General Crafts – Page 5 – Mary's Musings

Soothe Those Bug Bites

Hot summer days bring to mind how annoying mosquito bites can be. Preventing them is the first line of defense. The bug deterrent I made for dogs (and people) can help (see https://marykisner.com/natural-bug-repellent-for-dogs/); or any bug repellent you are comfortable using. However, the itching from a bite can prolong the agony for days.

I found a simple recipe on a website I read frequently and thought I’d give it a try (https://joybileefarm.com/lavender-tea-tree-roll-on-stick/). My plan is to make a bunch and share it to see if it actually works. Here is my modified recipe:

While I was collecting the supplies I thought about the ingredients. I had grapeseed oil and lavender essential oil on hand. I also have tea tree essential oil available, but after all my research about manuka essential oil, I thought I would try substituting it for the tea tree oil.

What’s the Difference Between Tea Tree and Manuka Essential Oils?

Tea tree oil has been considered the industry standard since World War II for many topical and household applications due to its antifungal and antibacterial properties. It is considered safe and effective to be used as an insect repellent, household cleaner and dandruff shampoo. It has been used to soothe bug bites, sunburns and rashes. However, it has a strong scent and can be irritating to some people, including children.

Manuka essential oil, while new on the market, has also been shown to have powerful antibacterial and antifungal properties. It is great for soothing sore muscles and itching from bug bites and sunburns. Manuka oil also had 20-30 times the antibacterial activity as Tea Tree oil. It is less irritating to sensitive adults, is safe for children AND it smells good!

Therefore, I substituted Manuka essential oil for the Tea Tree oil in this recipe.

Here are the ingredients for this mixture:

I knew that the little cup I saved from when I had kids had the 10 ml mark on the side and would be perfect to measure out the grapeseed oil. I just filled it to below the 10 ml line. It was much easier to dispense than the big bottle of oil.

I discovered after the first few I made that the 2 tsp. of grapeseed oil needed to be little less. The roller ball holds 10 ml (which is 2 tsp.). When I added the full 2 tsp. of grapeseed oil plus the 10 drops of essential oil it was so full I couldn’t get the roller ball snapped in. I ended up adding only 9 ml instead.

I set out 18 roller balls and filled 6 at a time, capped them and set them upside down along the back of the tray to help the oils mix.

I made 18 because I wanted to share them with some friends. I will need their feedback to see if rolling on some of this oil mixture really helps soothe the itch of a bug bite. We’ll see!

Of course, everything I make and give away needs information about what is in the product. I want folks to know before they put anything on their skin. Give this recipe a try yourself! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Learning About Hydrosols

I’m getting ready to make another batch of natural bug repellent and remembered my recipe calls for Lavender Hydrosol. When I wrote my original article about this recipe last Spring I just followed the recipe. You can see the article here: https://marykisner.com/natural-bug-repellent-for-dogs/.

Here is the final recipe for this repellent:

This recipe is only approved for dogs (and is actually safe for humans too!). Cats are very sensitive to several of the essential oils in this mix and when they lick their fur, they ingest them. Not safe!

I ordered Lavender Hydrosol from Amazon…starting with a small bottle and then went to this quart jug so I could mix up enough for Nittany Greyhounds:

I did a little research that reminded me that this is basically lavender water…that is a byproduct from the distillation process of extracting lavender essential oil…and it is water soluble. Since my recipe called for lavender hydrosol and essential oils they would not stay mixed. I had to add an emulsifier to help them disperse. Polysorbate20 was recommended in the recipe.

Here are the ingredients in this natural bug repellent.

It was packaged in a bottle that worked better for shipping…with an empty spray bottle provided. If I make only one for myself, I mix it directly in the spray bottle.

Learning More About Hydrosols

This year I wanted to know more about Hydrosols. I found this book that was very helpful:

This book, Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy by Suzanne Catty, has a wealth of information about how hydrosols are made, how the field of aromatherapy is maturing and how the production of hydrosols is becoming more consistent around the world. The author’s research provides many recipes to use hydrosols, from skin care products to using them in cooking to enhance flavors. While few essential oils are safe for babies (and even cats), hydrosols could be just the right product for many of those products.

Next, I did a search online for sources of hydrosols. Many companies that sell essential oils also offer hydrosols of those same plants. One company had a great article about hydrosols with the following illustration:

(From: https://www.rockymountainoils.com/learn/all-about-hydrosols/)

On another site, www.edenbotanicals.com I was able to order a set of 8 tiny spray bottles that would let me try them. So…these are very tiny samples, but might give me some ideas for future products.

