I am feeling pretty smug about these beautiful die cut, hand assembled, wedding invitations with gorgeous purple bows. 

Making these wedding invitations took an age!! The gold outer for each invite took around 15 minutes to cut on my Cricut Explorere machine, and then the purple inlay and invitation details also needed cutting, assembling and purple gemstones added. Finally each one had a ribbon secured which was then hand tied. Although it took days to pull together I think it was all worth it when you see them all finished and piled high. 

The evening invites had the same papercut pattern but just one square adhered to a purple backing and the invite details secured via little paper cuts in each corner. 

 One of the nicest things about making 60 of these beauties - and another 40 evening invites - was that my husband helped! The invites are for the MD at his company and he offered to make these as our wedding gift to him. We spent several nights in the craft room together, designing the cards, then me feeding the cricut and him weeding out the papercuts and sticking on the gems (I think I got the best deal!)

To tie the bows, we followed this video by Lia Griffith and I think it's pretty much revolutionised bow tying for the rest of my days! I even made a bow frame for our bedroom using the same technique: https://instagram.com/p/8bVQ6jNpcE/?taken-by=mummypuddleduck 

 The gold and purple card stock is Peregrina Majestic Gold and Nightclub Purple from G.F.Smith which is stunningly beautiful and very glamorous. Luckily there were enough leftovers for me to make these Christmas bauble papercut garlands! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/your/shops/mummypuddleduck/tools/mummypuddleduck/uk/listings/251619657 

Let me know what you think of these wedding invitations by contacting me on any of the social channels listed on the left or by commenting below. 

Christmas is coming - papercut banner now listed

The Christmas countdown has officially started as I've just listed the first Christmas item in my Etsy shop! www.mummypuddleduck.etsty.com.

I've listed them as 'Christmas papercut gold and purple bauble banner / bunting / garland' as I'm not quite sure what to refer to them as - is it bunting? Or a garland? Or a banner as they would refer to it in America?

Whatever it's called I think it will add a touch of glamour to any festive decor. I can't say my uneven grey walls show it in the best light but you get the idea. 

There are eight baubles in each garland, two each of four different bauble shapes. A round bauble features cut out holly leaves. A pointed bauble and a round fat bauble both feature snowflakes and the tall thin bauble has a star cut out. Each bauble is 5.5 inches high. 

The gold and purple baubles alternate and the string is two metres (2m) long. Each bauble is secured to the string to ensure they don't all slip to one end or bunch up. These baubles are going to stay put when they're up!

Each shape has been die-cut to make sure they are perfect every time. 

I know design is subjective and this is especially true for Christmas when there are so many different colour schemes and themes so if you like the idea of these but fancy reindeer, Santas and Christmas puddings instead, contact me via Etsy, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or email mummypuddleduck [at] gmail.com and I will bring your ideas to life - or rather get them down on paper...... and then cut them! 

Let me be amongst the first to say Seasons' Greetings and Happy Christmas! 

Homemade coconut and chocolate sugar scrub

Since discovering count oil as the saviour of dairy and gluten free cooking I've been reading up on other uses for this miracle product.

I wash my face with it, I clean my teeth with it (google oil pulling and there are a million articles on it) and now I use it in a body scrub. 

Pinterest is a gold mine of thousands of other suggestions for coconut oil from cleaning make up brushes to moisturisers, face masks, fixing squeaky doors, even a treatment for head lice. 

But whilst I was trawling pins for inspiration one of the ideas that stood out for me was body scrubs. 

Made with store cupboard ingredients you can whip this up in under half an hour. It costs much less than the beauty brands' body scrubs and it also makes a wonderful gift.

This particular scrub caught my eye as it's chocolate and I don't think it's possible to have enough chocolate in your life. Being dairy free I don't eat chocolate bars anymore so this is a fantastic way to get a blast of chocolaty scent without eating any. Although, in reality,  you could eat this as everything contained in it is completely edible. I bet you can't say that about many store bought beauty products!!!

This was the second body scrub I made (the first was also divine and I will blog that soon) and although that first scrub was wonderful, it was difficult to take into the shower in batches and I didn't want to leave my Kilner jar in the shower to go rusty. As I was using the scrub in the shower - my best ideas come to me in the shower - I thought about setting the scrub in ice cube trays so that I could store the cubes in a jar and simply pick up a couple of cubes before jumping in the shower.

Whilst searching in the depths of the cupboard for the ice cube tray I found a shaped muffin silicone mould - perfect for  chocolate body scrub roses! 

These would make a fantastic gift wrapped in little cellophane bags finished with a ribbon or bow and my friends and family might just find a few of these in their stocking this Christmas!!

 

Chocolate and Coconut oil sugar scrub roses 

1 cup mixed sugars (I used a combination of soft brown, demerara and granulated) 

1/2 cup coconut oil 

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

 

Mix the dry ingredients and add the coconut oil. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt the coconut oil. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. 

 

Once melted, give the sugar a through mix to ensure the coconut oil is evenly distributed. 

 

Press the mixture into moulds, or put directly into a jar. If using moulds chill for 20 minutes to reset the coconut. 

Be aware that the oil will melt if it gets too warm. 

I'm done with all these posh and expensive beauty products that are full of chemicals, perfumes, parabens and Lord knows what else. I'm going au naturel!!

You will love the smell of this scrub when you take it into the shower; it smells like chocolate cupcakes baking!!! Let me know how you get on.