In this tutorial, I'm going to teach you how you can DIY your OWN amethyst crystal soap! Admittedly, I am not the first person in line for a new trend or craze. I try my best, but by and large, I'm perfectly happy in my craft room making cards and soap and minding my own business. Sometimes, however, a craze comes along and slaps me in the face, like this one. Crystal soaps??!? Is it really a soap? Can I use it? Does it smell like a rock?
The answers are yes, yes, yes, and no. Of quartz not, don't be silly. 🙂
When I first saw a crystal amethyst soap on Pinterest I couldn't sleep because I was so anxious to get up the next day and try it. I dreamt about what mine would smell like, and how I would get the inside to look like it contained secrets and mysteries.
Look into my eyes...
I was mesmerized. If you have never seen one and this blog post and tutorial are your first introduction to an amethyst crystal soap, and you are currently scratching your head trying to figure out how in the world this comes to be?
Welcome. You've come to the right place. 🙂
Crafts in general are kind of a supply-heavy hobby, and soap making is among the more supply-heavy of the supply-heavy endeavors. So, a DIY soap project can be kind of a nightmare, but this amethyst crystal soap DIY can get pretty basic if you just want to try it out.
I'll break out for you below what you really need, and what you can do to makeshift some stuff from home.
One thing is pretty non-negotiable. You need some soap base.
Basically, you have cold processed soap, hot processed soap, and rebatch soap which are all derived from some combination of lye and oils. That's how you make soap. Without lye and oils, you have no soap. (I did a whole DIY soap basics tutorial, which I will link for you here).
On the flip side of the DIY soap spectrum, you have melt and pour soap. The pesky lye business has already been done for you...so you can avoid the scary parts and still do some of the fun creative parts.
Cold processed soap ultimately provides more flexibility for design and texture and additives, etc., but melt and pour has a clear place in my mind, and THIS PROJECT is one of them.
You cannot DIY an amethyst crystal soap by starting with a smooth, creamy, opaque oil and lye concoction. We need clear melt and pour soap to develop a really convincing crystal!
I like the Stephenson Melt and Pour crystal soap base, but it's not the easiest thing to get your hands on without a lot of shipping cost. In the ingredients list at the bottom of this post, I will include several different options for you to help find alternatives.
I buy mine from Brambleberry.com because the pricing is good, but you have shipping to deal with. Since I was ordering other stuff too, shipping wasn't a big deal. Amazon sells it (link below) but in my opinion, it's twice as expensive as it should be.
To help combat this, I've also recommended another brand option below from Wholesale Supplies Plus, which will send you anything you want shipped free once your order hits $25. I've also given you links to colorants and fragrance that could get you to that free shipping point if you want to go that route.
IF YOU WANT, you could just buy the one supply. You could follow this tutorial and remove all of the steps related to coloring things and making them smell nice. Even with only one supply, you'd still end up with a beautiful clear crystal soap with all of the lovely facets inside!
There is an entire school of thought regarding molds and what you need to buy, but that's probably an entire blog post on it's own.
With melt and pour soap, you have a lot more options for molds. If you aren't going to be making a bunch of soap, and you're just trying this tutorial out because i've mesmerized you with my intro photo (I get it, been there), you probably don't need to go buy a soap mold.
Look around your house and see what you have that would work. Obviously you don't want something too big, because then you need a ton of soap to fill it. And you want something at least as tall as you want your crystals to be. I was thinking a standard quart-sized milk carton would do the trick. You could cut one of the long sides off, line it with freezer paper so it will release well, and use that!
Alternatively, you could use some gladware or similar containers that were deep enough to get the job done. My point is, look around the house if you don't want the investment of a soap mold.
You will also need some smaller kind of mold, so look around for one of those too...an ice cube tray? A jewelry box you could line? Or a smaller gladware container?
I'll put some soap colorant options for your in the supply list below (again, less expensive and more convenient options!).
Typically, I use mica powders because I LOVE how shimmery they get in melt and pour soap. See?
Liquid soap colorant (also linked below) is an option. There are some people who will tell you you can use food coloring. I honestly haven't tried it, but it makes me nervous. If you try it and it works, let me know! Once I've invested a chunk of money into a 2lb block soap base, I don't see the point potentially ruining it with a food coloring.
In for a penny, in for a pound, or in this case, 2lbs. 🙂
Ordinarily, I would say never mix your soap making supplies with your kitchen supplies, but since melt and pour soap is already soap, using your kitchen supplies is akin to rubbing them on dish soap....no hard, no foul.
The above is true, of course, provided you are just making soap for yourself or for gifts....if you plan to sell them, don't be nasty. 🙂
You will need a cutting board, some kind of straight edged knife, a container to melt your soap in (I was lazy and used the Stephenson soap container...but let's just call that "recycling" ;)), and it helps if you have a vegetable peeler as a finishing tool.
Finally, some 91% rubbing alcohol in a little spray bottle would be helpful. Rubbing alcohol keeps your soap sections from separating from one another. It's good to spray in between pouring layers.
As with many of my tutorials, there is a video link below that will walk you through all of the steps. It's about 30 minutes long, BUT it covers 2 different designs of amethyst crystal soap.
What I realized was that after I carved all the sides off of this big soap
I had a bunch of shards leftover and could make a little amethyst crystal garden soap. I'm not sure what else to call it...so that's what I'm calling it.
We're going to melt (and pour!) a bunch of it, so I went with about 75% cut into approx I inch cubes. Save the rest for the next step.
I used a crinkle cutter for this part because I find it easier to work with, but you can totally just use a straight edged knife.
You want to end up with a nice assortment of sizes and shapes. These pieces are what is going to make up the insides of your soap and make it look like facets on the inside. It's important here that you cut this part of the soap with a straight-sided blade. You want nice clean edges so they look more like crystals.
More variety seems to equal more places for the light to catch on the inside and make it sparkle!
I ended up with a variety like this, which I put into a container. Any container will do, these are not going to be melted.
Now that we've made the clear shards, it's time to make some purple shard too.
Take some of your melt and pour cubes and put them in a microwave safe container. Melt them on 30 second bursts until fully melted. This typically takes somewhere between 2-3 minutes, depending on how much soap I am melting at once.
Take a small amount of melted soap and put it into a side container. Add some liquid soap dye or mica powder until you get a shade of purple that you like. Light purple mica was my choice (also linked below for you).
I poured my light purple into a large ice cube mold. You can use anything here...you're going to cut these up too, so it doesn't matter what size they are.
I poured about half of it and went back to add some more color to make some a little darker. My soap thickened up on me considerably (which is easier to see in the video) but I crammed it into the mold anyway knowing I was just going to cut it up and it would be fine!
Leave these to firm up for a bit...mine took about 30 minutes.
You probably need to re-melt your clear soap, so do that first, again on 30 second bursts.
This is the time to add a fragrance. I provided the link below to the fragrance I used, which is a dupe of the Lush fragrance Avobath, which I love. It's a beautiful fresh lemongrass primarily. I've also given you an Amazon alternative if you want convenient.
Each fragrance will have its own level of skin safe use, so make sure to check with the provider to see how much you are allowed to add. There is typically a fragrance calculator or similar that will help you determine how much to add to the amount of soap you have. You've already removed a big chunk of it for shards, but you probably have about 60% of your 2lb block left to fragrance.
Give your mold a little spritz with your rubbing alcohol, and pour a layer about an inch thick on the bottom of your mold.
Give your mold a little spritz with alcohol...
And pour in a layer about an inch thick.
Give it another spray to pop the air bubbles on top. Set it aside and let it cool a bit. You'll want to see it form a skin on top...
It felt like a good opportunity for glitter, so I took it. I have this beautiful super-sparkly cosmetic grade enviro-glitter from Nurture Soap (it's called Super Sparkles, so they really broke the brain trust coming up with that name), but it's some really good stuff.
I basically scooped some out with a popsicle stick and stirred them around in my shards until they were all lightly coated, like this:
Now that your inch-thick layer of soap in your mold has cooled a little, you likely have something that looks like this...a thin skin on top, but liquid underneath.
SPRAY THE TOP WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL, then
Add in a few of your shards to make sure they aren't going to melt. If they survive, add all of the rest of them into your mold.
If they melt, give your soap base a few more minutes to cool, then try again.
Once you have done that, your remaining soap can all be colored purple. I again went with kind of a medium purple...definitely not so dark that you can't see the shards peeking through.
I chose a liquid soap colorant for this, mostly because I didn't think I needed more sparkles (! what!?!) and because I thought this would be slightly darker and provide yet another shade of purple to keep it exciting.
Once your purple cubes have firmed up, use the same straight sided knife you used to cut the clear shards, and make yourself a variety of purple shards.
I had obviously made 2 colors of shards, so my mixture looked like this when I was finished.
Your melted soap you colored purple should now be plenty cool to pour on top of your clear shards without melting them (assuming your purple was sitting and waiting while you cut your purple shards).
