My steampunk video is really long. Over forty minutes. How long is too long when it comes to a tutorial? I’ve been watching more and more YouTube crafters doing I Steams and video chats that last over an hour and they are mainly answering questions while they do a project. I watched Kristina Werner label her new stamp pads while she answered questions. Is it better to do a short tutorial but a long Q & A? I didn’t think people had time to sit for over an hour to listen to people basically talking to each other on an I Stream, but they must. I saw Patti Tolley Parish does IStream videos that are over two hours long. So where does a tutorial fit in the grand scheme of things?
Time is a very precious commodity and one I don’t want to squander for others. I hope people will watch my videos, but in the interest of time, I’m ok with them fast forwarding and using their time wisely. I hope I have valid content, but need to keep an eye on the length of videos going forward.
Making the cover for my art journal was a long process and involved many different techniques. I hope people will find it of value and if not, it’s a lesson learned. I’m really happy with it’s result and hope others will want to try some of the techniques I used. My takeaway is that I am really a slow crafter and need to be more efficient with mine and everyone else’s time.
I tried something new today. I had seen people use their Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps on ceramic and thought, what the heck, I should give this a try. I wasn’t sure exactly how to proceed so used makeup sponges and put acrylic (the kind you bake) paint on the sponge and stamped onto it. It didn’t really work that well, so I used a paint brush and painted the stamps instead. It had better results, but I liked the second image over the first, so proceeded onward. I really had fun with this technique because as soon as I stamped a mess, I wiped it right back off. Wouldn’t it be great if it worked the same way with paper? .
I stamped on a soup bowl that had a handle and lid. It made for the perfect stamping situation because I had a lot of space to stamp and could make a pattern that wouldn’t be near the surface that you would eat from. I haven’t baked it yet, that will be tomorrow’s project and then I’ll be able to do the video on the second bowl. I like using my stamps for something different and this technique is fun and a little challenging. I’m crossing my fingers that it bakes well and looks like something I won’t want to discard once baked. Wish me luck!
I had a viewer Kay, ask for a video with stencils and a steampunk theme. I’ve never done anything like it, but was definitely game for the challenge. I had started an art journal for myself. Well, started it, is kind of a stretch. I took an old Reader’s Digest condensed book and covered every other page with gesso. I removed several of the pages so the book wouldn’t be so thick, and that’s where the project stopped. I just didn’t know where to go from there. I hadn’t done anything to the cover and it had gesso on it and looked pretty bad. When Kay asked for the video, I couldn’t believe how easy the decision became. I had my art journal cover. It was as simple as that. After I finished the project, I couldn’t believe how well it came out and I’m pretty proud of it. I really wanted to play with the journal but needed a direction. Now I have it.
To be honest, I’m not sure how steampunk it is, but it looks good to me. I think it would have been better if I had found some old watch parts or anything gear-like that I could put on the cover.
I guess the moral of my story is this. If Kay hadn’t asked for the steampunk video, I wouldn’t have had the theme for my art journal. Thanks Kay, for the great suggestion. I’m hoping others will let me know when they have a video idea that they would like to see, because I’m up for it!
One additional note. After asking viewers to put the word out on social media about my YouTube channel, we hit 300 subscribers within a week. I really appreciate everything the subscribers are doing to help advance the viewership of my channel. I have the best subscribers on the internet!
An extra DIY video, just for you.
To make alcohol ink you need:
1. A Sharpie or similar alcohol marker
2. Xacto knife
3. 70% rubbing alcohol
4 Small spray bottle
5. plastic container
6. Needle nose pliers
7. regular pliers
8. Plastic gloves if you don’t like stained hands
9. Paper towels to mop up any mess
Fill the spray bottle with the rubbing alcohol and then pour the alcohol from the spray bottle into the plastic container. Using the needle nose pliers, remove the nib from the Sharpie and put into the plastic container. Using both pairs of pliers, ben the Sharpie back and forth until you pull it apart. The marker I had needed to have the end removed. Once you pull the marker apart, remove the long plastic covered tube inside. Using your Xacto knife and needle nose pliers, cut the length of the plastic you removed from the marker. Do this on the front and back. If your container isn’t long enough to hold this piece, cut it in half. Pull the fibrous pieces out of the plastic if you can’t cut it in half and then put all of it into the alcohol. Let this set until the ink has soaked into the alcohol and the fibers are a lighter shade. Once you think the ink is dark enough, pour it into the spray bottle and you are ready to go. If you get the ink on anything, the alcohol will remove it.
To make Dylusions style spray paint you’ll need:
1. small spray bottle
2. two small marbles
3. acrylic craft paint
4. very warm tap water
Put an inch of paint into your spray bottle and then drop in the marbles. Pour the hot water over the paint and close the bottle. Shake really well. If your spray paint is runny, add more paint. If it won’t come out of the sprayer, you may need to put in more water. Make sure before you do add more water, you really shake it well again.
I’ve decided my camera is the spawn of Satan. I never know when or why it stops, and it stops whenever it feels like it. So what is up with it? I just don’t know. I decided I needed to put a timer up so if it stops at twenty minutes, I’ll know that’s the problem. It’s not. I try checking on it from time to time and half the time, it’s already stopped. I know you have got to be noticing the technical difficulties I’ve been having, and it’s happening much too often. I’m not sure where to go from here. We bought this camera specifically for videos and in November, so it should work well. It doesn’t. I’m focusing on staying in frame and now I have to broaden my focus to making sure my camera is on. Geez, does the Frugal Crafter have these problems? Probably not. She’s probably seen and experienced every technical difficulty there is to have, and so far, I’m only hitting on the surface. I have so many mistakes ahead of me, I need to take one camera problem at a time. It’s not so bad, at least you get to see most of what I video. Or some. More than half. There’s no where to go but up.
