Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Best Hand Made Soap Ever!

  Since the weather here has been so cold and dreary lately and since I have several gift occasions coming up (thank you's, house warmings, and just thinking of you gifts) I decided to make some home made gifts. OMG! My cyber friend Audrey had this recipe for home made soap so I thought I'd give it a try. This is so wonderful and easy to make. You can find the recipe here: http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-earth-day-gabys-happy-birthday-blog.html.
     Not only was it fun to make, it made the house smell wonderful! I decided to package up the first bottle as a Thank you for a friend of my daughters. I watch 3 of my grand children 2 days a week. The oldest one is in school so I have to drop him off in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon. The morning isn't bad because it's a drive through however, in the p.m. you have to go into the school to retrieve him. It's not bad but in the beginning of the year the baby was still in an infant carrier so it just killed my back. This kind lady offered to get Mattie so I wouldn't have to take the other 2 inside. I jumped at the chance since this winter was so brutal it certainly made my life easier. Anyway I wanted to give her a small token of my appreciation so, what better way than a nice personal gift.
     Audrey's recipe gives you the option of adding fragrant or not (it really doesn't need it) but I had some soap fragrances so I did add some. This particular one has an almond fragrance but some have a Lily of the Valley essence. I also added a silk flower stem to the bottle while filling it. After i hand wrote this tag I found a stash of Wilton tags that you can print on the computer so the others have a printed tag. I added a nice sheer fabric to the bottle top and decorated with silk flower.
     Now that I have my Imagine back, I made a Thank You card using Lori's Garden. The background paper is also done on the Imagine using Imagine More cart. ( Hint, I used this pattern on the wedding invitations I am dying to show you, lol).
     Finally I put it all together in a cute little gift bag. (or so I thought!). I had picked up a package of 12 bags for $1 @ the dollar store. They are so flimsy. I make much better ones using my cricut and my own card stock. Somethings you just shouldn't skimp on, lol.
     As a side note: I had a little soap left over but not enough to fill a bottle so I put some in a heart dish near my sink. When my grandson saw it he asked to try some. He must have washed his hands ten times just so he could use the soap. His verdict: "wow Mema this soap makes your hands so soft and it smells so good !". He actually asked to take a bottle home. Looks like I'll be making more soap in the future. Gotta love those 7 year olds!!!
  

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wrapping Paper Inspiration

     Wow it's been a while since I posted! Have no fear I have an exciting project to share! We have several weddings this summer/fall and that means Bridal Showers. I refuse to pay a lot for wrapping paper (I'd rather put the money into the gift) but I am still picky about something I can dress up.
     This paper was so cute with the wedding dresses and had cute sayings like "big hair", big dress" and "big day". I thought this was adorable to use for one of the showers I am attending. Sooo I decided to make a cute gift tag.
     I have been using a lot of shipping tags to alter lately. (I think I am hooked, lol). First I distressed the edges with Zutters Distrezz It All and added both blue and white spritz. While this dried I printed the phrases: big hair, big dress and big day. After inking the edges of the tag I embossed this dress from My Sentiments Exactly using a white opaque embossing powder.
     I wanted to add some dimension to the dress so I gathered up some sheer netting and after gluing it to the waist I added a satin bow. The bodice needed something so I added some imaginisce rhinestones and finished the tag off with a nice fluffy satin bow. (Big of course!!).
     One other thing I love to do is wrap the present with tulle rather than ribbon. I find it cheaper and gives a soft look and is appropriate for wedding, shower, birthday or baby gift and it is so economical!

I'm Still Here

Just thought I'd pop in here for a minute. So many projects going on, lol. Mainly I was making some wedding invitations for my friends daughters upcoming wedding. There were only 100 to do (said with tongue in cheek, lol) and in the mists of it all my Imagine acted up so had to wait for the replacement to arrive. I can't wait to show them to you but have to wait until she mails them since I don't want to spoil the surprise! I'll just share with you that they have a nautical theme, ships, anchors and ships wheel.
I also love making homemade gifts and I have a few occasions coming up where I wanted to give something as a thank you. The weather here has been so awful. We have rain and temps in the low 60's (after being in the 90's) last week so it seemed like the perfect time to make my cyber friend Audrey's homemade liquid soap. She was kind enough to share the recipe on her blog Cute and Some so I just had to try it. My kitchen smells wonderful! I have been decorating the bottles and will share the pics with you tomorrow.
Lastly, I have been taking a class on copic markers and have really fallen behind on my assignments ( this is not good) so I have some catch up to do.
Hopefully I will get some pics up tomorrow until then I hope you all are having a productive time as well. Thanks for stopping by.