Cold Process All-Natural Handmade Soap

Cold Process All-Natural Handmade Soap

Cold-process soap is a beautiful looking soap that when scented with essential oils and colored with botanical elements, makes for a project you can make at home that looks like it came from an artist’s gallery. Cold-process soap has no additives that are bad for the earth and it is gentle on sensitive skin.

Many bath and body “soaps” that are commonly sold are not actually soap; you will notice that they are called a beauty bar or body wash. These are detergents, not soap. Soap goes through the saponification process, converting fats, oils, lye, and water into soap and glycerin. After the chemical process has completed, the soap is completely safe and gentle on skin. Even more, the glycerin coats skin and gives it a silky soft feeling.

There are many methods to making soap from scratch such as cold process, hot process, milk soap, and rebatching. You can also make melt and pour soap at home very easily and skip the lye, as well as the weighing and mixing of the ingredients. I have made soap all of these ways, and each produces a very different type of soap. I like the hot process method for making beer, wine, and tea soaps. I melt and pour for quickly making fun, decorative soaps which you can see some examples of in my melt and pour soap idea book, Good Clean Fun.

I like cold-process soap most as my everyday soap. I usually make soap in big batches every year so I have plenty to choose from throughout the year and plenty more to give away.

Cold-process soap makes a wonderful gift for yourself and others, but it does require following the instructions to the letter. If you are a first-time soap maker, partner with a friend and make soap together – it helps to have a buddy system and it’s a lot of fun! If you are are an experienced soaper, there are three recipes down at the end for the soap shown in this post:

• Lemongrass Ginger Coffee Kitchen Soap
• Rosemary Spearmint Energizing Shower Soap
• Orange Vanilla Cinnamon Soap

All are made with natural vegetable ingredients, pure essential oils, natural colors, and herbs from the garden. You can feel good about taking care of those who use your handmade soap.

Ingredients

Start with a basic soap-making recipe such as this moisturizing olive oil soap from the Pink Grapefruit Soap Recipe:

Mix temp 115°F

Oils

Lye mixture

• 215 grams filtered water

Want something even easier? Well, you can use a pre-weighed soap-making kit, like this Natural Soap-Making Kit or this Shea Butter Soap-Making Kit.

Perhaps there is another recipe you would like to try? There are a lot of great soap-making recipe books:

• Pure Soapmaking: How to Create Nourishing, Natural Skin Care Soaps has easy-to-follow instructions with photographs showing every step. Make recipes using tea, dandelion, almond milk, and other healing ingredients.
• The Natural Soap Chef is full of yummy soap recipes like Chai tea and almond cookie. Think of it as a collection of dessert recipes for your skin!
• Soap Maker’s Workshop: The Art and Craft of Natural Homemade Soap is a good basic manual for lots of different ways of making soap including hot process, liquid, and cold process.
• The Everything Soapmaking Book is a wonderful resource for beginner soap makers because it gives detailed advice on choosing equipment and ingredients and how to create your desired colors and scent blends.

And, of course, my own book on handmade soap the easy way (using the Melt and Pour Method): Good Clean Fun

Make it!

If you are not using a kit, the first and most crucial step in cold-process soap making is to weigh the raw ingredients (fats, lye, water) precisely. Prep everything that you will need and lay it out accessibly before you begin. Soapmaking measurements are done in weight, not volume, so be sure to get a good kitchen scale and weigh out the ingredients.

It’s best to wear protection when making soap as lye can burn your skin. Until the oils and lye have turned into soap (48 hours after making the recipe) it’s best to protect yourself. Always wear rubber gloves, safety goggles, and keep your work area free from kids and pets.

OILS: Gently (slowly) heat oils in a stainless steel pot on the stove. Alternatively, use a microwave and heat for two minutes on high, and then at shorter intervals until you reach the temperature listed in the recipe.

LYE: Using room-temperature distilled water, weigh the amount specified by the formula into a heat-resistant glass bowl or large Pyrex measuring cup. While stirring, slowly add the measured amount of lye. I repeat, SLOWLY. It’s important to note that you add the lye to the water, not the water to the lye. Stir until dissolved. This mixture will get super hot quickly so be mindful of that. Also, the fumes are terrible, so if you can stir from below the fumes (with lye on the counter and you crouching below as you stir) outdoors or at least with windows open, that would be best. Place glass container in an ice-water bath and cool to required temperature. Get accurate temperature readings with a candy thermometer in the middle of the solution.

When both oils and lye/water are at the required temperatures (as stated in your recipe), slowly pour lye/water into the oils while rapidly stirring in small circles. Always add lye/water to oil, not the other way around.

Continue to rapidly stir the mixture until it thickens to the consistency of pudding (called “tracing”). The mixture is ready to be molded when a drizzle mark from the spatula remains for a few seconds on the top of the mixture. Speed up the tracing process by using a hand blender to mix. Be careful not to over mix.

