**Getting Crafty**

I usually get quite crafty in the months of January and February.  This time of the year is usually nasty outside, so I spend more time inside at home and it's the time of year I go to my annual scrapbook retreat and I get quite a bit of scrapbooking done there.

I usually put together a little goodie bag for my fellow retreat goers and this year, I made almond scented bath salts that I put in little glass bottles that I'd been saving when drinking the Starbucks Iced Coffees.  After using Goof-Off to get all of the labeling off the bottles,  I ran them through the dishwasher to get them good and clean.

Mixing up the bath salts is next and it's super easy....Epson salts, baking soda, fragrance and food coloring.  Since I decided I didn't want to paint the caps of the bottles, I went with blue food coloring so the salts would match.  After mixing the bath salts up and filling up the bottles, I got out the following from my craft stash:

• My stash of Prima flowers
• One of my round punches
• Bling
• Zig 2 way glue
• Glue Dots
• Ribbon or fiber (I chose some pretty blue fiber I've had for years)

After I punched out enough circles to cover the lids of the bottles, I used both glue dots and Zig 2 way glue to glue the Primas flowers on the circle and then top each on off with a touch of bling.

  

Using glue dots I covered the lids of the bottles with the flowers. 

 

I also hand lettered some tags to label the bottles "Almond Bath Salts" and tied the tags on the bottles with the blue fiber I had in my huge basket of fiber and ribbon. 

 

I think they looked very pretty!

 

  

I've also been kicking it with my scrapbook pages I'm completed.  I like to keep track.  I don't set a goal for myself because I don't want to put any pressure on working on things just to hit a page total goal, but I do like to know how many I do each year.   

 

Here's some statistics on my scrapbooking that I've keep track of for almost 10 years:

• 2005 - I completed 137 pages
• 2006 - I completed 144 pages
• 2007 - I completed 144 pages (strange that I did EXACTLY the same number as the year before)
• 2008 - I completed 147 pages
• 2009 - I completed 107 pages
• 2010 - I completed 112 pages
• 2011 - I completed 80 pages
• 2012 - I completed 74 pages
• 2013 - I completed 61 pages
• 2014 - I completed 43 pages

So it appears that starting in 2011, I slowed down my scrapbooking which makes sense because I don't think I was taking as many pictures as the kid was growing up and less opportunity. 

 

Here's a sampling of some of my favorite pages I've done over the last few months.   I'm a year behind with my scrapbooking, but being "behind" never bothered me because I never want to run out of things to scrapbook.

 

 



 

Have a great weekend!  It's been incredibly beautiful weather wise here and I've been trying to get outside after a very long two months of icky weather!