Cutting logs of Soap

I used the book Pure Soapmaking by Anne-Marie Faiola to inspire this batch of soap. 

Each log is about 50 oz. of soap. I'm terrible at cutting, so my bars usually have 4.5-5.5 oz. soap each. 

After removing the bar from the mold, I lay it on its best side (where drag marks won't matter as much) and cut using a non-serrated knife. I use a pampered chef knife and cutting board with notches to help guide.

 I'm still learning how to make layers. You can see my first-poured layer was a nice light color, but the second was too dark. The third and fourth are hardly distinguishable. 

Putting a few blackberry seeds on top made a cute scrubby addition. These will likely come off the first couple of washes, but that's okay. 

And you can see I got 10 bars from this loaf, all are at least 4.5 oz. 

Homemade is BESTmade

I began making homemade soap (cold process mostly) in June, and I feel like I'm getting better almost every single bath. (Yeah, I'll admit there have been a few fails!)

 Here is a charcoal face soap fresh in the mold.

Here is a batch of eucalyptus soap made with goat milk

I love the layers in this raspberry jam scented soap

Here is an unscented scrubby soap made with blackberry seeds. I'm in love with these layers!

Bath Bombs are #thebomb

Some of my teacher friends say they're in heaven these days as I am still continuing to experiment with bath bomb making. They love trying out new scents and oils! I purchased a Mold Stamp on Amazon to make these cute designs. The pink ones use coconut oil and the blue used avocado. 

 I got a free sample from brambleberry.com of their new fragrance oil, Midnight Waters, to try with these large and medium size balls. I only have two LaBomb colorants (pink and blue) so I'm experimenting with how to do shading a little better. These balls had both colors which turned the water a pretty purple, but they're not much to look at beforehand. 

Soap-Making and Bath Bombs

Back at Christmas I got into Bath-Bomb making, and since then I've delved into the world of Cold Process Soap Making. (Yes, the kind where you start out with lye.) (Yes, Mom, I'm being very careful with lye.) I've made a few batches so far with varied results, but I do believe I'm getting better! It takes 4-6 weeks for each bar to cure (the water evaporates to make the bar harder and last longer) so I sill have a couple more weeks before I find out for sure if I did my first few batches correctly. I think I did pretty good, though! 

I started with a Handmade Soap Kit from Brambleberry, and then tried again with a Basic Quick Mix of oils. I read a lot online and watched a ton of Youtube tutorials. I also purchased the book Pure Soapmaking by Anne-Marie Faiola. Then I started mixing my own using recipes I found online (mostly soapqueen.com) I've made 5 batches so far. It's pretty fun! The best part might be that it makes the whole house smell good, too. My goal is to create natural, as-organic-as-possible soap. (Soap can't actually be organic, but I want something made up of natural, good-for-you ingredients that aren't harmful to the earth.) 

Also, on my last order from Brambleberry I got a free sample of Blueberry fragrance oil. Today I used it to make a batch of bath bombs. The last set I made about a month ago didn't go well at all, so I was pleasantly surprised when these (mostly) turned out well. A few crumbled while drying but since more than 1 actually stayed in a spherical shape this time I'm not complaining! And they smell WONDERFUL! I added some blue gel dye to keep the blueberry theme going. 

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DCWV Spring Bloom Cards

Happy Easter! I've been working on a few more cards over the last couple of days using DCWV Spring Blooms paper and Our Daily Bread Design dies and stamps. The gold foil paper makes some of the pictures not turn out so great, but you can believe they're cute in person! 

More Cards!

Wow! With Spring Break happening I've spent SO MUCH TIME in my craft room! Here are a few more cards I've made this week. 

As a little birthday present to myself I bought the 2018 Anniversary Bundle from Our Daily Bread Designs. It included the all of the circle cuts and quote/verse stamps used. The watering can stamp came from the Happy Birthday stamp set from them, also. 

This paper is from DCWV Linen Closet stack. I've had it for ages and thought it was too beautiful to use.

 Here is the birthday watering can.

Another birthday present to myself was this brand new stack, Spring Bloom, by DCWV. I'll be hopefully adding more cards soon from that paper line.

Snow Day Cards

I used paper from Our Daily Bread Designs and an embossing folder cross from Darice, colored with my Copic markers. The stamp on the inside is from Our Daily Bread Designs also.

Here is a sympathy card I made using Just Rite Vintage Labels Seven and colored with my Copic markers.

I've been playing around with embossing powder and used stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs to make this sweet card for my husband's cousin who is getting married this weekend. 

This is a card I made with a cuttlebug plate and embossing folder. I colored the pieces with my Cricut. My husband's niece is having a baby shower this weekend so we needed a totally adorable card- it's cuter in person.

And... Happy Spring! 

My new Mac decals

 This morning was snowy and icy so we didn't have church. I spent the morning watching my current-favorite Disney movie, Moana, and playing with Cricut vinyl.

First I used clipart from Educlips to create a 5x5 schnauzer decal.

After YEARS of light-hearted arguing, my husband bought me an external hard drive for my computer while I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago. I insisted I didn't need one, but occasionally I do. My old Mac had an internal disc drive, but it didn't work. Now that I have a new Mac (yay Christmas!) this is perfect. So I went old-school and decorated it using my vinyl with some old CD logos.

Wedding Bouquets

These are not good pictures at all, but I made flowers for my sister's destination wedding in Orlando! 

 She needed her bouquet, plus 2 for bridesmaids, and then 3 boutonnieres for the guys. I used twine to lace up the stems and they turned out beautifully!

There were dusty-rose hydrangeas, pink peonies, eucalyptus, boxwood, tiny pink rosebuds, and a couple of white cabbage roses.

My beautiful sister getting ready to get married!