Giveaway Reminder!

Hey all!

One more day for the Cold Process Soap Giveaway!

Click here to view the contest.

And to all my DIY followers, I will be extending the DIY giveaway until February 13th. Winner will be announced on Valentine's Day.

H&M Fashion Studio

I was bored the other day so I decided to play around with H&M's Fashion Studio. Super fun. It's like Polyvore, but with different models you can use and it's all H&M clothing.

I wish there was one closer to me.

*sigh*

DIY Update

I promise all of you that I haven't given up on blogging. This past week has been a combination of my camera being on the fritz and me being super busy (and not sleeping well... as usual)

I'm aiming to have the rest of the DIY posts and some other goodies up within the next couple of days.

Hope you're all doing well!

Don't forget about the giveaways :)

xo,

Jen

Be My DIY Valentine

My fellow Etsians never cease to amaze me. Look how lovely this DIY Valentine treasury is. It was created by the wonderful atreething over on Etsy. Cynthia makes beautiful family tree prints, which are right up my alley. Genealogy anyone?

You can view the treasury here.

DIY Valentine Button Heart Card

Wanna make a super cute handmade card for your love for Valentine's Day? Good, cause that's what I'm teaching today. Grab your supplies (card stock or blank card, pencil, glue and an assortment of buttons in hues of red and pink)

Step One: Trim and fold your card stock down to the size you want. If you're using a blank card, you're all set.

Step Two: Using a pencil, very lightly draw a heart outline.

Step Three: Arrange the buttons along the heart line. I like to do this to see how many I'll need and I'm also able to rearrange them if I don't like the placement. Or you can just wing it for that I'm-an-artist-and-I-don't-care look. (No judgement here)

Step Four: Glue all the buttons down. Let dry overnight.

Step Five: Uh, you're done dude!

Happy Crafting!

Summer Dreamin & Young at Heart

My Juicy Summer Watermelon soap made it in to not one but two treasuries yesterday. Woo! Mariah over at the Realist Mermaid (see post below) created this yummy treasury above. Makes me wanna pack a bag and hop a flight to somewhere warm. And look at all of those great items!!! I might have to secretly buy some of those citrus cookies. (Shhhh, don't tell my diet!)

***********************************

Moon River Photo created the Young at Heart Treasury below. All of these items are gorgeous! And once again, more sweets.

Damn you, diet!

(Click on the photo for a larger view)

It's a Love Chain!

Earlier this week, Upcycle Island was kind enough to invite me to the Night Owls of Etsy Team. Right now we're playing a little game called Share the Love Chain Game. Therefore, I'd like to introduce you to The Realist Mermaid. I kinda have a love/hate thing going on with her shop right now. Mostly because I'm participating in the Biggest Loser challenge at work and are unable to eat any of her yummy concoctions. Bummer.

Anywho, head over to her Etsy shop and check out all of the goodies.

(i.e., handcrafted marshmallows, and Mexican hot chocolate!)

DIY Ceramic Tile

*Please know that I am apologizing ahead of time for the photos. I didn't realize how dark they were until after I had finished taking them. Doh!*

It's really quite easy and very inexpensive to make these cute little ceramic tiles. You can use them as a coaster or even a trivet.

Here's what you'll need for supplies:

Card stock or paper

White ceramic tiles (4.25x4.25)*

Mod Podge

Resin or clear acrylic sealer

Stickers or ephemera

*(I purchased mine at Lowes for $0.19 each)

Tools:

Paper trimmer

Paint brush

Sponge Brush

And now for the fun part!

Step One: Wash off all of your tiles and dry well. They may not look dirty but you still want a nice clean surface for the paper to stick to.

Step Two: Cut your paper to fit the tile. I cut mine at 4 1/8".

Step Three: Using your paint brush, paint a very thin layer of Mod Podge onto the tile. I like to get mine so it's barely wet. From past trial and error episodes I've noticed if you use too much the paper will absorb too much of the glue and you wind up with bubbles under it. Not too pretty!

Step Four: Carefully align your paper on the tile, making sure to press down on the edges to ensure a proper seal. Let dry - usually takes a few minutes.

Step Five: Continue adding thin layers of Mod Podge to the paper, letting it dry after each layer. I usually add 3-4 coats before I start to add my stickers.

*Make sure you coat the entire piece of paper and over lap some onto the tile. The reason for the heavy coverage is so that when you add your resin or acrylic sealer on top, it wont seep through and discolor your paper. (Again, I learned this by trial and error. Mostly error.)

Step Six: If you haven't already figured out how you would like to arrange your stickers and whatnot, you can do so at this time. Or even as your glue is drying. If you plan on layering things, like I have done pay close attention to make sure everything will fit and look nice once it's on the tile. I usually take a blank tile and arrange everything to see how it will look.

Step Seven: Add your embellishments. Stickers, die-cuts, whatever. Mod Podge them down and add a thin layer on top as well. Let dry and add multiple coats to the whole thing as well. (Just like we did with the paper)

I like to add one element at a time and make sure it is stuck down well and has a few coats over it before I add the next, especially if I plan on overlapping things.

If you've never used Mod Podge before, it dries clear. I promise.

Here are my two Mod Podged coasters. They are just waiting on resin.

As you can see around the embellishments, the Mod Podge isn't quite dry and still has a milky appearance.