These include Chamomile, Cucumber, Geranium Rose, Lavender, Rose, Tulsi (Holy Basil) and Tumeric Hydrosols.

I can see there is so much more to learn about Hydrosols; I’ve barely scratched the surface! Look for Hydrosols to appear in some of my future products! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Prepping For New Door Quilts

As you may know by now, most of my projects revolve around filling a need and making something practical and useful. If you’ve been following my posts about Door Quilts, you’ll know I have made six nice 12″ stand-alone fabric quilt blocks to hang on my front door. They lie flat and don’t get squished like a wreathe does between the front door and the screen door.

However, when I pulled out the Patriotic Door Quilt last month, I noticed it’s really faded from the sun. Here’s how it looked when new…

…and now it’s really bleached out from the sun:

Rather than make a bunch more fabric quilt blocks, I thought if I painted a quilt block on wood and coated it with an acrylic spray it would last better in the sun (kind of like the huge barn quilts you see across the country).

While I’m waiting for Bert to cut 12″ square boards for me, I thought I’d see if I could make miniature ones to satisfy my need to practice with paints. So, eventually, my fabric door quilts will evolve into wooden quilt blocks that will also hang on the front door and solve my problem just fine!

It’s been a long time since I painted anything. I’m not especially creative with paint, put I enjoyed playing with a few paints to make my garden stakes a few weeks ago (https://marykisner.com/final-garden-signs-for-2022/).

It helped that the pictures were tiny and didn’t need to be too detailed!

Twenty years ago, I spent hours painting small houses based on photographs. They were also not “creative” but instead were mostly straight lines and the photographs showed me shadows.

This is the house I grew up in, from an old photograph.

The camp was fun to paint because I could add the tiny outhouse!

So, after making the garden stakes, I thought I’d try some miniature flowers:

Even though I copied the daffodils from a photograph, I had to really struggle to get the petals turned right and getting the color right. Very frustrating. The point of painting was to do something fun, not frustrating! It seemed like I needed to paint something with straight lines. Quilt blocks would be perfect.

First Attempt

I started with a set of 3″ x 3″ square tiny canvases and some tiny easels to go with them. So cute!

This block is called **Vermont Maple Leaf**.

Adding the lines with a fine black marker seemed to help it look more finished.

Second Attempt

This block is called Fifty-four Forty or Fight. It’s the same block I made in fabric.

I must say it’s a challenge to get in those tiny points!

The fine black marker helped it feel finished.

While I’m waiting for my 12″ wood squares, I’ll experiment with tiny ones to see which patterns would look good on the front door! I must be nuts! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Making Arnica-Infused Oil for Topical Salves

Now that we’re heading into the more active summer season, I wanted to share what I’ve recently learned about the herb Arnica. It is not as well-known as lavender and calendula and it is sometimes included in over-the-counter ointments and creams sold to soothe occasional aching knees, joints and muscles. It is often used in homeopathic remedies, which means the products contain very small amounts of the active ingredients. Making infused oil with dried arnica plant material is a great way to incorporate these ingredients into body care products.

About Arnica

Arnica is a perennial herb Arnica montana. It is a yellow-orangish flower that grows in the mountains of Europe, Siberia and the mountains of northwestern North America. It is sometimes called the “mountain daisy,” because its color and petals look like the familiar flower. It yields an essential oil that is appreciated for its ability to reduce pain in osteoarthritis joints and reduce bruise discoloration.

Note: This plant does have some drawbacks or cautions for people that are allergic to certain plants of the Asteraceae family–like ragweed, marigolds, chrysanthemums and daisies, or are using blood thinning medications. I wanted to have some of this infused oil on hand to make a salve if needed this summer. Because of these cautions, I do not plan to share any salve I make with others, since I have no way to know who might be sensitive to the plant.

Please do your own research about any plant material you might work with, but this process of infusing oil with any plant material would be the same process.

Making Infused Oil in General

I’ve previously shared how to do this with Calendula plant material at https://marykisner.com/making-calendula-nfused-oil-for-topical salves/. Dried lavender works the same way. I usually use olive oil, but you can substitute sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, or even grapeseed oil.

Arnica-Infused Olive Oil

Here are the basic instructions to make this oil:

First, I filled a quart jar with dried Arnica flowers. I ordered this bag of dried flowers from Amazon. This 8 oz. bag will probably last me the rest of my life!

Starting with a quart jar, I filled the jar loosely with dried flowers and poured about 2 1/2 cups of olive oil over them.

