Honeybee Birthday Card

It’s a friend’s birthday on New Year’s Day and because I’ve been ill, I’ve got very behind with things, and I’m not going to get this to her in time. I have managed to finish the card, but the glue is still wet so it can’t be posted. Like everything else this year, it can’t be helped!

This friend is a keen bee keeper, and to go with the honey soap I have made her, I’ve decided to make a bee-themed card.

I began with a piece of yellowish-cream card which I embossed in a honeycomb pattern using my Cuttlebug and a Fiskar’s Texture Plate. This was inked by smooshing distress inks in Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade onto my non-stick craft sheet, spritzing with water, and pulling the card through the wet ink.

I sprayed the top part with some Dylusions spray ink in Pure Sunshine, and held it up and allowed it to drip.

I blotted up the spatters from the craft sheet onto the card to add a bit more interest. After drying it with my heat gun, I spattered it with water droplets and blotted it off on kitchen paper, and dried it again.

The card base was formed from an A4 sheet of white cardstock which I inked with the same three distress inks, and again I spattered it with water, blotted it off and dried it.

The edges of both card base and topper were distressed with Rusty Hinge distress ink, using one of my home-made blending tools.

I inked the inside of the card with the same distress inks.

Using my Stampotique Big Bee stamp, I stamped the card base using sepia archival ink.

 

I also stamped a piece of cream card with the same stamp, and coloured it with Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey distress inks, using them as watercolours by smooshing them on my non-stick craft sheet and picking up with ink with a wet brush. I added some shading with the two colours to give the bee a bit more dimension.

I cut out the bee and painted the edge with some Walnut Stain distress ink.

Turning the bee over, I embossed it from behind, using ball embossing tools onto a fun foam base.

Stamping the sentiment. I used the “Happy Birthday” from the Stampin’ Up Perfectly Penned set, using sepia archival ink. I also stamped this sentiment inside the card.

I layered the topper onto the card base using my ATG tape glue gun, and inked and stamped the envelope with the same distress inks and water spattering, and stamped some bees using Antique Linen distress ink for a more subtle effect.

The bee embellishment was attached using a thick application of Pinflair gel glue and left overnight to dry.

The wings of the bee were emphasised with a coat of glossy accents, and once this was dry and the bee was firmly adhered, I added some more Pinflair glue underneath the wings to stop them from becoming crushed flat.

The finished card.

Detail of the bee embellishment.

Misc Christmas Soaps Pt 2

Here are the remaining photos of the soaps I’ve made for Christmas presents.

Turned out of the moulds. You can see the brown cameo to the right of the lavender soap.

I was wondering how to highlight the cameo a bit, and then remembered I’d ordered some cosmetic-grade mica powders for my soap making, and used some of the white. I put the cameo onto the top of the soap and drew round it with a scriber, and then with a modelling tool I gouged out some of the soap. I filled the cavity with the melted soap base, scored the base of the cameo, spritzed both surfaces with rubbing alcohol and popped the cameo in place. There was a bit of leakage of the melted soap base but I was able to get most of this off. Unfortunately I lost the pristine shiny surface of the soap straight from the mould but once wrapped, this didn’t matter quite so much. I did a bit more touching up with the mica powder once the cameo was in place.

Here it is, wrapped.

I made a label for the base. All the labels were written with my sepia Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen and embellished with distress inks. In the case of the lavender soap I used Milled Lavender and a touch of Dusty Concord on the lavender flower paintings, and the leaves were painted with Mowed Lawn.

Here are the rest of the soaps, all wrapped in cellophane and labelled. For the gardener’s soaps, I put the main label on the top, and added a small label giving the ingredients on the bottom, as this was a more complicated soap, and I thought the recipients might be interested to know what went into it, making it so suitable for garden and workshop use. The lemon soaps just had the label on the bottom, with the information about how this soap removes onion smells from one’s hands. The gardener’s soap labels were coloured with Spiced Marmalade distress ink, and the lemon soaps with Wild Honey distress ink.

The gardener’s soaps. The orange Stickles glitter glue doesn’t show up on the photos at all, but it is a nice echo of the speckled orange rind on the surface of the soaps, as is the label border.

Single gardener’s soap.

Label on base of gardener’s soap.

A pair of gardener’s soaps, tied with an orange ribbon.

Lemon soaps.

Lemon soap label.

