I wanted to figure out a way to encourage people to go to my facebook page and share their projects.  Our viewers are extremely kind to each other, and for that, I’m truly thankful.  So in order to really get people to check it out, I’m having a contest and included it in the Easter basket video that’s going live tomorrow.  (It should have gone live today, but Rich got distracted with his camera and updated his tablet, so I lost him for the editing.  Drat!)  Anyway, I’m just happy I have a couple of videos in the can (that’s technical jargon for you.  Aren’t I smart?)

When I thought about how to run this contest, I’m asking people to share the project their most proud of.  There’s such a wide range of skills and experience, that it wouldn’t be fair to judge by beauty….Rich and I talked it over, and decided the best thing to do, would be to choose by random numbers.  For those that are not familiar with Facebook, I’m allowing them to post their photos to my email, and Rich will include those on facebook, so all submissions are in one place.   Then we’ll go to random.com and it’s simple from there.  They ask how many numbers of entries are included, and then they tell you the number that’s the winner.  Couldn’t be easier for me.  I’m sending the Easter basket full of all kinds of crafty goodies.  I have so many things to share, and now that some small companies are sending me things, I can share even more.  I’m really looking forward to it.  Those of you who read the blog will have a jump on finding your favorite paper project to share.  I can’t wait to see all of the really wonderful things that viewers have created.

I made and finished an Easter basket that I think everyone can make, and it doesn’t really take very long.  I’ve seen this in a smaller size, but I think if you’re going to make one, go big or go home.  I wonder where that saying originated from…Let’s check it out.

I went to a site called Quora and this is what they came up with…three completely different origins.

Robert Charles Lee, Printbroker, financial printer, non-practising lawyer

Answered Mar 3 2016 · Author has 24.1k answers and 33.5m answer views

The first documented use was in the Disney TV movie Johnny Tsunami (1999), according to most Internet sources I’ve looked at.

It’s actual usage was much earlier than that. I well remember we were using “go big” and “go big or go home” in London in the mid-1980s, and we (certainly I) picked it up from older American exchange students (also Californian surfers) then. So that might be a clue.

Skip Foss

Answered Feb 6 2017

It is military expression used by pilots involved in bombing targets. It means the longer you stay on the target the high probability of a direct hit. The go big means to expose your aircraft to ground fire for a longer time period to insure a direct hit. The go home means if you haven’t the intestinal fortitude to go big just tuck your tail and go home.

1.8k Views

Kathy Knopoff

Answered Oct 21 2014

Apparently it was a marketing term for Porker Pipes in the 90’s – they made exhaust systems for Harleys in Southern California – “Go big or go home” was on their packaging.

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So there you have it…As for me, I’m feeling much better and am hoping to continue to do so.  I finished another video of gifts I received from a friend as well as a huge supply of Glue Dots from the company.  They’ve asked me to help them with a prototype to determine if it is workable for a left handed person and if it will work in the craft world.  I’m not allowed to show that, but did show all of the other super generous gifts that they sent me..

My hands started swelling badly yesterday, and tingled, as my elbows are so swollen, they pinch nerves that go to my hands.  It’s not a good sign, and I think I’ll probably need to go back on steroids, after I worked so hard do go off of them. Drat.  You can do a single day steroid dose, which I did last night and I’m hoping by tonight, I’ll be able to make a simple project for Easter, and will let you know.  I can’t tell you how frustrating this is, as my arthritis hasn’t been this out of control since the early 1990’s. You have no idea how much I hate admitting this, as I’ve always been pretty private about my health, but when I just watched my latest mixed media card, I could see the swelling, and it’s so disheartening.  And of course, I had trouble making a lot of sense, so talked about the steroid withdrawal near the end of the video.

A viewer from Ireland wanted me to make a mixed media card with butterflies, so I’m giving it a try.  I began by putting Faber Castell Texture Luxe Pearl on a stencil from Stampers Anonymous that came with flower stamps (but I don’t know the name of it.) I used painters tape to adhere it to the card base that was teal colored and 5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall.
Used Best of Butterflies and Butterbly Basics by Stampin’ Up, and from Amuse Studio, For Peeps’ Sake stamp sets.
I started by putting scrap cardstock in the MISTI and put a couple of the butterfly stamps inside and using a paint brush with Kuretake Gansai Tambai watercolor set of 36, and painted the stamps with a damp brush and the blue and green watercolors that I mixed on a tile.
After they were dry, I took the same stencil, and put Bo Bunny Glitter Paste over the stamped images.   I stamped Happy Easter on a long piece of the same white scrap card stock, and used Taken with Teal ink from Stampin’ Up, which I believe is the same color as our card base to stamp with.
I used pigment ink on two basic butterfly punched imaged then put clear embossing powder and heat set it, then put Versafine Onyx Black ink and stamped a plaid image on them, then put more embossing powder on them, then heat set them again.
I took a long line from Butterfly Basics and put it in the MISTI, and stamped Versafine Onyx black ink on it, and put embossing powder on it, then heat set it.  The stamp had some issues and didn’t stamp well, even with repeat stamping, so I used a black Sharpie to fix it.
I used Studio G glitter glue in blue and irridescent on rubbed it on the texture paste on the card base as well as on the line I stamped near the bottom of the card and then wiped it over the butterflies.
Trimmed the butterflies and punched vellum with the same stamp so they would layer, then added Tonic glue to glue them together.
There was a small honeycomb stamp in Butterfly Basics, so stamped with some chambray and green inks and attached a small butterfly over the stamped image, inside the card. Added Happy Easter sentiment in the inside of the card, with chambray ink.
Added glue foam tape to the back of the sentiment for the front of the card and attached it, then attached glue squares to a lot of the butterflies and attached them to the card. I added some Nuvo Drops and sequins and crystal drops to the front, then added ribbon under the banner on the front and made a bow.

My exhaustion has caught up to me once again.  I didn’t think the last video that went up reflected it, but I got a call from Carol Held, a fellow YouTuber from Canada.  She called me twice today while I was still asleep (and our ringer was turned off,) then again this afternoon.  She said she watched my last video and I seemed like I might be ill.  She said she was so concerned that she was going to call me until she spoke to someone, as she thought I must be coming down with something.

I really appreciate the comments I got on this blog when I talked about my health and feeling so tired.  I am blessed to have supportive people in my corner.

So I added a commentary on the newest video that should go live tomorrow, as I had a hard time thinking and making cohesive sentences in that video.  I don’t want others to be concerned, so told my viewers the whole story.  It made me feel better telling them the truth, but still, I wish it wasn’t like this.  I’m hoping that I start feeling more energized in the next few days.  And luckily, you’ll be the first to know.

Still exhausted, but committed to start making Easter cards.  I wanted to try a mixed media card, and have been working on it for three days.  I’ll bet you think a card I’d spend three days on must mean it’s a work of art.  Not so much…It’s a work of something, but I’m not sure what.  The lady that asked for it, knows I don’t do much mixed media, and trust me when I say this, I’m not sure if this card is representative of mixed media, or a mixed mess.  I put that final touches on it last night and had Rich look at it to decide what he thought of it.  He came out shaking his head. and asked if it was for a man.  It’s pretty masculine, were his thoughts on it.  Then his next words were, “it’s got a lot going on.”  I will admit that it does have a lot going on, but the masculine part, that I’m not really sure about.  It’s glittery and has a ton of butterflies in a variety of styles and media.  It might have too many butterflies and even more glitter, and I have been alternating between putting it on my facebook page as a huge fail, or posting it on YouTube as a card I feel good about.  It’s beauty lies somewhere in between.  It might be really tacky, and that could be the perfect word for it.  Or over the top…another good description for it.   I thought about putting it on YouTube for “what to do when nothing goes the way you want.”  Or maybe I could make it a lead in to a contest for people to post their ugly cards on my facebook page.  I’ll take one more look at it, and decide which place to post it.  It’s definitely not a winner, that’s a definite.

