For the Love of Labels

Designing my own lip balm labels is almost as satisfying as blending oils to create a new scent. That is, until I decided I wanted to try printing them myself. I ordered the labels I thought I wanted, learned a new design program that came with them and worked away at creating new labels for the new lip balms that were still cooling after being poured into their tubes. Great! I thought, now I can print as many as I want, when I want, and no shipping costs every time I want to have more labels printed...

I inserted the sheet of clear matte blank labels and happily clicked the "print" button.. What at first looked like a beautiful label left a big fat smudge on my finger as I peeled it off the sheet. Maybe it just needed to dry more, I reasoned. I sped up the process with a fan, then a heated fan. Still smudged. I waited a few hours. I peeled another label and wound it around a tube - it looked fingerpainted. I tried the brown kraft paper labels I had bought for tins of lip balm, not tubes. They were smaller, but I was getting deperate. Align: It's a word I've always liked. I wrecked more than 40 labels trying to align these buggers. Two hours and many little balls of paper on the floor later, I stormed out of the room, opened a fresh lip balm, sniffed, applied, smoothed and let out a deep breath.

I did eventually get four of them to print. But they weren't the size I had intended for the tube anyway, and the ink just didn't pop like it would with a white background.

I spent the next three hours designing the labels all over again in another design program - the one I used when I had the labels printed elsewhere - and almost clicked the "ship" button. But I didn't.

The next day I bought full 8.5 x11 inch label sheets, found a 1.5 inch round punch, came home, printed my lip balm label designs, and punched them out myself. No need to "align."

Know that when you buy one of the Nature Inspires Goddess Lip Balms, that it has been made with love, from the moment I carefully pour the hot recipe into their tubes, to the moment I happily stick their labels on. Still, I realize it's not the label that does your lips a favor, its what inside.

The Many Wonders of Birch Bark

It's 2 degrees here in Elmore, VT and to get my woodstove started I used scrap strips of paper birch bark - some of the best fire starter there is.
I also used birch bark to make another pair of moon earrings this morning. My love of birches goes way back, as does their history (read my essay on birches here: http://naomimahalajudd.com/birch_blood.aspx).
Going along with the full moon birch earrings I've made from the light dappled colored outer bark, I have now also made Harvest Moon birch earrings from the thicker inner layers of bark which are a golden peach color.
I'll often go on walks just to look for the right layers of bark to use in jewelry, but when I'm sorting through our box of kindling for scraps of bark to feed the fire, I'll often pause, strip some of the layers apart to see what beauty lies inside and set aside a few sheets that look like earring material. Inspiration sometimes lurks between the loam covered layers of bark, and the nearly fire fed peels of paper.
If you are one of those who has purchased one of my moon earrings, what you wear on your ears, very well might have been destined for ash. It's this spontaneity that I  love about using natural materials, sometimes you don't know you'll use them until the last second.

Harvest Moon Earrings

Full Moon Earrings

Thoughts of Spring in Snow

With the recent launch of Nature Inspires, I not only sell on Etsy, and have a website http://www.natureinspires.net/, but I now have a blog too! Here in the virtual Nature Inspires studio I will share what I'm working on, recent inspirations, and new creations. You can also follow my adventures of finding unique beads, moss walks, mishaps, experiments in essential oil blending, late-night ingredient and supply searches, and overall obsession with creating.

In the midst of our first real snowstorm here in Vermont, it seems contrary that one of my recent favorite creations was inspired by a birdsnest - but here it is - the Robin's Nest Pendant. This one just sold at a recent craft show, so I'm eager to make another. Each one will be a little different though - which is of course part of the beauty in real nests as well as mine. I created this on a whim at one in the morning when I just couldn't pull myself out of the studio to go to bed. I was working on something else when I found my copper wire in a tray I was searching through. Instantly I felt like creating a companion to my Robin's Nest Earrings (http://www.etsy.com/listing/60563357/robins-nest-earrings)
Besides the wire I have used sculpey clay and paper birch bark in this necklace. Look for it soon at NatureInspires.etsy.com