Wanna Sell Your Goods?

I had my first trunk show at my house last week and it was really great to get my handmade items out into the world for the first time. It also gave me an idea of what I need to make more of. My stationary and magnets were a hit! I still have a lot of items to put out there, so farmers markets came to my mind to sell my items. I have never done anything like this, but I have visited quite a few craft fairs and farmer's markets. I had a lot of questions, like what type of setup should I have? What do I need to bring? What are some unique ways to display my items? Being who I am, I of course began researching the whole craft fair setup. There is so much great information out there!here is what I found:

sidenote: I know I am not doing a true craft fair, but a farmer's market is very similar to me. So let's just treat them the same in this post :)

This post from Mermaids Closet was so great! The information is fresh, fun, and totally do-able. The picture that accompany it are really nice too.

P.S. Her blog gives really fun ideas to start a crafty potluck or crafty picnic!

 

This blog post from Folksy simply states the simpler points of displaying your items such as height, pricing, lighting, and a banner.

This post from everythingetsy.com gives 12 craft show tips to get you off to a great start!

If you are a visual person, like me, then you will enjoy these craft fair display flickr groups that share all kinds of craft displays to get you inspired. Here are a few I like.

I was very inspired by the above picture and decided to do my own DIY Banner. Here is how it turned out.

I am on way to getting everything ready for a few farmers markets! I will let you know when I am out there so you can come visit!

Upcycled Playing Cards

Everyone has a junk drawers somewhere in their house (if you do not, you are not a normal American and you need to start one now!).

I happen to have quite a few of them, but the one I am talking about today is in my Kitchen.

It contains, but not limited to, such things as scissors, tape, bobby pins, matches,

 playing cards, pens, pencils, etc.

As I was rummaging through the drawer yesterday I found these random playing cards.

Definitely not a deck, but I thought "Could these be worthy of something more?"

That is when I went to trusty 'ol Pinterest.com for some inspiration. Here is what I found:

  

 

