I’m really excited about my latest video endeavor.  I’ve seen so many people make small note pad covers and post it note covers and I thought, geez, I can do those.  So I made one.  It came out great so I made another one. Ok, I thought, I’m ready to make one on video.  And then things went bad.  I’m not very mechanical and when I have to explain things like fold on the last score line then tape it then fold on another line, all of a sudden I have no idea what I’m doing or how to explain it.  I feel really foolish and actually started the video over.  That lead to another confusing explanation but the end product is really cute.  Isn’t that all that matters?  I’m not sure if someone else can follow my directions but I did try to explain it more than once so the viewer could hopefully, follow it.  I’m seriously not sure if in the end I ever explained it without backing up and re explaining it.  I wish I was one of those people who had some modicum of mechanical aptitude, but I make up for it in my total MacGyver way of being.  Maybe that’s why I have my MacGyver mentality, because it helps me overcome my total mechanical ineptitude.  I’m great with a match, a glue stick and some hairspray.  Just think of what I could make!

I really liked the card video that just went up but you can tell it is out of order from the DIY video because my bone folder still looks like it barely survived a war.  I wish you could see it as it truly looks today, clean.

I have missed playing with paper and found a bunch of notes in my journal about videos on how to make covers for legal pads, post it notes and little note pads you’d get at, wait for it, the Dollar Tree.  Not only are they small, but they are in coordinating colors with the little gel pens that they also sell.  How great is that?  I’m thinking of all the people I can give one to.  Rich already turned me down, so I’m not really sure who will be the lucky recipients.  The absolute best part about this tutorial is that I won’t end up with paint or ink or glue or anything on my hands.  It could be the first video I can remember where I haven’t gotten stained from something.  Even the DIY video had me bathed in olive oil.  Of course it’s good for your skin, but not when I’m trying to work on other projects with it all over my hands.  Still, my hands were pretty darn soft when I wrapped that video.

Note to self, make more videos with olive oil.

I’m back to considering cleaning my craft room again.  The DIY household cleanser video made quite an impression on my craft room.  I have spray bottles and white vinegar and a big ammonia bottle as well as a funnel and all of the accessories for creating a DIY video.  The one thing that none of the DIY projects did was clean up after themselves. You’d think that I could have used one of the sprays on my desk, I didn’t.   I have to admit that it was easier to bring everything into the room than it was to put everything away.  Thus the problem when crafting.  In the midst of a project, we are so focused on getting it just the way we want it that we keep pulling more and more things out of their assigned spots.  When the project is done, we don’t have the same enthusiasm for putting anything back.  We are finished working on it and are tired and leave things wherever they landed.  If only we could be as ambitious about clean up.  I did a little research on the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness” and it seems no one can agree on exactly where the term comes from or what it means. Ok, I only researched it long enough to witness bickering about it’s origin and decided I really didn’t care about it that much.

I guess the bottom line is this.  If I am going to use a product, I need to put it back.  Not later, but right after I am done with it.  That way I won’t have a lot to put away when I am finished with a project and my room will look like a non-hoarder works there.  I really can’t see myself doing that though, because it will interrupt the flow of the crafting process.  I’m not really sure what my crafting process really is and I already struggle with finding a good working relationship between my craft accessories and their storage.  I guess we’ll back burner this cleaning idea for another day.

I’m addicted to DIY.  I never realized it before, but more and more of the things I use are DIY.  When I first started watching YouTube, I watched DIY videos, and now it’s my go to place for how to do almost anything.  I watched a couple make a year’s worth of laundry detergent and thought it was hysterical, but eventually I made a much smaller version of their recipe and it did a great job on my clothes.  I absolutely love finding things that work better, are less expensive and less toxic.  I don’t use DIY projects just to save money because if the product doesn’t work, why bother?  Now I realize so many of my spray bottles that originally held one product, now hold a DIY.  I really like the bathroom cleaner I made, but Rich isn’t crazy about the smell of vinegar so I’m compromising and only using it on the toilets and in the bathtub and not as a daily cleanser in our shower.  The carpet spot cleaner I made didn’t look like it worked at all until it dried and I couldn’t believe how well it cleaned our  outdoor carpet.

I hate to iron.  That’s not entirely accurate.  I don’t iron.   Neither does Rich.  When he worked and wore those shirts that are impossible to iron, they went to the dry cleaners so I knew he would look like a professional and not like a wrinkled mess. Until recently, our idea of ironing was throwing water on the front of our clothes and hoping for the best. I found the greatest DIY that is easier than anything and works unbelievably well.  It involves white vinegar (what doesn’t) and a spray bottle.  You put in three cups of water and one cup of white vinegar and spray it onto the wrinkled mess.  I couldn’t believe it.  I used it on one of those shirts that I forgot I owned because it ended up behind everything else in the back of my drawer..  I hung it on a hanger and sprayed it and thought, good luck with that.  A few minutes  later the wrinkles were gone. GONE!  I’ve bought wrinkle removers from Downy and others and never got any results.  Unbelievable!