Every once in a while, I hit a wall, literally.  I hate to admit it, but it’s a fact of life.  I’ve been on small daily dose of prednisone for about three years.  I really wanted to wean off of it, and finally was able to do so a week or so ago.  There are big side effects for coming off of steroids, and I just started really feeling them the last few days.  I’m completely exhausted and as much as I want to stay on top of my videos, I’m starting to struggle again.  So I’ll just tell those of you that read this blog,  I know we’re in this channel together, and you understand how much it means to me to keep it going.  I hope by sleeping a lot in the next couple of days, that I’ll get past it, and feel like i’m on top of my YouTube game again.  At least that’s  my plan.

Although we aren’t Irish, my sister loves St. Patrick’s Day, and I try to make her a card every year.
I started with Jolee’s Boutique embellishments that I bought at Joann’s. The piece I’m using is primarily cream colored, so I used Recollections cream colored heavyweight card stock cut to a 5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall card base. I also cut a piece that was 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and put it into a shamrock embossing folder and ran it through my Vagabond. I used a green pigment ink and rubbed the ink pad over the shamrock paper, then put Ranger clear embossing powder on it and heat set it. I used my Fiskars guillotine trimmer to cut it to 5 1/2″ tall by 2″ wide. I put tear tape on the back of the shamrock strip so it would stay attached to fun foam and used Tea Dye Distress Ink with a stencil brush to brush all four edges of my shamrock strip.
Putting the card base in the MISTI, I used Inspired by Stamping Lines stamps and stamped with the same ink as the shamrock, then used clear embossing powder and heat set the lines as well.  I flipped the card in the MISTI, so the lines were on the exact same place on both sides of my card.
The embellishment from Jolee’s has loops on either side of it, so I tied silver thread on both sides and wrapped it around the shamrock piece and put tear tape on the back to push the excess thread into it. I put a piece of fun foam on the back and more tear tape on the back of the fun foam and placed the shamrock piece between the lines on the card base. Sometimes the tear tape doesn’t hold it, so use a little wet glue to ensure it stays in place.
My Creative Times “I believe in Leprechauns” stamp set was used for the inside sentiment. I used the Tea Dye distress ink and brushed it around the outside edges of the card, and then used the same stencil brush to ensure there was more ink on the edges.
I used peg stamps, large and small shamrocks, from http://www.pegstamps.com on the inside of the card and on the envelope with Lucky Clover distress ink.

I have promised a viewer that I will make her a mixed media card featuring butterflies.  I started working on the card tonight, and so far, it’s a fail..Huge Fail!  It might be one of those cards that after you let it dry, it looks a lot better, but it looks highly doubtful at this point.  I wish people like Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire would show their fails, and what, if anything, they do to save them.  I sometimes feel like I’m the only crafter on YouTube who shows my fails.  It doesn’t do a lot for my confidence, let me tell you.  I guess I’ll let you know tomorrow if the card had to go into the trash can, as it’s pretty scary.  If it actually makes it to video, it could be a minor miracle.

I think I should make a facebook contest for my viewers…Show me your worst fail…There’s a chance though, when you run a contest like that, people will make the worst card possible just to win.  But if they go to such great lengths to win, maybe they deserve it..I’m still in the thinking phase, but really think I’ll run with it.  So save your horrible cards, because you might have the winner.

I forgot to write on the blog yesterday, as we went out to lunch and then to a movie with friends.  We saw Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence and I have to say, it was much more violent and gory than I had anticipated.  I have two things I can’t watch in movies, rape scenes and violence against animals.  If you’re going to see the movie, I’ll tell you this much, there’s no animal violence involved.  I was anxious by the time the movie ended, as there was so much explicit violence..torture, rape, you name it.  I was really glad when we got in the car and I could forget about the last two hours.  Obviously, I’m not a movie critic, but I wasn’t a huge fan, and I normally really enjoy her movies.

On to other topics.  I made my sister’s St. Patrick’s Day card, if I forgot to tell you.  I think it turned out fine and hope my viewers enjoy it.

Today, I read, went to dinner with friends and am hanging out with the dogs.  They prefer to spend their time with me…not because they like me more than Rich, but because they can con me into almost anything.  These dogs aren’t stupid…they know an easy touch when they see one.  We’re spending the evening trying to find some card techniques I’d like to try, and tomorrow I’ll make it.  I’ve promised a couple of viewers that I will make them cards, and want to get serious about it..