At our house clipping nails is a two person job. I can clip a couple of the cats without help, but it generally goes smother with two people. My husband holds the cats and I clip their nails.

As for crating her, how big is the crate? I used to work at a boarding facility and I saw a lot of cats fight the smaller crates. It was always much easier to get cats into larger crates. We'd often sit the crate upright, so the door was pointed toward the ceiling, and while holding the cat's back against our chest and supporting/holding their back feet, we could lower them into the crate. Once the door was shut we could slowly and gently lower the crate into it's correct position.

Also, I have a cat who doesn't like crates, but loves and willingly goes into a sherpa-bag like the one pictured below.