YouTube has a mind of its own. Every once in a while, I will upload a video and it doesn’t appear in the listing of videos.  It will, if you click on the word “video”, but it doesn’t appear under the name of my channel.  I’m not sure why, but eventually, maybe a day or so, it does.

I realize that YouTube is an online vehicle, but I never imagined that it would also be also impossible to find support.  If you have a question, you put the information in the search box for YouTube and hope that someone else has thought to make a video about it.  If they haven’t, you are out of luck.  You probably think that this is an exaggeration.  Here’s exactly what YouTube offers in the way of support.

Help Center

I decided to do a new card series using scrap paper and paper punches.  In the first video, I used two different size hexagon punches  (from Fiskars 2″ is $17.99 at Joanns and 1 1/2″ is $14.99 full price)–use a coupon though.
I used  black paper scraps and a black and white designer series paper from Stampin’ Up as well as 5 1/2 x 5 1/2″ pre-made cards that I bought at Michaels.  I also had purchased black and white washi tape at the Dollar Tree that I added inside the card..  The stamp set I used was from Inky Antics and it was called “Simple Sentiments” .  Here’s the link to it.  http://www.inkyantics.com/cgi-bin/stamps.cgi
I used a Distress Ink blank that I put Versafine Onyx Black re inker in.  Thanks Jennifer S. for the idea, it’s great!  Distress Ink blanks are $4.49 full price at Joanns, use a coupon.

I have two videos finished and I’m happy to be ahead of Rich.  Normally, I have one done and he’s working on it and I start to feel the pressure of getting another video completed.  I’m feeling pretty good about the projects I’m working on and the de-stashing that I am starting to get done.  It’s not easy to get rid of things like it is to accumulate them.  I have so much crafting “stuff” and need to start getting a handle on it.  I’d really like to get to the point where I can find my work space without having to push things around to get to it.

I bought a tower for my Stampin’ Up inks and would really like to put them in it, but where to put it once I fill it, that’s the dilemma.  If I could do that, I think I’d be really happy.  I bought a lazy susan type craft storage device thinking I would really love it.  It holds a lot of things, but it takes up so much space and it’s almost impossible to spin because it’s so wide.  I think I should have considered the width of my desk before buying it.  Honestly, so much of my storage is narrow, and that’s part of my problem.  I have a lot of paper scraps that need to go as well.  Ones I don’t like the look of.  I’m thinking I would feel a lot better if I just donated a big pile of things to the library for kids to use.  Once I get rid of those things, I can start to make inroads into my messy craft room.  Some of the best storage purchases I’ve made have been vintage suitcases.  They hold a TON of stuff and I have all of my Christmas stamps etc. in one and all of my cardboard in another.  The third is currently housing miscellaneous things that I could probably store elsewhere.  I love them though, because they look cute and they stack on top of each other standing up so they don’t take up a lot of space.  I may be buying more of them in the future because you can normally buy them for $1 at garage sales because nobody buys them.  They don’t know what they are missing.

I’m meeting my college friends for breakfast on Saturday and begs a non-shopper to buy a storage rolling tray from Ikea that I’ve been wanting for a long time.  I’ve seen it in other craft rooms and think it will help me with my storage problems. Here’s a link to it if you have and Ikea near you.  http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30216536/

The great de-stashing continues…

I made this photo album that was supposed to be 6 x6 for a friend whose birthday came a month after getting her new bullmastiff, Samson.  I wanted to make something special for her, so I had Rich photograph him, and this is the result.

The book came from 7 Gypsies and was 6 x 6″ and had the two cardboard covers, twenty pages and three rings to hold it.  I had it in my stash and couldn’t remember where I had purchased it.  I looked online and found something similar at Etsy, only smaller than mine.  Here’s the link.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/165207704/7-gypsies-425-x-412-ringed-board-book-10?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=7 gypsies album&ref=sr_gallery_16

I apologize I couldn’t find it in a retailer or the same size as mine.

I used Tim Holtz Idea-logy Photo Corners Antique Metallic that sell full price at Joanns for $7.99 for three sets.  (use a coupon)

I used Tim Holtz Idea-logy Swivel Clasps Antiqu Metallic $3.99 full price at Joann’s for 12 of them.  (use coupon)

I had some chipboard hearts and a big “S” from Stampin’ Up that I colored with Tim Holtz Distress Stains $5..49 full price at Joanns (use coupon). Tumbled Glass, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo and Old Paper and Weathered Wood.  I also distressed the pages with the same colors in Tim Holtz Distress inks. $5.99 full price at Joanns.(use coupon)
I had antiqued eyelets in my stash and used my Crop a Dile to attach the eyelets into the album.  $29.99 full price at Joanns for a Crop a Dile

Papers are from Marcella by K Clove All in One Scrapbook pad that came from Big Lots and was in my stash for a long time.

The covers came from a stamp show and the inside papers came from Stampin’ Up.  I ended up using six ball and chain rings to close the album and made four pockets out of the album so that each of her four grandchildren could write a story of Samson on their page.  I put each grandchild’s first initial on their page and attached the Tim Holtz Idea-logy Swivel Clasps on the pages to make page pulls out of them.
I tried to show as much of the project as I could but ran out of time so only showed the initial making of it.

So today we are at 500 subscribers.  We are thrilled.  In the grand scheme of YouTube, 500 is a small number, but we never thought the channel would gain momentum like it has in the last few weeks.  It is so hard to believe that we have 500 people who consider our videos worthy of subscribing to.  Thank you to all 500 subscribers.  We hope to continue to make fun and informative videos that you will want to tell your friends about.  This is a great day for us!

