Tis the season…for a little self indulging challenge.

Are you up for it? I am putting the twist on challenge day today. Instead of showing a sketch, or a blog hop, I am going to challenge you to create a beautiful gift for yourself or someone else. a little indulgence is always what we need to unwind from stressful days. Enjoy!

Well wasn’t this a month for spectacular projects & ideas. I know I was seriously inspired!!!!! Today I thought I would show you what I created for everyone around me this year for the holidays. A perfect hostess gift…say for a New Year’s party, or a birthday, or in the photos I will show you a teacher’s gift.

Here’s what you can do:

Buy a cute little jar, I like these ones that have a nice closure, a quaint size. You can usually pick these up at a dollar store, or in this case the Superstore. I took Staz On Ink and the myStampBOX, Let It Snow… set and stamped all over the image. I also put the Kaisercraft bling in a few of the snowflake centers. Just for an added touch. Then I created tags by spraying the with glimmer mist, drawing a little doodling around the edges and then putting stamped out images on the tag, raising them with pop dots. I used myStampBOX, Santa’s Tags &  HOHOHO. LOVE this set. seriously! I coloured in the images with copic markers.

So do you want the yummy body scrub recipe?

2 cups sea salt, kosher salt, or white sugar. Salt will be slightly more abrasive than sugar. (I actually prefer 1 cup coarse salt, 1 cup sugar)
1 cup sweet almond oil. Grapeseed and olive oil are also excellent choices for oils. 10-30 drops of cosmetic-grade and/or high quality essential oils of your choice. Lavender is suitable for most skin types. A covered, plastic container for mixing and storage.

Now you can keep reinventing this recipe to suit your needs. For the holidays, I crushed real peppermints in red & green and put them in the scrub. they will melt in hot water, but they smell glorious. I used spearmint essential oil instead of peppermint cause it is a little subtler, and not as strong. More recipe ideas are gingerbread flavour, cinnamon, etc.

Another recipe I LOVE, is to switch out the white sugar for the rich dark brown sugar, cut open chai tea bags and put in the mix (about 6-8 tea bags) then use vanilla essential oils. (this is a recipe my friend Kara made for me and it is sooo yummy in the tub.

This would be fun for a wedding shower, to do pedicures, making your own scrubs, and as you can see, with all the different myStampBOX stamps, you can decorate the jars appropriately. This really gives the handmade touch.

Have fun ladies, and lock yourself in the bathroom, with your new scrubs and ENJOY!

Happy New Year.

smiles & best wishes,

Here’s to creating realistic resolutions…have you thought about those yet?

Leica