in half at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ .  I took a leaf from the Fantastic Foliage set and stamped them all around the edges of my craft card stock with Mellow Moss Ink from Stampin’ Up.   I cut out the image of the truck on a piece of paper with some tape runner on it, that I rubbed with my fingers so it wasn’t so sticky,  or you could use a post-it-note.  I stamped my truck image on  a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper that was 5 1/4 x 4″ with Archival Gray Ink from Stampin’ Up.  I put my mask over the truck and used a Stampin’ Up background stamp called Canvas with Mellow Moss ink,  laid the stamp on my table with the stamp side up .  I put the stamped truck paper over the canvas stamp and rubbed it really well, holding it with one hand while rubbing with the other. My edges weren’t stamped perfectly, so I trimmed the watercolor paper down to 3 3/4  x 5 “. I ran the watercolor paper edges along the Mellow Moss ink pad to distress the edges.  I colored my truck image with water based markers from Stampin’ Up.  My blender pen was a Dove blender pen and comes in a set with extra nibs and a bottle of blender fluid and I’ve found them on Amazon for under $10 for the set.  I used a ceramic tile to use as a palette for my inks.  You can use a piece of acetate (plastic) or a glass plate or a piece of plastic from a take out container, anything that won’t absorb your ink.  I used Glossy Accents on parts of my image to make them shiny.  I put fun foam under the image and attached it to the craft card stock.  I used some burlap looking ribbon and put on the side of the truck and tied a fake bow on the ribbon. I used orange washi tape to run around the envelope.  After I was off camera, I added more color to the truck so it was a little brighter.  Since it’s a card for a man, I decided not to “bling it up” too much.  I hope you enjoy this card tutorial.

I didn’t get a lot of crafty goodness done today as I think the weather is changing from 70 degrees (which it is today), to tomorrow, when it will be in the 50’s-60’s.  So although the weather is lovely, my weather prediction is for drizzle.  The one thing that is horrible for someone with arthritis, is drizzle.  The weird part of this disease is that when I am at my worst, all I want to do is sleep.  I guess that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t help me accomplish anything around the house, or making videos.  I love making videos and especially like to make sure I have enough finished that Rich isn’t looking for videos to edit, and I’m always at least a couple ahead of him.  I guess I worry that if I can’t make any videos for a week or so, that you won’t have to wait for new content, as I’ve got them made and Rich just needs to put them up.  I think it’s like a squirrel that’s hoarding nuts for winter. If he doesn’t have any new nuts, he can find the other ones he’s buried.  Genius squirrel!  Or maybe I’m a pack rat.  Aren’t they hoarders too?  I’m hoarding videos for a rainy (or drizzly) day.  Long story short, I didn’t feel like doing anything but sleep, so that’s what I did.