Creating natural Bath Bombs and Scrubs for JAI #419

Happy Friday and welcome back :-) This week has had it's up's and downs.... and a lunar eclipse as well!  Please note that this is a rather photo heavy post this week - enjoy :-)

This week's new challenge at Just Add Ink is suggested by Kelly and she'd  like us to add a Twist - that is using a product in a way that's not intended as it's obvious use. Our lovely design team have again excelled themselves and created a wonderful array of projects to inspire you so I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over and we'd love you to join us.

For some time, I've been thinking about trying to make some natural bath products both for personal use and for gifts. This was the perfect challenge to put those ideas to work! There are many ideas and recipes on Pinterest to try. I decided to go with this one to start with and make some bath bombs for this challenge. To make the large bath bomb the mould I am using is a plastic Christmas Bauble pack I got at Spotlight. 

I did of course change the flavour - this one using essential oils is a mixture of lavender and grapefruit and for colour, I did source some soap colourants so as not to colour the bath or recipients!! After you mix the dry ingredients, and add the colours and scents to the oils, whisk the mixture together and add a few little sprays of witch hazel toner in a spritzer til the mixture holds together when it is squeezed.

Then pack it in tightly to the bauble moulds, add more to allow for some wastage when closing and leave for about 5 mins to set before opening.

This one is a yummy Orange and Lemon  combo.

Then remove from the moulds and allow to dry  for 24 hours or so as otherwise, they will continue to release air and the pressure will cause the  moulds to crack....how do I know??

Also following the Twist theme, I filled some cute star Ice Cube trays to create smaller versions.

Then, I must admit, the creative juices were flowing and I went on to create 2 sugar scrubs and a salt one too. As far as scent goes...just follow your nose! For decoration, I used a mixture of sets that you wouldn't expect to see.

For this Lavender and Graperfuit salt scrub, I've used a retired Christmas Tag bundle for the tags. The Christmas Pines dies for the lavender sprigs and the Little Letters alphabet dies as labels.

Here,  the same Christmas bundle is used as a tag base, the "orange" is created from the wheel stamp of "Build a Bike" and the Letters name this, my favourite  - Orange and Clove sugar scrub.

The same stamps and dies are used here for this Lemon and Orange Sugar Scrub.

Yes, there are lavender and grapefruit star ( ice cube) mini bath bombs as well :-)

So it's Christmas all year round here and the house smells pretty amazing as well:-) 

Using moulds and bundles for creating every day products makes them so much more versatile and useful - and fun!

Card stock: Lovely Lipsitck, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Inks: Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody

Stamps: Build a Bike

Accessories: Big Shot, Merry Tags Framelits (retired), Little Letter Framelits (retired), Pretty Pines Framelits, Jute Twine

Non SU: Plastic Christmas Bauble pack (Spotlight), Small Jars ($2 Shop), Cellophane, Dead Sea Salt, Soap Colourants (Aussie Soap Supplies)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the gorgeous inspiration from our lovely design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun new challenge too!

A Big Welcome for JAI #418

Happy Friday and welcome! It's officially Mid - Winter and tonight is one of the rare occasions we have the sound of rain on the roof to help us lull off to sleep. So much of the country is in drought and even the local parks known for being soggy in Winter are cracked and dry so it is very welcome.

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week's soft and pretty colours have been suggested by Jo. As always, our lovely team have created beautiful projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment and pop on over and join us.

I will say that pastels are not my go-to colours....so this was a bit a challenge. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and pastels are mine. But challenges  (like in life) are all opportunities to grow and to the rescue here was Soft Sea Foam. When I first saw this colour I thought it looked to be a lovely "neutral" baby colour. So this was the perfect opportunity to explore that ....tho it didn't end up so neutral :-)

The background uses an Aqua Painter and it is much easier to get a smooth effect with a new brush. Over time the rough, water colour paper causes the brush bristles to split like hairs and that means a rough finish. I opened a new brush today and really noticed it gave me more water and a softer finish which was perfect for this project.

Once the background was dry, the sentiment was stamped also in Sea Foam.
And the cute images from A Little Wild were embossed in white and added over layering circles.

And the leaves die cut is also part of the same cute little bundle.

Card stock: Sea Foam, Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Inks: Sea Foam, Blushing Bride, Versamark

Stamps: A Little Wild

Accessories: Little Loves Framelits, Layering Circles Framelits, Iridescent Sequin Assortment, White EP, Aqua Painter

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to head to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous projects the team have created to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this soft and pretty colour combo too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Turtle Thinking of You JAI #417

It's mid winter and not surprisingly, it's chilly! So it's nice that at least we are a couple of weeks past the Shortest Day and are starting to see the effects of the days getting slowly but surely, longer.

The time has also come for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week we have another of Tina's fun letter challenges. This time it is the letter "T". So we would love to see anything that starts with the letter "T" as the main focus of your projects. Our "t"riffic design team have all created top designs to tempt you to join us....so we'd love you to :-)

For my card I created a rather cute Thinking of You card featuring Turtles :-) I'm sure the little one is not as heavy as is made out lol!

The background uses Distress Inks to make the mountain scene and Copics to colour the little Turtles which are from set I've enjoyed for a while now called Stacking Animals.
The sentiment comes from a lovely bundle created by the talented Laura Bassen, called You Matter and I've layered the You several times to add to the necessary 3D feel.

Card stock: Whisper White (thick), Mango Melody
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Big Shot
Non SU: Water color card stock (TH), Copics G05, G07, G28
Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, SSS Crystal Reflections sequins

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and be inspired by our lovely team to join us and I look forward to see what "T" items you will tick off on your creations this week!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Painted Glass Butterfly for JAI #416

Happy Friday and welcome! It's mid Winter and chilly as it should be but we've still been going to dog training with Honey the wonder Foster dog :-) She's now graduated to Level 3 (out of 4) at dog training and we are considering enrolling her in an Agility course as she really would love the combination of exercising body and mind. Hopefully her forever family will come forward soon as it would be a great way of them bonding with her....tho yes, I will miss her of course!

This week at Just Add Ink we have this lovely classical sketch from Patrice to help you get started with your weekend crafting. You can use it as it is or flip it around and even change the square shape to another to suit your project. As always, our lovely and talented design team have all created some fabulous cards to inspire you. So I hope you can take a moment and pop on over and hopefully join us :-)

For my card I changed the square to a circle but otherwise kept pretty close to the sketch.
Using the Painted Glass bundle, the circular  image is stamped onto Balmy Blue card stock and die cut. The White die cut is two of the half circles put together and I've coloured the butterfly using a mix of Blends and where I didn't have the colours I was after, Copics. A strip of Not Quite Navy anchors the ribbon and silver sequin trim.

Card stock: Whisper White (Thick and standard), Balmy Blue, Not Quite Navy
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Not Quite Navy, Balmy Blue
Stamps: Painted Glass
Accessories: Big Shot, Stained Glass Thinlits, Lemon Lime Twist Cotton Ribbon, Silver Sequin Trim, Ombre Sparkly Candy Dots (retired).

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the lovely inspiration our team have created for you and I so look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun, clean and elegant sketch!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan