Laminated Bookmarks

I love to make bookmarks. I don't use them a lot, but I love to make them. These ones were spur of the moment kind thing. You see, I was laminating pieces to a Calendar bullentin board. I have 4 boys, I want these things to last homeschooling through the last one. It was like playing Tetris getting as many pieces onto a 9 x12 pocket of plastic laminate and still have a good seal around the pieces. The last few pockets had vast empty spots no matter how I tried. I didn't have anything else to laminate and I didn't want to waste all that space. What to do?

I had scrap pieces of ribbon that I had lying around after another craft or two. Yes, I save a lot of different things. I thought, "Hey, these would make a neat laminated bookmark!" So that is what I did, I put a few pieces of ribbon on the pockets and laminated them. I like them and my boys use them. They would make a quick gift as well to a reader.

A few different ideas: scrapbook paper, dried flowers, a pretty scrap of fabric. Really you could use this idea with any sort of flat object that can stand a little heat. It is fast and fun.

Lotion Bars, Belly Balms

Since I've found myself a little low on my belly balm, I thought I would go ahead a few recipes. I find that I like using the oils themselves without adding the water/aloe vera to make an emulsion, especially in the winter when my skin is so dry. At first, I didn't like how the oil just sat on my skin for so long and felt heavy, but now I like it quite well cause my skin isn't dry any longer and washing my hands so often, I don't have to use a lotion every time.

A basic Belly Balm/Lotion Bar

2 oz Coconut Oil
1 oz Cocoa Butter
1 oz Sweet Almond Oil

Weigh all the oils and put into a heat safe bowl or container. I use a measuring cup and put it into a water bath. You can use a double boiler, which is the better way. Microwave if you want, but you have a greater chance to overheat the oils, which you don't want. I only melt the oils until there are small chunks of the cocoa butter left. The warm oils should melt the remaining chunks, you can always put it back on for a few minutes. Cocoa Butter has a tendancy to crystalize, so I melt low and slow. If you wanted to add fragrance oils or essential oils now is the time. I like my lotion unscented. Pour into a container.

The one I've been using has beeswax, cocoa butter, shea butter, olive oil, sweet almond, jojoba, some borage oil and vitamin E oil with a touch of Allantoin powder for healing. Couldn't really tell you the proportions cause I change it every time. I basically make it like a lip balm percentage. I like my lotion bar/belly balm not stiff enough to mold, which is why I pour into containers, so I add more liquid oils or cut down on the stiff oils. This is my preference and I like to experiment. Too bad I'm not too good at taking notes.

Did you know that kids can be so generous?

Last week (July 20-24, 2009) was our VBS. I was determined not to stress out too terribly much this year. You see, usually I don't have a lot of help putting one of these together. Even when all ya have to do is sit down and paint. And I am not talking about artistic painting, I'm talking coloring book painting. I do the outlines of the decorations like a coloring book and then paint in the color. My wonderful hubby then takes a black marker after it is dry, and re-outlines the poster so it really pops.

So this year I didn't have a ton of posters up like I usually do. I have carpal tunnel or something with my hands and arms and it is much worse when I am preggers, so I didn't stress it too much. We put together 2 yard sales so we would have enough $$$ to get supplies, prizes and food for the VBS. They went over wonderfully, with enough moula to make it thru.

We (the church volunteers) voted to move the VBS to the end of July and in the afternoon. Personally, whatever gets me the volunteers I need, I will work with. I usually work thru the crafts, redoing some and making up some others, so that we can make it on the budget that we usually have. I make all the samples because, lets face it, I LOVE to craft. I also rework the lessons to hopefully make it easier for the teacher for the various ages he must teach when he is not used to the younger crowd. I do this to make things easier so I can have the most volunteers, not to toot my horn.

