I bought so many fun and crafty things at garage sales that I thought I would share with you. If you have any different ideas for the things I bought, please comment on them. I hope you get some great ideas from them.

I made my garage sale haul video and I have to say, I was kind of surprised at how many things I have accumulated this garage sale season.  It’s always funny when I look at a box of things I’ve bought and have completely forgotten about many of the items within.  The area I live in has a lot of garage sales, but a great many of them are not crafty.  Ok, I’ve actually found stamps at two garage sales this year.  If they ever list “crafts” as an item, it is normally yarn or fabric, patterns or sewing notions.  I haven’t seen one page of scrapbook paper this year.  So when I accumulate as much as I have, it’s with a lot of intensive searching.

My friend and I went into a women’s boutique today and I found the most interesting clutches there.  They had embellished the clutch with all kinds of beads and trinkets.  I started thinking about how easy it would be to recreate one and think I will go back and really look at them again so that I could possibly make one.  It’s definitely on my to do list.

Times passes fast when it’s in the summer.  Have you ever noticed that the month of June goes by in the blink of an eye, but the month of January seemingly lasts forever?  Such is the nature of the way I am viewing life.  I really love spring and summer, and this might sound odd, but I really like a rainy day.  Too much of any one type of weather is  to monotonous for me, so I like a little diversity.  I like a day that allows me to do projects I’ve been postponing because there’s not much else to do when it rains all day.  I also like what I call a “hot chocolate” day, one where it’s cold and drizzling rain or snow and a nice hot drink just makes me feel happy.  The big monotony that I really struggle with, is the very long winters that we have.  Our winters start snowing in November, and this is no lie, it snowed in May this year.  We would really like to spend our winters in the south but with dogs who are terrified of the car, it makes it tough to do long road trips.  I’d like to find a solution that would get us to say Myrtle Beach in a rented Winnebago and then have a rental car for the months that we are there.  I can’t figure out the logistics of this, but I know that riding in a car with big dogs is really not fun.  Riding in a car for six or eight hours with a dog that’s been medicated for anxiety, is less than fun.  It’s a quandary that I need to solve in the next couple of years to save my sanity.  Winters that last seven months are too much for me.  I envy people who love the snow and wish I was one of them.  My parents hated winter as they got older and when I was a kid, I couldn’t understand why.  I definitely understand now.

On a lighter and more exciting note, I made a couple of videos and one should go live tomorrow.  I did the garage sale haul and it’s kind of funny how much craftiness I accumulated in the last month or so.  The other is the 8th in the series of scrap and punch cards.  It’s a cute one.

I’d like to do a small rant about customer service.  I think you know how crazy frustrated I get with YouTube and the fact that sometimes a video that I upload does not show up in the list of videos for almost two days.  Other times, they appear immediately.  I can’t find anyone who can tell me why, or how to fix this, and it’s really been an issue for me.  Imagine my surprise when I got a note from YouTube saying they wanted me to participate in a survey about how they could improve their processes?  I was thrilled.  I immediately stopped everything so I could participate in the survey and give them my two cents. Wait, we better find out where that phrase originated from before we go on.

From Quora:  There’s an episode in the Bible in which Jesus praises a poor woman for giving her only two pennies to the Church, amidst a crowd of people giving much larger amounts. Her two cents was more meaningful, valuable to her and therefore to Jesus, than the fortunes which were only small portions of larger fortunes being given by others.

Thus, “my two cents” is the relative value of one’s own opinion in a conversation- it means literally everything to the one giving it, but its value to others may be dubious.

Great information, now back to the story.

 The first question asked to describe what type of YouTuber I am.  For example, a comedian, a gamer, a vlogger, etc.  I chose the closest I could find to arts/crafts and clicked the “next” button to get to the next question.  It immediately came back with something like “thanks so much for participating in our survey, we have enough feedback from this category of YouTubers.”  Geez, that was helpful.  I think maybe YouTube just gave me their two cents worth.

