Bath Bomb Recipe

I have been working on perfecting my bath bomb recipe as of late so I thought I would share it with you.  These bath bombs are pretty easy to make, and more importantly if you have ever worked with bath bombs, they are not too hard to mess up. They are also fun to make and fun to use.

Bath Bomb Recipe

Dry ingredients:

• Baking Soda – 1/2 cup
• Citric Acid(Sour Salt) – 1/4 cup
• Corn Starch – 1/4 cup
• Epsom Salt - 1/4 cup

Wet Ingredients:

• Water - 1/2 tbsp.
• Essential or Fragrance Oil – 5-10 drops
• Almond Oil – 1 1/2 tbsp.
• Food coloring - 2 or 3 drops

Instructions:

Step 1- Blend your dry ingredients

Step 2- Blend your wet ingredients

Step 3- Then while stirring slowly add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients

Step 4-Try to avoid volcanoes. If the mixture starts to foam, you are adding the liquid too fast. Quickly stir the reacting ingredients into the nonreactive part and you should be able to stop the reaction. When all of the wet ingredients have been added, you should have a mixture with the consistency of slightly damp sand. The mixture probably wont look wet, but It should clump together in your hand when you squish it

Step 5- Mold quickly. The mixture can dry quickly. You want to get it in the mold while it is still damp. If it does become too dry, you may add a little bit of water to dampen it up again(no more than a ¼ tsp at a time.)

Step 6- Let dry. I use ice cube trays from IKEA to mold mine. This recipe will fill an entire tray. To be safe you will want to let these dry for about 24 hours or they can crumble when you take them out. If you want to speed up the process though, you can put them in the oven on 200 degrees for 20 min.

These will make the perfect valentines gift for a friend, or a sister, and I am sure husbands wouldn’t mind them either.

Be Mine- Vintage Valentine Banner

Here is my submission for American Crafter!

Be Mine- Vintage Valentine Banner

 

Below is my jump off point or my inspiration for the banner. I already had a few vintage valentines printed off and placed in old root beer bottles on my mantle (vintage valentines from here.) I wanted to create something that would mesh well with the valentine decor already found in my home.

I don’t have a step by step tutorial, but I can share a few details on how this was created…

I used my hand dandy cricut (surprise, surprise) to cut out the cardboard circles, the read and white polka dot hearts, and the black letters (Edwardian Script ITC). The cardboard is a thin cut, from a shoebox. It’s not your typical moving box cardboard, but I am sure that would work too. I also used my cricut to cut out the silhouette of the boy and girl. I just had my cricut cut out this image that I found somewhere online (I can’t remember where… sorry!)

Next, I made the pinwheels out of old book pages. Then I glued all of the pieces together. I hung the banner pieces from the lace using clothes pins which I distressed with brown ink. I also distressed the edges of the cardboard with ink as well to give it an antiqued look.

Now how fun would this be to give as an early valentines gift! You could wrap it up in a big lace bow. It could be for your mom, your sister, or your best friend.

 

I would love to unwrap a gift like this! You could even write a personalized love note on the back of the banner.

Voting is up over on Naptime Crafters. You have until Sunday at Midnight to vote. So go vote for your favorite(me… hopefully me!)

Whether or not this makes the cut, it was so fun to create and it looks beautiful in my home! But still keep your fingers crossed that I make it to round 2!

Valentine Pillows (Update)

*I have updated the pillows. Take another look. Did I make them better or did I totally ruin a good thing?

Let me introduce you to my new valentine pillows. My porch was looking a little bare so I decided to spruce it up with a few holiday pillows.

I struggled while making these. I usually have a vision in mind before I start creating, but this time all I knew was that I wanted to use burlap for the pillows and somehow incorporate red felt.

So I started off with this idea of love birds. I found myself making a bird stencil. I then proceeded to trace and cut out birds.

By the way, it is always nice to have a little encouragement while cutting (you know cause it is so hard to do ;) Here’s the babe clapping away while I am cutting away. (He just learned to clap and he is so proud of himself.)

Then I thought love birds… birds on a wire, one thing lead to another and this was the final product.

I also thought birds and trees go well together so I went with that thought, and this is what happened…

Before

After

Update: I woke up this morning completely unsatisfied with my pillows. I needed to tie them together better. So I repurposed a few of the tree leaves to make a birds nest. Then I decided to use a few of the extra birds that I happened to have cut out(remember I had no idea what I was doing when I started this project.) I also wanted to add some twine to this pillow as well. I made the boy bird a little bow tie.

Now I think that they go “better together” Ok, now I am just being cheesy.

They are resting nicely on my front porch swing. I even caught of glimpse of them while I was cleaning up my living room this morning. They made me smile. I know that now they are complete.

A Valentines Gift

Are you looking for an inexpensive Valentines gift to give to a family member? Or maybe just a way to get your house ready for the upcoming Holiday?

I recently made a cheap and easy picture frame. I thought that I would share a tutorial.

Materials needed:

• $1 wooden frame from Michaels
• Old book
• Scissors
• Mod Podge
• Black and red paper

       Step 1. Tear pages from an old book. (That is always the saddest part.)

 Step 2. Cut pages into squares. My squares were about 2 in. x 2 in.

    Step 3. Apply Mod Podge to your wooden frame.

Step 4. Lay squares on top of the frame. Notice how my squares are bigger than the width of the frame? I did that so I could just fold the paper over, covering the inside and outside edge of the frame as well. Once everything was glued down, I put a coat of Mod Podge on top as well.

 

 

 

 

   

    Step 5. Add some hearts!

 

Step 6. Add some LOVE! I used my circuit to cut these letters out. My circuit will cut out any font in Microsoft Word. The font I used was French Script MT. If you don’t have a circuit, you could just print off the letters using Microsoft Word.

Easy. Easy. Seriously after I got the idea in my head- five minutes later it was done. Maybe I could stretch that to ten minutes if you count the time it took to have my circuit to cut out the letters.

 

This one is on my Mantel.

I also made one as a gift, and put this picture inside. Can you guess who it is for?

 

I heart Valentines Day!