Valentine’s Day

Tub Tea Time!

January 25, 2013 by Stephanie 6 Comments

Brrrr. It’s still winter and in many cases still c-c-cold out there. Even if you live in a warmer climate, there is nothing like a warm bath to soothe away all that ails you. I love to add a little Lavender Bath Salt or a Fizzy Bath Bomb into the mix, to soften skin and ease muscle pain, but I don’t always love the clean up that comes after. Herbs are wonderful in the bath but they can leave bits and bobs to chase after the water has drained.

The solution? Tub tea! Pack herbs, salts, and other bath time joys into a fillable tea bag and you’ve got yourself a mess-free bath.

Here is a list of some of the possible options to fill your tea bags with: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crafts, Projects Tagged With: handmade holiday gifts, herbs, Natural Skincare Series, Valentine's Day, weekend project

DIY Plantable Seed Paper = Valentine’s Day Cards

February 11, 2012 by Stephanie 17 Comments

What’s better than a gift that sprouts up beautiful flowers or yummy veggies when planted? For this weekend project you’ll make plantable seed paper then turn it into Valentine’s day cards.

Materials:

8-10 sheets of shredded paper
1 packet of seeds
1 heaping tbsp dried lavender or other dried flowers / leaves
Old towels, strainer, blender
Stencils or cookie cutters of woodland creatures
Card stock
Printer
Scissor, glue, etc.

Directions:

1. Shred or tear up a bunch of paper. Scrap paper, old craft paper, anything without a glossy finish will work best. To get coloured paper like the pink shown in this project, add one sheet of shredded red paper to the mix. Place paper in a big bowl or the sink and soak in warm water for 45 minutes to an hour. The paper should be soft and break apart easily at the end of the hour.

2. Scoop paper into a blender, filled about halfway full and scoop a cup or so of the water it was soaking in into the blender. Pulse a few times until you get a mushy pulp like that shown here. Add more water as needed to get this consistency.

3. Pour pulp through a strainer to remove some of the moisture. Don’t squeeze it all out or your paper will not form together very well.

4. Add the seeds and dried flowers and gently mix. Shown here are lavender buds, bergamot petals, and dried mint leaves for flecks of interest in the paper. Radicchio, Rhubarb chard, and Alta Globe radishes are the seeds I have chosen as each will produce an edible red plant and they can be planted at the same time (started inside now and they can be moved to the garden once they have true leaves). Other good choices are flower mixes, like butterfly or bee blends that attract pollinators to the garden and produce a variety of flowers.

5. Set up a few towels on a flat surface where you can leave the paper for a day or more to dry. Dump the pulp out onto the towel and spread out gently patting paper. You can use a rolling pin to flatten the paper out a bit, but be gentle as to not crush the seeds or break the pulp. Leave undisturbed to dry.

6. Trace and cut out woodland creatures out of the dry seed paper. Decorate cards with cute messages and with a few little glue dots, affix seed paper critter. Include instructions on how to plant the seed paper by copy /pasting or writing the following on the card back:

The critter on this card is made of plantable seed paper containing radicchio, Rhubarb chard & Alta Globe radish seeds.

Directions for Planting

Rip seed paper into many small pieces and spread throughout the garden or in a pot filled with good potting soil. Cover with 1” of soil and water regularly until you get yummy veggies.

Filed Under: Crafts, Flowers, Projects Tagged With: handmade holiday gifts, paper, projects, see, seeds, Valentine's Day, weekend project

Serenity Now! DIY Lavender Eye Pillows

January 27, 2012 by Stephanie 26 Comments

Now making your own lavender eye pillow is not a unique concept but add linen, popcorn, an ink jet printer, and a just a dash of Seinfeld, and you got yourself a fun & funky Weekend Project, baby!

The concept behind this DIY came from 4 different ideas melded into one relaxing project:

1. The container of lavender that I harvested this year has inspired many a project.

2. I had some left over popcorn from making door socks a few weeks ago. Popcorn has the perfect weight and feel for eye pillows, it doesn’t go rancid like flax and some other fillers, and it’s cheap. Also, you can heat it in the microwave (so I hear) and it won’t pop. Now since I don’t have a microwave, I can only assume that it won’t pop because you won’t heat it long enough. So microwave for only 30 seconds or so and let me know how it turns out.

3. I saw a great tutorial on how to print on fabric on Modern Day Moms that I HAD to try.

4. Seinfeld is awesome.

Materials for one eye pillow:

linen or other scrap fabric measuring 10”x 10”
1 cup dried popcorn
1 heaping tbsp dried lavender
Ink jet printer
Freezer Paper
Sewing machine or needle and thread

Directions:

1. First, fold your fabric in half and print one of the sides following the directions here. That being said, I didn’t follow that tutorial, I just taped the fabric to a sheet of paper and fed it through my printer. Let me be clear, I DO NOT RECOMMEND doing it that way. It worked beautifully for me, but it can really mess up your printer so unless, like me, you want to print on fabric more than you care about your printer, do not try it at home.

2. Fold and iron a hem on the sides of the fabric.

3. Folding the fabric so that the back is on the outside (print inside), sew the long side of the together. Turn right side out and sew one of the ends together.

4. Fill the bag with 1 generous cup of popcorn and 1 heaping tablespoon of lavender. Adjust quantities for your personal tastes.

5. Push all the filling toward the end of the bag, and pin about halfway to help prevent popcorn from creeping towards the open end. Sew the open end closed and you’re all done!