Add essential oils, natural colorants, and herbs or exfoliants at this stage (see recipes below). Work fast as the mixture will quickly start to thicken. There are many options for coloring and scenting soap but I avoid perfumes, fragrance, and artificial colors. I like handmade natural soap scented with pure essential oils and colored with natural dyes. As you can see by these three recipes, it looks beautiful and it smells even better!

Pour mixture into 1L milk cartons and staple the tops shut. Wrap the cartons in a large towel and set somewhere warm for 48 hours like the top of the fridge. The cartons will feel warm and will get hot as the mixture neutralizes and turns into soap.

To unmold your soap, peel off the milk cartons and cut each full 1-liter carton lengthwise into 3 equal sections for shower soap, and 4 equal sections for hand soap. Flip each section so that it appears to be a square from the top, and cut into 3 equal sections.

Place each bar on a wire rack in a cool, dark place to cure for three weeks. After three weeks, soap can be buffed with a cotton cloth and wrapped for gifts.

Soap Recipes

Lemongrass, Ginger, and Coffee Kitchen Soap

• Add 1 tablespoon dry, finely ground coffee at trace
• Color with turmeric

* to get the two-toned look in this soap, I filled half of the milk carton with one color and topped it with another. This makes each of the bars unique. The purple in the above soap was lavender-scented soap colored with ratanjot and mixed with dried lavender buds.

Rosemary and Spearmint Energizing Shower Soap

• Add in 1/4 tsp of finely chopped dried mint tea leaves

* to get the two-toned look in this soap, I filled half of the milk carton with one color and topped it with another. This makes each of the bars unique.

Orange Vanilla Cinnamon Soap

• Add 1 tablespoon dry, finely ground coffee at trace
• Scent with 7ml orange, 7ml cinnamon, and 7ml vanilla essential oils
• Top with dried saffron

Perhaps there is another recipe you would like to try? There are a lot of great soap-making recipe books:

And don’t forget my brand new book on super simple melt and pour soap making: Good Clean Fun: THE Idea Book for Creative Melt and Pour Soap Projects for only $5.99!

More DIY soap recipes to try:

Original article and pictures take gardentherapy.ca site

Clear coat, dip it in glitter and BAM!

Clear coat, dip it in glitter and BAM!

Clear coat, dip it in glitter and BAM!

December 10, 2012

November 28, 2012

December 2, 2012

October 22, 2012

December 2, 2012

November 28, 2012

December 10, 2012

November 28, 2012

December 8, 2012

Original article and pictures take thebeautythesis.com site

Clay Mushrooms for Indoor Gardens

Clay Mushrooms for Indoor Gardens

There are different types of clay for crafting at home such as air dry clay or oven bake (polymer) clay.

Air dry clay doesn’t need a kiln. As you can tell by the name, it dries over time when exposed to air. I like working with air dry clay because it is easy to use and requires no baking. The finished mushrooms are sturdy enough to last for years in a terrarium.

You could also make these by using polymer clay and following the package instructions on how to bake them in the oven. Skip the wire if you are making polymer clay mushrooms as they will be firm enough to set in the soil without it.

Roll a little ball of clay out on a work board into a long snake-like shape. I find that having a small foam paintbrush and a glass of water is handy. Use the brush to add a bit of water to the clay to keep it from cracking.

Cut a length of wire that will be long enough to go two to four inches into the clay and leave four inches left out at the base. The taller your mushroom, the farther in the wire should go to support it. Gently feed the wire into the bottom of the clay shape up through the top of the stem. Mold and reshape the clay if needed.

Make a second ball into a mushroom cap by pushing your thumbs into it.

To attach the cap, cut a few crosshatches into both the cap and the stem where you want to join them. Wet both and use your thumbs or a small tool to help push the clay together.

Set the mushrooms to dry on a plastic-covered work surface. I like to use a canvas art frame that is still wrapped in plastic.

When dry, carefully paint the mushrooms with craft paint. Red caps with white spots are a good option, as are metallic paints. Let your creativity come out in the paint. For these mushrooms, I used copper, white, and teal craft paints.

Now, head over to see how to make a geometric terrarium to plant the clay mushrooms in. Don't they look lovely?

I love to share my ideas for nature crafts, gardening, fresh recipes, and natural beauty. Please follow me on eBay to get some garden therapy each and every season throughout the year.

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Original article and pictures take www.ebay.com site

Clay Leaf Prints and Pendants

Clay Leaf Prints and Pendants

We love making leaf prints, whether on fabric, paper, clay, or even plaster of paris. The process is so satisfying and the results capture the natural beauty of leaves.

We started making clay leaf prints using air dry clay recently after seeing the idea in Cathy James’ new book, The Garden Classroom. The process is much the same as the nature prints in sculpey we used to make quite a bit, but the material is more kid-friendly and easier to work with.

Here’s how we made these beautiful prints…

(I’ll include a video tutorial at the bottom of the post.)

MATERIALS

• Small leaves and ferns
• Air dry clay*
• Wax paper, parchment paper, or a plastic placemat/tray
• Drinking straws
• String or elastic thread
• Watercolor paint (optional)
• Beads (optional)

*A note about the clay :: We used Crayola air dry clay and thought it worked well for this project. We’ve tried Sculpt-It air dry clay before as well and it worked okay, but not as well. Homemade air dry clay would be worth a try as well. As would regular potter’s clay.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Lay a small leaf on the wax paper, vein side up.

2. Pinch off a small piece of air dry clay (maybe a tablespoon or two) and roll into a ball between your hands.

3. Set the clay ball on the leaf, then press down with the palm of your hand to flatten it.

4. Carefully lift the clay disk, turn it over, and peel away the leaf.

5. (Optional) If you’d like to hang your leaf print, poke a hole at the top of your disk with a drinking straw.

6. Repeat process with additional leaves and clay balls.

7. Let dry thoroughly. This may take two to three days.

Here’s the video tutorial of the process ::

8. If desired, paint the clay leaf print with watercolors. Here’ are Maia’s leaf prints above.

And mine.

And Daphne’s. All quite different.

You can also decorate them with colored pencils.

9. Thread string through the hole and tie to form a loop for ornaments or a pendant. Add beads if desired. You can also string several clay disks together into a garland.

Wouldn’t these make nice gifts?

Maia made these two pendants for friends. And Daphne gifted one of hers as well.

I made a series of ornaments.

Note :: If you make your leaf prints without holes, they can be decorations, part of a seasonal nature table, given as gifts, or used for pretend play (ours were used as pretend cookies quite a bit for a while).

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Original article and pictures take artfulparent.com site

Clay Acorn Ornaments

Clay Acorn Ornaments

These clay acorn ornaments are made simply with a modeling clay that requires no special equipment to harden (yay!) and found acorn caps. An autumn walk in the woods or even a neighborhood street is all you need to collect the caps, then follow the steps of this DIY tutorial to make your own festive holiday ornaments perfect for Thanksgiving or even hanging on the Christmas tree.

I’m just nuts about acorn caps as a crafting material and have seen them used in so many different ways (thank you Pinterest!). Why is it that acorns are such an icon of fall? Perhaps because of the sheer number of them, making them easy to collect. Or perhaps it’s the sturdiness with similar qualities to wood (at least in a crafting sense). I think maybe it’s the squirrel in all of us, who loves to collect beautiful little treasures from nature walks and use them to adorn our nests.

Acorns are the nuts from oak trees and their relatives and are an important food source for animals and birds. If you have ever found a sprouted acorn or tree seedling in your garden beds, that’s most likely from one of the critters who has stashed it away in hopes of eating it someday down the road. Of course, this can be quite troublesome for gardeners who don’t want the beds dug up by tiny claws, but biological transportation is the only way these heavy nuts can get planted and grow into more mighty oaks.

I, for one, appreciate the squirrels for all they do to clean up the garden and streets for us, by caching food for the winter and also planting us some more trees. More trees that will grow more acorns and give me more crafting material. Thank you, squirrels!

To make clay acorns follow these DIY instructions.

Materials

• Dental floss
• Acorn caps
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Make it!

Start with a self-hardening air dry clay so that you don’t need high temperatures to set the clay. Use the dental floss to cut off a chunk of clay by winding the ends of the floss around your two index fingers with 8 inches of floss between them, then pulling the floss through the clay where you want to take off a slice (from the back of the clay block to the front). This will leave you with a slab of clay you can easily chop into small cubes.

Cut the cubes in about the size of an acorn nut.

When the clay is dry, you can start fitting the caps to the nuts. I like to make many different sizes of clay nuts to fit the large collection of different caps I’ve collected.

Roll the cubes of clay in your hands to acorn shape. Set them to dry on a flat surface covered by a piece of parchment paper. It may take up to a week for these to dry so plan ahead if you plan to make these as holiday gifts.

To prepare the acorn caps as ornaments they will need holes drilled for the fishing line to go through. I used a very fine bit to drill two holes on opposite sides of the stem. You could drill a larger set of holes if you prefer to use a ribbon or twine to hand the ornaments, but I like the look, or lack thereof, of fishing line.

Thread a length of fishing line through the two holes and tie in a secure knot on the inside of the acorn cap. Dab some hot glue on the inside of the cap and the knot to hold it in place. Add a bit more hot glue and secure the nut to the acorn cap.

Now you can paint your clay acorn any color you want!

A basic craft paint will work just fine for this, but you can also add glitter glue on top of the craft paint or even just to the natural clay.

Now your clay acorns are all ready to use to decorate the house for the holidays or give as handmade holiday gifts.

Aside: I can’t say or read “clay acorns” without thinking of this guy! There, I got it out of my system. Whew!

Original article and pictures take gardentherapy.ca site

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Original article and pictures take 1pyz211562x3c4pnh7obm79o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com site