Merry Christmas everyone! I had planned to have my first video up and start the giveaways but I opted to spend extra time with my kids today. We had a great Christmas (even though it's SO cold here - we hit -42C with the wind chill this morning) and I made turkey dinner with all the fixings and just stayed warm!
I will be starting the videos and giveaways tomorrow! Stay tuned as there's a LOT up for grabs and I am beyond excited to share it with you all!
First off though are a couple of great sales I wanted to share:
Lastly - THANK YOU!! I posted a collage of all the Christmas Card videos I did for my AmyR Christmas Card 2017 Series on my social media - and thought I'd share them here as well:
All in all I created 26 videos, 58 Cards, 4 tags and 6 ornaments! I had a lot of fun, and sadly didn’t get to make near as much as I wanted to (or had ideas for!) but at the very least I did what I set out to do! I hope y'all enjoyed them - if you missed any you can check out my YouTube playlist with all the videos in order HERE:
Now I’m on to working on all the giveaways and videos to accompany them! Thank you all SO much for your support, comments, likes, thumbs up and follows. 2017 has been great and I am very much looking forward to 2018 - however before we get to the New Year I have a BUNCH of videos and giveaways for y'all as a way to say thank you! <3 <3 <3
First off a heads up that all classes (with the exception of the Crafted Kindness bundle) are $5 off at Online Card Classes this weekend! You can check them all out HERE <-----click!
Also if any of you missed it - I've updated my Sales & Coupons page <------click! with all the current deals going on at my favourite crafts stores this weekend. I HIGHLY recommend checking them out and I HIGHLY recommend all those fabulous businesses, all are family run and it's thanks to them that we have the awesome products for card making and I am extremely grateful for all!!
Now - back to Online Card Classes. Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner (who own OCC together) have gathered up a bunch of amazing designers to create the Crafted Kindness Mega Video bundle <-----click!
I was very honoured to be involved in this! All the after tax proceeds from the purchase of this bundle will go to hurricane relief. To celebrate I am gifting 2 classes to followers on my Instagram account (just look for the images above on my account and all the info will be there!). I always do giveaways here on my blog so for once (and for the first time) I thought I'd spread the love around and do a giveaway over there!
Just a heads up for those that might not be aware. I have a Sales & Coupons tab at the top of my blog right below my banner - when you click on it you're taken to the page where I keep the latest sales and coupon codes (as well as new release info!) from my favourite companies. I find it's easier to have all that info in one place and on one page rather than having it all sprinkled throughout my posts here.
I wanted to post about this now as there are some time-sensitive sales going on as of right now, plus there are several great new releases and I have links to all of it on the page! You can keep checking back often as I update it regularly!! :)
I want to say thank you to ALL of you that take the time out of your day to visit my corner of the interwebs. I never in a million years thought I'd be where I am now, and I am very much looking forward to what's ahead. I love what I do, and love sharing all of it with you (good and bad, b/c hey it's life). I am also thankful I've been able to start doing giveaways like this and finding ways to pay it back to guys in small ways just to show my appreciation! :) :) :) ((((hugs))))
I included a link to the No Place Like Home Card Kit from MFT that I'm giving away, as well as a link to the NEW Beautiful Butterflies Card Kit that some of you may have not seen yet! :)
2016 was a crazy year for us - so many things happened, so many things changed, but I am thankful that my kids and I are happy and healthy and looking forward to a great 2017!
I went back through the cards I shared with y'all last year - and chose out a post for every month of 2016 that was my favourite. I'll have links to them all below!
I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you for your support here on my blog, and on my social media account and the personal messages sent to me. I very much appreciate you all visiting my corner of the interwebs and all the comments/messages/likes etc!
I know I haven't done a Life Update video in a really long time - and now I wouldn't even know where to start LOL! So I thought I'd open up the discussion and do another series of Question & Answer videos like I did last year. Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section of this post and I'll get to answering them in a video soon!
Bring it on 2017 - I am determined to make this a great year for me and my kiddos :) :) :).
I still find it hard to believe I started this blog 10 years ago!
To celebrate I filmed this quick video:
Sorry it's out of focus :P - I didn't have time to try and get it focused and re-film everything so since it's such a quick video I thought I'd just post it and get on with the giveaway!
3 winners will each receive one of the AmyR Stamps set pictured above. I get asked a LOT if I'll ever design stamps again - who knows! I have a lot on my plate with just life in general so at this moment I'm not even going to think about it. If I do though you all will be the first to know!
I am honoured that so many of you ask though - all the support I've received through my blog and YouTube and social media has been so VERY much appreciated over all these years. This giveaway can't even being to pay it all back but I'll keep doing giveaways every chance I get.
Follow the steps in the Rafflecopter widget below to be entered in to win and good luck!
