Our YouTube channel has 1,000 subscribers in less than eleven months.  I am AMAZED and awed that people are watching and subscribing to it.  I absolutely love making videos and people have been so supportive and kind to me.  I have been so blessed to find such a great group of people who watch my videos.  I realize that a lot of people will take one look at my hands and move on, and I’m absolutely fine with that.  I’m so happy, though, that so many people have stayed long enough to decide that my channel isn’t about the look of my hands, it’s about what my hands are capable of doing.  I know that sometimes it takes me forever to accomplish small tasks and I do try to fast forward through things that are kind of repetitive, but I refuse to eliminate any mistakes.  If you craft, you make mistakes, and if you have any issues with your hands, you’ll make even more.  How will the viewer know how to fix things if you eliminate the issues you have?  In watching my own videos, I think the funniest moments are those when I’ve made a big mistake and have no idea how to fix it and just start to laugh.  And once I start laughing, I have a difficult time getting a grip on it.  I hope it gives the watcher permission to have fun with their projects and to laugh at themselves when they do make a mistake (or two or several.)

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching and subscribing to my videos.  It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I have met so many great people and made wonderful friends with so many of you.  Of course I’m going to give some thank you prizes away, it’s the least I can do to show my appreciation. I have a lot of great videos ready for Rich to edit, and with Halloween fast approaching, I’m accumulating a lot of fall and Halloween videos, so be ready for tons of fun!

This is #5 in my series of taking something old and making it new again.  I found two night stands at a second hand store for $30 that were a beige color and the bottom section of one was warped and looked terrible.  I asked Rich if it would be possible to put brackets on the back to connect the two night stands and make them one tall unit.  So I sanded the rough spots and then painted them with Rustoleum  American Accents Stone spray paint. It has speckles of different colors of paint in it and really covers a lot of issues in the wood (small gouges, weird spots, etc.)
After I painted all of the drawers and Rich was going to connect them with a bracket, the one bottom piece was warped and looked terrible, so I had Rich remove it and I painted where you could see and now it’s extra storage space between the two cabinets.  I really like the result and it holds a lot of crafty goodness!

I worked really hard on a dresser I bought to finally get my craft room organized.  I had to spray paint it from an ugly flat black to a gray that is normally a base coat.  After I painted it and it dried, I used a stone finish that was gray with white and black specks in it.  It doesn’t really match the other pieces I have in my room, but I think it looks pretty good.  I even found a set of knobs that allowed me to replace the ugly black ones that were on the dresser to begin with.  This dresser isn’t high quality like the two small stands that we attached together, but it’s narrow and fits in the space I needed it to work on so I’m happy with that.  My goal is to get everything that used to be visible in the craft room, into drawers or cabinets.  I’m tired of walking into a huge mess and I’m hoping that by having these new dresser/drawer units, I’ll be able to walk into less than a horrible mess.  If I can accomplish that, I’ll be thrilled.

Oh course I had to have one minor issue while putting the new knobs on the drawers.  The bottom drawer opened and I thought just grazed the top of my foot, but when I looked down, there was blood all over the top of my foot.  Obviously it wasn’t just a graze, but then again, I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I’m never sure when I’ve really hurt myself verses just a small booboo.  Long story short, it required minor clean up and a couple band-aids as I bled through the first one.  I think I’ll live.

The dresser and the video are both finished and I’m going to have Rich put the dresser into my craft room tonight and tomorrow is the day I’ve been waiting for.  I’m cleaning, organizing and making my craft room livable.  I know you just snorted and said, “If she thinks I’m buying that story, I’ve got some swamp land I’d like to sell her.”  Seriously, I’m going to get that room organized.  No joke, really.

I used a stamp set called Crown Stamp from AI as well as a sentiment from Amuse Studios called Birthday Greetings and a background stamp from Stampin’ Up called On Safari.  I made a mask for my lady and the sentiment about the crown by stamping them on  post-it-note paper and then cutting as close to the stamped image as possible and trying to keep the sticky part on the piece you’ve stamped.  If you don’t have any sticky part left on your post-it-note, use a little bit of tape runner on it and then touch it to your clothes to take off some of the sticky part and it doesn’t tear your paper when you remove it.  I stamped the lady and the sentiment about the crown on a piece of white 110 pound cardstock that was 3 3/4″ x 5″ high.  I put the masks over the lady and the sentiment then used Stampin’ Up ink called Peach Parfait on the On Safari stamp and then put the paper with the masks upside down on the On Safari stamp and pressed really hard to ensure the image transferred around the masks and over the rest of the paper.  To color my lady I used a variety of alcohol markers from Spectrum Noir and an Adirondack marker .  I apologize that my head is in the image, as this is one of the videos where the camera was tilted down and I didn’t realize it.   I stamped the inside sentiment on torn paper and applied it to the inside of a 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide brown patterned paper with a white back.  I used fun foam that had a sticky backing on it and applied it to the back of the pink card stock layer that is 5 1/4″ x 4 ” wide.  I used some small brads that were light blue flowers from my stash and applied them randomly to the layer with the lady on it.  I then put the lady layer onto the pink layer that was already attached to the brown layer with tape runner.  I used pink washi tape on my envelope.  I thought the card was cute and hope you like it as well.

