Bath Bomb BOMBing

I can tell you that most everything I've tried in my life (craft-wise) has been a success. Really, there is a list and I will not bore you. Bath bombs are the HARDEST thing I've tried. Knitting can now take a backseat. Knitting used to be my answer to the question, "What craft don't you do?" 

Not a person to be deterred by failure - I am going to yank my stuff out tomorrow and try AGAIN!!!!!

Really, it seems like the measurements are pretty important? Especially when it comes to the water that you add. My second batch I added more almond oil to the mixture and tried to rely on less H2o which did work a little better - but the forms that I used were chintzy and I hated them (see below). I have since ordered some molds from Amazon which are currently sitting in a storage bin filled with citric acid, baking soda, powdered pigments, fine ground Epsom salt, and corn starch. Everything needed for awesome bath bombs and guess who has been FOILED! Foiled I say!

I hope that the new molds that I got for the bombs work better. The first were plastic with a hang tab. The website said that these could be used as the form as well as packaging for the customer. When I applied pressure to the sides to squish the halves together my thumb would leave an impression in the newly forming round ball. I couldn't seem to get it packed in there enough! 

They fizzed themselves out of the plastic molds and were twice the size they were when I went to bed. It smelled a little like burning hair in there as well. Who knows. Maybe its from the citric acid??

Even if they don't stay in a perfect ball, the fizzing action is super cool when it hits the water! I finally bought myself some rose scented oil and will be making a rose batch. Maybe the second will be coconut. 

Advice from a friend: NO MORE YELLOW DYE IN THE BALM. Because it looks like pee ya'll. 

I am going to visit Soap Queen's Blog and see what all of the fuss is about. I am confident this next time will be THE TIME that I conquer the bath bomb! 

Loofah Soap is Wonderful!

Not sure exactly where the idea came from, but on impulse I picked up a loofah from the store, took it home, rinsed it off and cut it up.

I placed some that are half moon and others a whole slice of the bar, and then poured soap around them.

So far everyone that has tried it has liked it! I have it in my bathroom and its sold three bars by itself! Being the owner of Syrup Creek Sundries has been a fun ride that's for sure! I love that there is nearly an unlimited combination of soaps and lotions that can be made. Sometimes I feel like I am making potions or something! No eye of newt to be found (unless I read something about its healing properties) in any of these products. ✌

I found an article that outlines the benefits of using a loofah as an exfoliating element. "Through skin exfoliation you help your skin rejuvenate and allow a newer skin layer to come out. It also helps in retaining the softness of your skin." I find my skin is soooooooo soft when using this bar!! I use it just about everywhere too, elbows (because I am not getting any younger) feet and hands, ankles, and knees. 

I have a few different scents for sale currently in the shop, stop by and check it out!

Syrup Creek Sundries - Soap and Stuff

It was October.

I had spent a few afternoons at craft fairs over the summer and had looked and looked for soap. Soap that was scented with Lavender or Rose... and couldn't really find anything! Anything I liked, anyway.

Either there was no discernible scent in the bath and it smelled great in the package, or the soap was not the greatest when it came to actually using it to bathe. I thought to myself, "How hard can making soap really be?" And so began what is now my new obsession - soap making.

It has gone much farther than making soap, I now offer lotion, body butter, bath tea, lip balm, calming sprays, beard oil, shave and shampoo bars - and will soon be experimenting with bath bombs, face scrubs, roll on perfume, and clay masks.

Syrup Creek is a real place. I was once in a head on collision on that road (I was not driving, and we were all okay) but there was a really cool little creek that runs alongside the road and a canyon out off the main path. There is something about the desert having being a hidden little gem. There are so many cool places out there. I have pride in my state and I hope that reflects in my choice of business names. Also, it was not taken according to and federal or state agencies - so yay me!

There have been a few failures - like the first time I mixed chamomile buds into a bar of soap without bothering to break them up at all. After a couple weeks of sitting they had managed to grow some kind of fungus inside the bar. It was pretty but I wouldn't have rubbed that against my body - nor do I expect a customer to either!

I am more conscious than ever about the products that I put on my body everyday. Take a look at what is in your shampoo for goodness sake! Or night cream. That was especially eye opening.

Ive gone a little crazy and started a website where I could sell my product and have been looking into the possibility of joining some craft bazaars around town here but some of them (ahem - Art in the Park and Ect) that are pretty expensive - makes me wonder if it is even worth signing up.

It would be cool to partner with a small shop and sell there. Like, a garden store or something. I need to do more research.

Until then, I continue to make my product better!

Be sure to check out my website, I have a hit counter! =)

Idaho Quilt - Boise State Theme

Hello!

Its been some time since I have updated this blog, so I guess that its time. Tee heehehe. Thanks Auntie!

I have been working on this quilt. It took me awhile to cut all 500ish pieces that comprise the front! It was a labor of love. And a need to rid myself of some of the fabric that I had been hoarding for some time. This is the result of saving remnants and scraps of the colors blue and orange for YEARS. Years.

Well, we have been sleeping under it and I have to say that I am really pleased. Its my favorite so far!

before being quilted 

ATC Madness

I have been making ATC like crazy lately, and I love love love to collect them!

Here are some pictures of what I have been working with lately. I have a bad habit of forgetting to take pictures of the cards once I am done and they are ready to send. So, most of these are still in various stages of completeness.

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Saint Patrick's Day ATCs

Hello wonderful people! In todays blog post I will go over the steps I took to make these cute little Saint Patrick's ATCs! I think that they came out really really well! But I will let you be the judge of that. 

Supplies:

Corrugated Paper

Gold Leafing

Repurposed Tagboard

Quickie Glue Pen

Glue Sticks

Double Sided Tape Applicator

Embossing Powder

Chalk Pastel 

First, I printed out the images that I would like to use. This is the St. Patrick image that is the focal point of the ATC. I thought about doing one with rainbows and maybe a pot o' gold but I wanted to think outside the box. I wanted to make something that is totally unlike anything that people would have in their collection. 

I took the images that I printed out and mounted them onto a heavy cardstock (this was actually packaging from vellum - so "found" cardstock). I used scissors to then cut these out. I think I did a pretty good job. It can take awhile for more complicated designs, but this one wasnt too bad. 

Once that was done, I took the Quickie Glue Pen and drew around St. Pat's halo. Working in sections, before the glue could dry (aka turned from blue to clear) I added the gold leafing onto the surface. Once I went all the way around the halo I let it dry completely (long enough for me to work on the five other halos) before taking a soft brush to the leafing and knocking off the extra that had not glued down. I really like the glue pen because it allows me total control of where the glue goes. This is amazing! 

Then, I moved to working on the backgrounds of the cards. I used corrugated white paper (found this at Crafter's Warehouse in the clearance section) and double sided taped that to the repurposed tagboard. Interesting story about the supports. Have any of you ever ordered stamps from the USPS either online - or over the phone? Well, when they send the stamps, there is a piece of this tagboard in the package with them. It is not too heavy nor too light. Love love love this stuff! 

Next, using the glue pen again, I went down one edge of the card, and before the glue could dry, I applied gold embossing powder. Then I heated that powder and moved onto the next side of the card. Did I say that I made 5 of these? Once I was done with that whole ordeal, I moved onto the chalk pastels. 

The chalk pastels I have are full sticks, square in shape. I just took this and ran it up and down the ribs of the white paper. Then using a soft brush I blended them into the surface. This created the background for my St. Pat icon. 

I used double sided tape to stick down the image to the background and TADA I have 5 wonderful ATC to trade. I ended up keeping one just because I liked it so well. I usually do not make series of 5 but I think that I might start doing this more. Especially with the more popular themes AKA steampunk, bookpages, any holiday etc. 

Thanks for reading! 

The Bridesmaid Dress

I have been asked to be a bridesmaid in my boyfriends sisters wedding! I am totally excited by this, while at the same time, worried. I guess that just about anywhere a person gets a dress it would need to be ordered and shipped, so it can take some time to receive the dress.

Well, that just isn't good enough for me. No way. I need to at least see the dress more than three days before the wedding.

I feel like all of the sewing I have done up to this point was all in preparation for this dress. Tiffany blue is the color that the bride wishes us to wear. So, I took my hour lunch one day and went to the fabric store and what do ya know, I found the fabric!

