Best of the Blog 2017


Happy New Year! It's that time of the year where I like to reflect on the projects I've made over the past year and share with you some of the most popular and some of my favorites. It's always amazing to look back and see all of the things I've made, and it encourages me to come up with great ideas for the next year.

Most Popular Posts


Most of the posts that are the "most popular" were posted in January and February of last year. They have had the benefit of being up on the blog the longest, so they have more hits. This one surprised me because I considered it to be a bit of a failed project, but coming in at #1 for hits was my Alcohol Ink Mirrored Candle Plate. I tried spreading ink on this plate in about a dozen different ways, and though it was always cool looking, I never ended up with one I was happy with. Clearly, it's time to revisit that post and try again.


My second most popular post of the year embodied many of my alcohol ink posts this year--trying different techniques and surfaces. I've inked a lot of different things, but this stamped glass bowl from Dollar Tree turned out really cool, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more textured glass to ink in the future.


My #3 most popular post of the year was this quick bookmark project. I used some spray paint marbled paper that I had made (and is one of my long-running favorite projects) and cut some shapes out of the paper with my Silhouette. It could easily be done with a basic paper punch, though, and is a great way to utilize that marbled paper.


My #4 most popular post this year was this project decorating altar candles from the dollar store with alcohol ink. I tried a technique that I've been working on mastering this year where you smear the ink on using plastic wrap. The candles turned out great, and I can't wait to find other projects that I can use that technique on.


My 5th most popular post was this metal flower pot from the dollar store that I decorated for Valentine's day with alcohol ink. A quick heart out of painter's tape and a lot of pink ink later, it turned out great!

Honorable Mentions

Since most of the posts that have seen the most online love have come from early in the year, I thought I'd pick a few of my favorite projects from the rest of the year to share as Honorable Mentions.


My first honorable mention goes out to my bowls made from the Sunday funnies. This project is fairly recent, but it was so much fun to make. The decoupage glue I used claims to be dishwasher safe, so stay tuned to find out how well it works now that the requisite curing period is over. 


Another one of my favorites from this year were these cute candle holders I made by punching out tissue paper and decoupaging it onto some glass candle holders. I have been trying to make paper punched candle holders since the early days on the blog and I was really excited to finally get it to work right (tip: you have to punch multiple layers of tissue paper to get it to work).



It wouldn't be a "best of the blog" post without featuring some kind of glass gem project. My favorite from this year was when I used circle stickers on some smaller glass gems to make magnets. These were my choice to feature because they turned out so bright and fun. The white backing of the stickers really made the colors pop!


I thought I'd also feature another alcohol ink project I did this year where I tried a different application technique. For this one, I applied ink to ceramic tiles with wax paper. I thought it turned out so differently than any other application process I've used so far, and I can't wait to try it again.


My last honorable mention goes out to the paper punch heart bowl that I made for last Valentine's day. It was the first project where I finally mastered punching tissue paper with a paper punch, and I loved the way it turned out. 

I hope you find some inspiration from this last year's projects! I can't wait to make more in 2018!

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