Lollipop Soap

This past weekend, I had a baby shower for one of my really good friends. The theme was *Sweet Treats*. It was a dessert shower and despite the fact that I gained some good old l-b-s's (aka: pounds), the party favor did NOT make me gain any. Check these out!

Don't they look good enough to eat wash your hands with?? They were so easy to make.

Here is a picture of what you will need:

Clear glycerin soap from Hobby Lobby, scent oil, coloring, a cookie pan and lollipop sticks. You will also want a spritzer bottle with rubbing alcohol in it.

Start out by putting the soap into a microwave safe container, I microwaved it for 1 minute the first time at half power, then 30 seconds at half power until melted. You do not want it to boil.

This is what it looks like all melted. If you see little bubbles, spritz in some rubbing alcohol and the bubbles magically disappear!

Add in your coloring. A little goes a long way and you can always add more. Stir it up really good and spritz more alcohol if you see bubbles.

Then add your scent. As much or as little as you want. Stir it up good and spritz more alcohol if you see bubbles. Slowly pour into your mold. If bubbles appear, what do you do? Spritz alcohol!

Let them cool and then pull them away from the mold. They weren't hard to remove, but if the stick wiggles too much, they aren't cool enough, give 'em more time.

Like I said, I used these as party favors, but they would make excellent house-warming gifts, holiday gifts, Mother's Day gifts, etc. Don't forgot to include a little note with them that reminds people not to eat the soap. Mine said something like, "Please enjoy, but do not lick- For eating soap can make you sick!"

I will be posting to these parties this week.

Scrapbook Frames

When one of my good friends sent me the very first (ultrasound) pic of her baby, I wanted to make her a frame to capture the little miracle.

Off to the Dollar Tree I went and I found this thing:

I cut off the string that is on it and then trimmed some scrapbook paper that I could wrap and glue around it. I used three different patterns.

I put a new ribbon through the old holes and cut a piece of white paper to fit on the back to "hide" where I wrapped the scrapbook paper. I hot glued on.

On the front, I hot glued a bull dog clip. I am not sure if there is another name for these, but you can buy them at office supply stores and even grocery stores. Mine happened to have a magnet (the round part of it), but I would have preferred to have one without - there is no need for the magnet part.

I took a piece of glass from the 4X6 Dollar Tree frame like this one:

And put it under the clip with the ultrasound picture. I also cut out the words "ultra cute" and put at the bottom of the frame.

I cut out an initial to cover the clip. You could also use a button or something else to spruce it up.

Here is the finished product (with baby's named blacked out, just in case the cat isn't totally out of the bag yet):

I like it so much that I made one for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. She loves to take pictures, so I knew she would have just the right one for this frame:

This time I added a button on the clip for a little added pizzaz!

I will be posting to these cool parties!

Floating Frame Spring Plaque

Did you see the Dollar Tree floating frame address plaque I made? Well, here is something similar.

This was a simple, fun project I did to give as a gift to my Sister-in-Law for Mother's Day. It would be so simple to make for any season or any reason (hey- that rhymes!).

I used a floating frame from the Dollar Tree and painted it black (it would also be adorable white). Then I used my cricut and some adhesive paper to cut out the word "Spring" and a little birdie. (Am I obsessed with birdies or what?)

If you don't have a Cricut, you could use cute stickers. So easy!

I will be linking up to these fun parties!

Floating Frame Address Plaque

Have you seen the awesome floating frames at the Dollar Tree?? They look like this:

Did you know the word "Love" is stuck to one of the pieces of glass, but if you run it under hot water, it comes right off- no scrubbing necessary?!?

So, I decided to paint the frame black.

Then I used my cricut to cut out some address numbers. I used some adhesive paper so that it acted like stickers. I also used the cricut mat to help me place the numbers onto one of the pieces of glass.

Put it back in the frame and you have a nice housewarming gift, or a Mother's Day gift, etc.

I will be posting to these linky parties.

Mother's Day and Glass (Wine) Markers

Happy Mother's Day!! This year, we decided to have a Mother's Day Lunch at our house. It was such a beautiful day!

I originally wanted to have it outdoors because my husband is Master of the Grill, but in Michigan in May, you never know what kind of weather you will get! While it was a gorgeous day, it was plain old chilly! So, last minute, I looked at my supplies and came up with a splendid theme to honor our mothers. I chose a black, white, red and pink theme because it was all stuff I had on hand.

Here is a picture of the table all set up, with the exceptions of our plates.

Here are the centerpieces that you might recognize from this party. Don't ya just love it when you can reuse and recycle?

I was also using placemats for each placesetting, but I ran out and needed two more. Not to worry, I quickly made some out of paper for the younger "boys" of the family.

Some fresh flowers for the food table in the pedestal vase...

As little party favors, I made glass markers out of washers. I stamped them with words like "faith," "love," and the names of the mothers' children.

It was a great day, and hopefully the mothers in the family felt relaxed and loved. They also didn't have to do any of the cooking or cleaning up! Have a great day!

I will be posting to these parties.