Essential Oils To Clean The Toilet?

On Saturday's our kids usually help me with house keeping and laundry to earn an allowance.  Jenny had other things she was committed to so that left Michael and I home together with the chores.  I thought he might be more inclined to help if we made some fun stuff to clean with.  

We use baking soda and vinegar to clean the toilets and the kids enjoy the chemical reaction that it makes.  

Michael said something about making "toilet bombs" after he cleaned last time and I got to thinking that might be a great idea, maybe he is on to something!  

Pictured above is Michael adding Tea Tree essential oil to his toilet bomb mixture for it's great disinfecting properties, he also added doTerra Citrus Bliss to make it smell good.  

Whisking his creation together.

Shaping those toilet bombs with a meatball maker.

Oh man... sometimes they fall apart and need to be remade...

When he finished with his toilet bombs Michael made a quick batch of bath bombs for his Mom, I packaged  and labeled both later.  It wouldn't be the end of the world if I had a bath with the toilet bombs but Mom's bath fizzies have Almond oil in them so they wouldn't clean the toilet very well!  

A picture of my finished Relaxing Bath Fizzies made by Michael.

We tried out one of his toilet bombs a little later and it worked really well.

It had great fizz and when he used the toilet brush it cleaned well too.  

The kid might be onto something here!

Click here for the recipe used from Teach Soap, we added different essential oils as mentioned in the above post to make the toilet bombs.

The essential oils added to the Relaxing Bath Fizzies are:

• Lemon
• Ylang Ylang
• Neroli
• Sweet Marjoram
• German Chamomile
• Rosewood
• Spikenard

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Adorned From Above

Yolanda's Car

Since I'm not on any design teams right now I have more time to make cards using images I've collected but been too busy to do anything with.  Today's card is one of those (:  This fun image was made by one of our former Operation Write Home blog admin team Yolanda and was a freebie on her blog Imagine Make Share, which is now Slow Down Sunday.

The image is colored with Copic markers in the Blue Green family most likely BG11 - 13, the designer paper is digital by My Time Made Easy, the sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink acrylic stamp set and my layout is Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge #355.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Plant Therapy Prize Winner!!

I'd like to announce the winner of the Plant Therapy Prize Package from my April 19th blog post!!

Congratulations Anna from Nature's Home Spa it's you!!!

I'll be in contact with you soon -

A Day For Daisies Angels Resting

For my card today I used A Day For Daisies Angels Resting digital image and colored with Copic markers pictured below:

My sketch layout is Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge #296.  The cranberry colored panel is made using Copic R89, Colorless Blender and an acrylic stamp.  The card stock colors I used are Basic Black, Copic X Press It, Discount Cardstock's Royal Blue & Neenah Kraft.  I added Stickles Ice to the wings and used a couple different Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Verve With Gratitude

I have a rubber stamped, heat embossed card to share with you today.

My card was made with a Verve Visual acrylic stamp set, embossing powder, Spellbinders dies a Stampin' Up! Canvas background stamp and a scrap of black and white digital paper and beautiful organdy ribbon.  I love making bows with organdy ribbon!  I really like the way my card turned out except for the dots of black embossing powder in all the places I didn't want it.  Now I remember why I like black pigment ink and clear embossing powder, lol!  That's what I get for using so many digital images anymore, I'm out of practice with my heat embossing technique.  

Have a blessed day a & thanks for visiting my blog today -

Arizona Sunshine Handcrafted Soap

I've been studying hard in my Aromatherapy Certification course and decided to take a couple of Mental Health days to catch up on things that have been neglected, like buying groceries and make a batch of soap that's been on my mind.   

In a small brown bottle I've had a mixture of essential oils brewing for a soap fragrance.  Each day I have a little smell to see how it's coming along and give it a shake then put it back in the refrigerator.  

It felt so good to make a batch of soap and try out my new fragrance, I also tried adding some natural yellow color by using the cooking spice Turmeric.  

I think I could stand to add a little more next time!  

   

Here's what my Arizona Sunshine moisturizing bar soaps look like naked.  They smell wonderful with top notes of Grapefruit and Orange and base notes of Vanilla and Patchouli - yum!

I also snuck in a Lavender Rose Facial Bar recently.

I used Olive Oil solar infused with Calendula and Chamomile Flowers, Castor Oil for nice bubbles and lightly scented with pure essential oils of Lavender and Rose.  

Here's the naked Lavender Rose Facial Bars.

