New Art Journaling

I just added a feature to my e-mail list where you get 10 art journaling ideas if you subscribe. Just use the box on the bottom right side of this page.

These are some of my recent art journaling entries:
















You can see all my art journaling entries here.

Random Creative Art June Mid Month Sponsor Love

I'm a sponsor on the Random Creative Art blog. The owner, Rose, does a little write up on her sponsors. You can see the post here. Here's a screen cap:

You can also see the Random Creative Art advertisement on my blog (on the right side). If you're interested in advertising on my blog, click here.

June Move the Needle Mailing List

I sent out the latest issue of my Move the Needle Newsletter. You can view it online here. 



If you're not already signed up, you can register on the right side of this blog or by clicking here. I send the newsletter once every month. It has about the same info as on this blog, but it's really short and I just post about bigger updates in my shop or blog. I only have about 10 subscribers. If you have any tips for getting more newsletter subscribers, let me know. I guess newsletters aren't really popular for Etsy shops (or maybe it's more helpful for bigger shops).I'm thinking of doing this thing where new subscribers who sign up for my newsletter get 10 art journaling tips for free.

If you have an Etsy shop or business, do you have a newsletter?

Fourth of July Cards

Fourth of July is coming up. Here are some greeting cards I have in my shop for Fourth of July. I updated the photos from last year:

Fourth of July American Flag Greeting Card

Fourth of July Tissue Paper Greeting Card

Both of these cards use tissue paper for their designs.

What do you do to celebrate Fourth of July?

10 Things I'm Loving

Here are ten random things I'm loving at the moment. You can see some of my past 10 things I'm loving posts here and here.

1) Cupcakes - I’ve been experimenting with baking vegan cupcakes lately. If you have any recipes, let me know in the comments.



2) T-Rex Trying Comic - I love this T-Rex Trying comic blog on Tumblr. Let me know in the comments some of your favorite internet comics.



3) NeoBux - NeoBux is a paid to click website where you click advertisements to get a little bit of money. You can also refer people (or buy referrals) so you make more money. NeoBux is the only paid to click website I’ve found that I think you can make a good amount of money on.


4) Outright - Outright is a website that helps you organize your small business finances. It's really easy to use and I use it to keep track of my Etsy and EBay expenses. I like that you can see how much profit you're making and how much you're losing.


5) Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - I started reading this book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell a while ago and I recently finished it. It’s an interesting read about using your intuition and how we sometimes have the power to know things in the blink of an eye.


7) Oil pastels - I love doing all types of art, but recently I've been experimenting with oil pastels. You can see some oil pastels I did here and on my DeviantArt.



8) Fonts - I like finding different fonts online and using them as graphics. One good websites to find free fonts is 1001 Free Fonts. I also like the website WhatTheFont where you can put in an image and it will guess what font is being used. On YourFonts, you can make your own handwriting in to a font for free. Here's what it came up with for my handwriting. It' not completely accurate and it didn't line up quite correctly, but it was fun to do:

9) Color palettes -  I've been in to creating my own color palettes recently. I'm going to post a blog entry with some color palettes I made. Here's one of them.



10) Summer - Summer officially starts June 20th (today!). I love the warm weather, going to the beach and the feeling of relaxation in the summer.

What have you been loving recently?

How to Promote Your Blog

Here are some tips on how to promote your blog.

*Use Etsy forums and Etsy teams to promote your blog and post new blog entries. I find most of my comments come when I promote my blog on Etsy on the Etsy Blog Team.

*Read other people's blogs. When you comment, have it link back to your blog.

*Link your blog on other sites such as your email signature, Facebook, Flickr and Etsy shop.

*Put a site feed on your website so people can subscribe to your blog. Blogger also has a feature called "Email This Post" so readers will be able to share your blog posts. The "Email This Post" shows up as a little mail icon under each entry next to the "Comments" link.

*Use StumbleUpon to stumble some of your favorite blog posts.

*If you have good photos and creative ideas on your blog, pin some of your favorite photos on Pinterest. When people click the photo on Pinterest, it will link to your blog entry.

Do you have a blog? If so, what do you do to promote it?

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! These are some greeting cards I gave out to my Dad in previous years:

 

               


How do you celebrate Father's Day?