Part 2 of the perpetual birthday calendar video went live last night.  I’ve gotten several nice comments, mostly focused on the fact that I didn’t quit when I could have, and that I left the mistakes intact.  I didn’t think it was right for me to have a YouTube channel for persons with physical limitations and create videos where every project is perfect and easy to make.  That’s not the reality of crafting and if other crafting YouTubers were honest, they would admit that they have deleted a lot of their videos before putting them online.  Of course they do, otherwise there would be a lot more videos like mine online and I have NEVER seen one.   EVER.  I’d love to see Jennifer McGuire say something like, well here is the card I made but it failed and here’s how I corrected the problem.  We would all learn so much more from a video like that than we do from one where she shows this lovely card and talked about how she made it.  Hey, I could have deleted all of my mistakes and said that I planned on putting the ribbon on the back.  I could have, but wouldn’t.

Maybe I’m taking this honesty thing too far, but I think people want to know there is bad with the good and they also want to know they are not the only ones who make mistakes.  It’s only fair that someone show them the bad.  So here I am, bringing some bad, but more importantly, showing exactly what I did to fix it.  So if someone else has a Zutter and sees my video, they will know exactly what not to do.  I’m a trailblazer (and MacGyver.).  Who would have guessed?

Every once in a while, I’m motivated to get things done.  Today was one of those days.  I have so many craft things that I’ve bought that are either duplicates, (not sure why or how that happened), or are things I just don’t or can’t (mainly can’t), use.  I decided to box them up and I listed a lot of them on Splitcoast Stampers.  I’m so proud of myself.  Even if I don’t sell anything, at least I gave it a shot.  I really just wanted to be able to say I tried.

So I typed a lot of information onto the site.  Somehow I deleted all of it.  So I typed it again and only deleted part of it this time.  I am starting to remember why I don’t like to do things like this.  I’m just not very good at it.  Now my friend Linda is a wizard and took one look at my listing and knew exactly how to fix it.  I’m so lucky to have her in my corner.  She definitely made it look easy.  It doesn’t surprise me though, because that’s where I met her, through Splitcoast Stampers.  She’s very active on their site and has helped me with it more times than I can count.  She’s also one of the first people to get others to check out my YouTube channel.  She’s terrific.

So we are at 492 subscribers.  I’m still hoping to hit 500 by April 15th.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  It could happen, it will happen.  Will it?  Yes, it definitely will!

I finally finished the video for binding the birthday calendar book.  I have to say that I’m proud that I persevered, because I really wanted to throw in the towel on numerous occasions.  I think it’s a sign of my age that I refused to give up.  Maybe I have more patience now (no, I don’t).  Or maybe, I just didn’t want to look like a failure (that’s more me.)  I just couldn’t live with a project that was so bad and not try (at least) to fix it.

So I did.  And now it is laying under my Vagabond, which has turned out to be the greatest tool to flatten things. Note to self, buy a Vagabond to flatten things.  I should have included that in the tutorial for the Vagabond.  One of its many uses.

I’m relieved the video is in the bag. In the bag, another saying that I just have to know it’s origin.  Here it is.

Origin: This expression comes from American baseball. It dates back to the early 20^th century, specifically to the old New York Giants (later the San Francisco Giants, since the 1950’s). In 1916, the Giants won 26 games in a row. This is a very difficult thing to do and baseball players are naturally superstitious. As they were winning games they wanted to “ensure” that the streak would continue. At the start of every game a large bag full of the baseballs to be used for the game is brought out onto the playing field. If a ball is hit into the seats as a foul, or out of the park as a home run, or if it just gets too dirty, it will be replaced by a new ball. Every game begins with 72 balls.  During their winning streak, the Giants somehow came to believe that if they were ahead in the ninth (last) inning, and someone carried the bag off the field, the Giants would win the game. So if a game is “in the bag” then it’s “certain” the Giants will win. Eventually the expression came to mean anything that you’re very positive about.

Huh, I’m still a little confused but apparently it’s baseball superstition.  Enough said.

So what does my birthday calendar have to do with baseball?  We’ll just have to wait and see.  (It really is still in the bag.)

My girlfriend loved her presents, especially the license plate with the photo of her puppy on it.  She also really liked the album that included pull outs for her grandkids to write stories or draw pictures of her puppy on.  It was a good day.  Weirdly enough, it made me want to color.  I haven’t felt like coloring Mandalas for a long time.  I used to get so much relaxation from them, but now I find some of the same relaxation in making videos.

When I started this YouTube venture in October, I hoped that people would like it and respond well, but I never imagined it would start to grow at the pace it is currently growing at.  I’m so thrilled that people are telling others and that the momentum of the channel is really picking up.  I thought if we had 5o0 subscribers by June 1st, it would be unbelievable.  I’m pretty sure we will be at 500 before April 15th, and who would have ever imagined that?  I know 500 isn’t many in the grand scheme of things, but to me, it’s an incredible number.  We’re  going to celebrate by giving five crafty prizes to five viewers.  I can’t thank them enough.  This has been such a wonderful experience and I have met so many truly wonderful people.  I’m so lucky to have found something that brings both Rich and I so much happiness.  We are in this together.  Without his tech skills, there would not be a channel.  He does everything except make the project on camera.  He’s amazing and so patient with the problems I create for him. You can’t even begin to conceive of the mistakes he has to correct.  He’s definitely a keeper.  So thanks for watching and reading the blog, because you have no idea how much it means to us!