crafts Archives - Page 3 of 16 - Feathers in Our Nest

Adventures in Soap-making {Review of Homegrown Collective’s October Box}

November 7, 2014 by Aliesha

Last Friday, I made some bars of soap! I can’t take much credit for this project, since I had a lot of help from a wonderful subscription box. This was a fun way to relax on a Friday afternoon, and I enjoyed knowing I could fully complete a project from start to finish!

Homegrown Collective is kind of like “Pinterest in a box.” Each month they send a special curated box filled with everything you need to make eco-friendly projects. Key words: everything you need. No more rounding up supplies only to find you’re missing an “ingredient” when you go to start the project!

This month’s box contained a melt & pour soap kit.

I was really excited about everything in the box! Melt and pour soap is very easy to make, since you just have to… yep… melt the bar (grated first) and pour it into the mold along with any add-ins.

Here’s what was included:
-directions and recipes for three kinds of soap
-goats milk melt and pour soap base
-clear melt and pour soap base
-white melt and pour soap base
-metal grater
-loofa
-mason jar
-stirring sticks
-pipette (for transferring oils)
-essential oils: lavender/chamomile, cedarwood, and tuberose
-rolled oats
-chamomile flowers
-dead sea salts
-activated charcoal
-three plastic soap molds

The first kind of soap was charcoal and cedarwood. This is a nice, manly soap that Tad will definitely enjoy using! The charcoal is detoxifying to the skin, and the cedarwood has a woosdy scent.

The next soap was dead sea salt and chamomile soap. This bar also included a loofa to cut up and put in the mold if you wanted. I got a little crazy with this one and left out the dead sea salts and loofah and swapped out lavender petals (from another box). So what I really made was lavender chamomile soap! The clear base allowed the flower petals to be visible and suspended in the soap, which was neat!

The last kind of soap was oatmeal, luffa, and tuberose soap. The tuberose essential oil smells amazing, and this was definitely my favorite soap. The oats add moisture to the skin, and the loofa exfoliates. I liked the goats milk base as well!

Here are all three soaps I made!

There were plenty of leftover add-on items to make many more bars of soap, so I ordered more soap base from an etsy seller so I can make more soap for gifts!

Homegrown Collective sends out a completely different box every month, so I can’t wait to see what next month’s box contains! As a busy mom, having everything all together in one kit really helps me out, plus I get to try new things that I maybe wouldn’t without this little “push”!

Learn more about the Homegrown Collective here!

Have you ever made soap?

New Kitchen Curtains

June 4, 2014 by Aliesha

After living in our home for four years, I finally made some curtain valances for our kitchen! I am not a seamstress at all, but I try to at least make curtains since custom curtains can be really pricey!

It’s super simple to make this kind of valance. Just cut your fabric to the size you want (mine worked out perfectly so I was able to get 2 panels out of one 45″ wide and 2 yard long piece of fabric). Hem all four edges, then attach curtain clips to the top edge, then hang on the rods. That’s it! It took me an hour to make the panels and iron them, and then Tad hung the curtains for me (which took another 30-45 minutes).

I’m in love with this fabric!

Sources:

-fabric: Hobby Lobby

-clips: Target

-curtain rods: Hobby Lobby

Spring Wreath Tutorial {Frugal and Fast!}

March 10, 2014 by Aliesha

I recently made a pretty spring wreath for our front door! I have been soooo ready for spring, and in the last two days, the weather has finally turned warm! It’s in the upper-60’s and sunny!

This wreath was very easy to make and only cost me $14. It’s really big and makes quite a statement on our front door! We’re getting a new front door soon, so I took an indoor picture.

To make one, you will need:
-1 grapevine wreath (I got mine at Michael’s and used a coupon, so it was around $2)
-6 stems of artificial hot pink parrot tulips (from the Dollar Tree, so $6)
-4 stems of artificial yellow alstroemeria (ditto, $4)
-2 stems of grassy stems with fuzzy green balls (ditto, $2)
-ribbon for hanging (I had this on hand, but you can get it at the Dollar Tree too)
-wire cutters or scissors

To assemble your wreath:
-Cut all floral stems apart at the base, so that each individual flower is separate.
-Lay out the flowers on the floor (or table) the way you might like to place them on the wreath, just to get an idea of spacing.
-Start poking flower stems into the wreath, going around the wreath in one direction with each new stem overlapping the previous one.
-Continue adding flower stems, alternating among types, until you reach the beginning.
-Tuck the last stems under the first flowers.
-Add additional flowers anywhere needed to fill in “holes.”
-Loop some ribbon around the back to create a hanger for the wreath.
-If needed, you can secure the flowers with wire or hot glue, but mine seemed secure enough without doing that.