Solid perfume (a tutorial)

As promised, I present the tutorial for making solid perfume! I saw this on Pinterest a while ago and pinned it to my {Crafty things I need to do} board. And finally got around to trying it out!

{original pin here}

I searched and searched for a vintage pocket watch or locket to fill with perfume, but after a few weeks I became way too impatient and ended up picking one up for $5 from Michaels. Then I realized I had NONE of the ingredients I needed to make solid perfume. Argh. So I spent a few weeks researching and and comparing products and waiting for everything to come in the mail. Why I bought ingredients online and waited around for them to arrive escapes me. Wait, that's a lie. It's because it was much cheaper that way. Getting off topic...

Yay! If you follow me on {facebook} you're probably sick of seeing these, they are the newest addition to my shop! But they are so much fun (and addicting) to make, I thought I'd share the how-to as well!

To make solid perfume, you will need:

• Beeswax
• Carrier oil (I use a combo of sweet almond oil and coconut oil.)
• Essential oils
• Oral syringe (find it in the medicine aisle of the grocery store)
• Locket
• Old metal/glass bowl that you will never use for food again.
• Plastic spoon

I didn't really follow the pinned tutorial very well. I researched several different recipes and sort of mashed them together and came up with my own. Through experimentation, I discovered that a 1:1 beeswax/carrier oil made the best perfume base. Not too solid, not too lip balmy. Since I decided to use a combo of two different carrier oils (sweet almond and coconut) it comes out to be a 2:1:1 beeswax:sweet almond:coconut oil ratio.

 For this huge locket, I did a teaspoon of beeswax...

...and a half teaspoon of the oils. It ended up being way too much. 

Bring a small amount of water to a boil in a pot small enough to NOT let metal/glass bowl fit in. We're making a double boiler here. 

Combine all three into the bowl and place it on top of the boiling pot of water. The steam will quickly melt the three together. I mean in like less than a minute. 

Stir with the plastic spoon to combine. Stir really well, otherwise you'll end up with pockets of oil in the beeswax. Not cool. 

It really does melt fast! Stir, stir, stir, then turn the heat off. 

Add your oils. For this particular locket I used a headache relief blend (since I am an almost daily sufferer...) a 50/50 peppermint/lavender. Mix really well again, but do this quickly because the perfume will harden pretty quickly. The amount of essential oils added was different everywhere I looked, so I just had to wing it. I added about 25-30 drops total. 

Fill the oral syringe with your perfume. This makes it a lot easier to fill the locket. 

....though it's not a perfect science. 

Let the perfume harden for at least 15 minutes before disturbing it. (10 BFF points if you sang that.)

Then comes the fun part, turning it into something beautiful!

To apply solid perfume, rub your fingers on the perfume and smooth it onto your pressure points. Wrists, behind the ears, etc. Since I made this amazing headache relief batch, I massage it into my temples and at the nape of my neck to work in the magic. 

Another added bonus: Your body acts like a candle warmer. The heat from your body will release the oils in the locket and you will smell gorgeous all day. I've now made three of these for myself (and another half dozen that I've sold) and the scent really sticks with you. All in all, a wonderful pin. I hope you enjoy it! 

I'm linking this up to...

Because Becca inspired me to actually do one of my pins! And linking up to a few other fun {parties}

The "cheating" post, jewelry with buttons

I know, I know, the whole series was "Jewelry Making for the Non-Jewelry Maker" and it required no special tools or supplies. Well...these both have just a teensy bit of special supplies. But they were so easy to do I had to include them! You've still got a week left till Christmas! You can totally knock these out. Easy.

 The main ingredient of the jewelry today? Buttons. Yes, buttons. You'd be amazed at the buttons you can find these days, some of them don't look like buttons at all! Like that pretty pink pendant. Yes, it's a button, and this is the easiest necklace ever! Less than a minute to make.

You will need:

• Button
• Jump ring
• Premade necklace (you can find these at Hobby Lobby)

That's it! Wait for buttons to go on sale and you've got a majorly inexpensive present. To make one:

Take button off of paper. Open the jump ring, thread it through the button.

Attach it to the necklace. Close the jump ring. Told you it was easy!

