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!

Christmas Tags for JAI #391

It's the ( Friday) before Christmas and all through the house not one thing is moving not even a mouse...or so the carol goes :-) It sure has been a busy week in our household with not enough hours in the night or day - but such is the life of a card maker come Christmas :-) Every year I say I'll start earlier (and I did!!) but some late decision projects have taken more time than expected...

Perfect to help you with last minute Christmas projects is this week's Just Add Ink Challenge suggested by Kim. With a choice of two of either Twine, Trees or Tags there are so many ways in which you can use the above ideas. This is the last challenge for 2017 and will last for two weeks to give you some time during the Christmas holidays to complete your projects. Our lovely design team have created projects that will wow you this week so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and join with us :-)

I decided to create some tags using trees and these lovely cards from Last year's Hello December Project Life kit. So here are 4 tags that I've used for my nephew and nieces. These were very quick to make once they were all worked out.

This card features the little red deer from Carols of Christmas:-)

And this one the tree from Christmas Pines 

Of course the reindeer from Santa's sleigh had an outing too -twice!!
All have a little To/ From stamped on the back with room to write a good sized message

And they did look good on top of the presents too  if I do say so myself :-)

Card stock: Whisper White, REal Red, gold glimmer, Emerald Envy

Inks - Momento Tuxedo Black ( on the back )

Stamps: Merriest Wishes (retired I think...?)

Accessories: PL Hello December (retired), Big Shot, Pine bough Framelits, Christmas Greeting Thinlits, Gold twine, red ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today and a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by throughout the year and left comments. It is so appreciated and your encouragement helps me to continue to keep creating.
 I hope you all have a very happy and wonderful Christmas celebrating with friends and family and have time to relax and enjoy the little things amongst all the busyness and celebrating and Christmas services. I will be stopping by over the next little while to share some extra card ideas and little projects but the next Just Add Ink challenge is not until January 19 as the team are taking a little break so I hope you all have a Happy and safe New Year and may 2018 be a special year for you and all your family!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop! This is my first time joining these talented and lovely ladies in their monthly hop and I am very honoured and excited to be doing so! In case we are new to you, our hops work on a circle basis so if you've started with me, just keep following the links until you wind up back here again.  So it's time to grab a cuppa and sit back and prepare to enjoy as you hop along to see the projects that all 9 of us have for you and we hope that you are inspired as we show you our Favourites from the Holiday Catalogue (or" Catalog" the spelling depending on where in the world you live :-) )

So a big warm Australian Spring welcome to you if you've just come from the talented Heidi Weaver - I just love her beautiful projects this month and I'm sure you do too!

 

For my three projects I've gone with a theme....beautiful Copper Foil! My usual style I would describe as Clean and layered with bling. I love a little dimension and sparkle :-) So todays' projects start very clean and become more layered as they progress so I hope you enjoy them.

This first card is very CAS - allowing the pretty copper star to shine. I've overlaid the star with a delicate vellum die cut from the matching Framelits. The sentiment is from a Christmas Carol (We Three Kings) so it was irresistible to the singer in me:-)

Card Stock: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Copper Foil, Vellum

Ink: Versamark, Smoky Slate

Stamps: Star of Light

Accessories: Big Shot, Starlight Thinlights, Copper EP,  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals.

The second card has a little more layers and colour in amongst the copper details and uses the fabulous new Christmas Pines bundle - right down to the Mini Copper Pinecones! How gorgeous are they!! I stamped just one spray of pines and overlaid die cut branches and pinecones.

Card stock: Emerald Envy, Whisper White, Copper Foil, Soft Suede, Real Red

Ink: Real Red, Wild Wasabi

Stamps: Christmas Pines

Accessories: Big Shot, Pretty Pines Thinlits, Mini Pinecones, Candy Cane Lane Baker's Twine (Red and White), Brights Enamel Shapes, Snail, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

For my third project I stepped it up a little and created a Gift Bag and Tag. The gift bag is created using DSP from the lovely Presents and Pinecones pack and the Gift Bag Punch Board. There is a great tutorial showing how to create the bags from Stampin Up that you can see here. Mine is a medium bag - using an 11"x 9" piece of DSP to start - and I created a flap to cover the top which is held in place by the copper band that the Tag is attached to.

For the Tag I couldn't help making a shaker ornament using the Merriest Wishes Bundle and Mica Flakes for snow. ( Shaker cards are my favourite in case you were wondering :-) )I die cut two of the pretty ornaments - one white, and one in copper and then used simple Circle Framelits (or you could use a punch) to cut the white version shorter so it fits within the copper circle. I also cut the Foam Adhesive strips in half longwise so they wouldn't be so easily seen as the outer circle width is thinner than the strips. Then it was a case of adding a back and a copper strip edge to enclose it all and suspending it on the tag itself. Such fun!!

Card stock: Whisper White, Emerald Envy, Copper Foil, Window Sheet

Designer Series Paper: Presents and Pinecones

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Merriest Wishes

Accessories: Big Shot: Merry Tag Framelits, Triple Banner Punch, Bakers Twine Trio Pack (Gold), White Organza Ribbon, Copper EP, Regals Enamel Shapes ( Cherry Cobbler), Mica Flakes (white), Dimensionals, Foam Adhesive Strips, Fast Fuse, Snail, Gift Bag Punch Board.

Thanks for stopping by today and now you are off to visit the lovely Marsha Reed and her gorgeous projects or you can head back and see the loveliness that Heidi Weaver has created for you - either way you won't be disappointed!

If you happen to get lost along the way, just click on  the "Home" button which will take you to the Wacky Watercooler Blog Homepage and a full list of all the participants :-) 

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Joyful Ornament for JAI #325

Welcome and a very happy Friday to you! This week in Melbourne we have been blessed with sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures - we thought that Spring had come early!  But with a big storm on the horizon it now feels as though we were only dreaming - pleasant dreams they were though :-)

And it's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week, Tina has designed a beautifully CAS and fun sketch for us all to use. The design team have all made such gorgeous projects - it's obvious we all really enjoyed using it and we hope that you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look and join us.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my card - one of two :-)

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to make a shaker ornament and I was delighted to find that this one  (available 1st Sept ) also fits inside the "O" of the Joy from the Joyful Nativity set!! This opens the door to so many variations :-)

Do you notice that the red "Joy" seems a little 'bumpy"? That is because it is the new Red Glitter Embossing Powder - it has a thick, uneven texture from the "shards" of glitter and also a real sparkle! So lovely in real life but rather hard to capture in a photo.

Here is another version. I can't decide which I like best -  the snow in this but also the stamped background of the previous ornament. Possibly a third version is waiting to be made - after all, it is only four months to Christmas...and I've decided to not let it creep up on me this year. More on that, another time...

There are a few sneak peek items from the upcoming Holidays Catalogue here - the star on the first card, the ornaments  and snow, Glitter Embossing powder and the shiny Gold Twine too :-)

Here you can see I added a strip of gold foil to complete the side of the ornament and hopefully the added texture and shine of the Glitter Embossing on the "Y."

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Gold Foil, Red Foil (retired)

Inks: Versamark, Real Red

Stamps: Joyful Nativity, Star of Light, Merriest Wishes, White Christmas (retired)

Accessories: Big Shot, Merry Tags Framelits, Circle Framelits (retired), Gold EP, Red Glitter EP, Star Border Punch, Bakers Twine Trio Pack (Gold), Window sheets

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and I look forward to seeing your project with this clean and fun sketch this week.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan