All A Flutter for you! More My Time Made Easy!

Hello! Well, I get to kick off the design team day by day showing of more My Time Made Easy Pretty Packaging Templates! Today i have 2 more for you plus a little mini tutorial on how to make your own bath salts! Super easy, super cheap once you have all the supplies and great for last minute quickie and CUSTOM gifts! So keep reading to learn more!

Since yesterday i started with my All A Flutter plant holder, today I'll start with this super sweet Shutt-erfly Candy Holder!

With my very first project, i used the Letter R for my friend Rachel. Lauren gave me a hard time at why it didnt have the letter L for her! Haha! So this little candy set is for Lauren!

My idea for this set is that it would make a perfect little party favor! If i had a little girl, this is how i envision i would throw her a birthday party! haha! Everyone would have their little place card, and a little treat box!

Now let's talk a little bit about something else My Time Made Easy ™ is offering...

Digital Paper!!!

There are actually 2 different types digi paper...

Color Me Pretty © Pretty Printables ©

So what does that mean? Well the Pretty Printables are actually what you'll see on my projects today. The Color Me Pretty papers are black and white so that you may add your own color to them either by printing on colored paper, coloring in the images, etc. :)

Here I used papers from both the Shutt-erfly paper collection and the Fluttering By paper collection. The 2 paper collections were created to go well together using the same images and color scheme but each being different patterns. :) The paper with butterflies and words is from the Fluttering By collection while the circles paper that goes around the box and that i wrapped around the chocolate nuggets is from the Shutt-erfly collection.

The adorable butterflies come with the template file that you can either use to print and cut or as a cut file (if you purchase the cut template). They are just the perfect addition! The shape mimics the shape the top of the template makes when closed. Since i was creating this box as a favor box, I actually reduced the size on my printer but did not alter the size of the shutt-erfly accents. This is how the butterflies are nearly half the size of the box. See, limitless options! (and yes, i went old school and printed the template. I made this sometime last month before i had purchased the SCAL!)

Here's a view of the template solo...

You'll see that I also used some images from the All A Flutter stamp set.

And here's a quick view from the top. If you are interested in how this box opens and closes, scroll down to the very end of yesterdays post. There is a little 26 second video showing how it closes (one handed at that! My other hand was holding the camera!

I took the smallest of the shutt-erfly accents and glued them together to create this little topper. it really just rested on top of the box as a decoration. :)

Whew... are you still with me? Because i have a LOT more for you to see!

Next is the All A Flutter template which i turned into a cute coordinating bathroom gift set!

Here is it... sitting on the windowsill of my garden tub. I was going to give it away as a gift, but it's just so pretty sitting there, i'm not sure that i can! hahaha! Ok, you need a closer view...

First lets focus on the Pretty Packaging © Template! If you didnt read my blog yesterday (oh please scroll down to look, i was very pleased with my projects! haha!) This template is called All A Flutter and it's just the cutest darned thing since sliced bread!

Now i have also blessed myself with the Sure Cuts A Lot program for my cricut. (i have the expression, but any of the cricut machines work so long as you have the firmware updated which you can do for free with the trial version of Design Studio). Lauren had this ingenious idea to make all of her templates also available in "cut" files! There are multiple cut file options so you can make her templates work with whatever cutting machines you have. Here's a quick "go to" to find out which files you need for your machine. But let me tell you, having your machine just cut it all out for you.... ooooooo it's sooooooo nice! hahahahaha!

I used the oh so adorable Butterfly Definition paper available in the Pretty Printables paper from the Fluttering By collection.

For the circles on the butterfly, i simply used the same paper that was cut by my cricut, and then colored it in using copic markers. It seemed silly to print the definition paper again on colored cardstock and then run that thru my cricut just to get the circles. It was just as easy to color the paper after they were cut!

Here's my card for my All A Flutter bath Set project, you can see more of the Pretty Printables paper from the Fluttering By collection!

I printed the Pink and the Brown butterfly definition. This paper is beyond cute! It's that same font i talked about yesterday (the one i do believe we'll be seeing quite a bit of! It's the same front in the My Time Made Easy logo!) And it's all that you'd expect the definition of a butterfly to be! I adore it!

For my card, I used stamps from both All A Flutter and All A Flutter Sentiments. And it's a little hard to see, but I adorned the butterfly with pearl accents (by kaisercraft) to match the pearls (also kaisercraft) on the side of the card and the front of the Butterfly Box.

And now on to the gifties... I love to make soaps, lotions and things at home. I mean, i do makeup as a profession, so of course all things beauty related catch my fancy! And given that i'm a crafter and like to do all things handmade, why wouldnt i like to make my own beauty products! And making your own bath salts is just about the easiest thing ever! I'll walk you thru it step by step in just a moment!

These were all little things i picked up at michael's. The candle was already made. Perhaps we'll do a candle pouring tutorial another day! You can get the cute little glass clasp jars over by the wood section ($1, different styles!) and the plastic squirt top bottle came in a pack of 3 over by the candle making supplies ($3).