This filled the jar about 3/4 full. I used a long-handled spoon to gently poke the flowers to distribute the oil. I put the filled jar in a deep pan of water and brought the water up to a boil and lowered the temperature so it would just simmer for about 6 hours. I did have to add water to the saucepan every hour or so as it evaporated and poked the flowers down now and then just to make sure they stayed submerged.

Then, I poured the oil/flower mixture through the strainer and pressed flowers to squeeze out as much oil as possible.

After straining, there were still some small pieces of plant material in the oil.

After disposing of the plant material, I strained the oil again by lining the strainer with cheesecloth to make sure I didn’t have any crumbs left from the dried flowers.

After straining out all the Arnica plant material, first with a large strainer and again with cheesecloth, I had about 1 3/4 cups of lovely arnica-infused olive oil. Before pouring it back into the washed and dried quart jar, I added about a teaspoon of Vitamin E oil to help as a preservative.

This jar of oil will be stored in the refrigerator until I need it.

Making Arnica Salve

This recipe will make a small batch of salve. Since I don’t plan to share it yet, I’ll keep the batch small.

Combine 3 1/2 Tbsp. of Arnica-Infused oil with 2 tsp. beeswax (about 8 gms).

Place the cup into a pan of water and bring the water to boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer.

Simmer until the beeswax is melted. Remove from heat.

Add 10-20 drops of your preferred essential oil. (I chose Vanilla for the scent and Manuka for its healing properties).

Pour into small containers or lip balm tubes. Cap tightly and label.

My first pour was into these small containers, however it was pretty firm when cool. I could hardly apply it with my finger tip.

So, I scooped the salve out of the round containers, melted it down again and poured the oil into these wide dispensers. Worked much better!

So now I have a simple salve ready for my aches and pains, bumps and bruises! I’ll keep you posted on how it works this summer!

If I find it works really well, I’ll have cards ready to go with the samples.

Look for Arnica in your over-the-counter creams and salves! It might be the magic ingredient. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Making Tinted Lip Balm

Last weekend I was wishing I had some lipstick or tinted lip balm. Getting dressed up (a little) for a niece’s outdoor wedding reminded me I don’t often wear lipstick but it’s been so long since I dressed up I didn’t even have a lip gloss anymore! When I got home, I started thinking about whether I wanted to go to the drug store to find some, or look up how to make a tinted lip balm myself. Making it myself seemed to be my choice! Pinterest to the rescue!

I found a simple recipe and got to work. For ingredients I needed: Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Jojoba Oil, Shea Butter and Mica Powder (for color).

I got my lip balm holders ready. The recipe makes about 10 lip balms, so I decided to make a double batch so I could share them with my high school friends at our next monthly luncheon.

To see more about this holder, see https://marykisner.com/two-lip-balm-flavors-and-a-cool-new-tool/.

The ingredient list says to measure out 1 Tbsp. each of the Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Jojoba Oil and Shea Butter. Since I was doubling the recipe, I measured out 2 Tbsp. of each ingredient into a glass measuring cup and placed it in a pan of water on the stove. It did not take too long to melt everything together.

When melted, I stirred in 1/4 tsp. of Rose Pearl Mica Powder.

I did not add any scent because it wasn’t necessary and several folks in my high school group prefer unscented products.

Using a disposable pipette I filled 25 1/2 lip balm tubes! (I’ll use the half-filled tube). I guess the original recipe is going to make more than 10 tubes.

I always try to make a card with ingredients for the stuff I make…by our age, we are all allergic to something!

Now I’m ready to get dressed up! Hopefully it won’t be another two years before I need this! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Making Aromatherapy Soap Dough

I recently came across an article about making aromatherapy soap dough. This project sounded like such a neat idea! The article was written by Jan Berry who has written my favorite book about working with melt and pour soap:

The focus of this aromatherapy project had to do with the various scents and how working with dough that had a specific scent could, for example, calm the child (lavender), brighten their mood (lemon), or even soothe overexcitement (Himalayan cedarwood). Therefore, the amount of scent in each batch was quite strong. The recipe called for 1/8 plus 1/16 tsp. of essential oil. Since most essential oils are measured by the drop, 1/4 tsp. of essential oil represents 20-30+ drops in 5 oz. of soap.

For this project, you melt the soap of your choice, add soap tint and essential oils, and then stir in 3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch until it makes a soft dough. The pictures in the article showed a small ball of tinted play-dough-type clay that kids could roll out and cut out shapes, let them dry and then use them to wash their hands.

After giving this recipe a try my final recommendation is…this project was more trouble than it was worth. I can’t imagine trying to make enough of this dough for kids to play with. You might have a better result than I did, but I don’t plan to spend any more time trying to get it right!

Making the Soap Dough

Step 1: Melt the Soap

I started with 1 lb. of Goats Milk melt & pour soap base. I divided the pound into 3 glass measuring cups by chunking it up and weighing each cup. I needed 5 oz. in each cup.

I put two of the cups into saucepans with water on the stove and started them melting.

I decided to work with one cup at a time.

Optimistically, I had three sets of tint and essential oils ready for three colors/scents of soap dough.

Step 2: Add tint and scent

When the first cup of soap was melted, I added the purple tint (directions said to mix the tint with twice as much rubbing alcohol). I’m not sure why that was important, but I mixed a few drops of tint in a metal measuring cup with a teaspoon of Everclear alcohol and then added it to the soap.

I use Everclear in my perfumes so I had it on hand.

Then I added about 20 drops of Lavender essential oil. I would never use that much in such a small portion of soap but I did in this first batch.

Step 3: Add cornstarch.

Next, the recipe said to begin adding 3 to 4 tablespoons of cornstarch a little at a time.

The cornstarch stayed in lumps…kind of like lumpy gravy! Don’t you hate that!

I was to keep stirring as the soap cooled. By the time I had added 4 tablespoons of cornstarch the soap was making a sticky ball in the cup.

I dumped it out onto parchment paper and tried to make it into a ball of dough. It stayed lumpy with the cornstarch that didn’t mix in. I finally pressed it flat and tried to use a cookie cutter to make a heart. It sure didn’t look pretty!

The final chunk I just patted into a circle and called it quits! Now they are supposed to dry for a few days. Then they can be used to wash hands.

At this point, I decided to just melt down the soap in the other two cups, add tint and essential oils, and pour them into my heart molds. These heart soaps, scented with Lemon and Rose essential oils can be used in a few hours. Much simpler!

In a few days I’ll see if the “aromatherapy soap dough” hearts work well for hand washing. However, I think the small molded hearts have enough scent to be useful as good smelling soap.

If I really want to calm down a child with lavender scent, I think an essential oil diffuser in the room where they are playing might be more effective and much less messy! Even a small pillow stuffed with dried lavender buds would work well. Give it a try! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Maple Perfume Experiment

Why would I experiment making perfume that smells like maple syrup? Back in December I did another experiment with lip balm flavors…one of which was Maple Coffee. (see https://marykisner.com/two-lip-balm-flavors-and-a-cool-new-tool/). Quite a few folks liked it, including my niece in California. In fact, she let me know that it was the first scent she could actually smell since she had had Covid months before. Interesting! Recently, she asked if I would try making a Maple perfume…she didn’t care if she smelled like a pancake breakfast! Kind of yummy if you think about it!

I’ve been brainstorming with a local friend about how to make this perfume (thanks, Becky!). I knew that I needed several scents to make a balanced perfume…but what would complement the maple scent? After much deliberation, we decided that the maple would be the heaviest scent and could be enhanced with vanilla, wild orange and black pepper essential oils. (Sounds like a breakfast buffet!)

The maple flavoring was really meant to be used in cooking and baking, so one look at the ingredients let me know that I would have to use something as an emulsifier. I’ve used Polysorbate20 in the past and glycerin and alcohol can also serve that purpose. Here are the ingredients for the maple flavoring:

This product is definitely not an essential oil!

I tried two formulas, one with sweet almond oil as the base and the other with alcohol and glycerin as the base.

Maple Perfume #1

For the first formula I mixed the ingredients up directly in the roller ball…thinking they would blend and be easily applied with the roller ball. The ingredients included:

Unfortunately, the mixture separated, leaving a huge glob of the maple flavoring floating around. Shaking hard helped but it separated again. Not sure if I used enough Polysorbate20. It was certainly fragrant and lasted on my wrist all day!

Maple Perfume #2

The second recipe started with a 1-cup glass measuring cup and ended up filling 6 10ml spray bottles and two 10ml roller balls. However, it made it much easier to mix the ingredients.

A dropper and tiny funnel were essential to fill these tiny bottles.

I hope my niece likes this perfume…she’ll have enough for quite a while!

The Maple flavoring seemed to stay mixed in this recipe but I’ll still recommend a shake before spraying!

