Halloween Spider Soap

Last year, I wanted to make Halloween goodie bags to pass out to my immediate neighbors children, and to the few kids coming to our Halloween party. I didn't want the goodie bags to just be filled with candy. I wanted to add additional non-sugar filled items in the bags. I stumbled across this awesome tutorial from Milk and Cuddles on how to make your own spider soap.

I had no idea how easy it was to make your own soap. I went to the dollar store and bought a muffin pan dedicated to soap making since I had a feeling this is something I might want to make time and time again *so versatile and so many options. Since my muffin pan was metal I used an old microwave safe bottle to heat up the blocks of glycerin in the microwave. Once the glycerin had melted I added a few drops of cinnamon apple scent to the soap. This made the soap smell like fall, and then I carefully poured it into each of the individual muffin cups. I then added a plastic spiders into each tin. Some had one to two spiders, and other cups had a "spider on a web". I bought one small bags of these plastic critters at the dollar store. 

I waited about a half hour or so until the bars had hardened, popped them out, and then wrapped them in plastic wrap. I labeled this as a dollar project because I honestly feel that it only cost about a dollar to make six of these bars of soap. I believe I spent roughly $6 on a bag of glycerin (after a 40% off coupon), and roughly the same amount on the scented oil to go into the soap itself. I had enough glycerin left over to make at least an additional 4-6 trays of soap. 

All the children who received this soap at our party LOVED it, and were ready to start washing their hands immediately. One of my friends said her daughter washed her hands all weekend just to get the spider out. If you have trouble getting your children to wash their hands... this is the way to go! 

{Tutorial} Make Your Own Cool Tie

I've bought quite a few "cool" ties in the past. Last year I stumbled across a tutorial (of course I can't remember which blog it was on), and made my own. I took crappy
 photo's of it, and by the time I was ready to blog about it--it was mid-October. Although, it was still needed in Florida the rest of the country was starting to break out the winter jackets. I decided to wait, and in doing so I've made quite a few since my first attempt. I had family in town from Pittsburgh this past weekend, and made one for each person, so they could use it while sweating to death galavanting around Disney World. 

Supplies:

1 scrap of fabric; 4 inches wide by 45 inches long (you can make this as short as 30 inches long)

1 tablespoon of Cracked Ice Crystals *You can find this in the floral section at Michael's for around $5--you should get about 5-6 ties out of one package. 

coordinating thread, straight pins, scissors, tape measure, and iron

Cut your piece of fabric out, fold it in half long wise (right sides together). With a hot iron using steam press the fabric together. Sew a straight stitch along the open end of the fabric (essentially creating a tube). Make sure you leave both ends open--it makes it easier to turn it inside out. 

Once you've created the tube, carefully (and patiently) turn the tube inside out. 

Next, you'll want to measure out your "cool tie". This cool tie happened to only be 40 inches long, so a good half way point was at the 15 and 25 mark. You'll want at least 10 inches of space for your cracked ice crystals to expand. Once you've pinned this. Sew one of the sides closed. 

Add one tablespoon to the neck tie. Some blogs will recommend only a teaspoon or two, I found that the happy medium is a tablespoon. Trust me after an hour or two of being wet these cracked ice crystals will expand and fill up the entire 10+ inch tube! Once you fill the tube make sure all the crystals are at the bottom of the sewn section. Sew the other side to close the tube along with around the perimeter of the tie itself. *Essentially you will only be sewing around 10 inches. Lastly, you'll want to sew each of the ends closed. I choose to fold in the fabric, press it with the iron and sew a straight stitch on this cool tie. However, I have sewn a variety of decorative stitches to close them cool ties. 

Finished product!

This is what your final product will look like once you wet it. Take note you will need to soak it in cold water for a few minutes to allow the cracked ice crystals to start to expand. 

At this point the gel had only somewhat expanded in the tie. 

*Here is what it will look like if you put over 1 tablespoon of crystals in the tie. The gels inside the cool tie will keep expanding hours after it's been wet. It will look like it wants to explode. *Excuse my cell phone picture... I wanted to be able to show you what it looks like fully expanded. **Take a look on the left side of the picture--That's Mr. Woodsy with his neon green cool tie that he wore as a headband to mock his childhood idols; The Ninja Turtles! 

