Gingerbread Scrub and Card set/December TCP Tuesday Challenge-Signed, Sealed, and Delivered!

Hi there friends! Hope all of you fellow Americans had a fab Thanksgiving! Hope you ate too much and maybe got your Christmas tree up. We did. I even spent some time last week getting the rest of the Christmas decor up, so I'm feeling pretty on top of it (for once, lol!) Today it's time for a new month of the TCP TUESDAY CHALLENGE! This month the theme is "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered." You are supposed to make a gift for giving.

I decided to make a Gingerbread Body Scrub. I love making soaps and scrubs, it's a fun hobby I've done for years. For the recipe, I perused the internet and then came up with my own recipe based on others I'd seen. The big difference I saw between my final product and others I saw, was that I added Epsom Salts to my recipe. Most Gingerbread scrubs used only sugar. Brown sugar is yummy, but very fine and soft, not that great for exfoliating dry winter skin. I love to use Epsom Salts in my scrub recipes anyway. As a matter of fact, I always substitute Epsom Salts for sea salt or Kosher salt in my scrub recipes. The reason is that Epsom salts are known to have healing properties and they are already meant to be used in the bath. So, they dissolve beautifully in bath water, and then you're not left with a bunch of grit in the bottom of your tub. I actually take Epsom Salt baths quite often when I've been exercising a lot. It really reduces muscle soreness. :) Here's my recipe, and feel free to use it to make your own gifts to give away!

***UPDATE TO RECIPE 12/20/13**** I found in our dry Colorado Climate that since I made these ahead of time, the oil dried off them pretty quickly, so if you make yours ahead, open the jar and make sure they are still moist. If they are not, it's no big deal, just add some more almond oil to the jar. :)

Noelle's Gingerbread Scrub

1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 c Epsom Salt
1 c almond oil (or other lightly scented oil, don't use olive oil)
1-2 T vanilla extract
2 t ginger (if using powdered, you can use less if you are grating fresh)
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/8 t allspice

Of COURSE, half the fun with making your own gifts is making the packaging cute! I used my TCP Gingerbread Man CutUp and my Homemade for the Holidays stamp set. I also used the Coolvetica Alphabet, and the Luggage Tags CutUps.  And the Star Rosette CutUps, the Heart Swirl Cutups, and the Big Scallop CutUps. All photos of products used are at the bottom, as well. :)

For the jar lid, I just did my dry embossed gingerbread man and a DP circle.

The tag on the side is one of the Luggage Tags, I stamped it with the outline of the gingerbread man stamp and used the Coolvetica Alphabet to stamp the name.

The card is pretty simple. I used the Star Rosette to be the backdrop for my other embossed gingerbread guy. I found some cute cookie cutter and gingerbread man buttons in my stash. They make the perfect embellishment for this card, wouldn't you agree? The "sign" he's holding is just the end of one of the Luggage Tags stamped with the sentiment.

This is a large jar, it used a whole batch of scrub. I think I will make some smaller jars to have on hand to give away to friends and neighbors. I like to always have some small gifts on hand for taking to parties, and dropping off at the neighbors house. These will be perfect for this year. Having the gingerbread man die will make decorating the tops of the jars super simple.

And that is all for me today. Some of the other Cat Packers have some other AWESOME and fun gifts on their blogs, so check them out! Links on the sidebar there. :)

Holiday Hugs, Noelle