Bath Crayon Stocking Stuffers
I had to share one more stocking stuffer that I made the kids. These are bath crayons made from soap shavings. I found these on Pintrest a while back and had planned to try and make them with the kids, but before I knew it, Christmas season was in full swing, and I decided to make them as stocking stuffers instead. These are definitely something that you could make with children, but they are pretty messy, just to warn you!
So, here's what I did:
I used my hand grater to make 4-5 bars of plain Ivory soap into shavings. I separated the shavings into 2 different bowls. Then, I slowly added water and food coloring a little bit at a time, stirring as I went along. It probably took about a cup or so of water and about 10 drops of food coloring, give or take. I wanted to make a nice, workable paste. This proved to be a little more difficult than I planned and I ended up using my hands so I could get right in there-that's the messy part! Once I had the consistency and color I liked, I used cookie cutters on a wax paper lined cookie sheet, and packed the soap paste evenly into them. Then, I set them aside in the basement to dry.
It took A LONG time for them to dry and I ended up completely forgetting about them after a few days since I had tucked them away safely from plain site. I happened upon them about 2-3 weeks later, so of course they were dry by then! They had also kind of shrunk and were super-easy to pop out of the cookie cutters, which was something I had become a little concerned about in the first few days of waiting for them to dry.
So, I popped them out of the cookie cutters, shaved off the brown edges with a knife, and packaged them in repurposed note card wrappers labeled with white contact paper labels, just like the regular crayons I made. I also saved the leftover colored shavings and I think that all I will have to do is add water to re-make a paste to make more. I can't wait to see how they work in the bathtub... And, who knows; maybe once I get into making my own goat milk soap, I will make goat milk soap bath crayons. Fun, fun, fun!
I hope you have enjoyed the Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas as much as I have! I have done quite a bit more crafting this holiday season that what I have shared on our blog, but I did not want to reveal any of the gifts I will be giving tonight and tomorrow, so I will have to share some of my other creations with you another time.
Making this 12 day commitment has been much more time consuming than I had imagined! For those of my friends who blog every day, and have little ones to raise, my hat goes off to you! I will be stepping back a bit for a few days so that I can focus on my family. Miss E and Miss D will be home on school vacation through January 3rd and we have A LOT of family fun-time ahead...
I am sure that Mr. J will be happy to get back to his farm talk as well. He won't say it, but I am certain that I've seen him roll his eyes at some of the "girliness" that has been thrust upon his blog over the past 12 days! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone and thanks for following along with our journey as we muddle our way through life as small farmers learning to be more self-sufficient.
Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)
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