Handcrafted with skin loving pure essential and carrier oils for an extra gentle facial soap.

I used one of my favorite hot process soap recipes for the Arizona Sunshine soap, if you'd like to see the step by step tutorial click here.  The other recipe is from Soap Making Resource and was a cold process recipe that I turned into a hot process soap.  

If you'd rather not make your own soaps I've added both of these to my Etsy store Life Scents.

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Handcrafted Skin Allergy Relief

I'm five weeks into my Aromatherapy Certification Class now and thought it would be fun to share some of the things I've made using my new skills.  One of our blending exercises was to make a lotion blend using 3 to 5 essential oils in the Sesquiterpene family.  

After looking over the data sheets and GC/MS reports for all the Sesquiterpenes I settled on making a lotion blend for skin allergy and itch relief using German Chamomile, Spikenard, Veviter and Ylang Ylang.  I'm terribly allergic to dish soaps and currently have a rash on and between the fingers of my right hand.

I mixed up the cream and used it for a couple of days and saw results.  The rash was getting better but my skin was still so dry and cracked.  What I really needed was a little more skin healing power for this rash and thought a salve would work well adding the herb Comfrey for those exact properties.  

Instead making a Comfrey infused oil I took one of my already made up Comfrey Salves.  This particular salve has Comfrey and Calendula infused Olive Oil with a few drops of Lavender essential oil in it. 

I boiled about a half inch of water in a small sauce pan then set the tin in it to melt.  When it was a clear liquid again I added 4 drops German Chamomile, 4 drops Helichrysum & 3 drops Lavender.

Oh heavenly smells!

What you see pictured above looks like the aftermath...  I quickly stirred in the essential oils, then put the top on the tube so they wouldn't evaporate into the air and waited for the salve to harden.  

While I waited I went to avery.com and made myself a label for the finished product.

I dabbed a little of the left overs on the rash on my hand, it feels soothing, a bit oily but I can live with that.  We'll see now if it heals my dish soap rash.

 I've summarized below why I chose the essential oils I did.  These are not all the therapeutic properties of these essential oils, just the ones I was interested in for this project.

German Chamomile:

 Anti-allergenic, to help prevent and relieve allergies

Anti-inflammatory, to alleviate inflammation

Anti-fungal, to inhibit the growth of fungus

Anti-histaminic, to reduce histamine

Cicatrisant, cell - regenerative for skin, heals scars

Helichrysum:

Anti-inflammatory, to alleviate inflammation

Anti-allergenic, to help prevent and relieve allergies

Cicatrisant, cell - regenerative for skin, heals scars

Skin Healing, supports the skin to heal

Tonic, strengthens and restore vitality

Lavender:

Analgesic, numbs pain

Anti-inflammatory, to alleviate inflammation

Antiseptic, assists in fighting germs/infections

Cicatrisant, cell - regenerative for skin, heals scars

Tonic, strengthens and restore vitality

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial of sorts today.  If you need directions on how to make the Comfrey Salve I started with click here for the recipe tutorial.  

The essential oils I used today are from Aromatics International.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

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Gingerly Made

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Plant Therapy Give Away

You might recognize this picture from my April 9th blog post where I did a tutorial on how to make a natural antihistamine using essential oils.  Click the green letters above if you'd like to go to the tutorial.
Retha from Plant Therapy contacted me and asked if I'd like to do a give away of all the Plant Therapy products I used.  

You bet, I think my blog readers would love that!

To enter into the Plant Therapy product give away:

• LEAVE A COMMENT HERE ON MY BLOG WITH YOUR E MAIL ADDRESS
• CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY FACE BOOK PAGE
• LIKE MY FACEBOOK PAGE & LEAVE A COMMENT
• SHARE THE GIVE AWAY ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE 

The give away is open to USA and International residents, I will draw a name Friday, April 26, 2013 and announce the winner here as well as contacting the winner via e mail.

And...

I have a coupon code for you!  At check out use shesgonedigital10 and receive $10 off your purchase of $25 or more. It cannot be used towards the purchase of Gift Certificates and only one coupon per customer.

Best of luck to you!

Bugaboo Stamps Spring Stuff

My card today is for our Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps Midweek Throwdown challenge, our theme is "A Bug's Life".  