My seventh DIY video is up. I’m really happy with how they all came out. There were a couple of iffy moments, (the diy bow jig), but all in all, I’m really happy with them. I was especially happy with the way the shamrock stencil performed when I stamped through it. If you watch the video, you can tell I’m a little worried about how it would turn out.
That stencil has had me thinking though. Why is it a three leaf clover? Is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated with a three leaf instead of a four leaf. Let’s do some research and here it is.
Why the four-leaf clover has nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day
This stone gets its luck from the shamrock engraved on it. (JULIA HATMAKER/The Patriot-News)
Everyone likes to pretend they’re Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but I like to pretend I’m Irish all year long. It’s perhaps unsurprising, considering my given name (with the proper Gaelic spelling, mind you – none of that Anglicized “Shawn” business, thanks).
So, when a discussion arose at the PennLive office regarding the validity of the four-leaf clover as a symbol of Ireland, I was surprised to find myself making the same mistake that most people seem to make at this time of year.
To be brief: the four-leaf clover has nothing to do with Ireland or St. Patrick’s Day.
The green leafy plant we ought to be associating with St. Patrick is, of course, the shamrock, which is specifically a sprig of the clover plant with three leaves, not four.
What’s the difference? For one thing, the three-leaf clover was, according to legend, what St. Patrick used to explain the Holy Trinity of Christianity to the Irish people. Four leaves just doesn’t add up.
For a more detailed explanation, I turned to Charles “Cholly” Shields, a local attorney and expert on Ireland who has patiently pointed out the difference between the four leaf clover and the shamrock. More than just a symbol of St. Patrick, Shields says the shamrock became a national symbol of Ireland itself, just as the English use the rose, the Welsh use the leek and the Scottish the thistle.
So now I know. The shamrock isn’t a four leaf clover. Why do we all assume it is?
I’m not sure, but now I’m informed and so are you. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Here is one of our first photos of Honey, our new puppy. If Rich had taken this photo, he would have gotten rid of the flash in her eyes, but I don’t want to waste a minute getting the picture out to you. I hope you think she’s as cute as we do.
We went to pick up our Valentine’s present to each other, an English Golden Retriever puppy we named, Honey. She’s got the sweetest face and is a very light cream color. I’ll be posting a video with her in it on our 8th DIY video along with my Valentine, who has never appeared in a video of mine before.. Puppies have a way of making everything insignificant. She’s not been handled much by people, as she came from a working farm. She has however, spent a lot of time with other dogs so was thrilled to see Aggie and Bella. They are a little nervous about the family addition, but seem to be viewing her as an oddity, one you certainly should bark about.
Our first order of business was a bath as she smelled a lot like rotting hay. Or hay with pee, or something else that smelled bad. She seemed to love the bath, maybe because she had fleas. Another farm favorite. She loved getting blow dried, snuggled into a blanket and taking a nap. All is right with her world.
So our seventh DIY video did not go up today, but will go up tomorrow. I apologize for the delay but Honey was just too much excitement for our little family. Because of the delay, I’ve added an 8th DIY day, how to make alcohol ink and Dylusions type spray paint. I hope you like the videos.
The bow jig is easily produced with a wooden dowel cut into 3 1/2″ lengths and a thicker white Styrofoam than the green florist foam that I used. I think the white might work better because it doesn’t shed like the green variety. Because you need to pull on your bows, you might consider buying a wooden jig. I met David through YouTube and my need for a magnet separator. He was really nice to work with and said he has made bow jigs and was thinking of ways to make them so they can be attached to your work surface for easier use if you have more physical limitations or shakiness. He also suggested looking at this sticky pad product to attach a bow jig.
How to use the bow jig
Place the pegs the width apart of your bow.
A. Use a large length of ribbon or leave it on the roll. Starting at the back, wrap the ribbon around both pegs with the wrong side of the ribbon facing you, ending with both ends in the front.
B. Place the left ribbon to the right of the bow jig
C. With the right ribbon, go around the left ribbon and over toward the front then back under between the two dowels
D. Then come back between the dowels over the ribbon and under the left ribbon and pull to form knot.
E. You can make a double knot by making a loop with the left ribbon by bringing the left ribbon back toward the left side of the bow jig.
F. Bring the right ribbon over and through the loop made from the left ribbon ending to the right. Pull both ends tight.
Remove from the jig.
The letters above correspond to the letters on the diagram that I hold up in the video.
Personally, I found the picture easier to follow than the instructions so I would put the video on pause when I hold up the picture and practice by using it. I found the directions a little confusing.
Card instructions:
Paper size 7″ wide by 10″ tall and score at 5″ to create a 7″ wide by 5″ tall card.
I used Stampin’ Up designer series paper in the brown polka dot that is old from my stash. The blue and green papers also came from my stash so I’m not sure of their colors but I think they are from Stampin’ Up as well.
Dimensions
Light Blue papers are 4 3/4″ tall by 1 1/4″ wide except the center piece which is 4 3/4″ tall by 1 1/2″ wide.
Brown designer papers are 4 1/2″ tall by 1″ wide except the center piece which is 4 1/2 x 1 1/4″ wide.
I made 1/2″ bows for all but the center bow and the center bow is 1″ wide.
If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas for other videos, please email me at saundralparker@yahoo.com. Thanks so much for watching.
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