I discover online tutorials

I haven’t anything to show you today, since I spent all my work time finishing my Valentine’s Day card — you’ll see that on Sunday! — but I have a lot of links to share.

First, I’ve started a thread on the Etsy forums, inviting crafters to share their challenges and advice working with vintage and repurposed materials. So far, it’s a friendly little thread, and I’m enjoying it! I hope it’ll stay active.

Second, I spent almost an hour today discovering online tutorials. I knew there were tutorials out there, but I didn’t realize there were so many, on so many different topics! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; my best friend Jackie made some wonderful gum-paste flowers for a birthday cake once after watching how-tos on Youtube. And I could have saved myself a lot of zipper misery a week ago if only I’d known this zip pouch tutorial existed! I’ve begun a new bookmarks subfolder just for tutorials. Some of the ones I’m most eager to try: this “5-minute skirt” which closely resembles one of my favorite skirts, this reversible bag (it improves on my own design and has some timesaving steps I’d never thought of), these cute flowers made of rickrack, and even HTML hacks for my Facebook page! I’ve resisted crafting blogs for a long time because there’s just too much out there, but now it looks as though these tutorials might suck me in at last.

I meant to finish my decoupaged box today so I could share a photo here, but yesterday’s stomach troubles and today’s dance cardio class have left me pretty tired. Hope I’ll have more to tell you about tomorrow!