I used Bugaboo Stamps cute bee from their Spring Stuff Collection and colored it with Copic markers:

Y13, Y15, Y17, R21

T3, T5, T7

BG0000, BG000, B01

My layout is a OWH sketch from a year or so ago modified slightly.  I used two Cuttlebug embossing folders and the sentiment is a Papertrey Ink stamp.  It was a little tricky getting the happy and birthday just right and I had to peel up the pieces a few times but I just kept at it till I got it.  

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown challenge - A Bug's Life

Homemade Relaxing Lavender Chamomile Tea

I have an order from The Bulk Herb Store and thought I'd do a quick tutorial as I put everything away!

I was running low on Lavender Flowers and Chamomile and needed Arnica Flowers for another project.  The herbs come in nice plastic zipper bags and are half a pound size.  I can't use up them quick enough so I repackage them into mason jars.

Most of the packages will fit in a half gallon mason jar, when I have them filled I use my Food Saver to remove all the air from the jars to increase their shelf life up to ten years.

Before I put everything away I wanted to make up some more Lavender Chamomile Tea for us.  I gathered up the rest of the supplies here, 1 tablespoon measuring spoon, large tea bags and my straightening iron to seal the tea bags.  Speaking of the tea bags, I bought them on E Bay when I was making Bath Teas around Christmas time, they are a little large but I'm using what I have.

I filled the tea bags with one tablespoon each of Lavender Flowers and Chomomile Flowers then sealed the tea bags using my straightening iron.

Now they are all sealed and ready to use.  We use one tea bag per 16 ounces of hot water and let steep for about ten minutes.  I like to add 1 teaspoon of raw honey in mine for sweetened  tea.  Lavender Chamomile Tea is helpful with relaxation before bedtime.  I don't drink it every night but when I feel like I might have a hard time falling asleep I make some and enjoy it before bed.  

In an effort to keep the tea bags fresher I upcycled the nice zipper bag the Lavender Flowers came in and into the cabinet it went!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial today, thanks for visiting my blog -

Life Scents Etsy Shop

I have fun news today!  Over the weekend I decided to re-name and re-open my Etsy store.

I've re-named it Life Scents and have nine listings so far for hand crafted products I've made recently.

Pictured above is one of my listings for Double Strength Bug Bite Salve.  This salve takes the pain and itch out of insects bites, our family loves it.

I have one lip balm so far packaged in one ounce tins and .15 ounce twist up tubes.

I'll be adding more homemade bath and beauty products as I get them made up.

I have a batch of soap I hope to add soon!

Thanks for visiting my blog today & I hope you'll go visit my new Life Scents Etsy store too!

From 2007 - 2013 The Growth of a Designer

2007

I've been blogging about paper crafting since 2007, last Sunday I took a trip down memory lane.  On my blog that is, I started at the beginning of 2007 just for fun.  I must say my style has changed for the better!

I've picked a card from each year my blogs' been in existence for my post today.

The card above is from a post I did in August 2007.  I used Watercolor H20's to color the flower and it looks like a couple of Stampin' Up! background stamps and hardware.

2008

It appears I was coloring with Copic markers here.  My blog post was pretty vague...

2009

These look a little better to me!  Here's an excerpt from my blog post on these:

I saw this technique on Stamp TV and loved the idea.

2010

I remember this cutie, I was on the Bugaboo Stamps design team and getting better using Copic my markers.

2011
Was definitely a year of paper crafting discovery and fun!

2012

Stamps by Papertrey Ink. colored with Copic markers.

2013

I made this card a couple of months ago using a Birdie Brown digital image.

The cards from way back are kind of hard to look at and post for everyone to see today but in doing so I can see the growth I've achieved as a paper crafter in the last 6 years.

All in all kind of a fun way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Inky Antics Charming Kitties

Our Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown challeng is a color challenge, using your favorite color combination and tell us why!

I've found that since I started coloring with Copic markers I really LOVE ORANGE, or Yellow/Reds!  So I have a couple of fun cards using Basic Grey Ambrosia papers and acrylic stamps from Inky Antics.  This set is called Charming Kitties.

My layout is a Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge #355.  I used Copic X Press It blending card, Basic Grey Ambrosia designer paper, Basic Black, Neenah Classic Crest Pewter & Stampin' Up! Only Orange as well as Mohawk Bright White for the card base.

Copic markers are pictured below:

I have a second card using this cute stamp set too.

All the supplies used are the same except for the buttons from my stash and some crochet thread and I used a different embossing folders made by Sizzix and Cuttlebug.  The layout for this card is from Sweet Sunday Sketch #136.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

 

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown Challenge - Your Favorite Colors