CONGRATS to Chrissy, Amber and Brandi! I've sent e-mails to all 3 of you and am waiting on replies with your mailing addresses so I can send out these sets to y'all! Thank you all SO much for playing along (a lot more than I was expecting!) and for your sweet comments! I don't have words for how much I appreciate all the support!!
Well if you're reading this it means my blog is back up and working again. Typepad was hit by another DDoS attack yesterday so the network was down. I was getting e-mails and questions on my Facebook page and my YouTube channel so I posted a quick update video for everyone.
FYI Facebook is the best place to find me when things like this happens - at least it's always active LOL! My blog was down for almost a week last month after similar attacks (not directed at me but at my blog provider).
I tried a couple of times last night to post this but I kept getting error messages and things freezing up on me (so while the blog was showing up for readers there are still issues behind the scenes) so I finally gave up.
I will link to the update video HERE <------click! And then see if I can get the video to embed in this post (that was one of the biggest issues - trying to get a video IN the post).
Anywho in the video I gave an impromptu studio tour - nothing too exciting, and then decided I'll do a question and answer video since it's been a long time since I've done that. So if you've got any questions for me post them in the comment section below!
And if things cooperate I plan on posting more today and throughout the next few days so keep checking back in!
Hey peeps! Not everyone seems to be reading the little "notes" I've been adding above and below my videos lately regarding the quality and linking over to YouTube so I thought I'd take a minute and make a whole separate post about it.
Simply put people have been complaining the when they watch the videos that I embed in my blog posts the videos are blurry (I won't post what exactly has been said as some of it was getting out of hand and rather rude...).
Now first off when I watch from my computers I don't find them to be too blurry - definitely not HD but not bad. However I think it really depends on your internet connection and all that jazz.
**That's why I link to the video directly on my YouTube channel right below every video. When you're on the YouTube page you can click on the little gear symbol (lower right corner) and choose which resolution you want to watch in - and for quite a few videos now I upload in HD so there are several options to get a clearer video!
That option isn't available when I embed into my blog (if it is and someone knows how to change that just let me know!), and I assume it only allows a lower resolution (again if that can be changed someone let me know!). Of course YouTube wants you to watch on their site. Personally it doesn't matter to me where people watch it, I'd rather they could watch right here in my blog as I've always got more info and links and all that in the blog post. But whatever works!
This has been my PSA for the day *wink* - have a great one!! :) :) :)
I thought I'd try something new and start posting a "Sunday Recap" post with links to all the posts I've done in the past week. We'll see how it goes and if you guys like that I can keep doing them each week, or never do it again LOL!
So here's what went up on the blog the week of Feb 16-22:
I made a card for MFT's Challenge on Splitcoast for LOVEFEST.
Having all my posts listed from the past week gives a nice reference for anything missed - and it's nice for me to see how productive I was/can be! Let me know what you guys think!
And some of you have already noticed the change - but if you're reading this through bloglovin', feedly etc etc you'll have to click over to my blog to see how it looks now!
I am SO happy with it! My poor blog has needed a face-lift for a really long time - and I just don't have the tech skills to figure it all out (something I'd love to learn how to do - I have the programs and even a Wacom tablet with NO clue how to properly use them :P) - so I found someone who did (that didn't have a 2-year wait list AND who could work with Typepad - that wasn't easy!)
Tiffany helped me bring my ideas to life and I am SUPER happy with the end result! I took screen shots of it all:
So fresh and fun - great way to end 2013 and start the new year!
I'm loving it and I wish overhauling my stamp space was as easy as this was (for me - all I had to do was say what I wanted and reply to e-mails LOL) - I mentioned on my Facebook that I *really* want to overhaul my stamp space and purge/organize/CLEAN it all up. I actually talked about it in my update video then edited that part out as I went on and on and on LOL.
That plus I get a ton of requests to list everything online to sell - and I'll say it here first that sadly it's not too good of an option for me. Even if I were to list things for cheap - or even give things away - the shipping from Canada is killer. I couldn't ask people to pay the outrageous prices - and we don't have flat rate boxes like the US does (if we did that would be fabulous). It definitely sucks as I'd rather give all of you the opportunity to benefit from this but it's not a feasible option.
However I do plan on doing a stamp area tour at some point - people have been asking for one for months now - and I just haven't got around to doing one. So hopefully soon - it's at the top of my New Years resolutions list!
Speaking of which - I asked on Facebook but for those that aren't on there with me - what is YOUR New Years resolution as far as stamping/scrapbooking/crafting?
As always busy busy busy here ;), but still attempting to get things done - lately more-so on my YouTube channel.
I finally uploaded a "channel preview" - if you're already subscribed to me on YouTube you won't have seen it - it's meant to somewhat explain what it is I DO on there to people that are totally new to me:
And something else I've been trying that I talked about on my FB page is uploading my videos as a larger file size. I always forget that a LOT of my blog readers and YouTube subscribers are not on my facebook page, so addressing things here is needed as well.
Lately I've been getting *some* "complaints" that my videos are "blurry" or they think I need to "zoom out more" b/c it's not crystal clear. Or that I need to purchase a HD or better quality camera.
Well for one thing I DO have a pretty good camera (one that cost me a pretty penny when I purchased it!), that DOES film in HD. BUT that is a MASSIVE amount of data to upload/edit/process/upload to YouTube, and not only is it the camera but my computer and my internet connection need to be top notch as well.
What a LOT of people don't realize is that I do this mostly as a hobby (AKA I'm not making near enough $$ to classify all this as a business - literally I make nothing when one figures out all the time I put into it - I do it because I enjoy it - I LOVE stamping and have learned to love making videos and sharing them with all of you). And I pay for EVERYTHING out of my own pocket. I saved up for months to buy the camera I have (and actually sold off a lot of my stamping stuff that I'd stockpiled for years), and saved up for a couple YEARS to purchase my iMac computer. I've been paying extra to my internet provider to have faster upload speeds (which sadly is being downgraded in a couple weeks b/c the bills are piling up and I won't be working as much soon!) in order to handle all the video files.
Up until recently I've been uploading all my videos as a "medium file" (it's just an option in iMovie - I honestly am not all that savvy on "tech-speak" when it comes to all this stuff - I do what I can), which isn't the "best" quality.
So after getting too many complaints I thought I'd *try* uploading a "large file" for my videos. It takes about 3x longer for my computer to process and upload to YouTube - and so far I see a tiny bit of improvement? And I haven't had any complaints recently LOL ;) ;).
I can honestly say that I have NO plans on filming and uploading in HD - at least not in the near future. It takes a LOT of time to film, then edit, upload, process, post, etc etc etc for every single video I do - and switching to HD would basically more than triple that amount of time. Time that I just don't have. And with a baby on the way I DEFINITELY won't have that much free time!
All that being said - I only thought it was time to better explain what all this is like for me. I'm not catering to the complainers (much *wink*), it was more of an experiment on my part to try something different. I've always tried to make my videos as well as possible and explain everything as simply as possible (which was the main point in my opinion), and I KNOW that you can't please everyone! It's a learning process too - my videos have come a loooonnnggg way since I first started making them - now I'm at well over 300 (hundred!) videos on my YouTube channel. And I'm sure they will keep improving as time goes on (I hope anyway).
It's also easier for me to type all this up here for y'all rather than try to explain the whole process over and over and OVER again to the people that don't understand and feel the need to criticize.
Thankfully the vast majority of my subscribers, my readers, and my Facebook fans are more than appreciative of what I do - and I appreciate all of you just as much. I also really appreciate y'all for sticking up for me when a "hater" does creep out of the woodwork, and for sticking by me when I seem to disappear for weeks on end when my "real" life tends to take over! It makes what I do on here worth it that's for sure.
And if you're still reading at this point THANK YOU ((((hugs))))
I have to head to work now (my "real" job that actually helps with the bills and puts food on the table LOL), hopefully I will have something more "creative" to post for y'all very soon!
I posted about this on my Facebook page but people aren't seeing it and not everyone that reads my blog is on my Facebook page. I'm getting a lot of messages and e-mails about it so I'm posting here too just so y'all know I'm aware of thie issue:
**Google Chrome Users** - if you're having issues with my blog (not allowing you on and getting "malware" warnings) it's b/c of the Stamping Top 50 badge in the sidebar - apparently it's causing issues with every site it's on. I'm not removing mine right now as it's a pain to do and it's not a virus or malware of any sort. If you use a different browser you won't have a problem. Hopefully any issues will be fixed ASAP on the Top 50 site...
I'm going to fiddle and see if I can remove the badge just so that I don't get a bunch more messages and e-mails. I'm well-aware of the issue and there are a TON of sites that it's affecting (there's hundreds of us that have the Top 50 badge) but it's only to those that are using Google Chrome. If you switch to a different browser you won't have an issue.
It was high time for me to post a video like this :). I have found that I'm replying to a TON of e-mails and comments etc and that I'm repeating myself over and over and over again :P I *think* I explain it better via video and "in person" rather than typing it up in an e-mail 500 times LOL!
From now on when I get comments/e-mails asking where I got such-and-such I'll just link to this video - b/c 99% of the time a person just doesn't know that I've already done all the work for you! ;) Saves us ALL a ton of time in the end LOL!
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I have to run to work - I hope y'all have a fabulous day! :)
It only took me FOREVER to add a search bar to this blog (although I am sure at one time I had one and I have no idea what happened to it!) - and with over 4 1/2 YEARS of post to sift through when you're looking for something it should kinda help to have a search function.
If you're reading this in a reader (like Google Reader) you'll have to click over to my blog to see it. It's in the right sidebar --------> a little lower down.