I’m really close to having 1,000 subscribers and I’m really stunned that it’s taken less than a year to get there.  I realize that my growth is slow compared to “regular” crafters, but I never expected anyone to really want to watch me make videos let alone 1,000 people who would consider watching them on a consistent basis.  It’s really amazing and thrilling and I am so proud that the channel continues to grow.  I need to make a “contest” for 1,000 subscribers and I’m not sure what to do to make it fair.  I’m thinking about maybe making my contest around “what was your favorite video” or what is your favorite video type?  I’m not sure what to do to get comments.  I would like to give prizes to people who consistently watch my channel and not to people who only subscribe to win contests.  The last contest I had, I was really happy with the winners as I recognized all of their names and that was great, because I knew that they were regular watchers.

On a side note, I just put up a video of the composition book that I covered and although I had a lot of watchers, I didn’t have many comments so I’m wondering if something was wrong with the video or if people are tired of notebooks or it was just too long.  When new videos go up, I normally get several comments in the first few days and in this case, I’ve gotten two.  It makes me wonder.  I hope people aren’t sick of my channel. I’d like them to continue to think I’ve got new and different content and not just the same old thing.  I don’t want to appear to be boring and predictable and not “just an anything…card maker, etc.”  It’s really important to me that I cover a wide range of crafts so that other people with physical limitations can look to this channel to find a wide variety of crafts that they can try and possibly find one that they would consider trying.  It’s my goal to be a “full service” channel for the person with limitations who wants to try something.  I hope that this channel can be the place to go to find the crafts they are looking for.  I’m so happy that people without limitations are watching the videos as well and hope I continue to make videos that inspire them as well.  It’s been so much fun finding my way in this YouTube world and my only wish is that I was more social media savvy, so that I can help people to put their projects on my Facebook page to share with others.  I wish I could find out how to enable others to do that.  What am I thinking?  All I need to do is go to YouTube and I’m sure there’s a video telling me exactly how to make it happen.  I’m going there now and hopefully will be able to accomplish this goal shortly.

It’s so hard trying to send “get well” or “thinking of you” cards to friends who are extremely ill.  I never know exactly the right sentiment to put on the front or inside of my cards and wish I could find a line of sentiments made for terminally ill friends.  I guess I’ve hit an age where I’m losing more and more friends (we’ve already lost both sets of parents) and am so sad that the only cards I really need to send are to those friends.  It’s been a difficult year for us as we have lost one friend and just lost the wife of another.  We have three more friends who are very ill and haven’t heard any good news for them as well.

I am really happy that I have the fall and Halloween season to look forward to as it gives me something good to focus on that doesn’t make me sad.  I’m hoping I can hold off on any more sympathy cards for a while as we’ve lost enough friends and family and it would be great to focus on the upcoming holidays instead.

I took a composition notebook I’d bought from Staples and it was 9 3/4″ tall by 7 3/8″ wide with a 1/4″ thick spine so I needed 15″ in width of paper.  You score it at 7 3/8 and 7 5/8″ on one piece and then leave it 12″ wide and do the score on the 12″ length.  Then another piece would be  9 3/4″ tall and 7 3/8″ wide to go over the back covering the book where you don’t have paper (since it’s wider than 12″ and our paper is 12 x 12 before cutting it down.)  I used tear tape to keep the paper  well adhered.  Take one piece of tear tape off at a time and then you can control where your paper goes.  If you take all the paper off at once and try to lay the paper down, you can get the paper crooked and it’s impossible to fix if you’ve adhered it across the entire front of the notebook.  Once you’ve covered the notebook, trim off the edges where the paper is hanging over and on the corners where they are rounded.  Cut from the back, it’s easier to see where your problems are.  You might need to cut some of the cover of the composition book because they aren’t always even when they are produced.
To cover the inside cover of your notebook, you need to measure the inside cover and cut your paper to that length and width and then glue it down with wet glue or a glue stick or tear tape.  To make a pocket, use the same measurements for your inside cover and score at the 1/2″ on the left side and the bottom.  Use tear tape on the back of your scored paper to the score line but not over it.  You will need to cut your paper on a diagonal on your paper trimmer.  From the top where the score line is, put it in your paper trimmer so the cut line is on the top score line and then angle your paper so you can cut it on an angle to cut it about 1/2 way down the page so you end up with a diagonal cut.  Unfortunately my camera cut out on that part of the video.  I added washi tape on the folder to make it look cute and more sturdy.  To cover your back inside cover, measure length and width and cut the paper put it aside and don’t glue it down until you’ve put your pen in place.  To make bookmarks, I took paper and cut it 2″ wide and 9″ long and put tear tape inside and folded it in half.  A second type of book mark is 2″ wide and use two pieces of paper 4″ long.  Glue the pieces of paper together 2″ from the top and then the bottom half is open between the two papers and you can put it over a few pages.  The last bookmark we make was 6″ long and 2″ wide with a 3″ second piece glued to the top of the second piece and then embellish it.
The pen holder is made by taking a 1″ high piece of paper by 8″ long paper and put tear tape inside and fold it in half.  Then fold the center of the strip around a pen and put tear tape up to the beginning of the opening of the pen and then squeeze the two sides together.  Then put tear tape on both front and back of the strip that’s up to the opening for the pen and then adhere it to the inside cover of the notebook with the pen close enough to the cover that the pen doesn’t fall out and maybe 2″ from the top then put your inside back cover over the pen to adhere the strip down and make it so you can’t see the pen holder.