The second part of my rant pertains to the opening segment of my videos.  I am sure if you watch any of them, you are also frustrating by the fact that you rarely hear me say “Hi, it’s Sandy Parker, and welcome to Crafting for Almost Everyone.”  Sometimes you’ll hear a portion of it, sometimes nothing,  and rarely, you’ll hear all of it  Rich bought this “great state-of-the-art” software program specifically for creating videos.  You’d think that it would be able to capture both the opening video and audio instead of just capturing the video.  Rich has tried everything to correct the problem, including buying a new desktop computer.  He’s watched videos on how to use it and read the information they provided.  As a last resort, he called their technical support.  They asked him a bunch of questions and they had no idea how to correct the problem.  They told him it must be his computer.  And that was their two cents, priceless!

I found more fun and crafty things today at garage sales.  I’m going to go again tomorrow and then I think I’ll do a haul video of all of the things I’ve purchased.  It’s fun when I find things that look interesting and could be used for something else.  I’m thinking the best part about a haul video is getting ideas from other people.  I have a subscriber, Melody, whose husband brings home unusual things from work.  She emailed me and then sent me a box full of these things.  Some of them I can think of uses for, and other, I’m not so sure.  I thought I’d show those in the haul video as well, so both Melody and I can get ideas of what to use these things for.  I also have a small piece of clear plastic that I get with some medications I use.  Another subscriber, Elizabeth, gets the same pieces of plastic and we’ve discussed uses for them.  It’s funny how I have these things (or other people do) and you don’t want to throw them out, but can’t find uses for them.  This will be a great chance to come up with a plan.

Another great video idea was given to me today.  The friend who has the Newfoundland puppy was over visiting and we gave her a bag of the dog treats I make for our dogs.  I make them because one of our dogs used to get ill from the ones you buy in a store.  I was telling her that I’ve never had a dog (no matter how picky they are), turn one of these biscuits down. She just retired so I invited her over to make a batch of them with me.  She said, you should do a video on how you make them.  What a great idea.  Genius!  I really like to share this recipe because dog biscuits are expensive and with my recipe, you can use inexpensive products to create a biscuit that people can eat, so you know it’s good for your dog–at least it’s better than what you buy in a store when you have no idea what’s in those.   We just made a big batch, so we’re probably good for a couple of weeks before we’ll need to make more.  I can’t wait to do this video.

I talked to a friend of mine last night and she’s getting married.  She’s sixty and I think it’s a wonderful thing when you find love at sixty.  She says her wedding is going to be on the family’s farm on a hilltop with just immediate family.  They are using bales of hay for seating.  Her theme is going to be denim and lace.  Such a cute idea for a man who is a farmer and spends his life in denim.  He did say he’s not wearing jeans to get married in though, which is quite a concession for him.  So today I made a congratulations card for them.  Of course it’s denim and lace, but I also incorporated my scrap and punch cards into it as well.  I really liked the end result and hope you will to.  It’s denim and lace and scraps and heart punches.  The best of everything!

After making the onesie card, I started thinking about how to make a card that is a bridal gown.  Not just any gown, think Cinderella.  I bought 8 inches wide of material in two types, one that you can’t see through but is kind of silky, but not silk (way too hard to work with), and a see through material with  rhinestones already on it. I bought them in the bridal section of Joanns.   I did embellish the waist with three small rhinestones on the belt I made.
I started by drawing a template on 5 1/2″ square white pre-made card and cut it out.  I kept that template to use in the future.  I used Beacon Fabri-Tac as my glue.,and glued the first material to the dress form and trimmed it out then did the same with the sheer material.  I did lay the dress template onto the fabric and traced it with a pencil, but I don’t recommend that as I couldn’t get the pencil mark off of the fabric.  I’m sure they probably make a pencil for fabric, but I don’t know how to use it so just put glue on the back of the material and glued it to the card and that worked well.  The paint brush didn’t work well with the Fabri Tac as it’s too sticky.  With the second layer of fabric, I just used the Fabri-Tac and squirted it around and rubbed it around with my finger.  The rhinestone material had swirls of gilittery embellishments so I made sure when I laid it on the dress form that I put it where the embellished areas were where I wanted them.  I covered the back of the card with both materials as well.  I took a scrap that was as long as the skirt and glued the center into the waist of the dress and then moved about halfway to the edge and pulled the fabric into a pleat shape and pushed it into the glue until it held.  I did it on the other side and then did the same at both edges.  I glued the edges to the skirt on both sides making sure it was billowy like Cinderella’s dress.  I took a thin 1/8 thick satin ribbon and laid it on a piece of paper and put glue on  it then layered the sheer material on it and wrapped it around the ribbon so it was more three-dimensional.  I glued it to the dress and added three rhinestones to it.  I bought the sentiment at the stamp show I went to and used Blushing Bride from Stampin’ Up ink to stamp it and used a rock-a block to stamp the image with.

Rich should be uploading the card I made for our niece’s bridal shower tonight.  I was really proud of it.The idea came to me after I made the onesie card.  I thought, heck, I could make a template of a dress and then put material on it and decorate it like Cinderella’s ball gown.  I used a square 5 1/2″ card and cut the template out of it and then glued one fabric to it, and then a glittery fabric, and then put more glittery fabric inside the skirt so it’s really puffy.  I think it looks like Cinderella’s gown, and I have to say, I have never seen anything like it.  Originally, her colors (I thought for the wedding) were supposed to be foam green and coral. I bought those colors of material  and was going to make a silhouette of a bride gown and have one bridesmaid dress on one side in one color and another on the other side in the other color.  Luckily, she decided against those colors so I didn’t have to figure out how to make that work and went with the bride’s gown alone.  I found a really lovely sentiment at the stamp show we went to, and I was really happy with the results.  I can’t wait for you to see it, I think it’s the best card I’ve ever done.  It definitely took a long time because I finished it and then spilled a glass of iced tea on it and had to start over.  I almost cried, but held it together and actually, the second dress came out nicer than the first.  I guess it was fate that I’m clumsy.  I hope you’ll let me know what you think of the card.

I saw Patty Bennett make this note card folder on her YouTube channel and thought it was really cute.  It’s really easy to make and requires only a 12 x 12″ piece of double sided paper as well as a score board.  I also used washi tape on the edges of mine because my paper cracked and I didn’t want it to look bad.  The paper is from Stampin’ Up as was the washi tape. Both are now retired.

On the score board, score at 2″ at 10″ as well as 5 3/4″ and 6 1/4″ then turn it one turn and score at 2 1/2″ and 8 1/4″.  Make sure you turn it back to the original position where you scored four places.  You will need to fold diagonally on each corner to the vertical score line but don’t try to fold up to the score line that is horizontal.  You’ll do this fold on all four corners.  Once the corners are folded, fold in both sides and flip the paper over and fold the top and bottom in toward the center.  They should overlap and you will tuck your centers under the paper below it.  Fold your center score lines so it now looks like a book.  This will fit four 3 1/2″ x 5″ note cards and their envelopes.  You can also put more on the outside if you choose, or you could put some sentiments in the outside slots so the receiver can create whatever card they need.

I can’t remember the YouTube person was that made this folder and I apologize for that.  It was one of the first videos I ever saw and just remembered how to make it.  It’s really a simple folder to make.  You take double sided 12 x 12″ paper and fold it in half then turn it one turn and fold it again in the center to create a plus sign in the middle of your paper.  Take the bottom right corner and fold it toward the center fold and middle center fold about 1″ from both.  Do the same with the left side.  Then take the center of the bottom and fold it up to the middle and crease.  Fold the left side to the right side and your folder is complete.  I like to close mine with a ribbon.  Take 18″ of ribbon and put a glue dot under the center of the ribbon and lay the ribbon on the outside of the folder with the glue dot as close to the fold as possible (on the back side of your folder.)  Tie the ribbon in a bow .  I like to use a thicker taffeta ribbon as it’s easy to tie and also easy to work with.

To make the stationary, I took copy paper and cut it in half on the 11″ length.  I then stamped the dog I’ve been using on my projects onto the top left side of the paper (or the center top of the paper, it’s up to you.)  Fold the stationary in half and make matching envelopes by using washi tape that coordinates with your stationary.  I used twelve pieces of stationary plus ten extra pieces with no stamp on them and twelve envelopes.  They fit easily into this folder.  The paper I used was from Stampin’ Up and the washi tape I found at the Dollar Tree.  I used Versafine Onyx Black ink on the dog stamp.