The really sad thing about the fabric is that it looks like a different color each time I take a picture of it! The image with the red background and lighter is once I actually took it outside into the sun. This is the best picture that I have so far of the color. 

This is the dress with the sweetheart neckline and halter top. I do no think that I will be using that top..

Here is an example of one variation of waistband. 

Here is one made with tulle.

And there is what the sweetheart looks like exposed. Not sure what direction I will be taking, but at least I know that Ive got what I need, and that no matter what I will be wearing something the right color and that resembles a dress.

hehehehee.

Holding Brushes

Does anyone else hold their brushes like this while they paint? Ill look down after awhile, my  hand cramping, and realize that I have like ten brushes held in my hand. 

I love this painting. The weather is reporting a high of 71 tomorrow. I am really excited by this prospect. Maybe, after I run around and accomplish things, I will get out the easel and paints. Who knows. I was thinking about mopping too, but I have a feeling that I will be "lazy" on that one. 

Halloween Dress... 4 Months Later

I havent been doing much sewing lately... But right around halloween I felt that I needed a really cool dress to wear to work. And so I made this!

I love the way that it came out! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I had so many compliments on the way that it came out I wish that I could just wear it a couple times a week. That would be AWESOME! 

The wig was purchased and so was the hat - but the hat was really plain so I added a few feathers!

Slightly Self Portrait

More ATC Love

He he he. Can't seem to get enough!

Krampus ATC WIP

This one was fun!

ATC Obcession!

I love making and trading ATC! Just keep forgetting to take pictures before I send them!

Western Dress Pattern ReImagined

I guess I forgot to say something about this when I made them, but here are a couple dresses that I made. Both are from the same pattern. They were supposed to be Halloween costumes, pioneer women dresses or whatever. For the first one that I made I used old fabric I had laying around. Trying out the pattern and all that. Why spend money on something I might not even like? Haha. 

 

So for Halloween I thought it wold be cool to use some of the fabric I had just LAYING AROUND AGAIN (funny how this happens) and made a version of the dress that was on the scary side. I have a thing for hats and bought an awesome pirate hat once upon a time and WA LA I was a pirate wench for the day! The spiderweb pattern is actually black lace sewed over a solid red fabric. I then had to sew a kind of trim over the top of that to make sure it wouldn't distort the images while I was wearing the darn thing. I made it all of the way through a day at work and I didn't even bust a seam.
I was afraid that I would, so I brought a whole separate costume (zombie has always been my fallback) I could change into if there was a "wardrobe malfunction." I think that I like the second version of the dress a whole lot better but that might just have something to do with the colors. Hahaha. The other fabric was quite dated.
I recently found a pattern for a wedding dress and I plan to make it out of anything BUT white. Maybe a purple or something like that. Im not sure. Haha. Thought it would be a funny joke for my boyfriend and leave it laying around the house for him to see... but I don't want him getting any CRAZY ideas, like I would WANT to sew my own wedding dress. hahahaha.
Once the weather turns back to the cold time of year Im sure Ill be sewing more. But until then I will just keep painting and playing around with tie dye.

Jacquard Fun!

Some of the best tie dye that I've made was done using Procion MX dye. I have decided to try using the Sodium Alginate SH and the Synthaprol.

                

Sodium Alginate is a thickener made somehow from kelp or sea weed. This is not what you would want to put in food but it seems to me as if there is some kind of thickener used in ice cream that it like this stuff. I dissolved it in warm water much like someone would with gravy mix or jello. I just kept stiring until it started to thicken up and I put it in the fridge to cool down. I left it in there for about an hour or so. Then, I dumped Procion dyes into the mixture. One I made Jet Black and the other was Fuschia.

I tie dyed a few shirts tonight. And folded them differently from eachother because I wanted to see what this "stained glass" effect was that I had read about somewhere. So, with the stained glass you dye it how you normally would but when you are done with the colors, you take this thickened mixture and paint it onto the outside of your shirt. 

I did that with a few of the shirts tonight. Actually, 5 of the four! haha. Hopefully it looks super cool and not just completely black. I added more thickener than needed but I think that next time I will have to add more. I want it to be thicker than it was.
The shirts are in the washer right now. I plan to wear one a day to work this week, starting with my favorite one! Once the laundry is out of the washer I can report on how I feel the Synthaprol preformed.