SPRAY THE TOP WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL, then
Pour a half inch layer of purple soap into the mold until the clear shards are covered. Then add all of your purple shards.
SPRAY THE TOP WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL, then
Cover them with your remaining purple soap. If you want to make a base and have some dark mica (or want to just use more purple colorant), save a little for the base.
I decided I wanted to add a grey base so it might look kind of like stone on the underside of some amethysts. I took some grey mica from Nurture Soap and made a pretty silver out of the remaining purple.
I sprayed the purple layer with rubbing alcohol and then poured in the grey.
For me, this is always the hardest part of any soap project. Waiting a few hours before you can unmold it and see.
If you're like me, you'll hold the thing up to the light and try to sneak a peek...but it's a terrible idea to hold a heavy block of melted hot soap over your head, so don't be like me. 🙂
See all of those beautiful sparkly shards?!? I was in love. I almost didn't want to cut it!
But I did.
Cut the block into sizes that make sense for your mold and for the size you want your soaps to be. Keep in mind that the size you cut determines the size of the BASE of your soap. The top will be much smaller once you're done shaving it.
Next time, I will probably make smaller soaps...these were massive.
But the large size did make them easy to carve. Take each soap and just start chopping away at it from the top down until you get a shape you like.
Make sure you turn it around as you do this so you can get a look from all sides. I used a vegetable peeler to make some of the more fine carve marks and create extra jagged edges.
Also make sure you don't forget the bottom...it's probably nice and flat from having been poured, but I roughed mine up a fair amount, for authenticity. 😉
I love how you can see the clear shards and the purple shards so distinctly.
My Grandma would have described my reaction to these soaps as "tickled". I was really tickled. 🙂 I love them.
BUT. I had a lot of leftover scraps from all that carving. And then smell really good and it seems silly to waste them. So, let me run you through the last solution, which got a couple more bars out of my batch (assuming you have any leftover clear or purple soap).
When mine had dried, I unmolded them and got these! I'm not sure how easy they will be to actually use...
Below is the link to the video tutorial, and below that is the link to my thoughts on supplies and where best to get them. I've indicated which links are affiliate links, and despite the amount of Nurture Soap products in this post, I am not a Nurture Soap affiliate. 🙂
I will give you 3 options below. The first option is what I believe is the least expensive option to get the job done. Option #2 is what I think is the easiest (i.e. everything from Amazon). Finally, the third option is a list of all of the actual supplies that I used in this project in case there was something you particularly liked (like super sparkles!!).
The links from Amazon are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase through those links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. The links for Brambleberry, Wholesale Supplies Plus and Nurture Soap are not affiliate links.
#1 - Least expensive:
Soap base from Wholesale Supplies Plus (the premium crystal clear version) https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/signature-crystal-clear-soap-base-2-lb-tray.aspx Depending on whether there is a sale, a 2lb container is typically between $6-$9. By contrast, this same brand, Crafter's Choice is $23 on Amazon, as I'm writing this post. The real benefit to Wholesale Supplies Plus is free shipping for orders over $25....so I usually try to order all of my heavy soap ingredients from them!
While you are there, you can check out some fragrance for your soap too, they have a really extensive selection. There are some less expensive than this, but this fragrance is closest to the one that I used from Nuture Soap, which is a dupe of Lush's Avobath: https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/avobath-fragrance-oil.aspx?q=12488-avobath-fragrance-oil. They also have soap dye in small containers for around $1. Here's the purple one...you can vary the strength of your purple based on how much product you put in: https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/stained-glass-violet-purple-liquid-color.aspx, so you can make multiple shades of purple.
If you want a soap mold so you don't need to make your own mold from a milk carton or similar, this is a decent small mold: https://amzn.to/3iMpfn4 Keep in mind that this mold holds over 40oz though, so your 2lb block of soap wouldn't fill the mold completely.
Optional: some grey mica for the base https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/grays-fifty-shades-mica-powder.aspx?q=11166-grays-fifty-shades-mica-powder
Optional: some sparkles to coat the soap shards https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/super-sparkle-white-diamonds-sparkle-mica-powder.aspx?q=10913-super-sparkle-white-diamonds-sparkle-mica-powder
#2 - Easiest one-stop shopping Amazon option:
The Stephenson base that I used is here: https://amzn.to/2ZRk3Wo
Decent small mold: https://amzn.to/3iMpfn4
Mica powder soap dye: https://amzn.to/3iU546W
Liquid (non sparkly) soap dye: https://amzn.to/3iSYWeT (this is the least expensive pack I could find that included a purple. The actual one I bought was a multi-pack, which is below)
Fragrance: https://amzn.to/3fiTaRM This is the closest fragrance match to what I used (below) and what I linked (above), but fragrance is always up for interpretation and you can always leave it unscented.
Optional: some grey mica for the base https://amzn.to/3gISmpu
Optional: some sparkles to coat the soap shards https://amzn.to/38JTV3B
#3- My exact supplies:
Stephenson base: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/bases/stephenson-ultra-clear-soap-base/V000794.html#q=stephenson%2Bultra%2Bclear&lang=default&start=1 The product itself is much less expensive than Amazon, but you'll have to pay for shipping through Brambleberry.
Tall and skinny loaf mold: https://amzn.to/32bbdWp
Cubist black ice cube mold: https://amzn.to/2ZSV70G
Mica powder set for dark scarlet color: https://amzn.to/3gYbVKP
Lilac mica from Nurture Soap: https://nurturesoap.com/collections/micas/products/iris-purple-mica?variant=20032912070
Super Sparkles from Nurture Soap: https://nurturesoap.com/products/super-sparkles-enviroglitter?variant=31129937117261
Gray mica from Nurture Soap: https://nurturesoap.com/products/neutral-gray-mica?_pos=1&_sid=ff1f74bbb&_ss=r
Fragrance, Awaken from Nurture Soap: https://nurturesoap.com/products/awaken-fragrance-oil?_pos=1&_sid=34f4ac047&_ss=r
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You don't have to tell me that I sound like a broken record, I KNOW I sound like a broken record. My record is, in fact, broken. This is another gorgeous SVGCuts design and I absolutely fell in love with the trunk of wildflowers box card design.
The link to the file is here (affiliate link): SVGCuts Trunk of Wildflowers Box Card
The design is beautiful (obvi), but for me this was a multi-day project. I always talk about how much I enjoy box cards, but part of the reason for that is because I like the puzzle aspect. Lots of little pieces coming together at the end for a satisfying finale...and that's what I got with this card.
Tons of steps, lots of pieces, and totally worth the effort (for the right recipient). Â
You know what I mean. There are some people who really appreciate a handmade card, some people who only moderately get the amount of work involved, and some people who don't even pay enough attention to realize that the card IS handmade. Â
All I'm saying is, choose your audience to maximize your efforts. 🙂 Those who take the time to enjoy the handmade cards, get the best handmade cards.
And those people should get one of these box cards.
Grab the file and follow along. If you prefer a video (I often need more than pictures) there is a video tutorial link toward the bottom of this post, so you can just go there if you'd prefer. No judgement. 🙂
If you've stumbled into this post and you don't know what a box card is, first of all welcome, and second, it's MAGIC.
When I first got my Cricut many moons ago, the box card was the ultimate goal for me. I was motivated and wanted to get there quickly, because in my mind it was the perfect mechanism.
I'd always been fascinated by pop-up cards (in fact, my old college roommate reminded me the other day that I used to buy pop-up cards and take them apart to figure out how they went together...perhaps a little life goals foreshadowing there?). But the pop up card can sometimes be kind of one note. You know? It's fun and then it's over. With the box card, you get the same dramatic pop up card effect and then you can rotate it and admire it from all sides!
It starts off flat, unfolds to be super-dimensional (look at this one, it's like 4 inches deep!), and then folds back up to go into your envelope. MAGIC.
Ok. Grab the file, and let's get it into Design Space. I did a whole video tutorial on getting third-party (non-Cricut) files into Design Space, so if you're new to this process, I'll link that video for you as well. BUT, I will go through most of it below...
The link will take you to the SVGCuts website. You'll likely get distracted and never come back to finish this blog post, but my hope is that if I call you out on it now, you'll catch yourself and come back to me. 😉
The site is super-well organized and the box cards are in the menu on the left. My link will take you directly to this particular file, but you should come back sometime and grab some others when you want to play!
Once you buy the file, save it somewhere on your computer where you can easily locate it. I personally have an enormous repository of svgcuts.com files from many years, so I put mine in there.
Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project. Â
Select upload image, and then find the file wherever you have saved it. There is a lot of stuff in your download, but here's where you should start.
Open the folder called "SVG Files", and then head to the "extras" folder.
Â
Then open the solid score lines folder...
And in there, you will find the entire card file, with solid score lines. Download that one!
You'll hit save in the lower right, and then you will see your file ready to be uploaded into your project.
Just click on it, and go to the right to select "insert images".
Voila! Your file is imported into Design Space.
In the video tutorial I linked earlier, I go into more detail about this part of the process, but you need to make a few changes so that some pieces that are marked as cut lines can instead be scored.
I started with the hinges. If you select them and look to the right, you will see the highlighted hinges and the lines are marked as "cut". Those need to be score marks instead. To accomplish this, ungroup them with the ungroup button on the upper right, then select just the "cut" lines so they are highlighted.
Once the cut marks are highlighted, go to the upper left and change the "cut" in the dropdown menu to "score".
Once you do this, you will notice the cut marks are now score marks and all is right with that portion of the file.
Repeat this process for a few more pieces. I'll post their pics below.
The first one are the main pieces of the box card, and all of the cut marks are attached, so you only need to make the change once. If I've lost you, I encourage you now to go down to the bottom of this post and watch the video, because I do it step by step and that may be easier to follow.Â
The second one is the insert at the top in the middle.
And the final piece that needs attention is the envelope. You need to highlight the big black rectangle in the middle and change that from cut to score too.
This is a matter of personal preference, of course. I typically print out the pdf document to use as a reference while I'm putting the project together, and then I just save it for scrap paper later.
It'll be in the folder you downloaded in a safe place and marked as a pdf document. It looks like this.
I have an 8 year old boy, so whenever I say or read the word "assemble", what goes through my head is "Avengers, assemble!" 🙂 It's oddly motivational, and also super-irritating.Â
But, let's assemble!
Here's what you start with on the first layer on the front panel. All of the front panel pieces, as shown below. Make sure you don't try to put the left panel piece on the front. You know the left one goes on the left because the brad holes line up.
You can also add one of the leaf pinwheels, and the smaller of the little green draping wildflowers to the front.
Then you can add the first flower embellishment on top of the leaf pinwheel. Â
I chose to ink the edges of the petals a little, and added a Doodlebug Designs enamel dot to the center of the flower.
There is a number 1 that has been cut into the side tab of insert 1...so it'll be easy to indentify.Â
Start by adhering the leaf on the right side.
I assembled the yellow flower with a few foam squares, some inked edges, and a little bling in the middle.
I glued down the small green leaf, and then placed this yellow flower on top. I actually put the foam adhesive too high on the flower, so it would be sticking out in the back. I needed to fold down the edges to hide them. An easy fix!
With the right side of insert 1 complete, work on the left side. Start with the large green part, and then you can assemble the remaining 3 green bits in whatever arrangement you like.
Assembled, mine looked like this.
Find the piece with the number 2 cut in the side, and let's put that one together next!
I put down the first couple of pieces. The leaf on the bottom, the tall green thing that pokes out of the top, and one of the smaller little pinwheels of leaves...
I glued on the yellow flower first, and then glued on the red one sitting slightly on top, plus the little embellishment in the center, so it matches the first one.
I didn't have a stick-on embellishment that I liked for the center of the yellow flower, so I grabbed my collection of buttons and poked a hole in the paper and just popped one of those inside.
That's right. There's a front of the back and a back of the back. I started with the back of the back.
This is where that last trunk side panel goes.
Then you arrange the frame pieces along the back as shown.
If you get stuck, I would again encourage you to look at the video tutorial...I show you how to place each one.Â
Note that the 3 pieces at the top are flush with the top of the card. None of the other pieces are, so I'm pointing it out since it matters as that's the front flap of the trunk.
Finally, add the oval sentiment panel.
Flip it over and let's do the front of the back...
Start with gluing on the back panel. For those of you keeping up, this is the back panel on the front side of the back. 🙂 Â
The giant twiggy part comes next.
Be careful when you attach this that you don't extend the top of the twig too high. If you can help it, it's best to keep the top of the twig below the fold line of your trunk lid so you don't have to fold it inside and make it extra bulky.
Add the larger pinwheel leaf and then your bigger flower on top.
I used some foam squares to pop up the layers of the large flower. I sort of just rotated it until I thought it looked nice and this is where it ended up.
Start by putting some glue on the side tab and aligning the cut out shapes with the brad holes on the side of the card base.
Next, glue the left tab of insert 2 and glue it flush with the back of the card base.
Be careful here to also align the holes on the tab with the holes on the side of the box card.
Glue the left tab of insert 1 and glue that down butting up against the front of insert 2.
Do the same thing with the right side tabs...making sure to stop and fold flat regularly to make sure everything is well aligned.
Finally connect the front of the box card! You made a trunk of wildflowers box card!
Home stretch, ya'll. I told you it was a lot of steps. I probably should have turned the writing of this post into a multi-day event too!
To finish this up, you need to add the hinges. To add the hinges, you need some craft brads.Â
There are two different kinds of hinges. 4 of them look like little hip bones to me, and the other 4 are straight. The hip bone ones go on each corner.
Add the remaining brads to the empty brad holes. You can't cheat here and glue them on instead...the card won't open and close correctly if the hinges are glued down!
Finally, fold up the envelope. It's simple, just 4 folds and a little glue!
One thing to note before you put your card in your envelope.
If you fold the card all the way to the left, the little twiggy bits stick off to the side, which would make them prone to being bent.
Folding to the right will help keep those pieces safe from squishing. 🙂
Fits perfectly in it's GIGANTIC envelope. I put this in the mail as a birthday card, so I was sure to add extra postage and a piece of cardboard inside the envelope to keep it from being bent.
https://youtu.be/zzuhnpnXIL4
Cricut Explore Air: https://shrsl.com/2c9ekCricut Access: https://shrsl.com/27tq8Cricut cardstock (leaves with texture): https://shrsl.com/21uhjCricut green pearlescent paper: https://shrsl.com/27xjyCraft brads: https://amzn.to/3gq2seNCat's Eye Chalk Inks: https://amzn.to/2Y4JX8bDoodlebug Designs Sprinkles: https://shrsl.com/24r68Double-sided adhesive and dimensional adhesive squares found here in a variety of sizes: https://shrsl.com/24rsx Links to favorite glue and Cricut supplies are on my blog resources page here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/
Some other SVGCuts box card projects that have tutorials on my site can be found here:
I'm a big fan, so there will surely be more to come!
Bath salts are on the "easy" end of the spectrum of DIY bath products, but I'd like to share a couple of tips with you and give you a good recipe you can use as a template to make your own!
Making your own bath salts allows you the creativity to choose your own type of salts, decided whether to color them, what fragrance they should be? All natural, or synthetic fragrance oil?Â
And once you have an idea of what you'd like to make, there are so many cute containers in which to package them for yourself, or as gifts! I chose a cool (giant) test tube for my packaging, but largely because I felt like it matched the theme of my shop bath salts a little better than a cute mason jar with a wooden scoop or similar.
And look how beautiful the combination is? This is a decent close up of A Salt and Battery, which is the one I will be showing you how to make today. I love the variety of salt colors and sizes, and a touch of mica powder to give it that slight shimmery look!
Don't you just love bath salts? It's one of those bathtime luxuries that is easy to forget about...right up until the moment you have another salt bath! Sometimes the mix of salts and fragrance is just right, for that very day, or those particular aching muscles, and then nothing in the world is better!
Do you prefer an epsom salt bath? A simple salt bath? A salt bath with a soothing milk powder or maybe one that bubbles and fizzes too? So many bath salts to try, so little time...
There is a lot of debate (at least online, which is where most things get debated these days anyway) about whether there are curative properties related to salt baths, and in particular salts like epsom salt and black lava salt. Â
I think it's a matter of opinion since it doesn't appear to be a matter of science where we can point in one direction or the other with any degree of clarity.
So, here's how I feel about the issue. Baths are relaxing by nature. When I add an essential oil to a bath salt, the aromatherapy experience alone is next level relaxing for me. So there are plenty of people who say that bath salts don't do anything for you and you only feel more relaxed than before because you took a bath. Â
Maybe... but the experience matters. The aroma matters. The softness of your bath water matters. I personally find epsom salts very relaxing and soothing for the muscles. I believe that black lava salt (made from activated charcoal derived from coconut shells) has some detoxifying properties, and I believe that peppermint oil makes me feel more invigorated and ready to face the next challenge in life, the same way that lavender oil puts me to sleep.
I'm going to share the recipe I like to use for my peppermint oil infused bath salts, which in my shop are called A Salt and Battery (since Peppermint is kind of an energizing fragrance!). Â
You can use this recipe and mix it up with a different essential oil, add different dried flowers (or emit them altogether), etc. So consider this a template. I've included links to smaller sizes of some of these products I used (almost of them from Amazon and easily attainable), and you can easily make all 18 tubes with the products listed. I capped it at 18 only because that's the quantity of 4 oz test tubes that I linked below. 🙂 This particular recipe yielded 6 4oz tubes with a tiny left over for me. 🙂
Â
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Dead Sea salt isn't sea salt that has died, it's salt that is mined from the Dead Sea. There are a lot of people who sell products they call Dead Sea salt, as if it were just a kind of salt or a size of salt, but it's specific to the actual Dead Sea. Kinda like calling all bubbly wines champagne...
I bought Dead Sea salt that is actually Dead Sea salt.
And when I said start with 20 oz of course Dead Sea salt, you could also read that as "of course, Dead Sea salt". But seriously, the coarse crystal size is what you want....the fine grain end up feeling like table salt, which is not the experience you are going for.
Weigh out your ingredients with a kitchen scale, and start with 20 ounces of Dead Sea salt.
This particular brand I used is from The Spice Lab has such a beautiful assortment of sizes and shades.
The pinkness of this salt is naturally occuring based on the minerals to which it has been exposed in the Himalayas. SO PRETTY.  I am also looking forward to using some of these as decoration on top of a bar of soap next time I make a batch!
I like this one from the San Francisco Salt Co. Like the Himalayan pink salt, this salt also doesn't have any colorant. All of the black color in this salt comes from activated coconut shell charcoal. Very cool.
I only use 2 oz of this salt, and honestly, in this recipe, mostly because I like the speckle of the black mixed in! This is likely the most expensive of the ingredients (and what I use in much larger quantities in one of my other bath salts, Tactical A Salt) so using is sparingly for this recipe is helpful.
When all 3 salts have been added to the bowl, it'll look something like this:
Once you have your salts in the bowl, I like to add the fragrance here. I almost always use essential oils in my bath salts (unless I'm doing something fizzy or bubble or fun), because that's the right vibe for me in this application. Â
A big part of the experience, for me, is aromatherapy, and I want to feel like I'm getting the spa experience! Â
With essential oils, however, you must be careful with how much you use. The same is true of synthetic fragrance oil, but I believe there is often a misbelief that since essential oil is "natural" that equates to "safe", and that's not the case.Â
There is a maximum safe level for skin exposure to essential oil. One of the best resources is a website called eocalc.com (essential oil calculator. com) by Modern Soapmaking. It's free to use, and there is a usage calculator that will give you a range of safe use dependent on the type of product you are making.
For this entire batch, we only need 2ml of peppermint essential oil. I like this brand, but there are obviously many essential oils and essential oil blends online. I got this one on Amazon, but also fell down the rabbit hole of essential oils and picked up 6 more (oops).
One of the reasons I like this particular oil is because unlike some peppermint essential oils that can get pungent and medicinal-smelling, this one is sweet and bright.
I wear gloves when I do this because, #1, I'm going to be selling mine in addition to giving them as gifts, so I follow good manufacturing practice and wears gloves and a hairnet. #2, even if I weren't, there is a LOT of touching of the salts. I don't want to be gross. 🙂
BUT, if you are just making these for your self, and you don't want to bother with gloves, please be prepared to lose any nail polish you might be wearing! Salt is abrasive.Â
Regardless of how you proceed here, THIS IS THE BEST STEP. Mixing up the oil and salts gets that peppermint oil kicked up into the air and it's magical. I think I likely stirred it for way longer than necessary because I was enjoying it so much.Â
You can see the technique in the tutorial video linked at the bottom of this post, but basically I'm scooping from the bottom and mixing it to the top...over and over again.
I also take handfuls of it and rub it in between my palms. This will help if you have any clumps of salts in your mixture.
For this recipe, I chose a sprinkle of mica powder, which I will also link to. The mica powder I got is just a small sample of cosmetic grade mica, so it's skin safe (not all mica is, so you always need to check!).
But it gave the salts such a nice sheen!
I also added some crushed rose petals, mostly for visual interest again.
I didn't want the bath salts to be rose salts, and they are so fragrant there's no mistaking them for anything other than peppermint! But I also really like the look of them in small quantities in this application.
I like these petals from Brambleberry. You get mostly petals, and aren't stuck with a bunch of stems...
BUT, I also crush them between my palms and get the pieces as small as possible (so they go down the drain easily) and that process does help identify any stray buds that may be in your mix.
Obviously, you can just discard those. 🙂
You did it! Time to fill your containers and hope for leftovers. 🙂
I filled my test tubes with a small plastic beaker with a pour spout. The test tubes I picked have a nice wide mouth, and they come with a tiny little funnel, but it's clearly meant for liquids because there's no way our coarse grain bath salts are getting through there!
If you don't have a small plastic container with a pour spout, you can take any flexible small container (maybe an empty clean yogurt container?) and just bend it to make a spout.Â
Once you think you have completely filled your container, gently tap it on your work service. This will give you a little more room to fill it up to the top.
I like to get these as full as possible, which also keeps air from getting to your salts. If you have any level of humidity in your area, a bowl of bath salts left out will be wet to the touch the next time you feel them! So best to keep them away from the air.
I close mine up and then shrink band the lids so they are tamper proof and resistant to air.
I will link all of the supplies at the very bottom.
Whenever possible, I like to do a video tutorial for you. I am personally a visual learner, so while I would READ this blog post, I would learn more from watching it be done. In case that's you, I gotchu.
https://youtu.be/g4lvGbzW7yE
Dead Sea salt: https://amzn.to/2CIrYgQ This is the bag I have, but a smaller bag of dead sea salt may be more appropriate if you are just doing a small project! Make sure you get COARSE GRAIN, not fine grain. This one appears to be an acceptable substitution in a 2lb size: https://amzn.to/3dG8lTy
Himalayan pink salt:Â https://amzn.to/2CI10pE
Hawaiian black lava salt:Â https://amzn.to/3ezkf2x
Peppermint essential oil:Â https://amzn.to/37ZbE70
Rose petals (optional):Â https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/additives-and-lye/botanicals/red-rose-petals/V000425.html#q=rose%2Bpetals&lang=default&start=1
Mica powder (optional): Sample set of cosmetic grade mica, I used the pearl shade https://amzn.to/31jtlNm
Test tubes for packaging:Â https://amzn.to/2CIxEaF
Shrink wrap tamper-proof bands:Â Â https://amzn.to/3dxjx4MÂ I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
This Cricut tutorial will show you how to put together a grill box card for Father's Day! Frankly, you can save this card design, remove the "Father's Day" bit, and use it as a card for any occasion for the grill master in your life!
For example, I'm reminded of the BBQ apron birthday card I made for my husband back in January. This apron card design was from Cricut and was originally a baking-themed card...so you could easily use this grill box card design for anything you want!
The file for today's grill box card, however, is from Lori Whitlock's shop online and can be found here: https://shop.loriwhitlock.com/box-card-grill-chicken-fathers-day/
I also have a tutorial video dedicated to getting Lori Whitlock's designs out of her shop and into Cricut Design Space. I'll link that here for you as well in case you need help with third party SVG's.
Once you have gone through the process of getting the grill box card imported into Design Space, you need to make a few quick adjustments.
I will detail them for you here:
Repeat this process for each of the three small insert pieces. You can scoot the chicken legs and corn out of your way first. 🙂
Now, this next part is a little tricky to concieve of, but ultimately the same steps as above. You need to start by isolating the main body of the card. Every line on that piece is a cut mark. The problem with this piece is that we actually WANT some of them to cut...so we can't just change them all to score marks.
If you look at the image below, I have pointed out the two marks that you actually want to remain cut marks. The skinny yellow lines are actual cut marks. All of the others should be score marks. I apologize for the wonky yellow lines...it's incredibly hard to get the little virtual pen to make a straight line!
Click inside the piece until the inside rectangle is highlighted. The two marks I'm pointing to below look like they are going to remain cut marks once you change the others to scores...but they DO change!
Once you have this rectangle highlighted, go back up to the dropdown menu and change these to score marks as well.
Once you do that, your card base will look like the image below. Then you can select the card base and the score marks and attach them, just as you did with the other pieces.
Next, we need to deal with the little "Happy Father's Day" sign. Right now, the image is in Design Space as a cut file. If you're a glutton for punishment and you WANT to cut out and glue out all of the tiny letters, go right ahead. 🙂 Personally, I think it makes more sense to flatten this sentiment and print it out.
To do this, select the Happy Father's Day image and the white rectangle it's sitting on.
And on the bottom right, hit the flatten button as pictured below.
That's it for changes to the actual grill box card file.
But wait! There's no envelope! Let's make one before we leave Design Space.
First things first, what size envelope do we need? Well, when you look at the design, the single large base piece will be folded in half in an envelope. The height of the card will be the same as pictured in Design Space. So, with those things in mind, a 5 by 7 envelope should do the trick!
I clicked on images, and just searched "envelope". I chose a free envelope design so those of you with Cricut Access will be able to pick the same one if you like. I picked the green one on the bottom pictured here. Pretty generic envelope.