Father's Day Inspiration

Father's Day is tomorrow. Here is some inspiration for Father's Day:

This tie wreath I found on Pinterest is a unique way to decorate your house this Father's Day.



This website shows how to customize a tool set. This would be a great gift for Father's Day that's also personal.

This site shows you how to make a coupon book for Father's Day. It also has some other good crafty ideas for Father's Day.



Make personalized sugar cookies

What do you like to make for Father's Day?

How to Make Money With NeoBux

NeoBux is a paid to click website that allows you to earn money. To earn money on NeoBux, you have to click advertisements each day. You get a little bit of money for each ad you click. If you want to make more money, you can either rent referrals or get direct referrals.



There are different strategies for making money on NeoBux. This is what works for me:

*I'd recommend upgrading to a Golden membership. It costs $75/year which seems like a lot, but if you're making enough money, it's worth it because you earn more money for each click. You can also have more rented referrals (with a regular account, you can have up to 300 referrals).

*Set a time to come to NeoBux, click ads, rent referrals and keep track of your referrals. Once you have a Golden membership, you can only rent referrals once at week at a time (or two different times) you specify. Make sure to set these at a time that's good for you.

*It costs a little money to rent referrals, but you'll get that money back when they click on ads. It's $25 to rent 100 referrals. You can also get direct referrals for free by using your personal referral link. It's harder to get direct referrals so I usually just rent them.

Keep track of your referrals. Your referrals will turn red when they're about to expire. I like to have AutoPay and AutoRenew on so they automatically renew. If a referral isn't clicking a lot, I recycle them to get a new referral (which saves you a little money).

You can learn more about how NeoBux works in their FAQ section.

Have you ever used paid to click websites?

Completed May Photography Project

I finished my Like a Bird May photography project! The project was to take a photo every day for a month with a different theme each day. These are the final photos:



The topic for this photo was cool colors. I wasn't sure if the prompt meant cool colors (as opposed to warm) or just interesting colors so I decided just to find something with fun colors. This is a fabric I have that I use to cover a table in my room.



The topic for this photo is history. I have this photo of my grandmother when she was younger by my fireplace.



This photo was of a worm's eye view. I took this in my front yard.

This project was really fun to do. It was a little challenging at times, but it helped me to think of new ways to take photos. The Like a Bird blog is doing another photo challenge for June and she might do one next month too if you're interested in checking it out or getting new ideas for photography. Have you ever done a photography challenge?

Cupcake Lover's Box

I updated the photos for my Cupcake Lover's Box. Some of my photos in my Etsy shop are really old so I'm updating them using my nicer camera. This box would be great for holding small items:

Do you like cupcakes?

May Photography Project

Here are some updates for my May photography project:
 


This photo was of a daily routine. I decided to take a photo in the process of brushing my teeth.



The topic for this was your pick. I just shot this photo in my backyard.



The prompt for this photo was balance. I had a hard time finding something that would fit this theme. I ended up deciding to stack a bunch of CDs on top of each other.



This photo topic was leading lines. This photo is of the chimney/fireplace from the inside of my house.

You can see all photos from this project here.

Move the Needle's Anniversary!

It's Move the Needle's anniversary! I opened my Etsy shop in 2008. I can't believe I've been running my shop for 4 years already. I don't remember when I officially opened my shop, but I registered my Move the Needle account on June 4th, 2008 and I started posting items soon after.

I looked on the Internet Archive to see what Move the Needle looked like the year I first opened it. I forgot that Etsy's layout looked a lot different. Here's a screen capture:

This blog's anniversary is also coming up. I might do a giveaway or something special for that.

If you want to get 10% any item in my shop, enter the coupon code "THREAD" at checkout.

Marie Forleo Business Advice

I was searching the web one day and found this video from Marie Forleo, a marketing and lifestyle expert who runs a multimillion dollar empire she started from scratch. I thought some of my blog readers might be interested in her because she has tips and videos all about about running and marketing your own business. She's specifically aimed at women, but the tips could be applied to anyone. She has a channel on YouTube that has short videos that are funny and helpful. Here are a couple:







 What sites do you look at to get inspired or get business tips?

Animals as Inspiration in Beauty

I love when animals or animal prints inspire makeup and fashion. Here are some fun animal inspired beauty photos I found:

What is your favorite animal?