(The last ones were made into gift tags)

~~~

I have a large bag of stickers, paint, paint pens, collage photos, and much more to craft with. I busted that out and started my own altered playing cards.

First, I took a few cards out and lightly painted them. Then I started to go through my bag of craft goodies and added little things one by one.

Here is how they turned out.

The only adhering agent I used was the magnificent Mod Podge.

I used it all up so I need to get a new bottle today!

Some up-close views

Backs of the cards.

I then added card stock paper to the back and then sprayed the front of the cards with acrylic laminate spray so they will stay nice and shiny.

I added a magnetic strip to the back of the top left card in the above picture and plan to do that to the rest. It is now on my fridge for my viewing pleasure!

I really enjoyed doing this and will be making more of them. I also really liked how they were turned into gift tags and may do that too.

Got any playing card upcycling ideas? Let me know them!

Homemade Laundry Soap

I have made my own laundry soap awhile back. I think I like the process of doing a project and that is why I liked making the laundry soap. But I did get out of it for awhile because of the process! It isn't time consuming, just takes a few steps. 

With everyone being broke asses due to the price of gas, this laundry soap is very cost effective. It smells delicious, is gentle, better for the environment and easy to make! There are so many homemade cleaning supplies that you can find online. You may already have the ingredient in your house! And if you don't, the ingredient are so cost effective you have them to make multiple laundry soaps and/or cleaning solutions.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup baking soda
-1/4 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate)
-1/4 cup Borax
-3/4 cup unpacked soap flakes*

*You can use pretty much any soap that you have, but I like using Zote soap. If you live in Indiana you can get this at any grocery store and even big lots.

Tools:

You will need a grater, measuring cups, chopper or butter knife, bowl,  plastic tub with lid, and scoop.

Directions:

1. First you start off by grating the soap into a bowl (I prefer a glass bowl). I have found that the Zote soap tends to be a little more damp than dry when you first take it out of the package. If you let it sit out in the open a day or two and let it dry it, it is so much easier to grate!

I like Zote soap because it is made specifically for laundry and it is larger than normal soap.

The smell is nice too.

This is what your soap will look like after grating. I use the smaller grate size, but there may be some bigger chunks or pieces. This is where the chopper or butter knife comes in. If your soap is too wet let it dry a bit and then chop, it will be much easier. After chopping I let my soap flakes dry out more on top of my fridge (or a place where the kids won't get at it or I won't spill it)  with no cover over the bowl. I just like he flakes drier because they break into smaller pieces and mix better with the next ingredients.

2. Get your plastic tub with the lid and measuring cups ready. Then grab the Borax, washing soda, baking soda and soap flakes.

Now the above recipe calls for a small amount of each of these ingredients. I end up doing one round of adding all of the ingredients to plastic tub and then I keep adding until I do not have anymore soap flakes. You end up using 3 or 4 times the amount of the above recipe. I have not added it all up and made the exact ingredient amounts because I go by how much soap I have grated up. Plus, this just works for me and I stick with it!

3. Once it is all mixed I put the lid on and shake up the mixture or if your tub is large enough you can mix it with a spoon. Ends up looking like this:

I used a 1/4 cup measuring spoon, that I was actually going to take to Goodwill, for scooping.

I use one scoop in my laundry and that's it! It will not suds up like a "traditional" laundry detergent, but that does not mean it isn't working. The suds in your "traditional" laundry soap are just chemicals added for visual effects anyways!

I have also gone to using vinegar as a fabric softener. So cost effective and it really does make my clothes really soft!

Hope you try this out! If you do, let me know!

Homemade Crayons

I have seen homemade crayons on various parts of the web, like at KittyBabyLove.com, PlanetGreen.com, and Earth Grown Crayons. They seem so simple to make and who doesn't have old broken crayons laying around?

I have been searching for the right type of mold to put the melted crayon wax in for awhile. I had no success until my recent trip to IKEA. Once we had the vessels to make crayons, the homemade crayon party was on!

Homemade Crayons

You will need:

• An assortment of broken crayons, preferably older, used crayons because no one likes breaking a perfectly good crayon to bits. (Well, maybe kids do, but adults would rather cherish new crayons until the next homemade crayon party!)

• Old tin cans (such as soup cans or canned veggie cans) preferably washed or rinsed out. You can also use glass or ceramic jars (I used old jelly jars because I didn't have any tin cans around). They should be small and something you will not use again unless it is for crayon making or other art projects. *The wax from the crayons may not wash off well after the melting.

• A small pot, you may want to pick one up from a local thrift store on the cheap or be prepared to scrub away or put it away for another art project. *The wax from the crayons also got a little on my pan and didn't come off that well, so just giving you fair warning.

• Long popsicle or craft sticks or old spoon (not plastic) that you might not mind throwing away when finished. *You will use these for stirring the melted crayons so it might be wise not to use any untensils that you may use for eating with afterwards.

• Plastic flexible molds. You can also use tin foil made into shapes as described at KittyBabyLove.com

• Oven Mitt and/or pot holder *Also, something you won't mind if wax gets on them.

• I also had cardboard handy that I put under the mold as I was pouring the melted wax into them to protect my counter.

First you need to gather all of the old and broken crayons that you have laying around the house (you know you have some!). You then take all of those crayons and begin to remove any wrappers that are on them.

The boys going through the crayons.

We decided to do yellow, green, red, blue mixed with metallic crayons, and brown mixed with gold crayons. You will want to also break them into small pieces so they can melt easier.

These are the jars I ended up using. I didn't use the large one, but all of the small ones worked out great.

Start off by putting the pan with cold water onto the stove and let boil. Once boiled set the jar of crayons into the water and let reboil. I found it helpful to keep a watchful eye on it as they are melting and to keep stirring until fully melted.

Yellow crayons in the ceramic bowl as they begin to melt.

Once the crayons are melted, it will be VERY hot! Do not hesitate to use extra caution at this time. I used the oven mitts to hold the jar as I stirred in the boiling water and when I removed the jar from the water. Turn the stove either on low or off and put the jar onto the cardboard so you can get a better grasp on the jar when ready to pour into the mold.

Here are the molds from IKEA. They are originally made for long thick ice cubes, but will now be our new crayon molds.

Try to work quickly, but safely, when pouring the melted crayons into the molds. I tried my best to pour the melted crayons in as neatly as possible, but it didn't matter in the end because you can carve or break off any extra pieces as you please. Let the molds cool as long as needed.