Unlock the aspect ratio of the envelope so you can resize it. My lock is in the upper left instead of lower left because I turned my envelope around. I'm visually more comfortable when my envelope is the same direction as my card. 🙂
Drag the envelope by the little arrow on the corner until the inside square measures 5 inches tall by 7 inches wide. I go through this process in the video tutorial as well if this is not something you're familiar with.
Sometimes with box cards, assembly can be kind of a mess. I typically still enjoy those experiences because it's kind of like a puzzle.
This box card design, however, is actually quite simple. I'll lay out the steps below:
And you're done. Nice job, You. 🙂
Isn't this part of cardmaking always so satisfying? I love it. The only part I love more is being able to see someone's face when they open the card. I always miss that part when I have to mail a card!
If you would rather watch the video tutorial of these steps, I've got you. The video itself is about half an hour, but step by step including the Design Space portion.
https://youtu.be/VdYN4XziLHQ
Cricut Explore Air: https://shrsl.com/2c9ek
Cricut Access: https://shrsl.com/27tq8
Cricut cardstock: https://shrsl.com/21uhj
Heavyweight silver cardstock for grill accents: https://amzn.to/2YO0IVB
Cat's Eye Chalk Inks: https://amzn.to/2Y4JX8b
Doodlebug Designs Sprinkles: https://shrsl.com/24r68
Double-sided adhesive and dimensional adhesive squares found here in a variety of sizes: https://shrsl.com/24rsx
Links to favorite glue and Cricut supplies are on my blog resources page here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/
Join the blog email list here and get notified automatically of new project posts and ideas! https://thoughtful-designer-9053.ck.page/4ecc829be8
Once again, here is the link to the file on Lori Whitlock's shop in case you don't want to scroll back up for it. 🙂 This is not an affiliate code: https://shop.loriwhitlock.com/box-card-grill-chicken-fathers-day/
I hope you enjoyed!
Is this little tiny shirt and tie not adorable? I mean, little things are typically inherantly cute, I get that, but this origami fold, made mysteriously out of a single dollar bill, is extra cute, no?
I have always been a little mystified by origami, and, candidly, most of the time I would try one, I would end up failing and getting upset and giving up. This origami fold, on the other hand, is one that I found that I can do easily, and while there are a couple of tricky folds, I'm getting the camera in as closely as I can so you can follow along and achieve origami success too!
Because this is worth it, it's that cute. Â
I'm going to post the pictures that go along with each fold, but I encourage you to watch the video linked below.  While I will endeavor to be as clear as possible, I think that origami is one of those things that really lends itself to being able to SEE what the motions look like.
That being said...I'm going to do my best here and keep the pictures are large as I can so you will have maximum detail. Â
This is the hardest part of the fold. Take that little white triangle you were tickling George's hair with, and fold from the corner of that triangle to the center line
https://youtu.be/Ox_eSoyu4-0
Sometimes I just like making things because I'm a maker of things, but this fold I've used in a couple of different ways.
For starters, if you have any older children in your life who are only interested in cash for gifts, this is a fun option. Once you have done the fold a few times, you will become familiar enough with it that you can do it with any denomination. You won't have visual cues like George's hair tickling to help you along, but you will probably find the same sorts of cues on other bills.
I also think it's a fun idea to stick in a Father's Day card, or to give someone as a good luck charm of some kind.Â
I have known people to keep dollar bills in their wallets... 😉
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! There are no affiliate links in this post, because there are no supplies! If you are looking for other paper folding projects, you can check out this post on free paper animals you can print and fold (complete with video as well).
You guys. Can you stand it? I saw this design on the Dreaming Tree website and realized that it was absolutely the perfect card for the super dad in my life, my husband Mike. In the tutorial below, I will show you how to get this card into Cricut Design Space, do very little file manipulation, and put together this super, super dad card. This is a great file that needs nothing much from us....in fact, I struggled to pull anything original into it at all!
There are a LOT of layers of paper in this card design, but I think it's totally worth it. I actually also really enjoy layering paper because it puts me in the same head space as putting together a puzzle. Anyone else? Only with card making, when you are done with your puzzle, you have a card to gift instead of a mess to put back into a box. 🙂
So let me show you how to get here...
If you are reading this in the future, this will likely not still be true, BUT for those of you reading this in advance of Father's Day 2020, this design is actually free right now if you make a purchase of $9.98 or more. UPDATE: This deal is already gone and there is a new free bundle up...but the link to the card file is here and it's $2.99 at the moment.Â
Dreaming Tree does these promotions a fair amount and it's always kind of nice that the promotions typically match something you actually need when you go to search. For example, I went looking for Father's Day card designs and that was the first page. Â
Hmmm...I spent $10 on other stuff and get $7 in free Father's Day cards that I was probably going to buy anyway. Yes please. So, I usually take these opportunities to grab a few files for upcoming projects in order to get to my $10 order and then add in the freebie.
There's a video tutorial link toward the end of this post, and in the video tutorial I show you how to get the free gift into your shopping cart. It's not at easy and just putting it in your cart and having it come off at the end.  Get all your stuff ready to go, then DON'T put the freebie in your cart. Seriously. I've made this mistake before and ended up with 2...one I paid for and one I didn't. All you need to do is put "freegift" into the coupon code and it magically populates itself into your cart.
This is a pretty straightforward import into Design Space. If you need help with the actual process of getting the card downloaded from the site and uploaded to Design Space, I have a step by step video tutorial showing how to get third party SVG's into Design Space. I used Lori Whitlock's file as an example, but the process works the same for Dreaming Tree files.
As I said before, there's not much to be done with this card file! The biggest thing you need to watch out for are score lines that are imported as cut marks. You will want to select those and change them from cut to score. The video mentioned above does this step by step with you.
You can see from the picture below that if you didn't have score marks on your card base (they grey part), you would be slicing off the sides!
The only really tricky part about this card is getting the layering done in the right order, but I'm going to step you through it.
I started, however, by inking some of the pieces to add a little dimension. This is a technique I use a lot and am kind of obsessed with the Colorbox Cat's Eye chalk inks. I love that they stack and make it easy to have a bunch of options in one tower of color.Â
The file will have marked some tiny notches on the yellow piece that show you exactly where to stick the Super Dad logo. It's actually important that you get this piece in the right spot, because it's what peeks through his shirt when the card is closed.
For this card base, I used an 8.5 x 11 cardstock that is one of my favorites for card bases (and placecards, as seen here). It's super sturdy and has a great pearlescent sheen to it. In the tutorial video, I think the sheen was picked up a little better than in the photo.Â
The important thing about folding a gatefold card base is lining up the center.  The magic of the gatefold card is that the design is uniform on the front. You want to make sure the seam meets perfectly so you don't ruin the effect.
For this reason, I like to fold half of the card, and instead of using the score mark on the other side, I line up the center in the top and bottom, and then force the score line to be wherever it needs to be. Some machines callibrate a little differently...and some papers are thicker than others, so I think this is a good habit to get into.
I used double sided tape to affix my inside because I didn't use cardstock for the yellow piece, I used text weight paper. To avoid getting it all wiggly and weird, I used the smallest amount of glue I could.
I think my centering was a little off, but you still have the nice peek-a-boo effect from the front!
I used some enamel dots and Doodlebug Designs Sprinkles to make cufflinks and buttons. The file will have given you the small star for the center of the Super Dad logo...I cut mine from Cricut glitter vinyl so it would already be a sticker.
The belly band design may be my favorite part of this design. I HATE piecing together tiny little letter bits, but this card has been designed so the interior pieces of the letters are made with a rear panel of the same color.
This is probably easier to understand with photos...
https://youtu.be/2TGTS3uWTWQ
Â
 Link to Dreaming Tree file: https://www.3dsvg.com/shop/cards-svg-files/super-dad-card-svg/?affiliates_svg=1045 Heavyweight pearl cardstock for card base: https://amzn.to/2A5slkCI use this cardstock a lot, and particularly like it for placecards in addition to card bases.   Cricut cardstock: https://shrsl.com/21uhjCricut red metallic textured paper https://shrsl.com/2bhivCricut glitter vinyl: https://shrsl.com/2bi34Cat's Eye Chalk Inks: https://amzn.to/2Y4JX8bDoodlebug Designs Sprinkles: https://shrsl.com/24r68Carta Bella Home Again collection enamel dots: https://shrsl.com/28p3sDouble-sided adhesive and dimensional adhesive squares found here in a variety of sizes: https://shrsl.com/24rsx  Links to favorite glue and other supplies are on my blog resources page here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/
Fish in a bag soap is not a new idea by any means, in fact, it's so popular it's hard to know who to credit with the idea. Spencer and I tried our hands at it and it was pretty fun, and turned out really well. Here are our final fish in bags:
If you follow my blog, or my shop products, you'll know that I'm a fan of a good word play. When I ordered the plastic fish for this project from Amazon, I was initially upset because there were very few actual goldfish in the assortment.
Holding up the bag of fish, it occured to me that the blue and purple fish look like beta fish. So while we didn't end up with a lot of carnival-style goldfish in bags, we did end up with cute beta fish bags instead. Â
If you have seen the other Fun and Son posts and videos you will know that I'm typically on the lookout for things that I can do with Spencer that are interesting enough to keep his attention, and interesting enough that I want to do them too. 🙂
This is a great soap project to do with kids. The fish in a bag soap uses melt and pour soap, so unlike cold processed soap (see my DIY soap video for basics), there is no use of lye or inherently dangerous ingredients. Obviously, there is melting and pouring to be done, and there needs to be supervision, but Spencer said he would definitely do this project again, so that's a good sign that it was enjoyable!
Below is a brief step by step for how to make this fish in a bag soap, but there is also a link to a video tutorial below. Â
Not surprisingly, to make fish in a bag soap, you need fish, bags, and soap. 🙂
Microwave in 30 second bursts until all soap is fully melted. If you want, you can add a little blue colorant to make the soap appear more clear. This is also when you would add fragrance if desired. In the video you can see how adding the blue turns the melted soap from a yellowish color to a more clear color.
You will also want a spray bottle of 91-99% rubbing alcohol to pop the bubbles on the surface of the melted soap.
While your soap cools, prepare your bags for pouring.
Next, you need to insert your fish. I will warn you, this sounds like it's going to be the easy part, but it's actually quite tricky. The fish toys naturally wanted to float upside down....which is not a good look for a fish in a bag soap. 🙂
Glycerin is a widely used ingredient in skin care products. It's water-soluble, odorless, colorless, and is a natural humectant. Because it is a humectant, it draws moisture to itself (which is one reason it is so popular in bath and beauty products!)Â
Because glycerin draws moisture to itself, glycerin soap has a tendency to "sweat". This "glycerin dew" is totally normal and is a result of the glycerin pulling moisture from the air around it.Â
If you want to keep your glycerin soaps from sweating (assuming this bothers you at all...I personally don't care), you can wrap it in plastic wrap or put it in a container once it's dried in order to keep moisture out of it's way.Â
In the case of the fish soap, I would recommend a small soap dish since it's probably not going to last long in your house because little people will want to get to the fish inside as quickly as possible!
If you love the look of this fish in a bag soap and don't want to make your own, they are for sale in my shop here:Â https://shop.amandatoryactivity.com/product/beta-test-fish-in-a-bag-glycerin-soap/
I think they would be a natural choice for a party favor for a carnival-themed or fish-themed birthday party! We ended up getting 5-6 fish out of each 2lb block of soap base, so if you are making these for yourself, plan accordingly when you order supplies for favors. I will list supplies for you below.
Finally, here is a link to the video tutorial. You can laugh along with the fish stuggles...getting that little plastic fish to stay put was laughable.Â
https://youtu.be/_JLCRhecJy4
Plastic fish: https://amzn.to/3gvnDNz
4x9 cello bags: https://amzn.to/2M91G8V
Soap base:
The one I used is from Brambleberry (where I get my other soap supplies) and can be found here: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/bases/stephenson-ultra-clear-soap-base/V000794.html#q=stephenson%2Bclear&lang=default&start=1
If you are an Amazon shopper, this one may be more convenient with no shipping costs: https://amzn.to/3eymeUi
Blue color (totally optional):
I used the one from Brambleberry (again, I was already ordering a bunch of other stuff, so shipping wasn't a concern): https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/colorants/dyes/brilliant-blue-lab-color/V600002.html
If you are an Amazon shopper, I have also used these soap dyes, which are food grade and skin safe (and can also be used to color slime if that's something you're into!): https://amzn.to/2M9Tmpt
We did not fragrance our batches, but you could obviously fragrance yours with a small amount of essential oil or fragrance oils. This set of fragrances offers some fun scents including an ocean breeze scent: https://amzn.to/2MbYKbK.
I personally think plain glycerin soap has a nice clean smell without any additives. Spencer suggested "fish scented", but I didn't think that was a great idea. 🙂
I'm writing this post a little late, and so I apologize to those dear friends to whom I have not yet shared this news. COVID-19 and staying at home has affected us all differently, but I am firmly in the camp of people who have been having the weirdest dreams (when I'm actually able to sleep, that is). One morning, I woke up to realize that I had designed an entire product line in my sleep, and so I accidentally (?) started a company.
Ok, I'm simplifying matters a little bit, and nobody accidentally starts a company. At some point I did have to get a business license and tax ID number and all of the things that don't happen by accident, but it's accidental in that it wasn't part of the GRAND PLAN.
Ok, I never really had a grand plan. I had a blog idea and things to share and teach and that was good enough, until quarantine.
Please allow me to introduce you to The Shop @ A Mandatory Activity. There is now a convenient little shopping link at the top menu bar, and that will take you through to the site if you want to have a look around.
If you're just here for the tutorials, that's totally good. These are still mandatory activities and nothing is going to change. As I'm writing this blog post I'm also supposed to be working on a design for my nephew's birthday card, so my projects have increased, but not shifted!
I'm very proud of my accidental little company, and I'm really enjoying the journey so far, which is why it's felt so weird not to have shared the news here. Honestly, I had to take a moment to catch up with initial demand, which was a fantastic problem to have (do NOT mistake that remark for complaining)...I just didn't expect the initial volume.
I've since restocked everything over the course of the last few weeks of evenings and weekends though....so no worries if you're actually in the market for some candles or need to order gifts for someone. 😉
Let me talk to you a little bit about the genesis of the idea, and my vision of the future and where this all fits in...
While in my strange limbo between sleeplessness and vivid dreaming, I started having a game of word play in my head. It's not totally abnormal, but I can usually shake it off.
This whole blog is one giant play on words, and I think my brain does a lot of these shenanigans on its own that don't make their way to paper or pen or blog or idea. I blame my Dad, who was the same way. Dad jokes for me were on a whole other level.
If you read my first blog post, The Blog Post Nobody Will Read, you will know that I started this blog almost in response to his death. I decided life was too short to be scared to try to do the things that make you happy. My mandatory activities.
There are plays on words throughout a lot of my posts, and a warning shot in the "about me" section...I like a good bad pun.
That header has been in the list of things I've been wanting to write about for awhile, so don't be surprised if it makes its way to a blog post title too...but I need it here right now.
I am often thinking about what kinds of things I'd like to make next, or what I want to learn, or whose birthday is coming up and what I'm going to make or give them. During the process of putting together this blog, I've run into SO many creative people, and creativity inspires creativity.
I'm really happy making cookies and cakes and papercrafts and a handful of other projects, but I also want to continue to learn new things.
You might call me a materials girl. 🙂 For me, inspiration for something comes from an idea that I then need to think about how to communicate and in which material, OR I have a material in mind and I need to figure out what to do with it.
Here's an example. I found this stupid pillow at CVS last Fall on clearance for $4. It made me smile and I walked away from it, and by the time I had finished actual shopping, I decided I needed to swing back to the clearance aisle to bring him home.
Because in my mind, he was a great-looking cookie. See what I mean?
(Incidentally, this all happened before I started the blog, but not before I had the idea for the blog...so I will have some footage to share when we get closer to Fall project time!)
In this case, the material to convert this owl pillow into something to share with friends and family, was to make him into a cookie. That was the right "material".
The more materials I learn how to use, the more ideas I am inspired by, and that's what happened with my shop.
What I was thinking about, lying in bed, was how difficult this time must be for people who were already unhappy. I know how fortunate I am to be quarantined with 2 of my favorite people, but I started to feel so sad for those who must feel much more hopeless.
What came to mind was the idea of social distancing, and how I wish I could put some Zing into it for those who really needed some help.
Suddenly, there was Social Distance-Zing. A burst of grapefruit and mango to lighten your spirits. The right material for this project was wax. 20-40 hours of aromatherapy...
I had most of the materials except the fragrance in my candle stash. I designed the labels and branding myself, put in an order for the fragrance oil and some others I thought might be nice.
One of those scents was almond.
And a couple of days later, there was Marzipan-demic. A nice, warm, nutty fragrance that makes you want to cozy up at home with a good book.
Two other pandemic-related candles emerged as well. Flat-tin the Curve (which was inspired by...you probably guessed it, the candle tins I saw when I was shopping for candle jars online.
And also, Shell-ter in Place, which in my mind was the nautical option. We can't go to the beach at the moment...but you can take a vacation with your nose. This one smells like sun and sand and sunscreen and legit makes me feel like it's summer. I got playfull and made little shell embeds for the top, and did a little swirl of color to make some beachy waves before my wax totally dried.
Shell-ter in Place will be the first candle that I show you guys how to make. Embeds and all. Coming soon...
The embeds led to more embeds...and when I started working on my graduation gift set, On A Grad Hoc Basis, and Caps and Grounds...it seemed like a great plan to throw some wax coffee bean embeds on the top of Caps and Grounds. When you melt the candle, the embed melts and the colorant disperses and turns into kind of a latte color when it cools and solidifies again.
