A Fun Little Recipe!

Hi All! I thought I would start posting again after a loooooong break and share with you a really cute, and easy gift to give someone :} Several months ago, I stumbled onto a recipe for making your own homemade laundry detergent on Pinterest and just had to try it out! Laundry detergent can be so expensive and I'm always looking for ways to stretch my dollars. 

The recipe I based mine off of was from, the "Queen of Doing Laundry", Michelle Duggar from the show 19 Kids and Counting. I figured if it works for her than it will work for me right? Her recipe, on their website, calls for: 1 bar Fels-Naptha, 1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, and 1/2 cup of Borax that's it! I found all of the ingredients easily in the laundry isle in Walmart. I tried it out and for sure this stuff is wonderful!! It smells awesome, works better than the expensive brands, and is so incredibly cheap!

Over time, I made my recipe with 1 full cup of Borax instead of 1/2 cup, just because it was easier for me to remember. This brain can't seem to remember much nowadays! Also, if you wanted to save on Fabric Softener, you can use plain old vinegar! Just put some in the Fabric Softener Dispenser and it will also clean your washing machine and make it smell fresh! All ingredients listed above is perfectly safe for HE washers too! 

Keep in mind the amount that fills the jar in the picture is a double batch of the recipe :}

Today is a new challenge over at The Outlawz in the Paper A La Mode group! The challenge is to make something other than a card. I needed to make my mom a much overdue birthday present (like April overdue...OOPS!) and thought this would be the perfect project!

I found an old glass container with an airtight lid to use (so the detergent doesn't clump) and wanted to label the jar. I decided to cut a design out of vinyl on my Silhouette SD, place it on the jar, and then use their Etching Cream to etch the design onto the glass. So fun!! 

I then made a cute little tag on the Silhouette out of  Echo Park's This & That Graceful paper and then printed the recipe out on it too. I tied a large sage green ribbon around the top of the jar and left the lid empty because my mom would have to open and close it a lot. Tied the tag with a bit of twine, slapped on some ribbon, stickers, flower and a brad and we were good to go!

A close up of the design for the label.

Here is the jar without the detergent inside. You can see the design a bit better here.

Here is exactly how I made this recipe for Laundry Detergent! First, I poured all of the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and Borax into my food processor with the blade to help mix it up well. Then, I used the grater to grate the Fels-Naptha Bar into the other mixture while mixing at the same time so it was well blended. You could grate the Fels-Naptha by hand too, but make sure to mix all of the ingredients well before using. Use 1 tablespoon for light loads and two tablespoons for heavy loads. I use two and a half because I have a colossal size washer and do very large loads. You can use a bar of Fels-Naptha to rub onto stains as a pre-treat and it works wonderfully! Lots of grass stains in this family!

Hope you liked this cute little gift idea and the recipe if you try it! Hopefully it will not take me 8 months to post again! 

Hello!!! Anybody out there?

Hey everyone! Is anyone out there and actually still following my blog? I know I've been away for far too long, but took a much needed break to get life more in order. I spent the summer trying to gain control of the house and just enjoying time with the kids. Then, before I knew it it was time for the kids to start school again.  They both (Cameron & Finley) are still doing school at home through PaCyber Charter School and it's going very well. Best decision I ever made I tell ya! 

Can you believe that I didn't go into my craft room all summer long!! Nope I didn't! I finally have just recently gone in there to push aside the cobwebs and dust off the craft supplies. Boy was it dusty!! I'm back in the saddle on the DT over at The Outlawz again and it's awesome to be back! I thank Colleen and the other girls for their patience in allowing me to take some much needed time. I'm now part of the team in The Twisted Thursdays Group and below you can see two cards I made for the last two challenges. The first card was for the stitching challenge, and the second card was for  the current Anything Goes Challenge. 

One more very important and exciting thing going on at The Outlawz starting tonight at midnight!! We are have a 1000th Member Party to celebrate reaching 1000 members!! That's awesome and how fast the site has grown! Be sure to come and check out all the fun games and challenges we have planned!! You won't want to miss all of the awesome prizes from many, many sponsors like a $100 gift certificate to Oozak, $100 gift certificate to SCACD, and many other prizes from Paper Temptress, Ippity and many, many more!!! Come on over and join the party!!

Also, there a bunch of fun games to play like Words With Oozak, Name That Tune, Bingo & more! Fun! Fun!

Here is the little pumpkin card I made for the stitching challenge at The Outlawz. I stitched some orange fabric on a canvas background. I even curled some strips of fabric for the stems! To cute! 