Once cooled, pop them out of the molds (this is where flexible molds work the best) and color to your hearts intent!

These were so easy and I feel like I really liked doing it more than the kids! The boys got a little bored with the beginning of the project because it took awhile to take all of the wrappers off the crayons and break them into small pieces. But once we got into the actual part of melting the crayons they were very interested! All I had to do was explain to them that we were doing a science experiment and making something new from something old and they were hooked! They couldn't wait for them to cool so they could create some art and to be able to call themselves scientists!

Redo That Key Holder With Decoupage!

I saw this great post on Prudent Baby (this is becoming one of my favorite blogs) on a DIY Decoupage Key Holder.

I didn't have an extra plaque laying around but I did have a boring key holder, scrap fabric, mod podge like glue, and some extra time!

Boring key holder/shelf-like wood piece.

I started off by sanding the three shelve-like pieces of wood with a light sandpaper. I just did this to get any sort of coating or anything off of it so the fabric would stay better.

I have like a hundred scraps of fabric so it is nice to use them for something! I picked these three out because they went together well.

I measured the shelves and then I cut the fabric to match. It ended up being 5 in. x 5 in. which was pretty easy!

I didn't have Mod Podge, but I did have Collage pauge (which is made by a very inspirational crafter, Tracie Bautista). *I figured if it didn't work I could just be done with the key holder anyways.* 

It ended up working great!

*I don't have pictures from this part, but I figured you could figure it out by my awesome directions*

I used a paper plate (you can use any scrap cardboard or something sturdy you won't mind throwing away when you are done) and squirted a fare amount of the collage pauge onto it. I then used a small foam brush to spread a fair amount of the pauge over the area that I wanted the  fabric to stick to (work quickly it will dry fast). Then put the fabric over the glue and put more pauge over the fabric. I used the best tools to an artist (my fingers) and smoothed out any lumps or wrinkles. I continued on all of the shelves like this and let it dry over night.

Finished results! Boring no more!!

This was SO easy to do, I will be doing more decoupage crafts in the future!



Scrubbin' for Christmas

Sooooo, you know those awesome bags that I made for the school's Jingle Bell Shop? Ya- you know, the ones I spent a long time sewing? Well, you wanna know how many sold at the Jingle Bell Shop?




Zero.



I feel like I was sabotaged! The woman putting it together was a little confusing when explaining to me as to what the prices should be for the items. When I finally understood them, I thought the price we agreed upon was fair. Well, when I took the kids to go buy presents at the Jingle Bell Shop, I only saw one of my bags laying out. I thought "Wow! Everyone must really like my bags! All but one sold!" Well, to my surprise when I came to pick them up, I was told not one sold! I was totally bummed! I said "Well, I only saw one out the other day. I wondered where they all were." And she said "Yah we just put them out today." Which was the last day of the shop and was only open for like an hour! Weird.....Well, needless to say, at least my friends and family will be happy with them! I guess I just psyched myself up for everyone else liking them! *tear*

That evening of disappointment deserved a breakfast of champions!

 

Chocolate Chip Pancakes and OJ, I know your mouth is watering right now :).

I had the busiest day yesterday! Just so much running around getting everything together for The teacher presents because Christmas Break is upon us. Now, I always have these good ideas (i.e. the soup in a jar) and really only follow thru with 50% of them. Telling you about it does help me because then I have the idea in my head and I feel I need to follow thru for this blog, but I just wasn't feeling the soup jars. I found something WAY more fun and easier to make.

I have always wondered about sugar scrubs and how to make them. I did some research and found this wonderful blog called Under The Table And Dreaming By Stephanie Lynn. She has a lot of great ideas! One is the Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub.

Stephanie Lynn's Version.

This was a very easy-on-the-wallet gift idea. I made 5 jars of hand scrub and still have a lot of the ingredients left over. I used a little different variation from her recipe, but followed the same guidelines.

My ingredients are 2 1/2 cups of Granulated Sugar, 1 cup of Olive Oil, 5 tbsp. of  Lemon juice, 2 tsp. Lemon Extract, and 1/4 tsp. Lavender Oil

You can use any essential oil that you have. I thought peppermint might also be a fun one for a variation of this hand scrub.

You can get essential oils at your local health food store

I found these 15 oz. glass jars at Michael's. They were about $3 each (They only had 4, so I bought all of them!). I also purchased some plastic containers from the dollar store which I will use for future batches.

Begin by mixing Sugar with Olive Oil. Add in the Lemon Juice, or essential oils to your liking.

This is the point where I smelled the mixture to see how "lemony" it really was and all I could smell was Olive Oil. I purchased the Lemon extract because I was afraid of this. I mixed in 2 tsp. of lemon extract and tested it on my hands. Still smelled like Olive Oil, so I then added a 1/4 tsp. of Lavendar. That made a big difference! Now it turned into...

Lemon Lavender Hand Scrub!

This mixture made enough to fill my 15 oz. jar, but I left room for the lid to fit on so it didn't spill everywhere.

My version after mixing.

I filled my jars and cleaned them up a little bit so they were not too slippery. (That oil tends to get everywhere, so do not do this on your best table cloth when making. Washable surface preferred)

The mixture will settle after a bit, and that is ok because we will be topping these off with something to mix it with.

I found a website with the most amazing FREE templates! Ruffledblog.com . It is actually a wedding website. I have been married for 6 years so I wasn't looking for anything for a wedding, but it was still dreamy to see all of the unique, amazing photographs and ideas she has!

Anywho, I downloaded and printed up these free templates on regular computer paper.

I purchased contact paper from the dollar store and after cutting out the labels I wanted to use and writing with permanent marker what type of hand scrub this was, I measured the contact paper larger than the label. I put some alcohol on a cotton swab and rubbed where I wanted the label to be ( just in case there was any oils left over). I positioned where I wanted the label and stuck it to the front. I topped it off with this pretty ribbon, which was also on sale at Michael's. It was tricky to find spoons that would go with what I was making. But I actually found some in a set of forks, knives, and spoons at the dollar store. I used all of the spoons, but my kids added some forks and knives to their utensils.

Finished product!

When I packaged these for travel, I wrapped them in tissue paper and added a decorative plastic bag around it. I also used the left over tag's from the brownie oreo gift bags.

I gave them to L's bus driver's and his kindergarten teacher. I hope to make different variations and maybe body scrubs for Christmas gifts. I know, I only really do 50% of what I say. So, we'll see!

Here's a little playlist to play while you are making these, because as I said before, after awhile the Christmas music gets to me!