Future Momo Jewelry

Yoyo garland

I tried my hand at making a yoyo garland over the weekend.  Yoyos are pretty simple to make, but I had never attempted to make so many at once before.

I had a lot of scrap fabric in yummy pastels, so I used those.  I was originally thinking of making a rag wreath with them, but went with the yoyos.

  

A little while and two sore hands later, I had a bunch of yoyos all strung up.

They look so pretty hung over the doorway.

These yoyos were really addictive to make!  I think I will make some more in different colors to hang in other parts of the house.  Once I got the hang of it, making them went by in a flash.  I'm dreaming of all the different yoyo projects I can make now.

I also bit the bullet yesterday and ordered some more soap supplies.  I've been wanting to use my free time to make lots of new products, but have been scared to spend the money because I don't know how long I will be out of work.  But yesterday I decided I was being silly and depriving myself of doing something I will enjoy.  So, soon I hope to have some new products made to share!

Candied Buddha's hand

Last Sunday, I found a Buddha's hand at the local farmer's market.  I was really excited because I had heard of them, but never seen one before.  Buddha's hand is basically a citron, which smells like a lighter, sweeter lemon.  It was a bit pricey at $4 a pound, so I picked a small one.  I had no idea what to do with it, so I did a quick online search and it turns out that there is no fruit inside and it's basically all rind and pith.  I was a teeny bit disappointed, but then learned that the two most popular things to do with Buddha's hand are to make a Buddhacello, like limoncello, or to candy the peel.  Since I don't drink that much, I thought it would be fun to try to candy the peel. 

Luckily, I found an easy recipe on Instructables and went to work.

Buddha's hand looks kind of like a sea monster alien.

All tentacles!  But it smells really good.

It really was all rind and pith

All chopped up

And cooking in the sugar syrup

And then rolled in sugar and left to dry overnight

All done!

I used about half to make a sort of fruitcakey bread, which has a nice, light citron taste and then kept about half to just eat!  Yum!  I would totally buy Buddha's hand again and maybe try making Buddhacello the next time. 

Pear quince bundt cake soap

I just made some sweet and tart pear quince bundt cake soaps.  Yummy!

I have listed them on my Etsy shop and my website.  Please take a look!

Stamped ornament

I came across this super simple, yet really cool idea for a stamped embossed ornament on Just Something I Made (one of my favorite craft blogs ever).   I decided to give it a try.  It was a quest to find Pluffy, but I finally tracked some down.

I first attempted to use a pretty detailed stamp, but it didn't work very well.   Luckily, I also had a small Christmas stamp that seemed like it had clean enough lines and it worked out much better.

It was so fast and easy, I made a bunch of them.  I'm not used to working with any kind of modeling clay, but this was pretty easy for me. 

They're the perfect size for gift toppers, so I think that's what I'll be using most of them for.

The Pluffy never really got super hard, so I have to be a bit gentle on these!  They already have some imperfections, but I think I can trim the edges a bit more and other things to clean them up a teeny bit.  I think they're a really cute and fast ornament idea.

Eggnog scone soaps

Yum!  Eggnog!  I just added eggnog scone soaps to my Etsy shop. 

I love eggnog and these soaps smell delicious, with hints of vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.  Please take a look at them here! 

 

Glass ornaments

I had a lot of fun over the weekend playing with some Ranger alcohol inks and some glass ornaments that I had leftover from a couple of years ago.

 

I was trying to follow the tutorial on Brandywine Designs, but I realized I forgot to buy the metallic mixatives while I was at the craft store.  So, I improvised by using silver and copper spray paint inside the ornaments instead.

It was my first time ever using alcohol inks and it was really fun!  Once I started, I was hooked. 

I hadn't known what to expect when buying the supplies for the tutorial, so I only got one set of the inks, which had a slate gray, dark green and a burgundy color. 

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the two above ornaments are swirled beatifully with silver inside and black and burgundy outside.  It looks like marbled paper.  I experimented with different combinations of the ink colors, along with the spray paint.  I mostly used the burgundy ink somehow, but all three colors looked nice.

I ran out of all my glass ornaments, but I am going to try to pick up some more, plus some more ink colors.  I'd like to try the mixatives too.  They're probably less smelly than the spray paint too!   With no ventilation in my bathrooms, it was an adventure using the spray paint!

I'm also really curious what else the alcohol inks can be used for, so I'm going to do a little exploring and see what ideas I can come up with.  In the meantime, there's a couple more ornament ideas I have in mind!

 

 

Gingerbread men soaps!

I just made the cutest little gingerbread men soaps.  I love gingerbread all year round, so these were fun to make because they smell so good!

After moving about 6 months ago, I was finally able to find storage and unpack most of my soap supplies and got right back into it with these little cuties.  They're only about 2" long and are guest soap size.  I just listed them in my Etsy shop, so please take a look!  They are great for stocking stuffers and other little treats.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!  I can't wait to have some pumpkin pie tonight!

Ribbon galore

Last weekend when I made those two Marie Antoinette atcs, it took me forever to pull together all the materials I wanted to use because things were all over the place.  So, I decided to use some vintage looking clothespins that I had to reorganize my ribbon stash.

I tried to color coordinate everything to make it easier to find later.

It's just so pretty to me, all wrapped up.  It makes me not want to use it all!  But, I know there is always more to find later!

Now that my ribbon is all organized, I'm going to attempt to organize all the paper and embellishments I have.  It's going to be a much harder project, but totally worth the effort.

My first atcs

I've been thinking of making an atc for a long time, but collage has always been intimidating to me for some reason.  Today I bit the bullet and decided to give it a try regardless of the result and just see what I could do.

I ended up making two Marie atcs.  Not too bad for a first try I think!

I fully admit that I borrowed ideas from examples I found online.  For me, the easiest way to learn collage techniques is to be inspired by what other people have done and use the basic idea to start with, without outright copying.   Can I also just say that I've discovered that glue dots are amazing?

It took me over an hour to make these two because my embellishments and ribbon were all over the room in different nooks and crannies, so I think I'll be using some of my time off to reorganize my supplies so that I can actually find things!  I know I have some German paper scrap somewhere too that I wanted to use, but couldn't find it.  Next time!