The three teddy soaps, tied with ribbon, with applied decorative bow. Each soap is individually wrapped. They are definitely too small for everyday use, and I shall be sourcing a larger teddy soap mould online.

Three teddy soaps, side view. I had to put the middle one face down because they are not uniformly thick.

All that remains now is to finish packaging the honey soaps I made before. I want to make tags for these, using honeycomb-embossed card and my large bee stamp. I am a bit annoyed that the medium bee stamp is still out of stock, and I have been waiting for some time for an email notifying me that they have arrived – the large stamp is a bit too big for this but I can make something of it, no doubt.

After Christmas being a total non-event this year, everybody will have to put up with their presents being late! This week, I also have to make a bee birthday card to go with some of the honey soaps, and hope I shall retain enough energy to get that done, or it will be another late arrival.

Misc Christmas Soaps Pt 1 and WOYWW 290

I wasn’t going to join in WOYWW this week, but since I ended up doing a blog post, I decided to after all – even if rather late in the day!

I’ve had a bad few days with a horrible flu bug that involves a bad cold, temperature and vomiting. I spent Monday in bed, asleep most of the day and feeling very cold. I am now feeling quite a bit better but still rather fazed and no appetite. Fortunately we have postponed our Christmas meal till the beginning of January so I’ve got a few days to recover.

As a result of all this, I’m terribly behind with all the things I’d planned to do in the days running up to Christmas. I spent this evening in my ARTHaven making soap – when I’d much rather have been resting, but if I’m going to have anything physical to hand over as presents tomorrow, it had to be. I still haven’t done the ironing… Yesterday, as I was pulling the clothes airer up again after taking the last lot of washing off it, the rope broke and the whole lot came down, hitting me on the back of the shoulder! It could have been a lot worse if it had been heavily laden with wet laundry! My hubby went out and bought a nice new washing line and re-hung it for me and it’s lovely again.

This will be part 1 of two posts about the soaps, because I haven’t finished – there are still some waiting to turn out of the moulds, and I’ve got more wrapping and labelling to do, and little baskets to make up of mixed soaps/bath melts/bath bombs.

Recently I found an interesting soap recipe on the Internet, for a soap suitable for after workshop time or gardening, and wanted to give it a try – one for the friend we’re sharing “Christmas” lunch with and one for my hubby. The recipe wasn’t that specific and in my more than usually brainfogged state I couldn’t be bothered to do a lot of calculation (which would have been beyond me!) so I just bunged in the amount of additives she said, for the amount of soap base I wanted to use – probably too much - as a result of which, it has come out quite oily and probably more strongly fragranced than it might have been – the next time I do it, I will adapt the recipe somewhat – but once it is dried out, it may be fine.

Here are the materials laid out for making this soap. The only thing I forgot to get out at this stage was my little spray bottle of rubbing alcohol for dispersing foam on the soap surface.

Back row: olive oil; good basic six-cavity rectangle soap mould (which, thank goodness, arrived from Ebay a couple of days ago – been waiting for it for ages!); clear soap base. Middle row: kitchen spoon; shea butter; glass bowls containing a) grated rind of 3 oranges, dried in 30-second increments on a plate in the microwave and b) two tablespoons of ground cloves. Front row: electronic scales; sweet orange essential oil; pourable natural Vitamin E.

To make 3 bars of this soap (60g soap base for each soap) I mixed a total of 180g clear soap base, and 1 tablespoon each of shea butter and olive oil. I melted this in the microwave in a plastic jug in 30-second increments, and poured a little into the bowl of ground cloves and mixed to a paste, which I then returned to the jug and mixed it well. I added two teaspoons of Vitamin E and 30 drops of orange essential oil to give a good fragrance. I mixed it all together well and poured it into three moulds, and sprinkled the grated orange rind on top, and left it to set.

While that was happening, I started to make some teddy soaps for my hubby. Some time ago I got a teddy mould from Ebay for him, but unfortunately it is rather small, and not really suitable for everyday soap use, but I thought it would make a fun gift for him. I made three, in different colours.

I measured how much white soap base I would use, but did not calculate that there is always a small amount lost through hardening in the jug when pouring; this isn’t usually a problem, but it is much more noticeable when using a small quantity. I ended up having to return the soap to the jug and add some more – to a total of 25g.

The first one was coloured with three drops of yellow colour.

I was going to make an orange bear with 3 drops of yellow, 3 drops of red and 2 drops of the brown colour I mixed the other day, but the wretched dropper bottles are very unreliable – sometimes nothing comes, then you get a whole lot at once! I put in too much of the brown, so the second bear ended up being the brown one (a nice chocolate brown! – looks good enough to eat!) and after this there was a bit of soap base left in the jug, so I added a bit more, and then added some more yellow, to make a medium brown bear! All a bit hit and miss really! Anyway, he’ll get three bears (but no Goldilocks).

While waiting for the individual teddy soaps to set (having only one mould, this took a bit of time), I started making labels for the gardener’s soap. I used ordinary self-adhesive address labels cut down to the length I wanted, and I peeled each end from the backing paper and rounded the corners using my small corner rounder punch and then stuck them back onto the backing paper. I used a sepia archival Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen to write the text and create the border, and filled in the border gaps with some Spiced Marmalade (appropriate!) distress ink, using the ink as a watercolour. I then used a blending tool to distress the edges with the same ink. The final touch was to add some dots of Orange Peel Stickles (again, appropriate!) glitter glue, which of course doesn’t show up too well on the photo.

By this time, the gardener’s soaps were ready to turn out. This is what they look like.

They look more like flapjack than soap!! They smell great. The grated orange rind will act as an exfoliant, and the olive oil, shea butter and Vitamin E will all nourish and moisturise the skin after the punishing treatment the hands can receive in the workshop or garden.

I also made three natural lemon soaps for kitchen use. These were very straightforward – I used a total of 300g of clear soap base for the three soaps and melted this in the microwave as before. I put a small quantity of turmeric powder in a small bowl and added a little of the melted soap base to it and mixed it to a paste, which I then added back to the jug of soap base and mixed well. I added about 20 drops of lemon essential oil and stirred the mixture, and poured it into the moulds. The final step was to add three dried lemon slices. I made a collection of dried orange and lemon slices a couple of weeks ago, putting them on a baking sheet and leaving them in the top oven for a couple of hours at 50 deg. C, but they were still pretty moist, so since then, they have been in the airing cupboard, and when I have remembered, I have been turning them. The lemon slices are now pretty well dry and hard, but the orange ones are going to take a bit longer.

The lemon soap I made in the natural soaps class had a half slice of lemon on it, and almost as soon as I started using the soap, this came off. It doesn’t matter – it’s only decoration. This soap is brilliant in the kitchen because it really does deal with the onion smell on one’s hands – I even rubbed my chopping board with it and then scrubbed it with a brush, and the onion smell was practically all gone from that too. It’s a very easy soap to make, and one I am sure I shall be making regularly from now on, as and when we need it.

The final soap I made, I didn’t photograph – this will appear in the second of these two posts. It is a plain oval soap made from 130g clear soap base, coloured with ultramarine violet powder, mixed to a paste and added, as before. I was careful to keep this colour fairly pale. I added 5 drops of lavender essential oil, poured the soap and left it to set.

There was a small amount of the medium brown soap left from the final teddy, and I didn’t want to throw it away, so I filled my cameo mould with it. It’s not really the right colour, and I am pondering how to add some highlights to it (maybe with white soap base but not sure how I’ll get it to stick on, and I don’t want to lose definition on the cameo). The next step will be to score the back of the cameo, spritz with rubbing alcohol and adhere it to the top of the soap once I’ve turned it out, using a little melted clear soap base. If this is successful, I shall be making some more lavender soap like this, but probably making the cameo from plain, uncoloured white soap base. Any surface colouring would in any case come off the first time the soap is used.

Watch this space for how all these soaps turn out, and how I wrap them.

A quick update – my hubby went back to the hospital yesterday with his wrist, and they X-rayed it and said the bone had knit, and they took the cast off. He’s now got a wrist brace, and says it feels quite sore and very vulnerable – it’s amazing how dependent one can get on the rigid protection of a cast! Anyway, he can drive again, but he’s taking care over the next few days when we hope that it will gradually start to feel better. He’s going back in a month to get it X-rayed again, and hopefully all will be well and it won’t require pinning.

