I realize that now I could be procrastinating cleaning and organizing the craft room, but decided I wasn’t up for it today.  I really wanted to get serious about it, but the weather has finally gotten cooler, around 70 degrees, and so we finally were able to take Rich’s Mustang for a ride.  He has a 1966 red Mustang convertible that I’m pretty sure is the love of his life.  As a kid, it was his dream car, and when we were in our thirties, I promised he would have one for his fortieth birthday.  A friend of ours who is a Mustang enthusiast, was keeping an eye out for any in our area.  Rich was thirty-seven when we found it and it looked great but really wasn’t.  Since we bought it, almost everything in the car has had to be replaced, and I mean everything.  He wanted to get it painted candy apple red, and we found a man and his wife that had a small body shop where they renovated old cars.  They told us it would take a long time to renovate and in the end, they had it for a year.  His car needed new doors, trunk lid, hood, floor boards, and that’s just some of the cosmetic things.  An engine, muffler system, electrical system, radio, and more on the mechanical side and every year, it costs about a thousand dollars just to get it on the road.

I think the reason I brought this up, is because crafting can be expensive at times as well, and we all have things that make us happy.  I’m thrilled that Rich loves his car and he’s really supportive of my YouTube channel and all it entails.  When you have the right partner in life, you share in each other’s happiness and I’m blessed I found the man for me.  I can always clean another day, but there aren’t many days that are perfect for a ride in an old convertible.  Those days are few and far between.

I spent the morning going to garage sales and only found some great dog toys (baby stuffed toys work the best as dog toys) and she only wanted a nickel for each one.   I would have paid a quarter for each of them, but hey, if she only wants a nickel, you pay the price.  I found another lady that was selling the big Christmas gift bags ten for a quarter.  Crazy cheap.  She also had a brand new really big bag of decorative tissue paper for a quarter as well.  I didn’t find many crafty things, but had a good time anyway.

I should have finished cleaning and organizing my craft room, but just could not find the ambition to do it.  Maybe I’ll get serious about it tomorrow.  Then again, maybe not.  I don’t like to push myself too hard when it comes to cleaning and organizing, as it takes the fun out of it. So instead I decided to read.  I’m a big fan of suspense novels and decided to read a book called Lost Light by Michael Connelly.  I have to say, I was really disappointed in it and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  It was too long and predictable and that’s something that kind of bugs me.  If it’s predictable, then it has no suspense, thus it’s not really a suspense novel now is it?  I probably should have cleaned instead.

I’ve been trying to stay on top of things but have fallen behind on my blogging and I apologize.  I normally am only a day off at most and this is the first time that I’m three days behind.  Geez!  I spent the day cleaning and organizing my craft room.  It was the perfect day to do it as although it’s fall, it’s been really warm this week and way too hot to spend time outside.

I finished a couple more videos and got some great ideas of things I’d like to do for more fall projects.  Oh, and I also spray painted my blacktop driveway where I had accidentally painted it with different colors while doing projects.  It’s kind of odd how much the wind blew the spray paint and I think you’ll really see it in the video of the second dresser I refinished.  I couldn’t believe the cloud of spray paint that was in the air around the dresser and it looked like I wasn’t hitting the dresser with any paint, but rather just spraying the air.  Crazy how things like that look on video!  Although it did look like I’d have to fix a lot more of the pavement after that video, there wasn’t anything left behind (and that was a big relief.)  Although I did use an entire can of black spray paint on the colors from past projects.  I’m not sure how I accomplished getting so much paint there, but boy was there a lot of mess to fix.  By the time I was finished, I had sweat running down my back and my face was bright red.  Yes, that’s how out of shape I am.  Spray painting made me look like I might be going to have a stroke.  Oh, and my calf muscles were shaking from bending over.  I was quite the sight and pretty, really pretty!   I should have videotaped that project, you would have laughed like anything at how crazy I looked.  Maybe I shouldn’t have done it at 11AM on a really hot day either. Oh well, it’s just another day in the life of Sandy.

Separate all layers of your napkin down to just the top layer.  I got my napkin at the Dollar Tree.  Put it on a silicone mat (don’t make the mistake of putting it on a plastic placemat as it won’t come off).  Put Mod Podge on a foam brush and gently cover the entire napkin.  Let it dry and then cut out the piece you want for your card.  I used an A2 size card which was craft card stock that was 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ tall.  I took a stamp that is an old graveyard stamp from Stampendous called “graveyard” and was #R132 and inked it with Versafine Onyx Black ink and put the card on the stamp and tried to make sure it would show through my napkin.  I used a wet glue like Elmer’s and covered the front of my card and then put the napkin on top and scrunched it around on the glue and tried to make the napkin stick but also make it distressed and wrinkly.  After getting the napkin where I wanted it, I trimmed off the edges.  I had a little spider stamp and stamped it around the inside of the card and on the front once it was dry.  I had a cute scalloped die cut that a friend sent me that wasn’t the right colors for my card so I rubbed it over my Versafine Onyx Black ink pad until it was black.  Inside the card I stamped a sentiment that said Happy Haunting and was from Inspired by Stamping called Tricks and Treats and all of bats, spiders and sentiment came from this set.
I took the scallop that I turned black and ran it down the length of the left side of the card and trimmed it to fit.  I put foam tape on the back of it and then ran some beige embroidery thread around the scallop several times and knotted it on the front.  Then I attached a mummy that I got from Recollections that is a  dimensional stickers.  I stamped more of my spiders on the front of the card.

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.