Gifts - 3/29 - The Idea Room

Homemade Lavender Soap

Did you know that this coming Sunday, Feb. 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day? Well, it is. And I am joining with Michael’s and participating in their week long “Craft It Forward Random Acts of Kindness Week! I was lucky enough to be able to get to know many of the Crafty Geniuses who work at the Michael’s headquarters this past summer. And so I was really excited to work with them again on this fun campaign.

I decided that I wanted to make some Homemade Lavender Soap that I could then give away to friends and family as my “Craft it Forward” project. I also wanted to do something that my girls could also help with. I wanted them to be able to make their own soaps that they too could share with their friends!

Now, can you believe that with all my crafting projects that I have NEVER made or played with soap? I know! I have always LOVED pretty “handmade” soaps and I guess I thought it was a lot more involved than they really were. I know there are some people who make handmade soaps completely from scratch and in another life, I would love to be able to try that.

But, for now, I took the super easy road. And I can’t believe how easy this simple method was. I talked with my local Michael’s and got some really great tips and advice and learned how to make some really simple but beautiful soap. Today I will share with you the basics so that you can make some for yourself. Now…I am no expert, but this is how I made these Homemade Lavender Soaps.

You will need the following:

A premade soap base (I chose Goat’s Milk Soap)

Scent (I went with my doTerra Lavendar oil but Michael’s has several yummy scents)

A Soap Colorant (I did not use any in this particular soap but did in other soaps I will share later this week)

Rubbing Alcohol

Spray Bottle for the alcohol

Soap Mold

Bowl for melted soap

Spoon

Directions:

Break up your soap base into smaller chunks and place into bowl.

Melt in your microwave on 40 second intervals until the soap is fully melted.

Add your soap colorant and scent and stir well.

Pour your soap into your mold. I used molds that I found at Michaels that were soft and flexible so I did not need to do anything special to the mold. If you are using a bread pan or a non-flexible mold you may want to spray a little bit of cooking spray to help the soap ease out of the mold when it has hardened.

Spritz the top of the soap with your Rubbing Alcohol to remove any air bubbles from your soap.

If you are adding different soap layers, (like I do in some soaps I am sharing later) you can let the first layer harden and then spritz it again and pour an additional layer of soap on top. Depending on the number of layers, you can repeat this process over and over. Allowing sufficient drying time depending on how solid you want your soap layers to be.

Remove from molds and wrap up pretty.

*If your soap becomes too thick to pour nicely into your mold you can quickly re-melt it again in your microwave.

I was surprised at how easy it was to whip up a batch of yummy smelling soap. And the fun part was using that same basic method and coming up with a lot of fun varieties of soap.

And, with some simple wrapping and embellishment you can come up with a very nice and inexpensive gift that someone would love to receive. Don’t you think?

I simply took some burlap, which I also found at Michael’s, that I trimmed down to wrap around each bar of Lavender Soap.

Then added a couple of dried sprigs of Lavender. You can also find Lavender at Michaels.

I had so much fun making Lavender soap, that I began experimenting. The girls also joined in and made some of their own soaps. Be sure to come back in a couple of days and I will share those with you and also pictures of my girls crafting them forward.

Michaels is participating in Random Acts of Kindness Week, Feb. 11-17, by asking customers to share their own random acts of kindness on the Michaels Facebook page and to use the hashtag #RAOKDIY when sharing on Twitter and Instagram.

In celebration of the holiday on Sunday, Feb. 17, Michaels hopes to inspire customers to participate by giving away more than $100,000 in gift cards at its nearly 1,100 U.S. and Canada stores. Gift card recipients will be encouraged to “craft it forward” and exhibit their own random act of kindness towards another person.

Customers who want to “craft it forward” can find inspiration for Random Acts of Kindness projects to give to others on the Michaels Random Acts of Crafting Pinterest board.

February 11, 2013 · Filed under: Crafts, DIY Tutorials, Gifts, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day Tagged with homemade soap, how to make soap, Lavender soap, make your own soap, Michaels, Random Acts of Kindness Week

Valentine’s Day Crafts gift and milk bottles—Silhouette promotion

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I was recently sent some Double-Sided Adhesive paper from Silhouette and challenged to come up with a creative way to use it and make some Valentine’s Day Crafts. I have never used this before and I have to tell you, I was really quite surprised with how much I enjoyed it.

Before we get into my project and how I made it, let’s get the Silhouette February Promotion details out of the way.

This month Silhouette is offering a pretty good deal to The Idea Room readers…

If you need a Silhouette Portrait, you can get it and the Double-sided Adhesive Starter Kit for a great deal. Already have a Silhouette? Then use the code IDEAROOMand get the starter kit for $12.99. To take advantage of this deal simply click on the following link or the Silhouette Promotion image above and get started on your Valentine’s Day Crafts.

Order Silhouette February Promotion

Alright, now onto how I made these glittery milk and gift bottles.

Directions:

I found some fun heart shapes in the Online Silhouette Store and downloaded them.
Sized them in the Silhouette Software to 1.5 inches in width.
Cut them out according to the directions on the Double-Sided adhesive box.
My settings were: Speed: 3; Thickness: 33; Blade setting: 6 using my mat and a double cut.
Peel off the back yellow layer of paper on an individual heart.

Placed onto clean “milk” bottles (which are repurposed Starbucks Frappucino Bottles)
Peeled off the white top layer and made sure all the adhesive was pulled out of the negative space area where I did not want any glitter.
Dust glitter over the sticky adhesive and then using a clean brush, brushed away the excess glitter.