So, it's safe to say that we have some new mandatory acvities, because man is this a lot of fun. I have been working on my Father's Day candles this weekend and then I'm halfway through ideas for the Fall fragrances and bubble bars and pumpkin pie soap slices and OMG THERE ARE SO MANY FUN PROJECTS TO BE DONE. One. At. A. Time.
I have also been making soap (and made soap cupcakes this weekend which I'm in love with). If you saw my soap making post and video from last week, you will have seen the first soap that will be for sale in the soap section. Soap takes 4-6 weeks to cure, so the soap will slowly pop up as it becomes available.
I'll also get to show you how things are done! I recorded the soap cupaking making, of course, so there will be more to come.
More candles, more soap, likely a slight re-org of the blog (Lifestyle to candles and soap? What do you guys think?)
Sorry for the length of this post, but the longer I put it off, the more there was to share, so I've ripped off the band-aid now and I can just work on posting updates instead of a whole explanation of what the heck...
For those of you who already knew and have been so super-supportive. Thank you. Truly. I'm trying to be brave and take chances, and follow this journey wherever it's going, but it's SO much easier to do when people believe in you.
I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm kind of excited about this project. I went into Cricut Design Space looking for an awesome graduation box card (or any cool graduation card design!) and basically came up with nothing. There were some money holders and simple designs, but I wanted a wow factor. Â
So I made my own.Â
If you have Cricut Access, you should be able to access the file and use it for yourself. Need Cricut Access? Here's a link for that. I totally think it's worth it to have access to all of those files and images.
If you already have Cricut Access, you can follow this link and it'll take you to a sign up for my email list (pretty please?) and as soon as you provide your email, you'll get an instant download of the file location.
If you've read my blog or seen my tutorials, you'll know that I'm a big fan of box cards.  I love a good pop out, and a box card kind of pops out in every direction at the same time! So, when there was a lack of acceptable exciting graduation cards from which to choose, I went to look at the box card designs to see if there was something I could change to suit my needs.Â
Here is the file that I found. Â
Yes. It's a sympathy card.
But the more I looked at it, the more it started checking the boxes for me.
It's pretty
Some sort of celebratory looking flags are in the design, so that's festive!
There are a lot of features in the design, which I think makes the card looks FULL
Let me show you how I changed the sympathy box card design into a graduation box card design!
Below are the step by step directions on how I changed the Cricut Design Space sympathy box card design into a graduation box card design. There aren't a ton of fancy skills used, but we do use the flatten tool, which has been known to incite fear in new users.
It's not scary, I promise, and with that one tool, we can basically do all of the changes we need.
I will also include a link to the video tutorial below, in case you prefer to just watch the step by step directions, or want to follow along for yourself.
That's it. I also deleted a random swirly thing that I didn't like...but changing the sentiment, the flag text and adding some graduation imagery made this design decidedly festive!
Now, let's put it together our new non-sympathetic graduation box card. 🙂
Assembling a box card is always kind of magical for me. I absolutely love it when it comes together and suddenly there is a super-dimensional something-or-other in front of you!
Assembling this box card was kind of a breeze. I said so at the beginning of the assembly portion of my video, which I thought for sure was going to jinx me, but it was just as simple as I had hoped.
One of the things I like when you purchase an SVG file from many other designers such as SVGcuts is that they will include an envelope with the design. With many Cricut projects, you often need to go find one for yourself.
Luckily, there are a number of envelopes in the images section of Cricut Design Space, but how do you know what size you need? And how do you resize it if it's too small?
With this card, I don't think there is a way to pre-design an envelope since the size of the card is, in my opinion, largely dependent on where you stick the flowers. If I had chosen to put them all out toward the edges of the inside tabs, it would have been even wider.
So, in a follow up post, we will deal with the issue of the envelope. I'll make sure to let you know when that post is up!
Â
https://youtu.be/N-EXsvLWBfY
Cricut washi sheets no longer seem to be available (maybe because they didn't work!) But here is a link to some Anna Griffin adhesive vinyl that is probably close Dew Drop Chalk Inks Doodlebug Designs Sprinkles Adhesive rainbow rhinestones Links to favorite glue and Cricut supplies are on my blog resources page here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/
You know the soap I'm talking about...you pick it up at a Whole Foods, or a craft show, or a farmers market and think about how cool it is, and you think "Can I do that?" Let's run through some of the basics for DIY soap making.
Making soap is no joke...it's complicated, it involves a toxic ingredient, and you don't get the immediate satisfaction that you can get with other crafts.
But man, I'm tellin' you, when you pull that loaf of soap out of your mold, it is Satisfying (capital S for emphasis). 🙂 BUT, it is totally doable with some DIY soap basics, and we're going to review safety, process, supplies, the works.
Here is the soap that I made for this tutorial. It's not fancy, but it's not not-fancy either. The moment when you take your soap out of the mold is kind of "the reveal". Either your heart sings, or sinks.
But let's talk about how we get here.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you that learning how to make soap is something that you can casually try with little equipment. You CAN get away with items from around the house to use for molds, but there is no getting around safety gear. BASIC.
That being said, let me address the gloves in the photo above. Normally, you would want some proper nitrile gloves, but I don't have any more at the moment and we're in the middle of a pandemic and gloves are hard to come by. Even if I found some, I'm not sure I'd feel great about buying them knowing we have as shortage of PPE at the moment, but let's not get too far off-topic, Amanda. So...I got some new dish gloves instead. I'm not nimble, but I'm protected!
You will need some goggles, no question about it.
No, it is not okay to just wear your glasses.
BASICS OF DIY SOAP TIP: You must also get rid of any amount of vanity that you may have had before you started your soaping adventure.
You will look like a crazy person.
And because I no longer have any vanity, I get to show you these pictures. 🙂
See?
Now, I'm purposefully giving you crazy-eyes for this picture of me cradling my bottle of lye, but I do feel like once you get your goggles on, it's easy to take on an alter ego...and I guess mine is just a little bit nuts.
Bottom line here is put your gloves on, wear your safety goggles, cover any exposed skin, wear closed-toed shoes, and keep the floor clear of any slipping or tripping hazards.
You NEED lye to make real soap. And frankly, lye is the reason I didn't try making soap earlier.
I was afraid.
Lye is the thing that we are working so hard to protect ourselves from. Lye is sodium hydroxide and it's very very toxic. It will burn you. Even in the video attached I'm too busy talking and took a breath that was a little too deep and felt the hairs inside of my nose start to burn off. The biggest most basic DIY soap tip is to be careful with your lye.
I mean, BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR LYE. If you have any Mr. Yuck stickers hanging around from the 80's, put them all over your lye container.
If you're like me, your only previous knowledge of lye is that it's what people use to dissolve dead bodies in the movies. Incidentally, when I ordered my lye, I accidentally ordered WAY too much...so I'm pretty sure I'm on some Government watch list (for people who might be dissolving bodies? Is that a thing?)
Lye is essential. Soap is, at it's core, the product of oils/fats and lye. Anything else we do to it (fragrance, skin-loving butters, colorant, flecks of ground up coffee beans...whatever) is the artistry.
Making soap is often described as both an art and a science. Once you get the science part down, that's when you get to be artistic. You do NOT get to be artistic with your safety equipment or your handling of lye.
You should also make sure all of the bowls and spoons and equipment used for soaping is not shared with any kitchen processes. You need dedicated soaping dishes, and you must never ever use any aluminum spoons or bowls when mixing your soap. The reaction with lye, I'm told, is quite dangerous. I've never tried it and I'm certainly not going to for the purpose of this blog post, BUT it's a good DIY soap basic tip!
It will come as no surprise to you that there are a number of excellent resources for soap recipes online and in print. My favorite go-to for soap instruction, ingredients, tools, best practices, troubleshooting, and inspiration is Anne-Marie Faiola of Brambleberry.com. Her website is a wealth of information on the basics of DIY soap.
This is going to sound like some kind of sponsored post, but it's not. She just knows everything and sells everything and has been soaping for 20 years (even though she looks about 30 years old...). I also have her book, Pure Soapmaking, which I find very inspirational. The link to the book IS an affiliate link because I am an Amazon affiliate...so if you buy it, thanks!
It's fabulous and has more than a dozen solid soap recipes, along with a lot of explanations of what kind of oil and fat combinations work well together and combine well with things like goats milk or coconut milk, or whatever artistic thing you want to do once you've mastered the science bits.
Another favorite soaper is Katie Carson of Royalty Soaps. She shares her base soap recipe, but she also does a lot of elaborate soap "frosting", and I've recently joined her soap frosting club, so I'm excited to try my hand at piping soap!
Both of those are my best two pieces of advice for where I go for recipe info that is reliable and informative.
I have, of course, included a tutorial video for you on how I made this batch of soap, but I will also include some photos below of the highlights of the process. I am still making small batches, but I'd like to graduate to more meaningful batch sizes some day. For now, I'm working on science and artistry, but not volume...
