Ivy Lily Creative

Is it worth it to take part in art collectives? Can you have the benefits of live streaming without being live? Time for another yearly review, where I tell your things I learned about running a YouTube channel and being an artist online.

Time for another yearly recap! This one will be mostly about YouTube since that's what I concentrated on this year. Blogging and my newsletter were on the back burner for most of the year. Read on for thoughts about was it worth it to upload videos twice a week, which videos got the most views and the direction I'm taking in 2018.

Goodbye 2016, hello 2017! I started a tradition of yearly recaps in this blog in 2013. So here it is: my 2016 blogging year in review. Read on for my experience in hosting a giveaway, how I use different social media channels, how I make my YouTube video views grow, how I make money with my blog and art, and my goals for 2017.

Having trouble coming up with ideas for art projects, art blog posts or art YouTube channel videos? I've listed 100 (or 101) art video title or topic ideas for YouTube in this post. A lot of them work for blog posts, too. Some of them you can use as ideas for you art projects that you don't even post online. I divided the list into sections: general art video title ideas, art challenges, art tutorials, themed artworks and art series. Some art challenges have many versions of them (3 marker challenge, 2 marker challenge and 1 marker challenge or 10 minute and 30 minute drawing challenge), but I'll just name one of the versions. You can download the list PDF format to save it or print it out.

I kept my one blogging goal for 2015 quite well: 1-2 blog posts per week (on average). I slipped only on a couple of fall months. And I published the highest amount of blog posts per year in the history of this blog (still not a huge amount though). I also started a Youtube channel for art and DIY videos and opened an Etsy shop for selling printable coloring book pages for adults.  For next year, I don't have any any quantity goal, but a few others: 1. Longer, more informative posts I'd rather make more of the lengthier and more informative tutorial type posts and in turn publish less posts in total. Examples: Finding Penpals on Interpals , Sugar Painting , Making a Coloring Book Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 2. Limited topics I want to keep more focused topics (art and crafts) for this blog and remove unrelated blog posts from my drafts. I already started this by starting a separate gardening blog in the fall. 3. Making an online course After watching th...

If 2013 was the year of health/fitness and art for me, then 2014 was definitely the year of crafting and blogging. I made a lot of craft projects from spring to fall, I haven't even posted all of them yet. I also got really interested in reading blogging advice and I tried to evolve my blog during the autumn months. When it comes studies, I took some final necessary courses and exams and a few fun ones (Portuguese and Russian ), but most of my time was taken up my master's thesis.  I also had a trip to Mallorca. The summer was really lovely. I spent as much time as possible at the summer cottage as usual. I saw the Home Fair in Jyväskylä but didn't blog it at the time because I didn't take many photos (the few photos I did take are featured in this post). I had a little hike at the Leivonmäki National Park . I saw old houses (and more importantly pretty gardens in Loviisa in the Loviisan Wanhat Talot event. The garden was a big stress reliever among working (I ...

This is the first ever Favorites post that I'm writing. And it's not specific for any certain month, it's just my favorites from this autumn. Books and blogs or blog posts I've loved reading, tv shows and Youtube videos I've loved watching or have been inspired by.  Muutamia suosikkejani tältä syksyltä. 

3 years ago today I wrote the "Welcome" post for this blog. The idea I had for this blog was to share pictures and tutorials of the craft projects I did as well as to keep diary of them for myself. And I also wanted to share pictures of my art work, which I already did by then through deviantART. The name of the blog stems from a tote bag idea: I wanted to paint a lily and an an ivy branch on a tote bag. I still haven't done that, but I have painted/printed poppies , a Russian doll and elephants on tote bags and feathers on a pillowcase. Shortly after starting the blog I got into Postcrossing (I don't actually remember how) and then writing letters and those became a big part of my blog and I started following a lot of other snail mail blogs.  I lost interest in blogging and reading blogs at some point but I've certainly gained it back by now and I have a lot of post ideas and drafts (about art, crafts, travel, snail mail and blogging ...and Christmas, of ...

Olen kypsytellyt ideaa käsityöblogin perustamisesta pari vuotta ja päätin vihdoin tehdä sen. Tarkoitus on pitää kirjaa tekemistäni käsitöistä, jakaa omia ohjeita ja suositella muualta löytyneitä hyviä ohjeita. Käsitöiden lisäksi blogiin tulee joitakin maalauksiani ja piirustuksiani sekä värikkäitä kuvia matkoilta ja käsityö-/taideaiheisista tapahtumista.  Tekemiäni paperihelmiä. Some paper beads I've made. I'm starting this blog to keep track of my own craftworks and to share some instructions and tutorials of my own and some tried and tested by others. Besides crafts, the blog will include my artworks and colorful photos.  Lisää paperihelmiä. Ohjeita erimallisten helmien valmistamiseen myöhemmin. More paper beads. Instructions on making different shapes coming later.