Happy Friday!

Before I go into my Friday Favorites for this week, please check out the great giveaway/challenge for this month from the EtsyGreetings Team! As I have mentioned before I am a proud (and excited) member of the EtsyGreetings Team. One of the many great things this team does to promote its members and cards, as well as promote our team community is to pose a challenge to the members and let the readers vote for their favorite card! This month’s challenge was Easter cards. Each participating member designed a special Easter card and you get to vote for your favorite! Voting starts now, so head over to the Etsy Greetings blog at http://etsygreetings.blogspot.com and vote for your favorite card! Click Here to go directly to the March Challenge post (this link will take you to the post itself, not the main page of the Etsy Greetings Blog). The winning card will be the grand prize for a randomly chosen person who leaves a comment on the blog post. Thanks for your help in promoting my team and great artists!

Friday Favorites!

1. Bazzill Basics Textured Cardstock

Bazzill Basics is a huge paper and embellishment company that designs gorgeous textured and smooth cardstock in a wide variety of colors. I’m fairly certain they have the perfect cardstock for any color scheme you could possibly imagine. Most of their cardstocks are plain colors (they also recently came out with a polkadot cardstock) and they are perfect for making cards. Their cardstocks come in a wide variety of finishes as well – for example, their “bling” cardstock has a shimmery finish on it that sort of sparkles in the light (perfect for cards for girls!). Chances are likely, if you have ever bought textured 8 1/2″ x 11″ or 12″ x 12″ cardstock from a craft or scrapbooking store, it was Bazzill Basics. To see all of their many colors, textures and products to choose from, see their website at http://bazzillbasics.com!

2. Pomegranate Bath Foam from Mor Cosmetics

Pomegranate Bath Foam from Mor Cosmetics

Pomegranate Bath Foam from Mor Cosmetics

My husband gave this delicious, luxurious bath foam to me for Christmas this year. I am not traditionally a bath person, but I have grown to love a good soak in the tub to ease the stresses of the day or week with this wonderful bath foam. I love this bath foam because it smells so good – it’s not overpowering at all, but has a soft sweet fragrance. It is so luxurious, too – your skin will feel so soft and silky smooth when you get out of the tub! The bath foam comes in a beautiful tall and thin 12.7 fluid ounce bottle stoppered with a cork. I love the description the Mor Cosmetics website has for this:

Re-discover the ritual of bathing in a tub of silky, pearly bubbles. Aromatic notes of fruits and flowers blend with exotic Amazonian Nut Oil for ultimate relaxation. (from MorCosmetics.com)

If you’re not tempted to go take a bath right now (whether you have this amazing product or not), then I’ll go take one for you! The website doesn’t say much about where you can buy this delicious bath foam other than from their online store, unfortunately. My husband bought mine at a local boutique here in Boise called So Glad in Bown Crossing. To see more of Mor Cosmetics, visit their website at: http://morcosmetics.com!

3. Glaze & Souffle Pens from Sakura of America

Glaze pens from Sakura of America

Glaze pens from Sakura of America

These pens are made by the same company that produces Gelly Roll pens. The great thing about souffle and glaze pens is they add a bit of dimension. They raise up to give sort of an embossed texture to your designs. They are fantastic pens for doing colored accents and outlines in a wide range of colors. The souffle pens come in more pastel colors while the glaze are a bit more bold. You can buy them in sets or individually (usually in packs of 2 pens). A couple things to remember when using these:

  • Remember to let them dry! I can’t even count the number of times I have put my fingers and hands in wet ink. Thankfully they don’t smear too much, but it still leaves an unsightly mess on your projects. They take longer to dry than most inks, so be sure they are really dry! Wait a few minutes then lightly touch the ink with the tip of your finger to test. If it’s not dry yet and you end up leaving a splotch, you can go back and touch up!
  • These pens have a tendency to clog up easily. My souffle pens especially clog up frequently (not sure if it’s me or the pens). To unclog, just stick a needle or pin to get all the dried bits of ink off.

4. Clark’s

I absolutely love Clarks shoes. For some reason last year I started having really bad problems with my feet – especially my heels. It got to the point where they hurt like crazy even just sitting at work (not putting any weight on them essentially). I tried some new Sketchers, which are usually very comfortable to me, and they made the pain worse. When we went to southern California last August for our 2nd Honeymoon, I realized just how much I needed REALLY good shoes after walking around Disneyland for a couple of days. While at a mall in San Diego we decided to splurge and buy me a pair of Clarks. Oh, it was heaven in footwear! Since wearing these I haven’t had any feet problems at all (save for some blisters I received trying to break them in with bare feet – not a smart plan). Their shoes are a little expensive, but trust me it’s a great investment for your body. They are typically made of leather and are GREAT quality. Weather proof them and take good care of them and they will last for a long time, too. Shoes designed to make your feet feel great (to me anyway) are usually lacking a little on the aesthetic end of footwear, but Clarks has found a way to bring style and comfort into footwear. The two pairs I currently own are really cute! Check out Clarks.com for more information!

5. Basic Grey Card Kits

Basic Grey Marrakesh Card Kit

Basic Grey Marrakesh Card Kit

Basic Grey released a new product this year with most (if not all) of its product lines, Card Kits. I absolutely love these! There is a card kit featured with each of their new product lines released in 2009; each kit contains enough product to create 6-8 cards and each kit features different card layouts! It’s brilliant. Archivers, a national chain of scrapbooking stores, recently signed a deal with Basic Grey to include two of their card kits as classes exclusively at Archivers: Birthday and Kids (both featuring a variety of different product lines). I am currently signed up for both of these classes and I strongly encourage anyone into Basic Grey, card making, paper crafts, or just great design (my graphic designer husband [www.transitdesignstudio.com] loves taking these classes with me!) From what I have seen their prices for these kits are reasonable as well, ranging from $10-$20. You can also buy them at Amazon.com – just search for Basic Grey or Basic Grey Card Kits! See BasicGrey.com for more information!

Thanks for creating with me!