That's a Lye...

based product.

Here is my soap still in the mold turned upside down. It takes about three days for it to cure. I used lavender oil and lavender botanicals.  The unmolded product isn't glamorous. You'll see it at the end.

 Making soap the true old-fashioned way using lye is nothing to be sneezed at or toyed with.  Inhaling the fumes can be dangerous and spilling it on your skin can burn.  This isn’t that melt and pour soap you find at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. This is the real deal.

Directions(left) Soap kit consisted of a plastic mold with lid, tooth picks

for stirring in oils and botanicals and a cloth towel to keep the heat in

once it's ready to cure. 

The owner of Left Hand Soap company   located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama   has a wealth of knowledge about soap making. She’s been in business for over 20 years. The business name comes from her being a southpaw and being the only one in her family who is. 

She watched her grandmother make soap and decided that was what she wanted to do. Most soaps in the past were made using some type of animal tallow. Most often pork or beef.  Unfortunately, Hitler had soap made from humans in the concentration  camps.  

The owner of Left Hand Soap Company uses natural ingredients purchased from local businesses.

ONE-oils, TWO-pitcher used to pour the emulsified soap

into molds, THREE-glass measuring cup containing lye and distilled

water mixture,  4-prepared molds for any remaining soap liquid

The most important thing I learned was ; Do not to pour a substance into lye. Pour the lye slowly into the substance in an open air place. In this case the substance (fat)  was a mixture of coconut oil, castor oil and olive oil. The lye had been mixed with distilled water and prepped before the class. Hence no need to be outside to do this.

The assistant is emulsifying the mixture of oils and lye mixture until it 

has traced.

I found it funny that purchasing the lye in large quantities requires her to have a permit or certification. Why? Lye is used in making an illegal drug (meth).

Essential oils 

Botanicals to stir into soap mixture

We were given a box to put our towel wrapped soap into. It takes 3 days

for the soap to cure. On the right is a sample of the soap Left Hand Soap

Company makes. I tried it and it is an exfoliating soap. 

Soap without all of the preservatives, colorings and fakeness is not that attractive. 

Looks like insects stuck in wax. They're lavender buds. That indentation

comes from taking the lid off of the mold.

Click the links for more information on making soap and what words such as trace and saponification mean.

This was an interesting experience but I'll continue  to buy ready made soap.

That's it ***

"Good Scents" sachets

Maybe there are some things that shouldn't be recycled but dryer sheets? They're clean to me. I came across this craft in The Big Green book of recycled crafts.

 It was titled Good Scents. Below is my craft experience.

Click on the photos to enlarge them

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 I tweak my crafts to fit my materials and circumstances. If I have something that will do, why go out and buy extra stuff?  What's the point of recycling if you're just gonna buy more stuff?

  I had an old greeting card that I used as cardstock, potpourri from the Dollar Store and used dryer sheets from my own laundry room.

I ironed the dryer dryer sheets as instructed .

 I cut the cardstock/greeting card so that it would fit as a flap over the opening of the sachet. The problem here was that once it's folded over , one side will have the picture upside down. If you don't want that problem, use cardstock with a pattern that can go either way or a plain piece of cardstock.(Although, I think plain is kind of blah :(

 

 

I used OK To Wash-It glue, though I don't plan to wash it. This just happens to be the glue I had that came out in a line without me fighting with it. I like Tacky Glue but it has to be prepped and primed like a 1950's Chevy before it'll come out of the bottle. I folded the sheet on itself crimping the sides to make a pocket.

After the sides had dried I took some of the potpourri and filled the pocket half way. Don't fill it to the top or else you won't be able to close it.





The directions were to glue the cardstock to the sachet ,fold it over the top and glue the back.
Did I do that?

NOT!

Instead, I stapled the top closed, folding it over a bit so that the card stock would fit and then I stapled it again.  Below you see my finished results. One for hanging and one to go into a drawer.

I placed this one inside my buffet drawer where I keep my cloth napkins and letter opener. I'll check it out tomorrow to see if it gives the drawer a pleasant fragrance.

I used a piece of knit T-shirt string that I'd been using for another craft to hang the other sachet in my closet with my winter clothes.

NOTE:

1. I would do a neater job  ( no stapling) if I were giving this as a gift and I wouldn't use dryer sheets unless the person I was making it for was heavy into recycling, carbon footprinting and being green. I'd probably use a  sheer fabric of some sort ie. organdy, tulle.

2. I would caution against allowing the potpourri  sachet to rest against clothing or any other item you don't want to become discolored.  Sometimes the oils that are used in potpourri can harm fabrics.

3. Many potpourris can be revived after time with a few drops of essential oil of the original fragrance.

    * Purchased cedar chips or blocks would work in the sachet bags also. To revive a cedar chest or block of cedar, sand it lightly. (I learned that from The Furniture Guys back when I had cable TV)

The Big Green Book of Recycled  Crafts has numerous projects I plan to try.  The projects cater more to adults than children which I like. They are simple and useful. I'm into useful crafts not cutesy stuff.

That's It***