This is the anything goes card. I used a yellow sketch pen on my Silhouette SD to create the background and used all Basic Grey papers for this one :} Purty!

That's it for me for now! Be sure to come on by The Outlawz and have a rootin' tootin' good time ;} Sorry had to say it! Also, be sure to tell your friends because it's always better to party with lots of friends right? You'll be guaranteed to make some new ones I bet too! Have a great week everyone and HOPEFULLY I can post again this week just to shock you. He! He! TTFN!

Outlawz Jan. 29th Scrapbook Challenge and a card or two

Hey peeps! How is everyone doing this fine evening? I gotta say I'm doing pretty good today :} I was just brought up to bed by my hubbie carrying me up the stairs and then ever so gently placing me on our bed. Yea, I know....TMI but it's not what you think. My back and hip were hurting me so he was nice enough to bring me upstairs so I could get some work done on the computer from the comfort of my bed :} Ahhh.......what a life indeed!

Today was good day....not too crazy.....not too busy.....not too....well.....me. Finley had a sleepover last night and the moment her guest went home the phone rang and it was her Aunt Kathleen wanting to come and steal her for another playdate. Gotta love that! Hubby was working and I was left with Cameron. Got to work on a card and finished in under an hour!! That's unheard of for me! But I did it!

Know on to the good stuff. Over at The Outlawz we have a new challenge up for the Scrapbooking Group. The challenge is to use stitching/sewing and fabric! My two most favorite things to use on my projects! Love it! Below please see my example for the challenge. That's my Pudge (Lily) all smiles and laughs. Gotta love that little girl and I just wish she would stay a little girl forever! Tears!

I used mostly Crate Paper for this. The pink scallops in the background are actually embossed onto white fabric. I also used a touch a fabric behind the tree, on the flower and the wings on the birds, and also the banners are fabric stampes with Stamps Of Life stamps. I stitched everywhere and anywhere I could. I think it turned out quite nice don't ya think? I just love that little girl to pieces!

This card I made for the CAS challenge over at The Outlawz. Love how it turned out! I used some Fancy Pants rub-ons for the background, hearts and sentiment. Fabulous and easy! Under an hour people! It's a record for me! Just don't count on it happening again :}

This little number I also did for the CAS challenge over at The Outlawz, but for last week's challenge and the one above is for this week's. Used some Cosmo Cricket, Unity Stamp for the background of the birds, and Stamps Of Life for the birds, hearts and sentiment.

Can you believe it!? Two posts in one night! I also posted about The Moxie Fab Color Challenge before this post so be sure to check that out too. 

Hope you all have a fabulous night and a wonderful week! I'll be back soon with some more yumminess! TTFN!

Moxie Fab Challenge

Hey everyone! Here is the birthday card I made for Finley's birthday. I also made it for the Moxie Fab Bright & Bold Color Challenge over at Moxie Fab World. This is the first time I have entered a challenge there and can't wait to see who wins! I'm so in love with Color Inspiration For Card Makers Magazine from Paper Crafts! So much inspiration!!You can find the challenge here but it does end tonight! Sorry for the short notice!

I'm back! Did ya miss me?

It's been a long time since my last post I know, but life has a funny way of..well.....getting in the way. Had to take some time off from some things I enjoyed like being on a design team, blogging and taking part in challenges. With two of my kids starting Pa Cyber Charter school they needed my full attention, and so did my house for that matter. If anyone has ever tried to home school your children then you get what I mean. VERY TIME CONSUMING!!

As part of my New Year's Resolutions I hope to keep up with my blog a bit more this year and bring tons of inspiration to you. I can't promise how often I'll post, but I will promise to post much more. Deal?

All is better now and I am very happy to say that I have been accepted onto The Outlawz Design Team!! If you haven't checked out this new challenge community please do! I feel very blessed to be given this opportunity to work with some awesomely talented ladies! A bunch of them I had the pleasure of working with before and I'm very excited to be reunited with them again :}

I am a designer for The Scrapbooking Group over at The Outlawz and below you will see my first project completed for the swirls and butterflies challenge. This was so much fun to do and who doesn't like to work with butterflies and swirls? I hope you find some inspiration from my layout and decide to hop on over to The Outlawz and give it a whirl! There are several other awesome challenges there too that just might tickle your fancy.