Step Eight: I usually let my tiles sit overnight before I seal them with resin or sealer. When I made all of the coasters for Christmas gifts, I ended up using the acrylic sealer but I don't think I will use it in the future. It smelled horrible and gave me a headache while I was using it. And days later it still threatened to asphyxiate the gift recipients. Not cool. Good thing we all work in the ER ;) Anywho, protect your area with newspaper, wax paper, etc. If you're going to use the spray sealer, follow the directions on the can. It will take several coats! If you plan on using the resin, mix according to the directions and use the sponge brush to coat the tile.

Step Nine: Let dry overnight and you're good to go!

You can also buy those small felt stickers to put on the bottom of the tile so they don't scratch or mark up your furniture, although I had no issues with mine.

Happy Crafting!

I will be posting the final end result pictures on tomorrows DIY post.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Also, don't forget that I'll be giving these two coasters away at the end of the month.

Click here to see the contest.

Goodies In Shades of Brown

Pnina over at Room of Your Own created this beautiful treasury, Goodies in Shades of Brown. I am in love with pretty much every single item in here shop! Like this, this and this.

Check out the treasury here!

The UPS Driver is My Best Friend

Especially when they bring stuff like this.

Photos coming soon.

(I'm too excited right now.)

Grounded?

I'm supposed to be flying home Thursday morning at 0600. I have a stop-over in Chicago. Right where all that white crap is. I really don't want to get stranded at O'Hare.

Oh yeah, Boston is supposed to get dumped on Wednesday night. 12"-15".

Guess I better get my snow boots out.

Good Girl Bad Girl

Stay in your comfort zone. Or live a little.

Good Girl Bad Girl

(click the photo to see a larger image)

The Saturday Haul

WARNING! You may want to pack a lunch. This post is picture heavy!

I think any good blog post should start out with a photo of bread, don't you?

Mom and I went up to Paducah today. She needed to swing by the bank and I wanted to swing by Michaels. And of course we couldn't leave without having lunch at Panera. I'm still thinking about it hours later. :)

I have this issue with Michaels. I go in needing 2 or 3 things and end up with what you see above. Anyone else have this problem? Same thing at Hobby Lobby too.

I like to hit up the $1 bargain bins cause you can find all sorts of good stuff for cheapcheapcheap! I picked up some packs of rhinestone accents, 2-packs of emery boards (I always lose mine) and a little packet of holiday rhinestone accents. (80% off!)

This is what I originally came for... ribbon. I decided that I will be wrapping my bars of soap in paper, which I also picked up (see below) and I want to finish them off with ribbon. All of these were in the $1 bins as well! Score!

180 sheets, 60 designs and I can wrap 3 bars with 1 sheet of 12"x12" paper. I think I'm good to go for a while.

The absolute best thing about today is that I finally got my labels in the mail for my lotion bottles. I used VistaPrint and though I'm not crazy about how much they charge for S&H, the quality is amazing!

The line up.

I used their small rectangular product labels and then chose the advanced editing option. It was super easy to use and I think I'll be ordering the small oval labels I need from them as well. This is a shot of the Feliz Navidad lotion. I have a feeling this will be one of my best sellers as it smells so good you kinda wanna eat it. (Please don't)

Up next, Juicy Summer Watermelon. Another of my favorites.

This Ginger Lime lotions smells just like a lime Lifesaver!

Another of my popular scents. I've already sold 5 bars of this soap.

The Pineapple Coconut lotion makes me think of tropical islands where the drinks come with little umbrellas. I've had a few people tell me it smells like suntan lotion.

Dragons Blood is a perfect spicy blend of Patchouli, amber, vanilla and additional light notes.

I'm not sure if I've blogged about it (I'll have to check) but I entered one of the Lucky Magazine giveaways a few months ago. And WON! I never win anything. Ever. I ended up with a beautiful red suede shoe from the Born miniature shoe collection. It's so cute! And it's like a real shoe. Only way way smaller.

If only they came in a size 8.

And in blue. I've always wanted a pair of blue suede shoes ;)

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

I'll be removing the Pineapple Coconut soap from the mold that I made last night.

(And will probably be posting more photos.)

Don't forget about DIY week!

The New Addition!

Ha! You thought I was gonna say Baby didn't you? I know you did!

Well, this is as exciting as a baby but it's diaper-free, doesn't cry or keep you up all night. Although I am up all night. But well, that's besides the point.

I've been looking all over for some wire coated shelving to use for my bath & body supplies on. Mom and I went to Lowes and I found this! Woohoo! Although, I may need another one soon. As you can see I am running out of room already. And I have 3 shipments coming in this week!

The top two shelves are used for curing my soaps. I also have a small wicker basket that holds some packaging supplies (ribbon, business cards, labels, etc.)

I also have a basket full of wax and butters but they're being obscured by all of the soy star tart samples. There's another wicker basket for all of my bottles of fragrance.

The third shelf holds empty and full lotion bottles, the wicker basket with the tarts (I ended up moving this here for more room for soap on the 2nd shelf) and yet another basket full of tools like my digital scale, safety goggles, ruler, pigments, etc.

The bottom houses my mold (wrapped in a towel) that's hiding in the back, bags and bottles of various oils, my stick blender and Tupperware bin with soaping tools (gloves, thermometers, measuring cups, etc.)

My studio smells SO much better now. Not that it was stinky or anything in the first place. Just sayin.

You can see all of the notes, plus more studio pics over on my Flickr account.