Thursday 1 December 2016

Youtube and life updates!

Hi everyone! Just dropping by to share a link to a video I made. I want to do video reviews of things I buy, most of which are craft supplies. This is the first of the series and it's super awkward, but I can tell you (because I filmed several more already) it will get better in time!


Do you think it's a good idea? What kind of supplies and items would you like to see reviewed?


I'm feeling crafty again after a forced pause and right now I'm all over holiday projects. I have a half-finished pipecleaner tree, some unembellished wreaths with tutorial photos and a jar of soaking odds and ends that will go into mini snow globes.


I have never made a regular snow globe, let alone a miniature one, so I'm foreseeing a lot of fun and bloopers regardless of the result. I'm going to leave the prospective snow globe fillings in the water jar for a few days, meanwhile I hope to edit a wreath tutorial. It would be great if I managed all three tutorial posts before the holidays. Wish me luck!

The Black Kitty
~(^^)(^^)~

8 comments:

  1. Good luck and I'm looking forward to watching them all! Subscribed!

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    1. Thank you! I'll try to get the footage sorted in addition to my holiday projects.

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  2. Interesting watch! I hope you get all of your projects accomplished.

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    1. Thanks! I have way too many projects in my head at any time.

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  3. Ooh I love aliexpress but havn't shopped there in a while as they don't take paypal.
    I look forward to seeing what you do with the craft supplies!
    Good luck with the snowglobe and tutorials (and have fun too!)

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    1. Thank you! I have the opposite problem - I can't use Paypal or even cards that go through paypal guest checkout. The good news for you is that many Aliexpress sellers are also on eBay and you can find there much of the same stuff I buy, you just have to search for it.

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  4. Hi BlackKitty. I'm back in the US and busy catching up on my blog reading! I LOVE the idea of your doing reviews of the things you buy as well as the sellers you buy from. I tend to shy away from buying things on line if I don't know the seller. So any and all posts you make will be most appreciated. I'll be returning back to my earring post and changing the vocabulary to reflect the correct names and I'll also post your online references because it's good to know that someone I know has bought from those particular sellers. It's also good to know whether or not they take Paypal or whether or not they are on eBay or Etsy.

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    1. Hey, welcome back! How is home? I'm glad you support my idea, this motivates me to edit the rest of the videos. I have a lot on my head right now - taking classes, preparing packages and planning trips, but I'm always happy to read positive comments like yours. I'll try to find out in the future which of the sellers are also on eBay. They aren't on Etsy as far as I know - these are manufacturers and warehouses, not individual small businesses. To put it another way, on Aliexpress you can find all the "made in China" products you see in local stores minus the tenfold price markup. You can find things like ponytail inverters, American flags, teaspoons with a kink in the handle, LED lights and so on, but not a single used or OOAK item like on eBay. They don't take Paypal. This is what the payment page says: "Currently, you can pay using Boleto, Visa, MasterCard, QIWI, Western Union, Maestro debit card, WebMoney and bank transfer. More payment options will be available on AliExpress in the future." We use a Maestro card in USD, it's the cheapest to maintain. BornPretty.com is where they accept Paypal and shipping is free. They only carry beauty supplies, but their nail art collection is impressive and very useful for doll crafts.
      I too tend to buy from trusted sellers, so I understand your concern. Although there is almost no risk of losing money thanks to the purchase protection system, dealing with disputes is never pleasant. Usually I check the overall feedback score, I have bought things from new stores with no feedback occasionally but as a rule I only buy if their feedback is over 95% positive. If I want a more expensive item, I check the specific item feedback. If there is none, I almost never buy it and try looking in different stores. I have some favourite stores now, including one with doll stuff. That may be the next video I'll post :)

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