It is said that every soaper has their own opinion about the correct temperature to cool your lye and oils to. Some soapers prefer to do it hot, at about 130 degrees, others prefer to do it cool, about about 85 degrees. I tend to hover around the middle and I cooled my lye water and oils to about 115 degrees. Whatever your preferred soaping temperature, your lye and oils should be within 10 degrees of one another.
Once the oils and lye have sat for 1-2 days, they go through a chemical process known as saponification. As the soap is still curing, it's best to wear your gloves (and if you're going to be giving it away or selling it, it's sanitary that way too!), to avoid any irritation to your skin.
I find waiting to unmold the soap to be incredibly hard. I guess I'm used to more instant gratification from my craft projects, but I did feel an enormous sense of accomplishment when I unmolded the loaf and it looked lovely with it's bumpy layers from the texture we provided with our spatula during the layering of the soap.
So, the process is time consuming, you need a lot of supplies, and you need even more patience. But the idea what you have made your own soap, full of good skin-loving oils and your own design, is very empowering and addictive.
Once you watch a few Brambleberry and Royalty Soaps videos you'll be hooked, just like me!
I will paste the links to the items used here below. Again, the only affiliate link is the link to the book via Amazon.
https://youtu.be/E7JlAtmsIcM
Pure Soapmaking by Anne-Marie Faiola
Safety goggles: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/tools-and-accessories/accessories/soap-making-goggles/V000405.htmlSafety gloves: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/tools-and-accessories/accessories/nitrile-gloves/V000402.htmlImmersion blender: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/tools-and-accessories/tools/white-stick-blender/V001003.html#q=blender&lang=default&start=1Mini mixer for colorants: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/tools-and-accessories/tools/mini-white-plastic-mixer/V000510.html#q=blender&lang=default&start=2Lots of Lather Quick Mix: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/bases/lots-of-lather-quick-mix/V900008.html#q=lots%2Bof%2Blather&lang=default&start=1Sodium Hydroxide Lye: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/additives-and-lye/lye/sodium-hydroxide-lye/V000459.html#q=lye&lang=default&start=1Aloe and White Lily Fragrance Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/fragrance-oils/white-lily-and-aloe-fragrance-oil/V001016.htmlGreen chrome oxide coloring: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/colorants/pigments/green-chrome-oxide-pigment/V000593.html#q=green%2Bchrome&lang=default&start=3Dried flowers: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/samplers/ingredients/petal-sampler-pack/CB603177.html?cgid=3-ing_samp_pro#start=2Sodium lactate: https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/additives-and-lye/liquids/sodium-lactate/V000439.html
Happy soaping!
I love pop up cards. I love getting them, I love making them, and I love giving them. There's a little magic is a really effective pop up card, dontcha think? Â
I have, for many years now, been a fan of the Love Pop cards, have you ever seen those? The first time I saw one, I didn't at all understand how it was possible. Sorcery? Dark Magic? Engineering Skills? Whatever it was, I was pretty sure it wasn't something I possessed. 🙂Â
But THIS pop up card is awesome. Truly dimensional, and not so hard that it will make you cry. 🙂
I honestly don't know how well I can explain the construction of this card in text and photo, so I've included a step by step video tutorial for you. Â
Be warned, that sucker is an hour long...but I THINK you can pause as you go through it and follow along. The video is an hour, but truth be told, I think it only took me about an hour and 15 minutes, so there isn't much that I don't show you. Mostly I spared you from gluing and waiting for glue to dry!Â
You're welcome. 🙂
This file is from Dreaming Tree. If you've read my blog or followed my YouTube channel, you may have recently seen the FREE Tealight tutorial, which was a freebie Dreaming Tree file.Â
The file for this card is not a freebie, and the link is an affiliate link, so if you make a purchase with this link, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. The file, as of today, costs about $3.50 and BOY is it worth it!
Here is the link to the EXTREME Mother's Day Pop Up Card!
For some perspective, a Love Pop card is upwards of $10...for one card. I think this card packs the same punch, AND once you buy the file you can make as many as you want!Â
I mean, look at it...what in the world? So cool. Seriously.
So, if you are like me, when you see a file in Design Space or on a 3rd party site, you think "how else can I use this?" I'm not sure if that means I'm cheap...or creative. Please don't post in the comments which you think it is. 🙂
BUT, I look at this card and think that I could easily wipe out the "Mom" with a quick weld function in Design Space...and I could go for a Happy Birthday written by the Cricut?
The front of the card looks like this:
Couldn't we easily turn that into a Valentine without doing much other than changing the color palette?
Yes. The answer is yes. 🙂
I'm not throwing shade on anybody's design, the card is lovely. And I didn't change the Mother's Day card design, because it's bright and cheerful for Mother's Day. Â
But it is not the graphic design, or the color choices, or the little flowers that make this card special. It's the MECHANISM.
We've already discussed the fact that I don't possess the sorcery skills to make the pop up part happen on my own, but I can sure as heck use that lattice design to make some new projects.Â
Take a peek inside and you'll see what I mean. If you put nothing in the center of that pot, it's a blank slate. We could make it a Halloween card with tombstones and ghosts...or a birthday card with candles and cupcakes...or a congrats card with confetti and party horns. Â
Once we HAVE the mechanism, we can really play.
Feel free to post some comments below if you want a tutorial on making this card into something else.
Should we make a Father's Day card using this card base and some elements from Design Space to make it our own? Let me know! Grab the file, and follow along with the tutorial below. And once you own the file, you can participate in whatever we turn it into next!
Â
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Most of the papers used in this project are Cricut cardstock, which comes in a variety of colors and goes on sale a lot. The patterned paper used was scraps from my stash.
I promised in the video that I would link to the purple kraft paper used for the flower basket, which is a Tim Holtz kraft paper from this pack.
I used the Dew Drops chalk inks for inking on this project.
Links to my favorite glue and a bone folder and Cricut products are available on my resources tab , along with some links to the various types of bling used on the flowers . It can be found here.
https://youtu.be/_HNC3RGxHao
We interupt your regularly scheduled Cricut tutorial to bring you a fun lifestyle post, a nature scavenger hunt!
I think I speak for all parents everywhere when I say that keeping the kids off of an electronic device during this particular time is difficult, particularly while parents are trying to work. I don't know about you, but I desperately needed an outdoor activity. In fact, before I even publish this post, I'm likely to need another one.
If you follow my blog and YouTube channel, you will have heard me talk about Lia Griffith before. She's kind of amazing, and one of those people I feel like I would be friends with if we met in real life, you know? Anyway, Lia posted a nature scavenger hunt on her blog and offered it up to us all for free. I thought I would share that link with you, as well as the fruits of our scavenger hunt! Lia Griffith's free printable scavenger hunt. I also feel that it's my duty as a fan, and someone who is a lot like you, if you are here reading this, that once you get to the site you might get stuck there for 45 minutes...there's a raging amount of cuteness.
Lia arranged the scavenger hunt items into little squares so you could cut them up and put them on something like an egg carton to collect your findings.
I was pretty positive that if I implemented this particular form of scavenger hunt, I was going to end up with an egg carton full of dead bugs and muddy things in my house, so I made an adjustment.
I took the scavenger hunt somewhat virtual. We still got outside and walked around for over an hour looking for stuff, but when we found our items, we took a picture to "collect" them.
So, our printed scavenger hunt page ended up being more of a coverall bingo card. 🙂
Looking at the list of items we needed, there were some that Spencer and I thought for sure we wouldn't be able to find, like a shell. We don't live near a beach, we are in a residential neighborhood, and I thought short of finding shells in someone's landscaping display, it probably wasn't going to happen.
Spencer did not take that as an answer, and actually ended up discoverying a creative solution to this issue. For him, the hunt was ON and he was going to prevail!
This was his "shell". Frankly, I can't argue with him...it's a shell of something, it's just not the seashell I had in my head.
That's it, in a nutshell. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself)
Here are some of our other finds, which I'll include, because nature is pretty and if you are stuck inside while you are reading this, maybe it will make you happy.
Pretty, huh? But you may notice that this is 16, plus the "shell" is 17...and there are 18 items in our scavenger hunt.
We could not find a feather to save our lives. We followed the sound of chirping birds into the woods, hoping there would be a stray feather on the ground, but we got nothing. Plenty of birds, zero feathers.
Luckily, we were able to be a little creative again. When we got back home, there was a feather on the couch cushion! I put it outside so we could "hunt" it.
It felt better to check all the boxes, but admittedly it was a sneaky solution!
But there you have it, a couch feather "in the wild".
If you try this scavenger hunt, enjoy! I was honestly amazed by the assortment of things all around us that we don't bother to look at.
It's All in the Wrist Roll-On Perfume
by Dayna
I'm All Gears Soap
by Michael Wills II