Sweet Little Thing

I used mostly Crate Paper's Restoration Collection paper. Fancy Pants chipboard flourish, American Crafts Dear Lizzy metal butterfly and metal rose brads, American Crafts rose ribbon, Tattered Angels antique key, The Stamps Of Life butterfly2build set for the two dimensional butterflies, Sassafras silhouette brad, floral flourish cut on my Silhouette.

I did a couple of little techniques on this layout that I wanted to share. On the big chipboard flourish I used both Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink in scattered sraw and Making Memories moss stain along the edges and then applied Tattered Angel's suede Glimmer Mist with a foam brush to even out the colors and give it a bit of sparkle too. Yummy! On the green floral die cut that sits on top of the large flourish I used a lighter green American Crafts Zing Embossing Powder. Once the powder was applied to whole die cut, I took a paint brush and brushed off just a little here and there so the darker base paper would show through in some places giving it some dimension. I stamped the butterflies with brown ink first and then stamped again with gold on top to give it more of an antique feel and I think it worked quite well.

Next up I hope to finish Finley's (my little girl that's not so little anymore) b-day invitations for a sleepover she will have soon. Her b-day was on January 13th and she turned 6, but we have her celebration later in the month or early the following month because of it being so close to Christmas. Hopefully I'll have those for you in the next few days. Until then.....TTFN!

Ready for some summer fun?

Then you won't want to miss this weekend's crop over at Simply Scrapping Crafts!!!! It's going to be a summer fun filled weekend with games, challenges, tutorials & prizes galore!! Please come over and join the group here where you will find all of the challenges and games posted!! Be sure to tell all of your friends and spread the word because this is a party you don't wanna miss!! For event times and details please check out the flyer above and the group :} See you there!!

Almost done!!!

With the school year that is ;} Tomorrow is Cameron's last day as a 6th grader and I can't wait to NOT have to get up before 6 am and leave the house by 7am to get him to school anymore!! It was killing me! Then, on Tuesdays & Thursdays Finley would have Pre-school too so, we would go back to the house for about an hour and then out the door again! Enough about my hard life right?

I've got some more scrappy goodies that I managed to get done over the past week or so. Over at SSC the girls are coming up with some incredibly gorgeous projects to feast your eyes on for sure! Please come and stop by here and check out all of the yummy inspiration!! Remember, in each group we are giving away RAKS to the projects we choose that's most creative!! Also, for each project done for a challenge you are entered into the random drawing to become Designer Of The Month and receive a whole lot of scrappin' goodies from Miss Judy herself! That's cool right?!

I'm so glad I decided to be apart of the Simply Scrapping DT because they are the most incredibly talented & awesome girls around! Love it!! Nothing but creativity and NO DRAMA!!! It's so nice to not have to deal with daily DRAMA!! Thank you so much SSC!

This card below I made for Paper Scraps Challenge Week # 2! You had to make a tree made out of butterflies! How cool is that?! I went a little nuts on mine, but we all know I'm a little nuts so that's fine. My blade was really dull on my Silhouette so I had to basically cut everything 3 TIMES!!! This was the most time consuming card, but sooo worth it!! I put little Swarovski Crystals in the center of each butterfly and tied a bit of string in a bow to make it more whimsical. I'm not sure I'm liking the flourish button bird, but had no time to take it off. Hope you like it!



This first layout I did for June week #1 of Sketchy Saturdays challenge over at SSC that's up now. The girls are enjoying their HUGE lollipops Daddy gave them so I thought this would make a really cute layout. I used some older Making Memories paper along with a Fancy Pants transparency at the top. Of course, there is lots of stitching and color! I think it turned out really cute!



This one I had done for May week #5 Sketchy Saturdays at SSC too. These are some of the very first pictures I took with my brand new Nikon D3000 camera!! I sooooo love my new camera! It takes awesome pictures for sure! Don't the girls look so cute together? I think so! I stitched a circle and put different size die cut butterflies with brads around it. I chose to use two black & white photos so the colors wouldn't compete so much. I also wrapped some yellow and white ribbon around a Pink Paislee chipboard border for some added interest. I love the way it turned out and it's completely different then I had originally planned it to be. Love it!



Below is the very cute altered frame I made for Finley's Pre-School Teacher Mrs. Marti. I just die cut some flourishes and added some other little goodies and it was easy peasy! She loved it so much because the picture was of the whole class. I really enjoyed doing this for her.



Sometime within the next couple days I'll post some of the awesome pictures we took at the Baltimore Zoo. Got some really great shots of the animals. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far and I'll be back soon with more yumminess! TTFN!