Then fill the bottles with your favorite drink. These bottles can be used at a Valentine’s day party in the classroom, or with your friends and family.

For Valentine’s Day we usually have a nice candle-light family dinner. I think I will be including these as part of the table settings this year!

Or you could gift the jars to a special friend as a nice little Valentine’s Day gift along with some VERY RICH chocolate sweets! Your friends will thank you!

For the fun Heart Shaped Cookies in the photos, I simply took a favorite Chocolate Drop Cookie Recipe and cut the cookies with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Then made a cookie sandwich by spreading some delicious Cream Cheese Frosting in between the two layers.

Cause seriously…if you are going to eat a treat…it might as well be a good one…right? All things in moderation of course. So limit yourself to 2…or 3 depending on the type of day your having…haha!

And just because I am obsessed with making labels lately…I made some fun “Bottled with love” labels.

You can download them here….

Bottle With Love Labels

You have to be a FB fan to gain access to the file. Click on “Get your free gift” at the top of the FB page and then click on “Previous Downloads”.

You can attach the labels as a fun gift tag, or attach it directly to the bottle itself.

Pretty fun little gift if I do say so myself. The best part? You can use this idea for so many different things…a birthday party, gifts, showers, bridal showers…etc.

Oh…where do you get the fun Hershey Kiss Valentine’s Day labels you ask? You can find them by heading here…

Hershey’s Kiss Valentine’s Day Labels

One last thing…be sure to use the code IDEAROOM get the Silhouette Promotion. The offer is good through the 14th of February. You also can only get to this special offer using this link…

Order Silhouette February Promotion

Have any questions about the Silhouette Promotion or Silhouette in general or any question…feel free to ask in the comments! Happy Crafting! xo

*Disclosure: I was given a Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive Kit by Silhouette. However, all statements and opinions are mine.

February 2, 2013 · Filed under: Gifts, Silhouette Projects, Teacher Gifts, Tutorials, Valentine's Day Tagged with Silhouette discount code, Silhouette machine, Silhouette Portrait projects, silhouette projects, Silhoutte doube-sided adhesive, Valentine s Day Craft, valentines day, valentines day gift

Sugar Scrub Cubes Recipe

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2013 is not getting off to a very good start around here. When it rains…it pours…right? So not only am I in the midst of a huge elimination diet due to some newly discovered food allergies/intolerances, but my sweet Mom suffered a stroke on Tuesday morning. She spent two days at the hospital and we found that she has had some past strokes from her MRI. She is just fine now with just a few lingering effects and hopefully she should recover fully in time.

Unfortunately, we have been down this road before with my Dad who has also suffered several strokes. After one particularly large stroke, we discovered my Dad had a hole in his heart. He had heart surgery to repair the hole about 8 years ago.

Anyways, needless to say I wasn’t around much last week. Things are getting back to normal and I am trying to get caught up with my life. I have had this post sitting here half finished, but there were plenty of more important things I needed to attend too.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to come up with a gift idea you can give to your girlfriends or yourself. The sugar scrubs I have shared recently have been a big hit. So I decided to switch things up and go with a Sugar Scrub Cube.

Sugar Scrub Cubes are fun because they are single serving cubes that have all the same qualities of an awesome sugar scrub in a fun this square.

I looked all over to see if I could find a great recipe, but I couldn’t find anything that didn’t require some special soap base, which I didn’t have. So I did a little experimenting and came up with a little recipe that I really like.

Here is what you will need:

Almond Oil or Coconut Oil (or oil of your choice)

White Granulated Sugar

Shredded Bar of Soap

An Essential Oil (I used DoTerra’s Citrus Bliss)

Mixing Bowl

Spoon

Microwave and possibly a double boiler

A mold or a scoop

This recipe calls for 1 part oil, 2 parts shredded soap, and 3 parts sugar.

Sugar Scrub Cubes:

1/4 cup Almond Oil

1/2 cup Shredded Soap

3-4 drops of Essential Oil

1 cup Sugar

1. Pour the oil into a bowl and add the shredded soap of your choice. Microwave this on high for 10 second intervals stirring in between each. If this does not work to slowly melt your soap into your oil you may have to melt the soap shaving in a double boiler. (If you don’t have a double boiler like me, simply place a small bowl over a saucepan filled with boiling water).

2. When the mixture is melted and and stirred together, add several drops of your Essential Oil. I used DoTerra’s Citrus Bliss. {If you have not used DoTerra’s oils, you are missing out! I love them. I get mine from my friend Julie Crowell. You can find more information by clicking on the link. I will be sharing a bit more about my love for doTerra oils in an upcoming post}.

3. Get your mold ready to go before adding the sugar. This is important because once the sugar is added the scrub will harden VERY quickly.

4. Pour in sugar and stir quickly. Take mixture and place it into your molds with your fingers. Or…if you don’t have a mold you can take a scoop and make rounded sugar “cubes”.

5. Let cubes harden by popping them into the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Then pop them out of the mold and cut them into fourths depending on the size you would like them to be.

Then simply throw them into a fun air tight container and add a cute label.

Sugar scrubs smell amazing and gently exfoliate your skin for a smooth feeling. The fun thing about these sugar scrub cubes is that they also have a fun “cleaning” element with the addition of the soap. And the citrus bliss smells amazing and has some relaxation and calming benefits which you can learn more about here.

And…you know I am going to be sharing the fun labels if you would like to make some for yourself. Click on the link below to gain access to the labels and to the use-age tag so that the gift recipient knows just how to use their fun and personal gift!

Citrus Sugar Scrub Cubes Labels

{click on previous downloads once you are taken to The Idea Room FB page}