And the results are lovely! Only hardcore Joann stalkers will ever know that you're wearing a button around your neck. Ready for some easy peasy earrings?

You will need:

• Small buttons
• Two earring posts
• Button shank removers (Six bucks at Joann in the button aisle. Bring your coupon)
• Hot glue gun (E6000 would be better)

This one is a teeny tiny itsy bitsy more tricky, but it'll still take you less than a minute to make!

Using the button shank removers, remove the shank of the button.

Bam. Now it has a flat back.

Do it again to another button so you can have a pair (unless you only have one pierced ear, in which case skip this step)

Bam. Pretty rose earrings on the cheap, no cabochons required. I'll spare you another picture of my face, you get the idea right?

I hope you enjoyed my little series! Remember, next month I am redoing "Jewelry Making 101" which should cover everything you ever wanted to know about making your own jewelry. Got a question? Shoot me an email and I'll cover it in the series.

Happy crafting!

Vintage style cuff

First things first, this idea isn't originally my own. It was inspired by {this} tutorial over at I Heart Naptime.

Mine's a little different though. When I saw this pretty pleated ribbon at Hobby Lobby the very first thing I thought of was "Oh!! That would make an awesome cuff!" And here we are. You wanna make one?

Uh, don't mind the pic, I changed my mind a lot while I was making this. So, besides the glue gun, heat sealer, and scissors, you will need:

• Pleated ribbon
• Ruffled velvet ribbon
• Buttons
• Velcro
• Satin ribbon

Just pretend everything is in the picture, mmkay?

Wrap the ribbon around your wrist and subtract an inch. Cut the smaller ribbon the same length, and glue the ruffled ribbon on the pleated ribbon right down the middle.

Ok...I cheated a teensy bit here. I used button shank removers to take the shanks off, but this isn't necessary. You could glue them down just fine or use your scissors to take the shanks off. Don't throw rocks at me!

Arrange your buttons on your cuff in a pleasing way, and glue them down.

To close the cuff, I cut two 2 inch lengths of matching satin ribbon and heat sealed the ends. I glued them on the back side of the cuff.

The Velcro part of it...it's really just measuring and guessing. I wrapped the cuff around my wrist and overlapped the ribbons, then a glued on the Velcro where the ribbons overlapped.

See? It didn't totally match up, but since I measured it against my wrist it worked out perfectly!

And I really love how it turned out! The gold buttons really gave it a more vintage-ish feel.

(Dude, my hair is cuh-raaaazy in this one!)

I seriously love it, I want to wear it with everything and I am typically not a bracelet person.

We still have one more day of the Jewelry Making for the Non-Jewelry Maker series! Though tomorrow...I cheat a little bit. :( There are a few easy to find jewelry supplies but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for some really simple jewelry.

I'll give you a hint. It's the necklace I'm wearing.

Ribbon and chain necklace

I am still sticking to my "no fancy tools or supplies" rule here, promise! Today's tute comes from the trim departments of both Joann and Hobby Lobby. You would amazed

Yup, seriously. That's some metal trim from Joann. It's a bit pricey, so if you go looking for it make sure to bring some coupons. The whole thing ties together with ribbon (as do most of these creations.) Ready to make your own?

Aside from scissors, glue gun, and heat sealer, you will need:

• Metal trim (or if you want to break the no supplies rule the jewelry section has some lovely chain)
• Satin ribbon

These materials lists seem kind of pointless don't they?

First, cut your trim to about 12-14 inches long.

Heat seal the end of a 12 inch length of ribbon

Thread it through a link and glue it down. Repeat on the other side.

Don't worry, I'll keep your secret when you give away one of these to each of your friends and neighbors.

Oh wait, you have some chain leftover?

Same thing as the necklace. Measure the chain around your wrist and subtract an inch and use 7ish inch ribbon strands.

Weave some pretty trim through the links if you're feeling really fancy.

Use another length of ribbon to cover up raw edges. Better make two for good luck. NOW you're done.

I've been really into stacking bracelets lately! (See that ring? It's a button threaded through a thin hair tie using the same method from earlier this week. Holla!!)

Hope you're having fun with this little series! I have one more tomorrow and one "cheating" post.

Happy crafting!