I bought some fleece that was really cute today and think I’m going to make a dog toy on video and I’m also going to do dog collars.  My dog videos really haven’t gone over very well and I’m not sure why.  People have dogs and buy them toys and treats and collars, maybe they just don’t want to take the time to make them.  I think I’m going to work on a cute Halloween inspired collar that will get people thinking about Halloween and their dog’s cute costume aka their collar.  I think my dogs will be ready for Halloween long before the neighbors even get their decorations on their houses, something I’ve never really done before.  But this is the year for Halloween decorations.  I got a big web and a huge hairy spider for on the web and we have a bat that flies overhead and makes creepy sounds and has red glowing eyes.  We also found one of those treat bowls where the hand grabs the kids’ hand as they reach for a treat.  I don’t think it will work for big candy bars like we normally give kids, so I’m going to make coffin’s and put candy bars inside those.  I haven’t figured out the logistics of making one out of card stock, but I’m determined to make one that will fit some Snickers bars or maybe Kit Kats because they are small and flatter.  I’m still thinking it all through, but I’m hoping our trick or treaters will be happy with our goodies.

I’m not sure if other people do this, but I like to buy candy bars that Rich and I like to eat because if we have any left over, we just eat them and have no guilt in the process.  Someone has to eat them, we can’t let them go to waste, Come on!

I was inspired today to make a couple of Halloween videos.  I’d used a napkin that I really liked and put Mod Podge on it so it would have a tougher consistency.  The problem was I didn’t think that the other times I had done it, I’d used a silicone mat and this time I used a plastic placemat to put the Mod Podged napkin on to dry.  Let’s just say it was a poor choice for removal of the napkin.  Once it dried, it was almost impossible to remove but eventually it came off, in pieces.  One section was mostly complete so I used it on the card I was making.  I wasn’t sure if my idea would work, but I had a large cemetery stamp and thought I could stamp it in black under the napkin and then glue the napkin to it so you could really see the cemetery in the background.  It wasn’t a great plan but worked well enough to make the video of it.

I also wanted to make a tag for on a treat back but only had a black treat bag that I had to remove an embellishment from that took the black off and left a big white line.  I decided to ink it with black ink to cover the white and thought it would dry. After forty minutes, it still wasn’t dry but of course, I didn’t really check it, so tried to apply my cute tag and ended up getting black on it.  These are the days of my life.  How did that saying go? Something like “As sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives.”  My mother loved that show, (Days of our Lives), and I guess the saying must have just stuck in my brain.  I think my version if more like “As mistakes on each craft, these are the days of my life.”  Is that a fair evaluation of my crafting?  I’d have to say it is.  I do appreciate that other crafters eliminate their mistakes but I’m doing my craft channel for people with physical limitations and they probably make the same mistakes as this physically limited individual.  I might make more, and I’m not ashamed, just more irritated with myself with some of them, because they are completely avoidable.  I could have  1.  Use a Sharpie instead  2.  Checked to see if the ink was dry  3.  Used ribbon over the spot instead   4.  Used my heat tool on it.  In retrospect, I’m quite the MaGyver crafter, but in the moment, I just fly by the seat of my pants.  Maybe it would be better if I turned off the camera, thought through the problem, came up with a solution and then turned the camera back on.  Note to self, plan to do it differently next time I make a mistake.  I just might not make as many mistakes on camera, but don’t count on it.

Every once in a while I make a card or a project that I’m really happy with.  The Halloween Pals card made me so happy.  I just had so much fun making it and the more I added to it, the more I liked it.  I almost went overboard with the embellishments, but it screamed Halloween and the fun and bling that Halloween reminds me of.

I have to say though, how do I make another card that comes close to being as much fun as that one?  I’m hoping a stamp set I have Tableau of Terror, will be the centerpiece of it though.  It’s got all the scary characters you would expect on a Halloween card and I’m so excited to use it as I just got it after Halloween last year.  I had a brand new YouTube channel and a lovely woman named Elicia, contacted me and asked if she could send me a box of goodies.  She sent so many great things and I was so honored and proud that she would think I was worthy of the box of goodies she sent.  She sent another lady a box of goodies and then sent me a second box with the Tableau of Terror in it.  I could never thank her enough for her generosity or how she made me feel like my channel was worth watching.  I stopped hearing from her and I’ve always wondered if I did something to upset her somehow.  If I did, I hate the idea that I let her down in some way and wish I knew what I could do to make it up to her.  So at this point the best I can do is honor her by using the things that she sent me and thank her on each video in the hopes that someday she will respond.  She and I bot love Halloween and Halloween inspired videos.  I hope I do her goodies justice.