Co-Ed Craft Lunch: Comic Book Keychain/Necklace Pendants

This past Wednesday I conducted our first ever co-ed craft lunch at work. Yes, that's right, you read it correctly; co-ed. The men always make fun of us women for our craft lunches, but we all know that deep down inside they are jealous of our craft projects. When I ran across these comic book necklace pendants at Punk Projects I knew this would be our first co-ed craft project at lunch. I immediately sent the invite via entourage and just as I suspected I got quite a bit of positive feedback. 

Since the pendants are small I went to the store prior to our lunch and bought the chip board (we used a matte board since Michael's did not have chipboard), contact paper, and I brought the jump rings and necklace rope from home. All I asked is that everyone contributed one dollar towards to cost of supplies and that everyone either a.) bring their own comic book to cut up b.) print off comic book pages from the internet. Everyone went with option "b" and a few of the ladies decided to opt out of comic books and pull from the pages of there favorite magazines! 

This is a super simple 10 minutes project. First, you will want to cut out your chip board. Then you'll want to cut out your comic (about 1/4-1/2 inch longer/wider than your chip board). Next, you will cut out contact paper that is about 1/4-1/2 inch longer/wider than your comic. Remove the paper off the contact paper and place your comic strip face down on sticky side (make sure its well centered). Then you'll want to cut slits in the corners with a pair of scissors, and start folding over your comic/contact paper on the chip board. Take a thumb tack and poke a hole in the pendant, with pliers attach one to two jump rings, add necklace or key ring if desired. You could skip the hole and jump rings and make this a magnet!

Sarah, from While They Snooze and Karen were concentrating as they constructed their pendants. 

I love how Karen's pendant turned out (and this photo)! 

Here is a picture of what Sarah's (non comic book) pendant looked like. 

Here is a picture of my pendant (sans the jump rings and necklace string). 

Kristi, from The "Unknown" Florida opted for the non-comic pendant as well. 

Thomas cutting out the contact paper for his first "keychain". 

Here is Thomas with his second "keychain"! He even grabbed materials to make a third!

Derek was hard at work making a necklace pendant for his daughter. 

Time to cut the corners and start folding the paper! 

Isn't this darling? What five year old wouldn't love this!?!? 

Here I am modeling my new comic book necklace. 

A close up. 

Hope you will give this easy project a try!

January Craft with Me: Rosette Frame {Mini Tutorial}

I got quite a few craft projects completed this weekend, and one of them is one I've been wanting to work on ALL month! Ucreate hosted a few "create with me" sessions in 2010, and they are planning to host one each month in 2011!  For those of you who aren't familiar with Ucreate you should go check them out--right now! 


This month's "create" session was to create a rosette frame. I bought a very inexpensive frame a few months back at Goodwill. Actually, to be more precise I bought two wooden frames for .69 cents each! I knew I'd make something cool out of it--I just didn't know what. With some mod podge, fabric, and a little help from the cricut I made such an awesome Valentine's inspired frame. I'm super happy with how it came out and of course I love the picture I choose! That's our dog, Lola, aka the furbaby (the closest thing we have to a child, and at times I feel can be even more needy than a child). 

Supplies: 

-Picture Frame

-Scrapbook paper

-Exacto knife

-Mod Podge paper

-Foam brush

Scissors

-Fabric

-Hot Glue Gun

-Picture

*Any other embellishments you please (I pictured buttons, but changed my mind at the end of the project)

First, you will want to cut out your paper leaving a few inches on each side. 

Next, you will want to apply a generous amount of mod podge to the front of the frame, then press down firmly. *If you want your paper to lay perfectly flat you will need to watch your paper and as bubbles pop up you will need to start smoothing the paper. I on the other hand did not want the paper to be flat and I wanted the little bit of added texture. After the paper has dried to your frame {about 5 minutes} you will want to carefully use your exacto knife and cut out the center of the frame. Cut a slit on each of the corners to make it easy to wrap the inner pieces of paper. 

Next you will want to wrap the paper around the frame, applying generous coats of mod podge. Once all the sides are wrapped you will want to start applying a few thin and even coats of mod podge all around the front and sides of the frame. *This is also when I applied the "love" cut out from my cricut. 

Next, you will want to plug in your hot glue gun, cut your fabric, and tie your knots. I follower THIS tutorial, from The Secret Stitch Club, on how to make the fabric rosette (can you believe this was my first time?)! Overall, it was pretty easy and I learned a lot! 

Next, you will want to add on your embellishments. I choose to use some of Jolee's Jewel's Swarovski crystals. I dabbed a little bit of hot glue to the rosette and with tweezers from my awesome hot glue gun helpers I placed the gems on the flower. 