I’ll put these in the mail to California and wait for feedback before I make any more! I must say, my kitchen smells great today! Never be afraid to experiment! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Refreshing the Scent in Melt & Pour Soap Bars

Last week I was asked by my son-in-law and grandson to make some glycerin soap bars with the scents of Lavender and Lemon. I made a double batch and added about 12 drops of Lavender essential oil to one batch and 12 drops of Citrus Bliss essential oil to the other. Citrus Bliss is a blend of oils, including: Bergamot, Lemon, Mandarin Sweet Orange, Tangerine and Vanilla. A nice blend, but definitely not very “lemony.” I also added just 1 drop of soap tint to each batch (purple for the lavender and yellow for the citrus) to better tell them apart.

When they were cool, I was concerned that they didn’t have a very strong smell, especially of lemon. After letting them sit for a week, I decided that I needed to add more essential oil before I could hand them off.

So, this week I unwrapped the bars, chopped them up and put them back on the stove to melt them down.

Chopping the soap into small pieces help them melt quickly.

Ready to go into the pan of water on the stove.

Who knew 1 drop of yellow tint would make them so YELLOW!

Bring the pan of water to a boil and turn down to simmer until the soap is melted. A little bit of white vinegar in the water will keep our hard water from leaving sediment on the pan and the outside of the glass measuring cup.

I added an additional 15 drops of essential oil to each batch. I thought Lemongrass would enhance the “lemon” scent.

Let the soap bars cool for about 2 hours before removing the from the molds.

I felt better about these bars. I’ll wrap them individually in plastic wrap so they won’t absorb moisture from the air. Hopefully they’ll be just what my boys were expecting! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Final Garden Signs for 2022

As a follow-up to my post about making garden signs from polymer clay, (see https://marykisner.com/polymer-clay-garden-signs/), I thought I’d take a minute to share what I ended up with.

I was not happy with the colors of clay I used and the shapes I experimented with in that previous post. So, I pulled out the Pearl clay I had and started over.

I decided to make rectangles that were 2″ x 3″. I did not have a cutter that size so I made a cardboard pattern from an old tablet back.

I rolled out a ball of clay and placed the pattern on it. Then I used a zig zag cutter and just cut around it, like this:

I made about 20 of these rectangular shapes. Some ended up closer to 1 1/2″ x 3″ and a few were round circles. They baked for 50 minutes at 265 degrees in my old toaster oven.

Next, I printed out pictures of the vegetables we are going to grow. Even though I know what the common vegetables look like, I wasn’t sure about the various beans we were going to try.

Then, I pulled out my various bottles of acrylic paint and brushes.

I started with two of the round circles to see if I could make a representative picture of a radish and a strawberry. Those two, plus the lettuce and spinach, will be in the planters on the patio so they didn’t need huge signs.

Luckily the paintings are pretty small, so they didn’t have to be perfect! I’ll glue the signs to the wide craft sticks and then spray them all with a polyurethane spray. Hopefully, that will help them weather the outside summer temperatures and moisture.

Here are all the finished signs:

NOW I’m ready for gardening season! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Polymer Clay Garden Signs

Before I invest in more polymer clay to make my garden signs, I thought I should figure out if it will even work. I collected up my pile of partially used bits of clay leftover from other projects and spent the day making some samples.

I haven’t worked with clay for many months but the clay seemed to survive just fine in plastic bags. My first goal was to see if one color worked better than others and how I should write on them. My second goal was to figure out what shape worked best and how to attach the stick that will go in the ground.

The first color I chose was a pale pink. I thought I could write on it with a black marker. I also didn’t need anything too large because five of the signs could be small…they will be in the smallest planters on the patio. These small signs would be for the Radishes, Lettuce, Spinach, Radicchio and Swiss Chard. I put a piece of clay on the back that would make a pocket to hold the stick.

I used the flat end of a marker to tap down the edge of the pocket…hoping it would stay put after baking. I left the stick in the pocket while it baked to keep the pocket from collapsing.

After baking in my toaster oven (275 degrees for 30 minutes), I wrote Radish on the sign with a permanent marker. The sign looked like this:

I added glue to the end of the stick and stuck it in the pocket to harden.

Just for fun, I chose a cookie cutter of a gingerbread man to make a larger sign. I added the pocket piece to the back and tapped the edge down.

After baking, I glued the stick into the pocket using fast-drying E6000 glue. These are the ones I made today:

When the signs were cool, I turned them over and wrote on the black ones with yellow paint. I may have to make the rest larger than the round one above…too much to write so they need to be bigger.

After writing all the words with yellow paint on black I think I like the light color clay with writing in black marker. It’s much easier, especially as the number of letters increase.

When they are all done, I’ll seal them with an acrylic spray to make them waterproof. I’m sure they could also be more decorative too! I’ll have to look up some ideas on Pinterest! Enjoy!

Please comment with suggestions or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.