Winter Items in My Shop

These winter themed greeting cards in my shop would be good to give out for any winter holiday.

Let it Snow Greeting Card



Coffee Lover's Greeting Card



Green Swirl Holiday Greeting Card



See more winter inspired items here.

12 Days of Christmas Special 2012

12/14 - Winter Items in My Shop
12/15 - Christmas Items in My Shop
12/16 - Gift Guide
12/17 - Crafts
12/18 - Holiday Wishlist
12/19 - Etsy Tips
12/20 - Nail Art
12/21 - Beauty
12/22 - Food
12/23 - Desserts
12/24 - Gingerbread Houses
12/25 - Personal Photos

See last year's 12 Days of Christmas Special here. 

Hanukkah Food

Here are some food and desserts you can try making for Hanukkah:

Latkes

Latkes are traditional for Hanukkah. This website has two different vegan versions of potato pancakes.

Vanilla Cupcake Menorah

These cupcakes that resemble a menorah are a fun dessert to make for Hanukkah.

Hanukkah Gingerbread House

Why not make a Hanukkah gingerbread house instead of a Christmas one? Use blue and white colors and use Hanukkah gelt to decorate the house.

Let me know if you try any of these recipes.

Hanukkah Beauty

If you want to dress up for Hanukkah, use blue and white colors with maybe a bit of yellow. Here are some ideas:

You could wear a blue and white outfit you already have to get in the holiday spirit or find a blue or white sweater like the one above from Forever 21.

For accessories, try wearing blue, white or yellow jewelry such as these feather earrings.



 I love this creative Hanukkah nail art. Click here to learn how to do it.

Blue and white makeup, like the photo above, would be perfect for Hanukkah. Add some rhinestones to give your look a holiday touch.

Check back tomorrow for more Hanukkah ideas!

Hanukkah Crafts

Try these fun crafts to celebrate Hanukkah:

Glittery Dreidel Place Cards

These dreidel place cards are perfect for a holiday party. Use wood or plastic dreidels, craft tags and glitter to make these.

Star of David Mobile



A Star of David mobile is a great craft to do with children.

Paper Dreidle Garland



This paper dreidle garland is a fun way to decorate your home for Hanukkah. Use colorful heavyweight paper and silvercord to make it.

If you celebrate Hanukkah, what do you like to do to celebrate it?

Hanukkah Special 2012

I thought I'd do a Hanukkah special on my blog this year. Hanukkah begins in the evening of Saturday, December 8, 2012, and ends in the evening of Sunday, December 16, 2012. Here's the schedule:

12/8 - Hanukkah Items in My Shop

12/9 - Crafts
!2/10 - Beauty

12/11 - Food

12/12 - Desserts

Do you celebrate Hanukkah? 

Hanukkah Items

Here are some Hanukkah themed items in my shop.

Red and Purple Star of David Greeting Card



I retook the photos of these Star of David greeting cards. You can get a card with purple and red stars or just red stars.

Ribbon Hanukkah Star Greeting Card



This greeting card uses a blue ribbon to make the Star of David.

Rounded Eight Nights Hanukkah Greeting Card



This greeting card has a quote about Hanukkah.

Do you celebrate Hanukkah?

Blog Stats - Monthly and Overall

I decided to look at my blog statistics on Blogger. Here's what I found out.

November 2012

Last month the most pageviews was on November 13th with 172 views. Google and Pinterest were my top referring websites. This photo from Google images is the most popular source of referrals (and is the also the most popular source of all time).

These posts were the most popular in November:
Christmas Desserts
Christmas Decorating
Thanksgiving Desserts

All Time
Most people that come from this blog are from the United States, Russia, United Kingdo and Germany. Most people use Internet Explorer browser with Chrome being second. October 2012 was the most popular month on this blog. Overall, page views have increased a good amount over the years. The most popular google searches referring this blog are "fun thanksgiving desserts" and "unique desserts". The top sites to refer this blog are Google, Bing, Pinterest and other blogs.



These are the all time most popular posts:

Makeup Ideas for Halloween
New Paper & Dresses
Keyboard Fabric Card and Updates

I might add a thing on the side of my blog with some of the most popular blog posts combined with some of my favorite posts.

It's fun to look at stats and see where people are coming from and what they're looking at.

Altered Art Journaling

I started altering an old children's book I had called "The Wainscott Weasel". I'm experimenting with painting over text and adding different textures:












See more of my art journaling here.  Have you ever altered a book?

8 Year Anniversary on eBay

One way I like to make some extra cash is on EBay. I think it's a good way to get rid of old items and also find good deals. 

Today is my 8 year anniversary on eBay! I got this image on my homepage today. 

I find that books, electronics and beauty products usually sell pretty well. I also decided to list some of my Etsy items. Hopefully some more of my items will sell. You can see my listings here. Do you use EBay?

Upcycled Journal Tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to make an upcycled journal. I use the same basic method of bookbinding I described in my bookbinding tutorial. I didn't make a new journal for this tutorial, but I'm using photos from my Upcycled Swan Flyaway Journal as an example. 

      

Supplies:
*Item you want to upcycle - book, magazine, VHS tape, etc.
*Paper for the inside of journal - you can use whatever paper you like, computer paper or sketch book paper works great
*Decorative or colored paper
*PVA Glue
*Binder's thread
*Needle
*Scissors
*Bone folder
*Binder's board (optional)

For more information on where to get supplies, click here.

1.) First, you'll need to find the item you want to upcycle. For example, you can use an old children's book, an old record cover or a VHS tape. In the example above, I used an old children's book I had called "Swan Flyaway". Save the inside pages of the book in case you want to use them for a different craft. I saved the inside pages to use in my art journal.

2.) This tutorial is for a closed spine journal so you want to make sure you have a spine on the side of the journal. If you're using an old book or VHS tape, you already have the cover of your journal so you don't have to do anything else with the cover.

If you have a flat material or something that doesn't have a spine already, you'll have a couple more steps. Cut binder's board in to three pieces for the front, back cover and spine of the book as described in Part 3 of my bookbinding tutorial. Then cover the binder's board with whatever material you're using. For example, if you're using a vintage magazine page as your cover, you'd want to cut the binder's board in three pieces the size of magazine page and then glue the magazine page over all three pieces to form a book cover.

3.) Now you'll want to make the text block or inside of the book. You'll need paper, thread, a needle, bone folder and glue for this step. Make sure to use paper that, when folded, is a little bit smaller as your cover. I explain in detail how to make the pages and sew the text block together here. 

4.) So now you have your text block and cover and you just need to put everything together. Put glue on the first and last pages of the text block so the outside of the text block is covered in glue. Open the cover and press the text block down inside the cover so it fits together as a journal. Use a piece of decorative or colored paper to cover the front and back inside pages of the journal. You'll want to choose a piece of paper that goes well with the cover of your journal. For my Swan Flyaway journal, I found decorative paper that I thought looked nice with the  colors of the cover. Use a bone folder to press the decorative paper down so it's nice and smooth.

5.) Put wax paper in between the inside covers and text block so they don't stick together. Press the book down together so it fits nicely. Now wrap the whole thing in wax paper and let it sit between two heavy books or presses. You might want to put a weight on top. Let this dry overnight. Once it's dry, you have a completed journal! 

Let me know if you like this tutorial. If you try it out, I'd love to see how it turns out!