Here is the finished product! 

Christmas Magnets {Mini Tutorial} + Giveaway

Remember, a few months back when I posted about the skeleton magnets I made? They were such a huge hit and yet so simple to make! I decided I would make some Christmas magnets. I decided to try and make them a little different this time since I received some very valuable feedback from a 10 year old who made them. Because of her fabulous feedback I felt the need to revamp my tutorial instructions! 

Supplies needed:

-glass stones (large bag for $1 at the dollar store)

-magnets (18 round magnetic buttons w/ adhesive backing for $2 at walmart)

-Christmas scrapbook paper 

-foam brush (used) 

- Paper Mod Podge ($10)

-scissors

 The 10 year old suggested I apply mod podge directly on to the paper and stone--then press the stone on to the paper, let it semi-dry and then begin to cut out. I tried this method this time around and it was ten times faster! This is the way to go! 

You'll want to apply a dab of Mod Podge on to the paper area of your choice. Then lightly coat the back of the glass stone. Place the glass stone on the paper and push down firmly, so that all the excess mod podge goes to the outside of the paper (look at the front of the stone you'll see the glue move to the outside). Once the glue is semi-dried start cutting around the paper. You will most likely get some Mod Podge on your scissors. Don't fret--just wash it off as soon as you are done working on the project!  Place a little bit of Mod Podge on your finger and pat the glue around the edge of the paper. Repeat this step until all of your stones are complete. Once they have dried {about 30 minutes} you can place your magnetic button on the back of the paper stone!

Here is what I like to call my Winter Wonderland magnet set.

Here is my Santa magnet set!

Here are all three sets together; 

Winter Wonderland, Ho Ho Ho, and Santa magnet sets! 

I'm feeling very generous today, and would like to giveaway one set of Christmas magnets! 

Just tell me which set is your favorite by leaving a comment below. One entry per follower (you must be a follower of the blog to participate). I will draw one person at random to win the set of there choice.  Contest ends on Sunday, December 5th at 11:59 pm. Winner will be announced Monday, December 6th.  

This giveaway is now CLOSED.

Disclaimer: I classified this as a $1 project because you won't use all the materials purchased. Since the $1 bag of glass stones contained about 50 stones: the cost per stone is 2 cents. You are only using but maybe a teaspoon of mod podge. The foam brush is one that I reuse time and time again. I already owned the scrapbook paper. 18 magnets come in a pack for $2, so that breaks down to .11 cents per magnet backing. Depending on how many magnets you make will depend on how much your project will cost. 

Skeleton Magnets {Mini Tutorial}

Some of you might know this, but my craft room is non-existant right now. Our guest bedroom has turned into craft room storage, and frankly, looks like an episode of Hoarders {minus the dead cats}. My husband has been working on custom shelving and table top for quite some time now, and unfortunately, it's no where near complete. Since we had friends over our house last weekend I had to pack all my craft stuff up {again} since it was residing on top of our pool table, and that was not practical for entertaining! 

Let me just say that I'm so glad I had the energy to pull a few items out of this hoarders type room! I managed to find my glass stones (large bag for $1 at the dollar store), magnets (18 round magnetic buttons for $2 at walmart), remnants of skeleton scrapbook paper (.55 at Michaels), a foam brush (used), and mod podge ($10). All the items you would need to make some cool skeleton like magnets! 

Once you have all of your supplies gathered you'll want to place a glass stone over the portion of the image you want to cut out and cut around it. As you can tell from the photo below I don't cut circles well (thankfully you won't see this with the end product)! Once you've cut out all of your circles you'll want to dab a little bit of mod podge onto the glass stone and carefully secure the paper to it. You'll want to push on the paper and stone so that all the excess mod podge goes to the outside of the paper (look at the front of the stone you'll see the glue move to the outside). Once this happens you'll use your finger and pat the glue around the edge of the paper. Repeat this step until all of your stones are complete. Once these have dried {about 30 minutes} you can place your magnetic button on the back of the paper stone!

Here's your finished product! 

Creepy-cool skeleton magnets to put on your refrigerator! 

Disclaimer: I classified this as a $1 project because you won't use all the materials purchased. Since the $1 bag of glass stones contained about 50 stones: the cost per stone is 2 cents. You are only using but maybe a teaspoon of mod podge. The foam brush is one that I reuse time and time again. The scrapbook paper was 55 cents at Michaels and I literally used a remnant of paper. Depending on how many magnets you make will depend on how much your project will cost. 

I entered: