Etsy Shop - Halloween Accordion Books

Two of my favorite holidays are Halloween and Thanksgiving Lucky for me those 2 are just around the corner!!

I really get into Halloween so you'll probably be seeing a bunch of posts on the subject.

In my Pre-K days (pre kids) we had a really fun "adults only" Halloween party. I will rummage through my old photos so I can show you what we did. Super fun!!

I also take lots of photos around Halloween. I take lots of photos ALL THE TIME, but Halloween seems like I'm in overdrive!

What to do with all those photos?!?

I make books.

You should too.

I did the hard work for you - actually MAKING the book.

You get to do the fun design work. Selecting pictures, adding enhancements. Fun!!

I have a bunch of Halloween accordion books that I designed and started adding them to my Etsy Shop. There are a half a dozen there now, with more to come so keep checking!

So, plan your costumes, have a party, snap away, and make a book!

You'll be thanking me.

New Headband Design - Twilight Inspired

Every time I do a fair, I try to come up with some new items to show. This Sunday I'm going to have a table at a fair in Riverdale, NY on Johnson Avenue. If you happen to be in the area, definitely stop by to say hello! I believe it's going on all day - from 10am to 5pm.

One of the things I have been working on is a new headband design using this amazing ribbon I found. It has a 2 tone shimmery essence to it and this one in particular instantly reminded me of the movie Twilight! The deep red color with the black just had a mysterious quality to it.

Using the ribbon, I created an oversized flower and attached a black button to the center.

I thought the size of the flower would pair perfectly with a skinny headband base wrapped in black satin ribbon.

Although my almost-seven-year-old loved this design, I especially see this design on a tween girl to an adult.

Look how good it looks on this beauty!

If you'd like one of these for yourself or as a gift for someone else and can't make it to the fair, no worries - I just added it to my Etsy shop!

I love this ribbon so much i think I'll be trying it in other colors. Stay tuned!

The Book That Started It All

A few years ago, my family (the hubbs, the girls and I) lived in "hot as heck" Florida. The rest of my family was here in NY. My girls were little then, They're still little so I guess I should say littler. I took tons of pictures of them! My Jewish, loves-to-lay-on-the-guilt-without-even-knowing-it mom loved to get photos in her e-mail from me...EVERYDAY!!!! If I skipped a day, believe me, I would hear it.

"I see you didn't get a chance to send pictures today. What do the girls look like?"

It's hard to explain that they really didn't change much in 24 hours. It was so much easier to just keep sending the photos. Now it's even easier since we're back home and only 10 blocks away. She can see them whenever she wants!

So, it was January of 2007 and the hubbs' birthday was coming up and I didn't have a gift for him. Ding Ding!! I DID have all those photos I took! I decided rather than going out in the FL heat to buy a gift, I would just make him one with some of the photos. I decided to make a book - an accordion scrapbook, but I wanted to make the actual book myself.

The thought of scrapbooking always appealed to me but I could never get into the larger 12 X 12 books. I just didn't have the time. Plus, there are so many great papers out there that I wanted to use the paper that I loved for the covers of the book. I also wanted to make it smaller - 6 1/2 inch square would be a perfect size for me. So, I figured out how to make it and this was the result...

My first handmade book ever!

I picked that particular paper because I really liked the pattern and color scheme.

Then I looked through a bunch of my photos and selected the ones I liked best. Since it was an accordion book, I dedicated one side of the book to my little one and the other side to my older daughter.

I was really happy with the way it came out. So was the hubbs! He loved this gift! My girls still enjoy looking through that book. (and the others I've made since then)

Here's a sampling of what I did - my older one:

My little one...

I thought it would make it more interesting to include more than just photos - hence the hand and foot prints.

I showed it to my friends and they really liked it as well. So much so that they started asking me to make books for them!

Since then, I have been selling them at local fairs and I even had them at a store in FL.

Now I am still making them and will soon be adding them to my ETSY Shop as well as my website (once I get that darn shopping cart done!)

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on.

I always start with the covers. PVA glue and a bone folder are a bookmaker's best friends!

I have a bunch for Fall (my favorite season)

along with everyday occasions.

I love this little owl! Wouldn't this be great for back to school or a teacher's gift?

Or these fun girlie ones? Some even have glitter!

This sweet design would be great for a couple that just got engaged...

The possibilities are endless!

Do you like to scrapbook? How about taking photographs? Do they all just end up on your camera? You can tell us!

Nap Time = Etsy Time

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? Good I hope.

My weekend started out nice and slow on Saturday and then got a bit crazy on Sunday. I definitely liked Saturday better!

I was supposed to go shopping with my little one but then she decided to take a four hour nap. What did I do during that time you ask? ETSY!!! You never know how long these naps will last and especially for her - she doesn't typically nap so I got started right away.

Last week I worked on some new headband designs for some orders I had. I liked the designs so much I decided to add them to my Etsy Shop. Listing on Etsy is pretty time consuming, but in the end it's worth it.

I had some extra cute, low paying (or should I say no paying) models to work with...

The pink and black Party Girl headband just above was recently featured in a treasury.

I managed to get 9 new designs added. Perfect for the summer. You can see them in the Total City Girl Etsy Shop

Let me know what you think!!

ETSY Love In The Bronx

It's Friday which means we've come to the end of our discussion on The Bronx. I told you about two locations that I thought were definitely worth mentioning - Arthur Avenue and Wave Hill. Today, we're not going to talk about places of interest, but instead, people of interest.

As I was doing some work on my ETSY shop, I decided to browse around a bit. On ETSY there's an option to "shop local". I was curious to see if there were other sellers in The Bronx. I came across quite a list! There were a few in particular that really caught my eye.

Ummashin’s Goodies



I absolutely love love love this one!! Besides her hats being so cute, the photography for this shop is amazing as well. All of the items are hand crocheted by a Bronx "mama". I love the blue and brown combination of the one in the picture and I saw another one in pink and brown. Uh! I have a weakness for pink and brown!! For more info on this great shop, click here.

Next up, Cutiepiecompany

When I saw cutiepiecompany, I just had to stop and take a look. Besides her name being so cute, her site is all about papercrafts, and you know how I just looooove papercrafts! In her shop she has journals, notecards, gift tags as well as original art. The Lady In Red shown above is one of her moleskine cahiers journals. For more info on cutiepiecompany, click here.

If you like soaps, you'll definitely have to check out this next one - Good Enough To Eat Natural Products

The name alone for this soap is a complete attention grabber - crunch-a-bunch bar. This soap combines a light sweet smell of banana and the richest of Organic Granola. I don't know if I want to wash with it, or just eat it! Sounds like a perfect breakfast to me! For more info on Good Enough To Eat Natural Products , click here.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Total City Girl's ETSY shop (that would be me),

you can take a look over here or there's a link on the right sidebar of this blog.

National Hot Dog Day

Since today is National Hot Dog Day, i thought it would be fun to check on ETSY to see if there were any creative hot dog themed goodies. Sure enough, there was!

These grilled cuff links come complete with both hot dogs and hamburgers! They are made by Inedible Jewelry - hand sculpted treats for the food obsessed.

Get crafty by making your own felt hot dogs. The felt pattern and instruction set by Bugga Bugs will guide you through making not only hot dogs but s'mores and chips as well. This set will help you pack the essential food items everyone needs while enjoying the great outdoors. Look how cute these things are!

These retro hot dog hair bobby pins are right up my alley.

I'm always looking for some new cool hair accessories. These are made by Very Vintage - whimsical retro accessories.

So, go get yourself some dogs, get grilling and get crafty as well.

Happy Hot Dog Day!!