Now this VBS we only had 9 kids total for the entire week and that wasn't on the last day at all. It could have been a bummer. After all, we put in all that work for so little attendance, but we got some new faces this year. Some people complain that VBS is only a babysitting service. So what? People trust us to watch their kids for 3 hours while they can rest awhile. WE get to tell them about Jesus and expose them to the wonderful love of God. I think of it as a chance show kids what Christians can be rather than the popular world view of the Hard, Critical, medieval crusader christian. I hope that I can show the Love that Jesus wanted to show. And when I go shopping or play at the park, kids come up to me and ask when our next VBS is going to be and how much fun they had and what new crafts and snacks the next VBS will be had. It is so awesome.

But I wander away. I wanted to say how much I was touched this VBS. How God Himself touched my heart. You see, this year, like so many, we chose to send our offering to the Mission of Morning Glory School in Guatemala. I love Facebook, because I have a link into Lori's blog about the school. I read some of it to the kids which can't have been very fun for them, but they sat and listened. And took the words to heart and gave with such a generous heart. My VBS kids felt so connected to the children in that school, they gave from their hearts. Now remember, we only had 9 total. From these kids, we raised a little over $62 for our mission. Nine little children from the age of 4 to 11, raised $62 for some children they never ever seen. Can we say that God is good? I know that He will certainly bless those little joyful givers, but I wanted everyone to know how God touched ME through the generosity of a few precious children.

The Devil and the Duck

Hello there, just thought I would post this email a friend sent me. I thought it was a very good illustration.

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods.

He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target..

Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner.

As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck.
Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved!

In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his Sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, 'Sally, let's wash the dishes'

But Sally said, 'Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen.'

Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?'

So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.'

Sally just smiled and said, 'well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help?

She whispered again, 'Remember the duck?' So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer.

He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, 'Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.'



Thought for the day and every day thereafter:


Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done... And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)...whatever it is...You need to know that:
God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing.



He has seen your whole life... He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.

The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness; He not only forgives you, but He forgets.



It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.

Go ahead and make the difference in someone's life today.

Share this with a friend and always remember:

God is at the window!


When Jesus died on the cross; he was thinking of you!


A Final Thought,
Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
— Frederick Douglass, civil rights activist, Aug. 4, 1857

Marvelous Marble Magnets

Couldn't help the alliteration, just popped into my head and demanded to be heard. Tonight I got it into my brain that I must have some new fridge magnets. My boys have lost all but a few of my polymer clay ones and it has been driving me crazy to find a magnet so I can put something on my fridge.

Now, do I go out and buy some? No, of course not! Magnets are one of my little obsessions. Sure, there can be pretty ones at the store, but usually the magnets are not very strong. And I like a nice strong magnet, because who knows what I will be trying to stick to my fridge.

This is not my original idea you understand. I believe I saw a version of this on the Carol Duvall Show. Well, I had the supplies and suddenly had this urge to do it right that minute. BTW, I did these while watching the movie Vantage Point. Not recommended, you kinda need to pay attention to the movie or you miss things. Did I stop? No. LOL! And, um, the marbles were actually what I use to help my boys learn math (addition, subtraction, multiplication . . .) so I guess I am going to have to replace those.

I thought I would post the "instructions" so that you can try it if you are so inclined to do so. It is very EASY and if you take some time, they look pretty good too. So lets begin.

Supplies:

Paper, small stamps, ink pad, glue that dries clear, flat bottomed marbles that can be seen thru, scissors, magnets

1. Stamp images onto your paper. Make sure to stamp the next image at least 1 1/2" away from the previous one in all directions. Let dry.

2. Apply a small dab of glue to the image (a little goes a long way). Press and slightly twist a marble onto the image. Notice that the small image becomes magnified? You are probably going to want to use a glue for glass, but I had my favorite glue handy so I used it instead. Remember this is glass and you are supposed to be able to see thru it so make sure the glue is squished all the way to the edges of the marble. Let dry.

3. Cut around the marble. You are basically cutting away the excess paper. Try to be neat, cutting with long even strokes. The neater it looks, the better. This is also why you only use a tiny dab of glue, you really don't want your scissors all gummed up from excess glue.

4. Glue onto a marble. Let dry and you are done.

A few notes, My husband had these beautiful cobalt blue marbles lying around that he let me use, but they were too opaque. I just glued these onto plain white paper to get more reflection. You don't have to have tiny stamps to do this project, it is just what I used this time around. You can use decorative paper as well. I know that sometimes I come across some tiny cute images, but don't know where to use them. This is a good project for small and tiny images because the marbles magnify them.

I hope that you like them. I told you they were easy.

How I like to Rebatch Soap

I wanted to write about how I like to rebatch my soap. I rebatch because I just cannot bear to throw away all that $$$ I put into my soap. I have saved 100% of my messed up soap so far. This batch the pics are from is a batch of my friend's. It was too superfatted and the color left much to be desired. So she let me play with it. Neat!

1. Okay, the first thing I do, is get out my soap making crock pot. Cydnie had already cut the soap into small pieces, so all I had to do was put the soap into the crock. I added some aloe vera juice as the liquid portion since this soap was several weeks old by this time. Because this soap was also too soft and slightly oily, I am going to add about a tablespoon of lye when it is almost melted.

2. This is where you wait until it begins to melt.

3. At this stage I added the lye water and mixed it in really well. Then I let the soap mass cook a little more.

4. After I think that most of the soap has melted and before I really scorch the soap, I turn off the crock and let it sit a little to cool off. You have to be careful, too cool and you will have trouble putting into the mold because it won't "stick" to each other. Too hot and the fragrance might burn off and the other additives might lose their goodness. Add your fragrance and additives and stir really well.

5. Putting the hot soap into the mold. It is not a very peaceful process. Basically I end up scooping and pounding. You don't want a lot of bubbles in the soap. I think it helps make it a dense soap. Sometimes, I've added some sodium lactate to keep the soap semi-liquid. It really depends on the oils you use as well. I try to make sure the soap is even in the mold and the top isn't so wavy. Sometimes I put a piece of plastic wrap to try and have a smoother top, but I wanted some texture this time round.


I thought I might have added a little too much liquid, but the next day I was able to unmold. If I had added too much water I would have had to let it sit in the mold a long while. Of course that would have been bad for me, since that is my favorite mold and I wouldn't be able to use it until the water evporated a bit. Since I thought this would stay brownish, I decided to add Vanilla to the fragrances I chose for this rebatch. Vanilla turns soap brown and I hope that it will turn this one into a nice pretty brown. The original soap was scented with Pomegrante, but since most of it burned out in the cook you will want to add more fragrance. Hopefully one that doesn't clash with the original because some parts will come through despite the cook and you don't really want funky soap.

Another time I will post the cut bars and maybe even post a pic of the lather. Another soap saved.

Soap Review

Well yesterday was my Seaside Soap 4 week cure point so today I decided to try it. It smelled good and all, the lather felt very nice, almost like lotion. But unfortunately it didn't lather up very well in my opinion. I was shocked since this was my all coconut oil soap. But I am going to try it in the bath and see how it does with my bath poof. But I must say that it was very nice on my hands. I am going to let it cure for a bit longer before seeing if my hubby can handle it as I have heard that coconut soap does especially well after a super long cure.

I rebatched a soap today that my friend out on the Homestead made awhile back. She had used the last of her avocado oil and did a swirl. It didn't turn out quite like she intended and was a little too much superfatted. So I asked to help out. I don't like to throw anything away and thus decided to save the soap. But I will be writing more on that later on.

I am also trying out a new recipe for shampoo bars. I made the soap last night and am anxious to see how it will turn out. Today it is still a bit soft to unmold as yet, so I don't know how it will cut yet. It did trace awful fast but that may be because I soaped at room temp with a lot of solid oils. My next project is to try the Whipped Soaps. I want to make a cupcake soap and I think that the whipped soap may be ideal to use for the "icing". Of course, I've also thought about making a cupcake bath bombe with the Whipped Soap as the icing.