I have deleted my only admin account, and now when I go to get things it is asking me to 'connect a smart card' now I have no idea what one of these is and I don't know how to get a new admin account as it isn't letting me create a new one.

Restore your machine to a point in time before you deleted the admin account.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

Fyi... A smart card is a card containing a cryptographic chip, like probably your banking pass. Smart cards can be used as authentication method. You can probably still select to enter a username and password, but that will be useless as you deleted the account.

And just how did you do that?

You can disable the built-in administrator account, but you can't delete it.

Next time, create an account(s) with administrative privi

Hello Zoe0511,

Do you delete the only administrator account in Windows 8.1?
How do you delete it?

If yes, you cant create a new administrator account by standard user. It is by design.

Please check if you have another administrator account in the Windows computer.

If you dont have one, you need to reinstall the computer.

Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN