General Crafts – Page 6 – Mary's Musings

Update on Several Projects

Many of the projects I write about are experiments and represent the first time I make something. After I’ve made something several times my techniques get more consistent. Sometimes the project is a total bust…it doesn’t work like I thought it would. Other times, because I made a dozen of something, you did not see the final result. I’d like to update you on a few of the projects I’ve made over the last several months.

This post will share 6 project updates:

The car air freshener…does it work?
A better way to store the lotion bars.
The DIY perfume experiment…which formula worked?
The finished ornaments made with recycled vintage lace.
A tool to keep the roller balls from falling over.
Using a pipette to transfer hot liquid instead of pouring into tiny containers.

The car air freshener…does it work?

Here is the original post: https://marykisner.com/make-a-simple-car-air-freshener/

Quick answer…YES! It worked great. After soaking the wood several times with essential oil I put it on the vent in the car. the first day it was quite strong (probably because the oil was freshly applied) but once it dried out a little it was perfect. The scent lasted over 3 weeks. I started a second one with a different scent and stored it in a zip lock bag until I needed it. I will keep them in labeled bags so I don’t mix them up.

2. A better way to store the lotion bars.

Here is the original article: https://marykisner.com/healing-lotion-bars-with-manuka-essential-oil/

The lotion bars store well in the 2 oz. tins that I’m using…EXCEPT…they tend to stick to the smooth inside of the tin. After using the plastic grid squares that I used for the travel soap (https://marykisner.com/travel-soap-that-works/) I thought I’d try it in the lotion bar tins. It worked great! It kept the bar from sticking to the tin. A simple solution to an annoying problem!

I cut this 12″ x 18″ sheet into 2″ squares and trimmed the corners.

3. The DIY perfume experiment…which formula worked?

Here’s the original post: https://marykisner.com/diy-perfume/

I ended up making only the roller ball perfume and the solid formula perfume. The spray will have to wait for now. The solid perfume was harder to apply and the scent did not last. The roller ball perfume was OK but applying it was much easier. HOWEVER…after a few weeks of just sitting on my dresser, I shook it up and tried it again. Amazingly, it smells wonderful and lasts all day. I was so surprised! I had read that the scents would blend and mellow over time…and they did! I guess the roller ball perfume, made of just grapeseed oil and three scents, will be something I’ll use more frequently!

4. The finished ornaments made with recycled vintage lace.

Here is the original article: https://marykisner.com/adding-vintage-lace-edging-to-ornaments/

I worked on the ornaments for a month or two and by early December, they were all done. Before I gave them out as gifts at a luncheon, I displayed them on my “ornament tree” so I could take a picture of them. They did not all fit but enough did to show you the variety. I have a few left over, so I’ll add them to my stash of homemade ornaments.

5. A tool to keep the roller balls from falling over.

Here is the post about using the roller balls: https://marykisner.com/essential-oils-and-nail-care/

It wasn’t until I was trying to make more than one roller ball at a time that I realized it was important to find a way to keep them from falling over while I carefully dropped essential oils into them. When making the nail serum I finally used one of the tiny cardboard boxes they were mailed in to keep them upright. That worked, but they were not very durable. Bert to the rescue! He had just made me a holder for the lip balm tubes. The holes were too small for the roller balls. So…he made another one with bigger holes. I think I could use it for the lip balm tubes too. They don’t have to be held tightly, they just have to not fall over if I bump them. Problem solved!

This small divided cardboard box worked but the tubes were almost too close together.

The roller ball holes were just a little bit bigger. I think I could use this for the lip balm tubes also.

6. Using a pipette to transfer hot liquid instead of pouring into tiny containers.

Here is the first attempt to pour into 5 ml containers: https://marykisner.com/essential-oils-and-nail-care/

When I melt ingredients I work with heat-safe glass measuring cups. They work great to pour into large molds, but pouring into tiny tubes or containers is impossible. You saw the evidence of that when I tried to pour hot melted mixtures into tiny 5 ml containers or lip balm tubes. I discovered some recipes suggested using a pipette, which looks like a tiny turkey baster! What a great solution! I ordered a bag of 100 disposable tubes and I’m no longer afraid to try to fill tiny containers.

The disposable pipette shown at the bottom of the picture solved the problem!

That’s an update on a few projects. Every time I try something new I learn something about my ingredients and my tools. If nothing else, I’m having fun! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions: marykisner@comcast.net.

Two Lip Balm Flavors and a Cool New Tool

Yesterday I was ready to try two new lip balm flavors: Maple Coffee and Orange Vanilla. I wanted to do this last weekend, but I had to order the ingredients for the Maple Coffee (of course, from Amazon).

Usually, I insert the empty tubes into this holder and when I stand the holder up, I can pour the hot melted lip balm from the top:

However, the latest batch of holders were from a different company and they fell right out before I could flip the holder over. On to plan B!

I had to change how I filled the tubes. I decided to line the tubes up on a paper towel and fill them with a disposable pipette. I had to be really careful to not bump the tubes as I filled them so they wouldn’t fall over:

It took longer to fill each tube but luckily I didn’t tip any of them over filled with hot stuff.

Now…on to the recipes!

Maple Coffee Lip Balm

First, I made the Maple Coffee Lip Balm. Here is the recipe:

Here are the ingredients:

The Candelilla Wax has a higher melting point than beeswax and is similar to Carnauba Wax. I should be able to use it in other products. I can use the Maple flavoring in soap or cooking. I will have to research how Pumpkin Seed oil and Coffee Bean Butter can be used. Since I don’t care for the smell or taste of coffee, the coffee butter will probably be used only in lip balm for others! I’ll have a few coffee lovers test the lip balm for me!

Following the recipe, I melted down the wax, cocoa butter and coffee butter; then I added the pumpkin seed oil and maple flavoring.

This lip balm turned out darker (like coffee!) but I think it was the Pumpkin Seed oil that did that.

Orange and Vanilla Lip Balm

Here is the recipe:

Here are the ingredients:

Following the same procedure as above, I melted down the wax, cocoa butter and coconut oil, added the orange and vanilla essential oils and carefully filled the tubes with the pipette.

They turned out great!

Bert’s Invention

Bert watched me filling the tubes and said he had an idea. I sent him out to the shop with an empty tube to make me some kind of holder for the next time. This morning he presented me with this great holder!

The tubes just fit and I can do two batches without knocking anything over! I did have to order some more disposable pipettes, but YEA! Next time, I’ll enjoy using Bert’s cool tool to hold the tubes! Enjoy!

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

Make a Simple Car Air Freshener

I recently bought an air freshener for my car at the drug store counter. It clipped onto the vent on the dash. I lasted about 3 minutes before I threw it out…the scent was so strong and sickening I couldn’t stand it. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Then I saw an Ad online that showed some air fresheners made of a simple chunk of wood with a clip attached. You were supposed to add drops of your own preferred essential or fragrance oil. At least I could choose the scent!

I found some samples online by just typing in “wood air freshener for the car.” There were interesting shapes like flowers with a clip on the back, or slices of a tree branch meant to hang on the mirror.

I wasn’t sure the oils would soak in properly and then provide a nice smell in the car without being overpowering.

With Bert’s help, and a bag full of wood scraps that he uses for all kinds of little projects, we gave it a try.

First, I ordered the clips from Amazon…they were called “Square Head Car Air Vent Clips.” A bag of 20 clips were $6.99.

They were a very tight clip. Next challenge…finding some chunks of wood. Bert came in with some round, fairly flat, disks to see if they might work. The groove around the center could capture the oil until it soaked in.

He experimented with how to attach the clip to the back. Plain glue would not work because of the kind of stress it would be under to pull it from the vent. He found a way to put a screw on each side of the base, with the edge of the screw overlapping the base. It worked great for now. He had some other ideas for the next batch.

Now that the base was secured, I needed to add drops of scented oil…I chose Lavender fragrance oil…mostly because I had a big bottle of it, and I could stand the scent.

First, I had to figure out a way to keep the whole thing vertical so the oil wouldn’t drip off before it soaked into the wood. I had this small box that held the roller balls in shipping. The clip just fit over the center divider and kept it upright while I added the oil.

Using the dropper, I filled the center ring and let it soak in. I did that several times over the next few days. Then I put it in the car vent. It helped to be driving around with the heated air coming through the vent. The first day it was quite noticeable, but by the second day it was very pleasant. Not sure how long it will last, but when I can’t smell it anymore, I’ll pull it out of the vent, bring it into the house, add more oil and put it back in the car.

Bert did make me five of these so I could switch up the scents. I’ll store them in labeled zip bags so I know which one had which scent. Pretty slick!

Try it yourself! Enjoy!

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

Essential Oils and Nail Care

I’m always looking for new ways to experiment with essential oils. I now have enough supplies to try almost any recipe I come across. It wasn’t until I was cutting my fingernails the other day that I realized I needed something to help them be stronger and less ridged. I wasn’t familiar with even commercial products out there. I always just used hand cream to help dry, cracked cuticles, hoping the nails would benefit. I started researching products to help my nails.

I read an article from one of my favorite websites: https://strategiclivingblog.com. Gaye Levy is the author and she has been blogging since 2010. Her philosophy of life really appealed to me and I check in with her website frequently. She recently posted an article called, DIY Nail Serum for Damaged Nails. This serum is applied right to the edge of the cuticle where it meets the nail. She came up with a simple serum to help her nails grow stronger. With her background as a licensed manicurist she knew that, “the issues with my nails stemmed from the nail matrix. This is the area underneath and below the cuticle and this is where all the nail bed and nail plate nourishment comes from.”

Then I came across a recipe for a Cuticle Butter with essential oils that also might help. I’m not sure where the recipe came from, but it was probably one of the following sites: https://joybileefarm.com or https://www.pinterest.com.

I decided to make both of these products to see if I liked the way they felt and if they worked for me.

NAIL SERUM

This product is mixed up directly in a roller ball. I ordered them from Amazon, and luckily, they came with a tiny funnel, labels and a plastic tool that helps to lift the roller ball out of the glass bottle. I had never worked with roller balls before so these were very helpful. I have since ordered a packet of six tiny metal funnels, seen in the picture below:

I used the box the roller balls were packaged in as my holder while I added the oils. It kept them from falling over as I worked.

The ingredient list was pretty simple:

I just added the drops of oil to each bottle. I did six at a time, so I added the 4 drops of Vitamin E oil to each roller balls; then I added the lemon essential oil…10 drops to each bottle; etc. In the end, I had 24 roller balls filled with the Nail Serum…enough to share!

CUTICLE BUTTER

This recipe is also pretty simple:

Step 1: Melt the Shea Butter and the Coconut Oil.

Step 2: Add the Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E Oil and Essential Oils of Lavender, Geranium and Rosemary, and stir well. Pour into containers.

This was a messy process! The containers I chose were just 1″ across. They filled up so quickly I couldn’t stop pouring in time!

Then I waited for it to set up…which was…never! I guess over two days or so it might, but basically it stayed liquid. I tried pouring one into a roller ball, but that was a waste because it did finally get thicker and then wouldn’t come out of the roller ball. I threw that one away!

Second Try

I poured all of the oil from the tiny containers back into the measuring cup, put it back on the stove and added more Shea Butter (you can see the recipe above has 1/4 cup crossed out with 1/2 cup penciled in).

The next time I poured, I set the tiny containers on a tray so I could slide them into the refrigerator. I hoped that would help them set up more quickly. It wasn’t pretty the second time I poured!

Increasing the Shea Butter and setting the tray in the refrigerator made all the difference. It made a very soft salve that melted in nicely to my cuticles. You can see how soft it is…my finger just barely touched the top of the salve and it left a dent. On a hot summer day I might want to keep it in the refrigerator.

My next step is to share these two products with friends to see if helps our nails. I’ll package them together and ask for feedback on which product is easier to apply.

As always, I include a list of ingredients so folks know what I used.

I’m not sure if I’ll have great nails by Christmas, but maybe by Spring I’ll know if they work! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Aloe Vera Gift Soaps

Getting ready for Christmas when you’re a crafter often begins by Thanksgiving or even earlier. If you go to a store like Michael’s Craft store or JoAnn’s Fabric Store you will see Christmas projects and supplies available shortly after Halloween. They know when we start thinking about gifts we want to make and how long it will take to make them. We really are shopping for fabric, thread, craft supplies, etc. months before the holiday.

This year I wanted to give a few folks a bar of my Healing Aloe Vera Soap. I also needed a gift for an exchange, where I wouldn’t know the recipient. I’m sure you’ve been asked to “bring a wrapped gift that costs less than $10” for a gift exchange at some point in the past. Why not figure out a gift that I would be happy receiving? I decided to use some of this soap recipe to make some small gift soaps and found a clear container to hold them at Wal-Mart.

In this post, I’d like to share what I made, along with the Aloe Vera soap recipe. If you want a review of exactly how the soap is made, please see my previous posting that goes through step-by-step of how to melt the soap and add extra ingredients (see https://marykisner.com/a-healing-aloe-vera-soap/).

Here is my current recipe:

I usually make two batches at a time…in two 4-cup heat-safe glass measuring cups. I set each on a pan of water on the stove. Because we have hard water, I add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar so the boiling water doesn’t leave behind a layer of sediment to the insides of the pan and the outsides of the measuring cups.

I start with the melt-and-pour soaps of Aloe Vera and Shea Butter Soap Bases. That simplifies the process so I don’t have to deal with lye to make the soap.

Here are the soap bases, ready to cut into cubes:

And then…all the rest of the ingredients:

See the article referenced above that takes you through the specifics of adding each of these ingredients. Please note…I used only one drop of the soap tint. The melted soap is sort of light green already, so that one drop just evens out the color. I like the light green color that makes me think of the Aloe Vera plant. Any more than that and it looks artificial.

Each batch of melted soap bade six regular-size bars and about 9-11 little heart soaps. I filled the hearts up just halfway to make a smaller soap. Then I sprayed the tops of the soaps with alcohol to disperse the bubbles that sometimes form on the top.

This made a nice batch of soap. Each one was wrapped in a piece of plastic wrap. Melt-and-pour soap tends to attract moisture, so I recommend keeping them wrapped until ready to use.

I think this will be a nice surprise gift at our gift exchange…with a little ribbon!

I always include an ingredient list for the things I make in case folks are allergic to specific things.

One project done for Christmas! I’d love to hear about the gifts you’ve made! Leave a comment or mail me directly if you’d like to share! marykisner@comcast.net.

Building a Simple Family Tree

Family trees and genealogy are fascinating to me. I seem to have become the “holder of the family info” for the Paul Bixby family, which includes my parents (Paul and Ruth), their 3 children, 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and numerous great-great grandchildren. Thank goodness for Family Tree Maker software!

I do remember how confused I was as a young child trying to understand how all my aunts and uncles were associated with my parents. My Dad had 4 sisters and my Mom had a brother and a sister. Each had their own families, so I had a hard time keeping my cousins straight. What I really needed was a simple family tree diagram to show me these relationships. (Obviously, as a young child I could have used an illustrated diagram!)

I’d like to share some simple Family Trees I made for my grandchildren a few years ago. I thought it might help them picture their immediate relatives and how they are related. Maybe one day, one of those grandchildren will be interested in exploring the rest of the family tree.

I had already collected the basic facts for these simple family trees. In my software, it looks like this:

This is a basic format and hopefully someday, Ben will appreciate the details. However, I wanted this first tree to include photographs he could relate to and show simple relationships.

So, first I made sure I had photographs of his grandparents. I could not get photographs of all of his great grandparents, so I just included their names. This was done on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of paper; the photos were scanned and placed into a Word document. Then the pine tree and leaves were stickers I pasted in by hand. I took a picture of the finished “Tree” before I put it in a frame for each grandchild.

Here was Ben and Anna’s first family tree:

And of course, Ted’s children had a tree with different people. Here’s the tree for Aislinn and Annika:

I hope I’ve set these simple diagrams up so if they move to a computer-generated family tree, they will see the similarity of the layout. If nothing else, it prompted me to get my computer program updated with the correct spelling of all the folks four generations back.

So, consider simplifying your family tree with the information and photos you have and make a picture for the younger generation. It may spark someone’s interest in learning more about genealogy! Enjoy!

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

DIY Perfume

If you have purchased any perfumes recently, you’ll know even a small bottle can sometimes be expensive. With all the essential oils I have around, it seems I could create a simple perfume that would satisfy me. Of course, it would be too easy to just look up the perfume I use, and like, and find a list of the scents or ingredients involved! I don’t think so. I guess those ingredients are classified as “trade secrets.”

Even trying to recognize the scents in my favorite perfume is beyond the talents of my nose! I bought a few books about how perfumes are developed and did discover quite a lot of discussion about top notes, middle notes and base notes. I can smell my essential oils one at a time and sort of see how they got classified, but in a mixture I’m at a loss.

Luckily, there are many simplified explanations and recipes online that demonstrate how certain scents work together. Recipes I can follow! One online site had recipes for three ways to make perfumes…an oil mixture in a roller ball; a solid mixture with scents added to an oil/beeswax combination; and a spray with an alcohol base with scents added.

This site can be found at https://simplepurebeauty.com/. You can find many more recipes by just searching for “make your own perfume.”

So today, I thought I’d try to make a roll-on perfume and a solid perfume. I’ll leave the spray for another time.

DIY Roll-on Perfume

I started with this recipe:

First, I got out an empty roller ball bottle. It came with a tool that’s pretty slick to get the ball out of the bottle and a tiny funnel.

That little half-circle slides right under the base of the ball and with a twist the ball comes right out. The tool came in the box with the roller balls.

This is the recipe I used:

First, I added the drops of essential oil to the bottle.

These are the three essential oils I used.

Once the essential oils are in the bottle, I just filled it the rest of the way with grapeseed oil (you could use almond oil, jojoba oil, or olive oil).

The best part about this recipe…it made just one bottle! If I don’t like it, I can wash it out and use the bottle again.

DIY Solid Perfume

Here’s the recipe I started with.

I adjusted the recipe to make a little more…big mistake! I now have enough perfume to last me quite a while. This is my adjusted recipe:

This process was much more familiar to me, since many of my lotion bars and salves are made the same way.

I started with the grapeseed oil and beeswax:

I melted them in a glass measuring cup in a pan of boiling water.

When it was all melted, I stirred in the 5 essential oils (see the recipe above) and poured it into small containers. I labeled the small containers:

At the end of all this, I had two similar smelling perfumes. Now we’ll see if I like applying the perfume with a roller ball or my finger…and which scent lasts longer. Then we’ll see if I’m ready to try a spray! Enjoy!

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

The Unscented Choice

Over the last few months, I have encountered a few folks that have commented that they prefer unscented products, or had a preference for certain scents in the things I’ve made. Since I’m usually not selling my products, it hasn’t been an issue…my feelings aren’t hurt when my gifts have been turned down. When I think about it, I’ve added scents to a few of my products that could have been left unscented. Curious!

When I look back over the last 10 months of web posting, many of my body products either start with an organic olive oil that has been infused with either calendula flowers or lavender buds; or they begin with beeswax and shea butter that also have their own subtle scents. To those products, I add a scent or two…not just for the smell but for the healing properties of the essential oils.

Dried calendula flowers add a scent to olive oil, along with healing properties.

Lavender buds add a subtle scent to olive oil along with healing properties.

My soaps all start with a melt-and-pour soap base of some kind…my favorite is an aloe vera base. I also use goat’s milk, shea butter and a clear glycerine base. Each of these has a mild scent, with probably the glycerine soap base as the least scented.

Just a few of the soap base choices out there.

My specific interest has been in the various healing properties of the essential oils that I add to all these products. The natural bug spray used 5 different scents of essential oils! (https://marykisner.com/natural-bug-repellent-for-dogs/)

The natural bug spray used 5 different essential oils…all disliked by bugs!

My latest product was the travel soap tin that had an insert to allow a small bar of soap to dry better between uses. Since the focus of the product was the tin with insert, the kind of soap included really didn’t matter. I first used my aloe vera soap:

So, while I was thinking about unscented products, I grabbed a 1-pound chunk of clear organic glycerine soap from my stash and melted it down in two glass containers.

The first container I left absolutely plain. Hopefully, the mild scent of the glycerine soap would be OK for folks that preferred unscented. The second container I added a yellow soap tint and citrus blend essential oil just for variety. I now have a way to offer the travel soap tin to someone who prefers unscented. That felt good!

I will try to pay attention to where I use scents in my products, or at least mention ways to leave them unscented if possible. I also make a point to include a card with each item that tells exactly what is in each product. For example, when I made the eye pillows for headaches or toothaches, I added lavender buds to the flax seeds so when they were heated in the microwave they smelled good. It would be just as easy to leave the lavender buds out…the flax seeds are what held the heat/cold. (https://marykisner.com/making-a-hot-or-cold-eye-pillow-for-headaches-or-toothaches/)

As time goes on, I’m sure I’ll find other ways to reconfigure my products without scents. At the moment, I will continue to identify all the ingredients in my stuff so folks can make their own choices. Enjoy!