Honey Soap

Now that I’ve got most of my soap making supplies, I decided to make some honey soap this afternoon. I have a friend in London who keeps bees, and I thought she might appreciate some of this. Our soap-making teacher lent me a large mould with a honeycomb pattern with bees, which I was keen to try. I would have preferred it to have been a small mould because it held a lot of soap base and if things were to go wrong, it would be a waste, but there was no way to make a smaller amount, so I grasped the nettle and went ahead anyway! I weighed the mould filled with water to determine approximately how many grammes of soap base I would need, and discovered that there was enough in the 500g pack of honey soap base to make the large mould-full, plus two normal-sized square ones.

The honey base that I bought is a clear soap base, unfortunately not SLS free, which I’d have preferred, but I couldn’t find any online. Most commercial soaps have this chemical in them, and as long as the person using it doesn’t have an unusually sensitive skin, it should be fine. The base contained 3% honey, with no fragrance, so I bought a bottle of honey fragrance oil to add to this soap. I will generally not be using fragrance oils as I prefer essential oils whose flavour is completely natural and not a chemical approximation, but of course there isn’t an essential oil available from honey.

Here is the equipment I used to make the soap.

Back row: two plastic measuring jugs; bottles of liquid colour; spray bottle containing rubbing alcohol; large clear honeycomb mould; chopstick for stirring and paintbrush; small plastic container for mixing colour. Front row: 4-cavity soap mould made of silicone rubber; small square of bubble wrap; honey soap base; digital weighing scales.

My first task was to try and mix up some brown colour from the available colours I have – I ended up combining blue and orange (which came out green, not brown), to which I added yellow, red and black in various amounts until it looked brown enough – it would have been a lot easier if I had purple to start with but it came out OK in the end. I painted this colour neat into the depressions in the mould in the shape of the bees; of course, the clear plastic resisted the liquid and it ended up in blobs, but I thought it might be interesting to see if it would colour the soap base in a random sort of way, so I persevered with this.

The soap base melted ready for the bees. This was a small quantity of opaque white base, coloured with a small amount of the brown. This looked more or less OK to start with, but then in the mould it looked distinctly pink – pink bees??

I decided to use a plastic pipette to squirt the melted soap base into the bee-shaped depressions. This was successful at the beginning, but the pipette eventually melted and the end closed over, and was ruined, so I used another one, which held out to the end, and then also had to be chucked out. These cost pennies, so no great loss. Also, the soap base kept cooling and starting to set, so I kept putting it back for a few seconds in the microwave, until horror of horrors, I melted the jug!!! Never mind, I have 3 more (all cheapo jugs from the market so nothing too disastrous!) Possibly for things like this, where the process of pouring takes longer than usual because it’s so fiddly, it would be better to have the soap base melting in a double boiler, which would keep it liquid, rather than having to re-heat all the time.

The brown colour did mix in a random sort of way with the pale brown (pink) soap base and reminded me somewhat of those seashell-shaped Belgian chocolates! It all got pretty bubbly which isn’t very good, but I tried to disperse the bubbles as much as possible by spritzing with rubbing alcohol.

I was thinking I was going to have to wait a long time for them to set, but being so small, they set really quickly. What you are supposed to do is score the surface and spritz it with rubbing alcohol, and of course I forgot to do this, but as the surface of the bees was a bit bubbly and rough, I hoped that this would be sufficient to form a key between the two layers of soap.

Time to pour the honey soap base.

After melting this, I coloured it with a mixture of yellow, a little orange and a few drops of the brown mix, and added some honey fragrance oil, and then poured it gently from one corner where there wasn’t a bee. I left it to set, hoping it would pop out of the mould OK, without all the bees detaching themselves and flying away!

Through the golden colour of the clear soap, the bees look quite a nice colour, but the side in contact with the mould (which would be the top surface of the soap once it was turned out) would not have the benefit of this and would unfortunately be pink!!

Time to make the two normal sized soaps.

I cut a small square of bubble wrap and placed it in the bottom of the mould, with the bubbles upwards, as I’d seen done somewhere online.

I poured in half of the remaining honey soap base with its colour and fragrance. All seemed to be well and I started to clean up the jugs and stirrer etc. when I looked around, I saw that the piece of bubble wrap had floated to the surface. Grrrr. I quickly whipped it out and turned it over so that the bubbles faced into the soap, and left it to set.  I couldn’t get it to lie absolutely flat, possibly because it was slightly too large. The remaining soap base was left in the jug, to be reheated to make the second square soap.

Time to turn out the soaps. This is the large one.