To give them a unified look, I stamped an image from the All A Flutter Sentiments set. I just stamped in brown ink and then colored in the inside of the butterflies with copic markers to match the paper i used in the card (and the same colors i used to color in the circles of the butterfly box. They were matted on the same colored cardstock as used on the card.

And now... onto the making of the bath salts...

All you need are a few supplies (and you actually dont need as many as have here)

You'll need

A mixing bowl and spoon

Containers to put your bath salts in

Sea Salt, Epsom Salt or a mixter of the 2

table salt is an absolute no no, it will dry out your skin

Dendritic Salt (optional)

Natrasorb bath (optional)

Fragrance (fragrance oil, essential oil, etc) (optional)

Pure Oil (i used Sweet Almond oil here, but there are MANY options)

Colorant (i used colored mica, but again, lots of options) and its optional

Phew, that seems like a big list, but really it's not. There are other things you could add as well. I'm keeping this one pretty simple. :) My favorite 2 places to purchase soap making supplies online are Brambleberry and From Nature With Love. FNWL is incredibly informative and will give you loads more "recipes" and combinations.

Ok, let's just get started...

To start with,

I'm just using regular sea salt that you can find at most health food store. but it's important that it's SEA SALT. Iodonized salt (or table salt) is incredibly drying to the skin!

You can also purchase way fun sea salts (like dead mans sea salt, hawaiian sea salt, etc from FNWL) or you can use always cheap and readily available epsom salts!

To know how much to use, it's easy to just put the salt into your container first. Filling the container to the brim usually means your are going to double it. I personally like to keep 1 for myself when i make someone bath salt. :) It's payment for all my hard work.

Ok, so just pour that into your bowl. Any bowl will do. And set aside.

The next steps are completely optional and will require you ordering products.

In a separate bowl, i mixed my other dry ingredients. I added in a big spoonful of dendritic salt (which is a very very finely crystallized salt that helps improve surface area which means it helps even out coloring, fragrance and reduces clumping. It also increases the longevity of the fragrance. Have you ever bought a product that smelled so so nice, but disappeared in the tub, or had a lighter scent when you went to use it later?

I also add in natrasorb bath. This is a starch that just sucks up oils, fragrances and such. And then the starch dissolves once it comes in contact with the water which helps the bath be incredibly aromatic! it also helps everything not clump, gives longevity, etc. COuld you probably just use one or the other of the dendritic salt or natrasorb, sure. Or use none. :)

Other good dry additives are dry milk, dried yogurt, etc. All good stuff for your skin. :)

Ok, next step... i like to add a little oil to my bath salt. it helps the skin be oh so soft! There are so many wonderful oils you can use (you can even use Olive Oil!) You do NOT need a lot! Too much and you'll have a minor oil slick in the tub! For this project i used about 1/2 tsp of oil and fragrance. I ended up filling both containers when everything was done. Other good oils include sunflower, jojoba, grapeseed, peach kernal, i could go on and on!

I like to mix all of my liquid ingredients together and then mix them in with the dry ingredients. I also think it helps to distribute the other liquids (like the fragrance, colorants,etc). If using dendritic salt, mix it to the ds first, then mix the salts together.

You have 2 main options for colors... liquid colorant (i dont like food coloring, it can stain your tub, i use a cosmetic grade colorant, you can find it lots of places) or colored mica (also use cosmetic grade. The 2 pictures below are just views of how to use the colorant. I like to mix it right in with my oils.

Once you've combined everything together, you just mix and stir around until you get a consistency that can pressed up against the side of the bowl and not fall down. See pictures...

I dont like it to be too much wetter than this because i dont like too much oil in the tub. If it does seem too wet, then just add in a bit more of the sea salt. At this point i often add in more colorant until i get the exact look i want. In this case, i was trying to match my paper!

So thats basically it for making your own bath salts. Could it be any easier? You just dump stuff in a bowl and stir! Now the lotion is a bit tricker but one day i will go into how to make your own lotions. but if you want to keep things on the simple side, simply buy a lotion base! This is what i did here. it's easy to create your own lotion base (you just need oil water and emulsifying wax but you also need a stove and some time!) so buying a lotion base works out great! The lotion base is usually white, so i added in the same colorant and fragrance and a little bit of the same sweet almond oil for extra moisture. Now getting lotion into the bottle is tricker. Here's the easy thing i've come up with! Fill up a sandwich baggie with your lotion and snip off the tip, like what you might do if you were frosting a cake! Then just squeeze it in!

Wow, i think think this is the longest i've ever spent typing up a blog post! There is more My Time Made Easy to see today! GO check out Lauren's Blog for more adorable projects! And remember that every day one of the My Time Made Easy design team members will be sharing fabulous projects (as well as the template queen herself, Lauren!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!! I appreciate it so much!