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!

Tomorrow is one of my closest friend’s birthday.  She’s hard to buy for, but this year I’ve got the perfect gift and I can’t wait to give it to her.  She has a new Bullmastiff puppy and Rich took a bunch of photos and I made an album for her.  I included four pockets, for each of her young grandkids to write their favorite story about the puppy and include it in the album.  I also had a license plate made with one of the photos of her puppy’s face.  I know she’ll be thrilled with it.  I did try to make a video of the making of the album, but it was way too complicated and I just didn’t have the time to do a tutorial, so in the end I just showed the album and recapped what I had done to make it.  I’m glad it’s done and I’m exhausted.  I think it took about eight hours to complete.  I was really committed, or maybe I just should be committed for thinking I could whip the album out in a couple of hours.  Who was I kidding?

I’ve gotten really creative in the last couple of days.  My close friend, Lynn, is having her birthday on Saturday.  I couldn’t think of anything to do for her. She just got a Bullmastiff puppy a couple of weeks ago, so I had Rich photograph him and am making a photo album as well as decorating it.  I really think she will be thrilled with it as she wanted to get a photo of him while he’s still young.  Now she’ll have an entire album.  We went to a photo shop to have the prints made and they custom make license plates with photos on them, so I had one of the prints made into a license plate for the front of her car.  I know she will love it because she’s really crazy about her puppy.  I love making gifts for people when I know they will appreciate them and I’m sure she will appreciate these.

Tomorrow my new Oring should come for the binding tutorial, so I should be able to finally finish that video and get it put online.  I really hope we can figure out a way to fix the problems I created with the album.  I would hate to put up a video where I have a complete fail and do nothing to try to save it.  This is me trying to save the album.

I remade my Vagabond video because I had so many mistakes in the first one.  It is a pretty new tool for me, so when I try to do new things on it, I’m never sure if I’m doing it right or not.  Their guide for usage isn’t extremely helpful as it is pictures of the sandwich but that doesn’t help if you don’t really understand what you are looking for to begin with.  If I want to cut dies that also emboss, I need to figure out which photo it goes with and so far, it’s a mystery.  I really like the Vagabond though, because until now, I really didn’t emboss or die cut at all.

As for the birthday calendar, I decided I needed to add a bigger wire onto it so had to special order it from Amazon as there were no retailers that carried them in stock over 3/4″, which is what I already used.  I ordered 1 /4″, deciding to go big or go home.

I’m still contemplating how to correct the other errors I’ve made in punching holes with the binding tool.  I think I’ll have Rich look into how to correct it, as I think it’s above my pay grade (skill set, whatever you want to call it.)  I’ll add the corrections to the end of the video and then put it online.  It was kind of heartbreaking to make the mistakes I did so close to the end of the project.  And to have ones so significant that they may not be redeemable.  But that is the nature of crafting and I’m choosing to show the bad and hopefully end with the good.

I decided I can’t put the video online of the bound book until I fix it.  I know I was going to live with my failure, but now I just can’t.  I’m going to show it, but I’m also going to show how I am going to fix it so it doesn’t look so horrible.  I did order a wider wire which should help significantly.  I’m also doing research on how to fix the part of the book that I couldn’t punch.  I’m not exactly sure if the front cover is redeemable, but we’ll give it a shot.  At least I’m going to try.

I made another video, this one on the Vagabond, so that people can see if they want to invest in one.  It’s over $150, so it’s not an inexpensive piece of equipment.  The price can’t be the consideration, though, if you need a die cutting and embossing machine and can’t turn the crank on the non-electric models.  I should know, I can’t turn the crank on mine so just never used it.  I’m not good at embossing or die cutting, because I just could not do it.  I hope the video helps others decide if they need the electric model as well.  It is a great machine.