The pink bees don’t look too bad! There’s nice contrast between them and the honeycomb background, anyway. I like the fact that the bees are not all the same – some have their wings spread more than others, which gives it a more natural appearance.

As you can see, along one edge, some of the bees didn’t come out, but remained stuck in the mould. This was probably because I forgot to prepare them before pouring the honey soap base. I have tried to get them out of the mould, without success – if I could get them out, I could stick them back on with some melted soap base. As it is, this edge was to be cut off, and then the rest cut into smaller, useable soaps.

The trouble with clear plastic moulds is that they are much less flexible than silicone ones. I managed to pull the sides away from the soap, and press down on the middle, but the edges were more difficult, and it didn’t want to pop out easily. Some silicone soap moulds are very flexible and you can turn them inside out to pop the soap out, which is a lot easier.

Here are the two smaller soaps I made. You can see the impression of the bubble wrap on the bottom, giving the impression of honeycomb.

The underside of the soaps, showing the impression of the bubble wrap.

Cutting the large soap. You can see the three small soaps on the right, which I cut off the side where the bees did not come out of the mould.

The soaps, wrapped. I have put the bee soaps in pairs, and each soap is individually wrapped in cellophane.

I also wrapped the small reject soaps, because I shall use these myself, and the wrappers protect them until they are used.

I am pleased with the colour and scent of this soap. I am not sure if I shall make honey soap again, though, because my preference is for making more natural soaps.

WOYWW 289

For information on how to join in the nosey fest where we all see what everyone has on their messy work desks, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog.

Sorry folks – couldn’t get online last night and then this a.m. forgot all about uploading this post and signing up for WOYWW! Better late than never, I suppose. It is still Wednesday, after all!!

My main work area has been cleared now that I have finished my recycled mini-album, so nothing of interest to photograph! However, this is the work surface on the other side of the room, where I have dumped all the soaps, bath bombs and bath melts that I’ve made in the soap making class, together with some wrapping materials, ready to wrap them and prettify them ready to give away! You can also see the box which contains my essential oils and other bits and pieces, and the bottles of my home-made infused lavender oil.

Please see my previous post for details of the final three soap making classes and some photos of the soaps etc. that I made. I simply hadn’t the time to keep up to date with posting about those, being so busy completing the album, and there’s been lots of other stuff going on, too. My mum had 3 TIAs last Thursday and in the late afternoon we found her on the floor and couldn’t get her up, so she ended up in hospital for a few days. She made a good recovery and came home again yesterday. We are busy trying to get things organised for her so she is safer around the house. There is no guarantee she won’t have more of these mini-strokes and they could be the prelude to a big one, but all we can do is continue to give her her warfarin and hope for the best.

With my hubby’s broken wrist and not being allowed to drive, this has complicated matters considerably. Thank goodness all our amenities are close by, because we’ve had to rely on taxis and lifts. It is likely that he will have to remain in plaster for another four weeks after Christmas until they are sure that the tiny, but very important, bone, has mended properly. Never rains but it pours, does it.

I have heard from the hospital with details of my upcoming colonoscopy which is now to take place in January. That will be nice to look forward to in the New Year (not…)!

Yesterday I managed to pick up my knitting again and am working on the final stage, picking up the stitches for the neck. I am hoping to finish it this week and hopefully have some photos of it for you to see.

Happy WOYWW, everybody, and again, my apologies for visiting so few of you last week.

Third, Fourth and Fifth Soap Making Classes

I’ve got really behind with posting about the soap making classes, because I was going all out to finish the recycled mini-album and have been very busy with other things.

In the third class we did layering and embedding with the soaps. The first one we did was supposed to be like a snow globe, but unless you use crystal clear soap base (which is not SLS free and may not be hypoallergenic) it is rather translucent and spoils the effect a bit. We were provided with little plastic gingerbread men to embed in the soap, suspended on wires while the soap hardened. We were supposed to put glitter in the clear soap, but of course Shoshi forgot, so hers is a snow globe with no snow lol! (Global warming, perhaps?!!) Anyway, most of our results fell short of satisfactory, with most people’s gingerbread men coming out at a jaunty angle and looking drunk, and mine certainly fitted that description, made worse by the fact that his feet were sticking out through the base!

I was very unhappy with this. This style of soap isn’t what I’m interested in making anyway, because as you know, cutesy isn’t my style… However, my lovely cleaning lady loved it, so I am giving it to her! At least someone is happy…

The other two soaps we made were much more satisfactory.

First of all, we made tiny red hearts from white soap base, in small moulds. We then put some white soap base (coloured if we wanted, and with fragrance added) into the base of a full-sized heart-shaped mould, and the teacher took these away to pop in the freezer to speed up the setting process. When they came out, we scored the surface to roughen it, and sprayed it with a little rubbing alcohol, both of which helped the next layer to adhere properly. We then poured in some clear soap (also coloured and fragranced as desired) and while it was still liquid, we added the little red hearts we’d made earlier. These came out very much better.

In the fourth class, we made bath bombs. This didn’t grab me at all… You mix bicarbonate of soda with citric acid (both white powders) and then spritz with water, taking great care not to make it too wet or it just fizzes away. For colour, we used powdered colour rather than liquid, and added a few drops of essential oil or fragrance oil for scent. We mixed it up well and kept spritzing until it had the consistency of wet sand, and then squashed it into a mould and turned it out onto the table and left it to dry.

I hated doing this; the powder got into my mouth, nose and eyes, which was most unpleasant, and I had a job getting the consistency just right. I managed to make quite a good selection, though, and once wrapped, they looked pretty good.

I tried one in the bath, and after an initial fizz, that was it! I much prefer a good soak in bubble bath, so shan’t be making these again. The ones I’ve made will be nice for presents because I know a lot of people do enjoy bath bombs.

In the fifth and final class, we made bath melts. This was a lot more satisfactory than the previous week’s efforts. We mixed shea butter and coconut oil with some almond oil, in some empty tin cans the teacher provided – she had made wire handles for these. They were lowered into a pan of boiling water on the hob, and melted gently. Once melted, we could add fragrance and/or colour, and then pour the liquid into moulds to set. Again, the teacher put them in the freezer to speed things up, because these take quite a long time to set, preferably being left overnight, and we had to have them hard enough to carry home.

Again, I don’t think I shall bother to make these again. Really they are just a base for introducing fragrance into the bath, adding a bit of moisturising along the way. Not bubbly enough for me!

The other night I had my first aromatherapy bath. I’d read online that you should not put neat essential oil into the bath because it tends to clump together and can come into contact with your skin, which can cause irritation because it is incredibly strong. There are very few essential oils which are safe to apply direct to the skin; normally they are diluted in a carrier oil. One website said that you should mix it with a tablespoonful of carrier oil (I used olive oil) and pour that into the bath. I used lavender oil, and also put some in the top of my little oil burner that has a tea light underneath, and leaving the bedroom lamp on and turning off the other lights, I lit several candles and had a wonderful soak – I’d also added some fragrance-free bubbles – it was the most fantastic experience, really relaxing and lovely, but oh boy, the state of the bath afterwards… I use an inflatable bath lift (known as Boris!) and also a non-slip rubber mat, and everything, including the bath, was extremely greasy. After feeling so relaxed after the bath, all I wanted to do was fall into bed and enjoy the benefits, and not waste the whole effect by spending half an hour cleaning up the mess, so I left it till the next day. It took me ages to get it clean, and I had to use some multi-surface cleaner to disperse the oil (Ecover, made of natural stuff, but even so, that stuff gets in my throat and makes me cough!) – I was NOT a happy bunny.

I went on the soap making forum I have joined – they have an essential oils section – and asked for advice on a painless way to clean up, and several people said that they never used the carrier oil as the clean-up was such a bore, and I now have some instructions for home-made bath salts, using Epsom salts, into which you sprinkle some essential oil and keep it in a jar. You can colour it, too. It looks gorgeous! I now have some Epsom salts on order and am keen to try.

This is all a huge learning curve, and it is great fun learning how to make my own beauty products, and I know exactly what’s gone into them, and can colour and fragrance them as I like. They also make gorgeous presents. I am also learning about making my own cleaning products which will be natural, and also very cheap to make, and not full of harsh, strong-smelling chemicals, which I have come to dislike intensely since I developed M.E. – many people develop chemical sensitivity, and it’s nice to be able to avoid these things.

I’ll keep you up to date with the things I make. I’ve gradually been collecting bits and pieces online, mostly from Ebay – moulds, essential oils, soap bases, etc. I shall also be using my other skills to create pretty labels and packaging for them, and I am saving suitable empty bottles and containers.