My favorite DIY’s are the ones that seem crazy, but work like a charm.  There’s a saying that makes no sense.  Let’s do some research.

work like a charm

Meaning: If something works like a charm, it works very well.

Origin: Probably related to the fact that one of the meanings of the word “charm” is “magic spell”, so if something “works like a charm” it works as well as magic. Whether magic actually works or not appears to have no bearing on the meaning of the idiom, with the assumption being that charms do, in fact, work very well.

Well ok, then.  I’d have never made that connection, but it makes sense.  With my DIY addiction firmly in place, I made a video on my favorite DIY cleaning solutions.  I wouldn’t put them in a video if I didn’t really believe in them, think they are a good value and are less toxic to everyone and because they “work like a charm.”

It’s a really great day today.  In the video I made for my art journal cover, I mentioned that I had some great DIY household tips as well as a recipe for DIY gesso.  I had three comments from viewers asking to see either or both of the videos.  To be honest, I was really concerned that people watching the art journal video would see all of the really avoidable mistakes I made.  Instead, they seemed to listen to what I was saying and that really had big impact for me.  I am very critical of myself and the fact that viewers can overlook my errors and have great takeaway from my story, I really appreciate that.

I finished the shutter card video but my editor is a little behind.  I think the art journal video at 40+ minutes was more than he could take.  I really hope the next two videos that are already done will be much easier for him to edit and put up on the site.  It’s not easy being the man behind the scenes.  I really give him a lot of work and I wish it wasn’t so hard, but I am working on doing better so he has less to do.

I used a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book  that I removed several of the pages and gesso’d the rest for my art journal.

On the front cover, I used a Ranger Dylusions stencil called small keyholes.  I put Martha Stewart’s Stucco Effects mixed with Archival Black Ink on the stencil.  On the back cover, I did the same with the Tim Holtz Clockwork stencil.  On the bottom, I ran another Tim Holtz stencil of a ruler and used the same Martha Stewart Stucco Effects on it. I colored this with silver metallic rub on.  I have several industrial style stamps that I had in my stash and one of them I used with Ranger embossing ink in the center of the back and heated it.  I used black paper quilling strips to make the ruler stand out as well as the side of the keyhole.   I found a cardboard key in my stash so I used a metallic embossing powder and heated it to make it look like it was a metal key.  I kept adding more and more of the embossing powder to make it really thick and then pressed a stamp into the molten to make it look like it had a design in the key.  Sparkle and Sprinkle mixed media  embossing powder is what I used for this. I used metallic rub ons to really color the clock and backgrounds, primarily the bronze and silver colors.  I stamped a couple more industrial stamps on the back and tried to heat emboss them, but the embossing powder wanted to stick to the metallic rub on, so I wiped it back off.  I used the silver rub on for the keyholes so they would show up and then used Gray Archival ink on the keyholes to make them more defined.  I used Dusty Durango ink from Stampin’ Up on the background of the right side of the front cover.  I had a cardboard piece that I stamped “Imagine” into and then rubbed Hickory Smoke from Distress ink onto the cardboard to make it darker gray.  I used two black brads from Michaels to attach the piece to the front cover.  I had some black stickers that I had in my stash and I attached them to the binding of the book.  I attached the key on an angle on the front cover.
On the top right hand of the front cover, I used a stamp of gears and heat embossed it.  Below it, I put down three metal buttons. I stamped with Ranger Archival, a postage style stamp on the right side of the front cover and stamped it a few times.

I finished making the video for stamping on ceramics and I really liked the end result.  Sometimes I am so surprised by what I’ve done, I’m not sure what to do next.  I’m missing paper projects though and especially cards.  I’m doing a card video today that is a shutter card, like a camera shutter.  I can’t wait to do it and hope it comes out well.  It’s something I’ve never tried (what’s new there?) and I’m looking forward to doing it.  Compared to the “new projects” I’ve been doing, this is nothing, if not simple.  I’m prepared to make it difficult, though, in case you wondered.

On a side note, Honey is fitting in well and finally thinks Rich is a great guy.  She was not around people very much from what we can tell and she definitely was not around any men.  The first few days were difficult as she clung to me every time Rich tried to pick her up.  She’s over it now.  In fact, after I got up this morning, she went to him in bed and he lifted her up.  A few minutes later, he heard her squirming and when he looked over, she had slid between the mattress and headboard and was clinging on for dear life.  He said she was all about snuggling after he rescued her.  Sometimes all it takes is to be the damsel in distress and having your prince come to rescue you.  Her prince passed the test.