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

Recycling Greeting Cards into a Placemat

I have a file drawer jammed full with assorted greeting cards…that have arrived over the last year FREE from assorted charities and organizations. I have enough to send a birthday card, a get-well card, a thinking-of-you card, a thank you card and a card with a pretty picture where I can write my own message…to everyone I know for the rest of my life! And they keep coming! I can hardly wait for the influx of Christmas Cards to arrive.

I was ready to pitch them all until I went to a meeting of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Fire Company last week. One of our members mentioned she was almost out of Get-Well cards that she sends to our members and others as needed. Another woman said she uses cards to make placemats. My goodness! I have cards!! So, I came home and cleaned out the drawer.

Mixed in with all the free cards are the ones I have purchased over the years. I try to pick up ones with photographs made by local artists and they are blank inside. I find these at almost every craft show I go to. Some are good to cheer people up; others are low key for folks that are sad. I put these cards back in the drawer.

Now the drawer looks like something I can handle!

Next, I looked up making placemats using greeting cards and found one tutorial that used circles cut from the cards. They were mounted on card stock and laminated with clear Contact paper. So, I headed to WalMart.

I found the card stock in office supplies but couldn’t figure out where to find the sticky clear Contact paper. Office supplies? Nope. Craft supplies? Nope. I finally asked someone. It is with the home furnishing stuff…with the kitchen drainers, etc. Who knew Contact came in all different colors and patterns to use as drawer and shelf liners. Boy am I out of touch!

While I was sorting out cards, I picked out nine Birthday cards that had pictures of flowers. I used a circle template and drew around the flowers I wanted to use.

I cut out the circles and played with the arrangement. One card had a nice rectangular image, so I made that the center.

I used two 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of card stock and taped them together (on the back) as my base.

Once I liked the arrangement, I used glue stick to keep them from shifting while I used the Contact paper.

I did the back first. Then I flipped it over and attempted to do the front. No small challenge to get it started. Somehow, it seemed to work in spite of my technique with just a few wrinkles. I trimmed around the edge and I now have a pretty placemat.

I was feeling pretty smug about my success and decided to try another one using pictures from a Greyhound calendar. (Just so you know…being SMUG is dangerous!!)

I ended up having enough pictures to make two placemats, with the larger pictures as my center focus. However, getting the Contact paper to go on smoothly was a real PAIN! It was determined to wrinkle and stick everywhere I didn’t want it to! From a distance, not too bad. Up close they were a wrinkled mess. I think the calendar paper was not as sturdy as the cards so they refused to stay flat. Anyway, I did it. Not sure if I’ll make any more, but I can say I tried!

So, if you are getting free cards in the mail and don’t use them, look for folks who do use them…or try making a placemat! If you have any tips about using clear Contact I could use them!! Enjoy!

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

Travel Soap that Works!

By now you know that my favorite bar of hand soap is my Aloe Vera soap that I make myself (see https://marykisner.com/a-healing-aloe-vera-soap/). That’s great when I’m mostly washing my hands at home. However, when I go out of town…like I was this past weekend…I really wanted to have my soap with me. I was already taking small sample size soaps with me to give out at the conference, but without a way to use one in the hotel room I was stumped. The bar really needed to sit on something so it could dry between uses.

I did have 2 oz. tin containers about 2″ round that would easily hold the small bar. Then I needed some way to keep it up off the bottom of the container while it dried. I found I had a sheet of plastic canvas grid that is used with yarn to make coasters. I marked off a few 2″ squares and cut them out. Trimming the corners slightly allowed the plastic to just fit in the bottom of the tin. The small bar of soap just fit and enough air could circulate around it so it dried between uses.

The tin was small enough to fit in my cosmetic bag, and I was able to leave it open beside the hotel sink to dry. My hands were very happy!

When I got home, of course I wanted to make more of these to give as gifts. I found several bars of Aloe Very soap that I had made recently. Instead of starting from scratch I decided to remelt these bars and pour them into smaller molds.

Since I had 3-4 bars of two different colors, I melted them separately.