WOYWW 288

To find out how you can leap in and experience the fun of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, and you will miraculously arrive at our hostess Julia’s blog, where you will find full details.

Again, my apologies for having visited so few desks last week, but when I got the opportunity I was working flat out on my recycled mini-album in order to get it finished before Thursday when my sister (and hopefully my niece) are coming, and I can give it to my niece then. Success! It is finished!!

My desk this week.

As you can see, it is remarkably tidy. After finishing the album, I had to make a card, and then I had a massive clear up and put loads of stuff away, ready for whatever I am going to tackle next. Not sure what that will be yet, because with the dreaded C just over the horizon I have to do some other things. Also, I am pretty exhausted now, having pulled all the stops out to finish the album, but I’m so glad I did!

At the back of the craft sheet you can see the pile of embossed card and alcohol ink backgrounds I did a while back. I think I should work on these and get some cards made up for my stash before I do anything else, but I do want to make some more soap before Christmas. On the pull-out unit on the right is my felt making box (still in utter disarray since the final felt class – no time to do anything about that!) – the box is just dumped there to be out of the way because I had to alter some more bedding on my sewing machine this p.m. You can also see (on the right) my new kitty squad stamp, still not unmounted from its wood block.

I haven’t forgotten that I have not yet posted photos of the last 2 soap making classes – too much else going on! I’ll try and do a post soon. The last class is tomorrow. Here’s the card I have made for the teacher, which I hope they will all sign:

It’s got 2 printed images (the soap an internet download and the duck a photo of one of my hubby’s ducks from his bathroom lol!) cut out and stuck down, and Ryn’s wonderful water droplets stamp, and some glass bead gel medium to make it more sudsy. I photographed it against one of the scratch papers I created while making the album. I also made a custom sized envelope for it, using my recently acquired envelope punch board.

My hubby broke his wrist a few weeks ago and is in a cast, and has been told definitely that he is not allowed to drive, which is presenting us with some problems – we have got to take a taxi to our friend’s on Christmas day but it’s not quite as frighteningly expensive as I’d feared, but bad enough! My hubby has arranged transport with a neighbour for my class tomorrow, and he’s got to take Mum on the bus to the surgery on Friday – what fun and games that will be! I can’t remember when she last travelled by bus. (Lady Muck.)

Here’s the final page of my album, after which I also did a page giving details of how it was made, and some blank pages (with just the signature black and white borders) for notes. You can read the final post about it here.

I am hoping to make a video slideshow of the completed pages, and how the book was constructed.

Have a great week everybody, and I hope in the midst of the usual seasonal busyness that you will all find time to be creative and feed the inner man/woman!

Thank You Card for Soap Making Teacher

What with rushing to finish the recycled mini-album in time and then being pretty exhausted, I wasn’t sure I’d have the energy or inclination to make a card but I really felt I should do it, because our teacher (who also taught the felt-making class) is so lovely, and gives so much during the classes, and I’d feel a right weed if I didn’t apply myself!

This card is a lot less complicated than the one I made for her for the felt course – you can see it here – but time and energy haven’t allowed me anything more ambitious.

I decided to make this more of a fun card. I began by photographing one of the plastic ducks from my hubby’s bath, and downloaded an image of a bar of soap. I cut these out and stuck them together with regular matt gel medium, after adding a bit of a shadow with some Pumice Stone distress ink under the duck.

I created a background from a piece of scrap card, distressing the edges with Stormy Sky distress ink and adding some shadow where the images would be applied, with the same distress ink. I used Ryn’s water droplets stamp with cobalt archival ink and added a tiny dot with my white marker pen on each droplet’s catchlight. I always do this with this stamp, because it makes the droplets really stand out.

I added some more distressing to the background, using Faded Jeans distress ink, and stuck the images down with regular matt gel medium.

To add a more sudsy effect around the soap at the bottom of the card, I laid down some glass bead gel medium with a palette knife.

A detail of the glass bead gel medium. Where it is showing white in the photo, it will be clear once it is dry.

I matted the card onto a piece of scrap yellow card using my ATG glue tape gun.

Finally, I lightly inked the base card with some Stormy Sky distress ink, and layered the card topper onto this.

The finished card.

Now I have to make an envelope for this custom-sized card, using my new Envelope Punch Board. I recently discovered a brilliant online tool for making envelopes of any size not listed on the chart that comes with the board.