Since Sunday is the day for football, I’ll use some football terminology to describe my day.  I tackled a glittery card and the glitter broke the tackle and went ALL THE WAY!  What does that mean in craft terms?  It means the glitter ended up on me, the counter, the floor, the dog and a little bit on the card and in the trash.  Use a coffee filter to catch the glitter?  Sure, I did that.  The glitter found its way into the filter as well.  I’m not sure how glitter gets where it does, but if it was a quarterback, it would be extremely well paid.  Maybe a Hall of Famer.   The glitter appeared in stamp pads that weren’t even open when I did the project.  That’s some pretty tricky glitter.  Let’s just stop and ponder where else that glitter could be, or maybe not.  We probably don’t  really want to know.

Today, I decided to make a card with Gelatos.  Not the wonderful creamy dessert, but more the crayon-Satan-type  product.  It’s not right to use a dessert’s name in vain like that.  This demon stick performs like wax or runny muck, depending on how much water is used.  It is a seemingly simple concept.  You shove some waxy pigmented yuck into a Chapstick style container and you convince people it’s the greatest thing since, well Gelato.  It’s supposed to perform somewhere between a watercolor and a crayon–whose kidding who?  It performed like watered down wax or waxy water And so I looked at the cards produced using them on You Tube and I have to say, my card stacked right up there with the others I saw.  So after trying them for, oh five hours, I gave up.  I strongly believe they should be shelved for another day, or year.  I really thought it was just me, until I saw what other people have produced.  Demon Stick!

Finally, a tag.  Not just one, but four.

I watched the video today where the tag stuck to my thumb and I think Rich might have edited it out.  At least I couldn’t see it, so maybe you didn’t either.  Don’t worry, there will be plenty of chances to see me burn, cut, staple, or impale myself on video.  I can see why there is a television show for horrible things people do to themselves (mostly not on purpose) when being videotaped.  There’s a certain anxiety that happens when the red light goes on.  I’m normally not self conscious about speaking or appearing in public, since I had to do it at the bank, but crafting on video has an additional level of stress associated with it.  What if this looks like crap?  What if it takes an hour to make?  What if someone decides to give it a thumbs down?  PS That already happened on a product review and recommendation.  Why a thumbs down for that? Didn’t you like the product or didn’t you like that I liked the product?  Maybe you own one and hate it.  If that’s the case, why not add a comment to tell me all about it, and why you hate it. Maybe you couldn’t tell if the thumb was up or down and you clicked the wrong one?  Let’s go with that.

I bought a couple Styrofoam tree-shaped forms at (where else?) the Dollar Tree.  I started watching some tutorials on what other people have used them for.  Here’s a weird off-topic moment for you. Every time I typed Styrofoam, this website capitalized it.  Is Styrofoam worthy of a Capital “S”?  I’m not sure what the deal is with that, but I just thought I’d ponder it for a moment.  Yes, I did try to change it and every time I did, it changed it back to “S”.  Odd?  Maybe it’s a city somewhere.  No, I checked Wikipedia and they also capitalized it.  Here are some scary facts from Wikipedia about Styrofoam.  It is 96% air–so why is it so hard to cut then?  Is the other 4% steel?  And isn’t that crazy, they don’t capitalize steel?  Back to Styrofoam.  It’s considered a possible carcinogen, but really, what isn’t anymore?  Then there is this little nugget that is so absurd, I had to copy and paste it.

Styrofoam-eating worms[edit]

Recently, researches discovered that mealworms, the larvae form of the darkling beetle, could digest and subsist healthily on a diet of Styrofoam.^[12] About 100 mealworms could consume between 34 and 39 milligrams of Styrofoam in a day. The droppings of mealworm were found to be safe for use as soil for crops.

So now I’m asking myself, do I have too much time on my hands?  And why didn’t McDonalds just invest in a bunch of worms instead of getting rid of their Styrofoam?  Maybe the mealworms don’t like McDonalds or are worried about gaining weight?  But I digress…What was I talking about?  Oh, those trees.  Yes, those projects looked like I’d burn my hands off and we know I’m not interested in doing that, Again!

I know I should have had the camera closer to the snow globe, but didn’t.  I guess I never thought about how small the project was in relationship to the screen.  I’ll work on that.

I was thinking today about the new video I wanted to do and wondered if I would “burn my hands off” as the Frugal Crafter would say.  The thing is, I’m not really good with a hot glue gun and often feel the need to scream for a medic when attempting to use one.  Today was no exception. The only real exception was that I was being filmed.  No matter how big the injury, the show must go on.  I don’t think I even winced when the tag with molten glue attached itself to my thumb.  Yes there was pain and yes, I wanted my mommy, but I didn’t want anyone to know that I was in fact, that gifted.  Maybe gifted isn’t the word, maybe the opposite of gifted.  The point is my thumb may never be the same. What? Yes, I am using it to type this, whatever!!

Even though maybe 50 people will see that video, isn’t the goal to “Never let them see you sweat?”  If that’s the case, should I have used antipersperent  on my thumb, or does that commercial only apply to armpits?  I don’t think people necessarily see you sweat there, but do when it’s rolling down your face or you shake with your clammy hand.  What was I talking about?

Right, I wanted to appear professional even with the tag attached to my thumb.  I know very few people see the videos and even less read this blog, but I have a very strick rule.  Never ever let them see you cry.  No matter what.  There was a brief moment today when I almost broke that rule, it was very brief.

It was a dreary day today, so I had plenty of time to think.  I’ve come up with a Christmas ornament that I have never seen on You Tube and since I don’t know much about Pinterest, I definitely didn’t see it there.  I have these clear cups that Stampin’ Up used to sell that make a shaker card.   If I attach two of them to each other, instant snowglobe.  I’m in the final stages of finishing one and it might end up being the one I use to do the video.  Now the only thing to do is figure out what other people could use instead of these now defunct cups.  It’s kind of a quandary, but we’ve narrowed it down to clear containers you get with take-out for salad dressing or ketchup, or some other 2″ in diameter clear plastic round lidded container.  I think when you buy beads or fake pearls, you can get them in a container that would work as well.  The trick is to make sure it’s round and 2″ or under.  Still thinking….

I also came up with a Christmas tag idea for my first tag video and it involves something that is like a paper doll.  I know you can’t stand the anticipation.. If I tell you more, it won’t be a surprise.  (And quite frankly, I have absolutely no idea if it will work).  Yikes!

Rich and I went out to lunch today and there were two women talking pretty loudly directly behind us.  One woman was talking about some kind of medicine she takes to remove metal from her blood.  Of course I immediately thought she might be Iron Woman, but maybe not.  She said she had one dose of her medicine left and when she went to find it, the container was empty.  She said she knew she wasn’t crazy, at least not about this, and then went on to talk about the ways she was crazy.  Her lunch companion decided to offer input into where the missing meds might be.  She said, “Have you ever considered poltergeists?”  Now whose wearing the crazy pants?  Maybe we should move.

I wanted to continue the discussion I started about paper punches in the craft room tour video.  I narrow down the punches by showing the results of trying to punch through 110 pound cardstock.  My recommendations are the same–I like the Fiskars squeeze punches and not any of their other varieties.  I recommend EK Success and Stampin’ Up punches across the board.  There is a product that my friend Linda told me about.  It’s called the Craft Punch Mate and works only with button punches.  You place your punch inside and then the punch mate turns it into a lever punch.  We only found it at one place on the internet and here is the link to it in case you are interested.  http://www.1stopsquare.com/crimper.html