Happy Birthday Cutie

Little Cutie!

I love this little image.  This elements of this card were actually receive in a card kit that I received in a swap over two years ago. Yes, over two years ago!!!

I have taken a very large break from creating cards on a regular basis.  I started to fall very behind on my scrapbooking which was really making me sad so I put my card making aside  and decided to put all of my crafting focus in to scrapbooking.  I'm still 2 years behind on my scrapbooking but not nearly as bad as what I was. 

So I decided to come back this week and participate in 4 different challenges.  One thing I love about card making is there is so much inspiration on the web for fun new ideas and techniques.  The craft never gets boring!!

This weeks challenges I played along in.

Fab 'n' Funky - Green Color Challenge
For Fun Challenge - Circles
Sisterhood of Crafters - Birthday
Craft Us Crazy - Something Sweet

Have a great week and hope you'll come back soon!!!

Card Sets

One of my loves is making greeting cards.  I love making sets and giving them as gifts to people that are non-card makers.  This year I have been putting all occasion cards inside of bags and putting toppers on them to give us gifts.
They are a lot of fun to do and easy. 

School Book Projects

My "plan" is to have a scrapbook done for each of the boys for when they graduate from high school.  I'm doing 2-4 pages for each year of their school days.  I have found having little accents and different Cricut cuts available makes the pages is a lot more fun and easy to do.  So I have been making some different cuts with my Cricut to use as accents.  This cut was created with the Nate's ABC cartridge. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

My Homemade Laundry Detergent Project

Let me start out by saying a HUGE thank you to Jamie at Being Creative.  Within hours of being introduced to http://www.pinterest.com/ I stumbled upon this recipe and felt a HUGE need to give it a try.  I am very OCD with washing clothes.  My boys and I both have dry skin and skin allergies so before I can even remember I have had an OCD with not wearing clothes more than 1 time.  That includes pjs, jeans, etc!!  So if I can find a way to save money in this area I'm all about it.

This recipe is CHEAP and very effective.  I'll include the recipe I used but you can also reference Jamie's blog for her recipe.  I only made two slight adjustments and I'll note them below.  I am including a few more pictures for you.  This project took me a total of 20 minutes to make. 

All of my ingredients cost me $17.88.  If this last as long as Jamie says this is a HUGE savings for me.  I spend about $10 per month on detergent.  Jamie says this will last 6-9 months with doing 5-6 loads of laundry a week.  She states you only need 1 tablespoon, but I used 2.  I have a front loading machine and I tend to jam pack it full.  So it might last me only half the time but even if so its still a savings for me. 

So lets get started!!!!!!!

First, the recipe:
1 4lb 12oz box of Borax
1 4lb box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Washing Soda
3 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap (I also used a bar of the lavendar bar soap)
1 container of 3 lb Oxi Clean, I purchased the stain fighting kind
Jamie's receipe suggest 3.5lb oxi clean and she also said it was optional.  I felt this was a must for me due to having two boys and I'm a huge oxi clean fan. 

Mixing it is easy, I would suggest having a very large bucket to mix it in.  The powder does "kick up" so pour it slow and close to the bottom.  I would also suggest doing it outside if possible. 

These are some of my ingredients.  I forgot to take a picture before I got started of all of them. The soap comes in a bar I just cut it for easy shredding.

As you can see I started to shred the soap with a hand pealer but thought that would take me forever  So I pulled out my Ninja food processor.  It grated it down really fine which I prefer.  The Fels-Naptha actually has a very nice smell. 

I wanted a little bit of a lavender scent in my mixture so I added this small bar from a local soap shop. 

Bar soap all grated!

I realized real quick that I was going to need a large bucket to mix everything in.

My little helper, he liked using the Ninja to shred the soap.

Here is my finished project.  A nice little scoop came in my container of oxiclean, bonus!!

My next project is going to be to cut vinyl letters with my Cricut to label my container.  ;-)  I will also be trying the dish washer soap she has on her blog.  I already did 3 loads of laundry and am VERY happy with it.  I do still use fabric softener which I would encourage if you like a little more softness to your clothes.  I use Downy which is only $3.99 for the original at most stores and last 1-2 months. 

NOTE:  For front loading machines its suggested to put the detergent in the barrel however I used it both ways and it seems to be fine.