Candles and Soaps

Today was a big giftmaking extravaganza here at the house. Yesterday was housecleaning, which needed quite desperately to get done, and today we got cracking on the candles and soaps. I did a lovely red and white striped layered affair in a loaf pan (takes several hours since you have to wait for each layer to cool) that I got from Martha S. I added red dye to the clear soap chunks and peppermint oil to the white soap chunks and scored each layer before pouring the next one. Then after you take it out of the loaf pan (ha ha) you slice it and wrap as Peppermint Striped Soaps.

We also added some honey and oats to some white soap and made Honey Oatmeal Soups which we poured into seashell molds. I got a kit with some cool soapmaking stuff in it from Michael's (couldn't resist...) and one of the things was tiny cookie cutters. You can also find these in the cake decorating aisle as fondant cutters BTW. What you do with these is you dye and pour a thinnish layer of soap into a regular rectangular mold. When it is cool you pop it out, cut out the shapes with your cutters, lay the shapes face down in an empty soap mold and then pour a different color soap all around it. When it is dry you have a soap with an embedded decorative motif. Very cute. We did little red hearts in white square soaps.

Next for the candle dipping which was the same old same old regular routine. I'm pretty confident with this craft by this time in my teaching career. My two littlest girls hadn't done it before. The 4 year old cut out early and I finished hers but the 5 and 6 year old girls stayed for the long haul. This was the first time I used the "sticks" with notches for the wick so that you dip two at a time instead of just one. One wick is easier for the younger children. Use a piece of masking tape at the end they hold with their name and voila -- easy as pie. The double candles are lovely and more suitable for gifts. In this case the piece of masking tape goes on the wooden holder and if you stick it across the wick where it crosses the wood it doubles as a handy way to hold the wick in place while they're sitting on the sofa playing with it, waiting for the wax to finish melting.

Always always melt your wax over indirect heat. Wax chunks in a Juicy Juice can (label removed) in a pan of water set to gently simmer is my preferred way. Then I take the wax can and pan off the stove, keep the can in the hot water to retain the heat, and set it in the candle dipping location. Today I put it on the kitchen stool. On the floor in front of the stool I laid the towel. This towel is already full of wax drips from previous projects. Don't put a towel like that in the washer and dryer, the wax in it can catch on fire. I just let it dry naturally and fold it up and set it on my box of craft supplies marked "candlemaking." So the rule was that only one person at a time could stand on the towel. Everyone else is in line behind. You can't move forward onto the towel if someone is still on it. This prevents shoving and knocking over a pot of hot water and a can of wax. You dip then stand on the towel until your candle is no longer dripping. Then you take a stroll around the kitchen and get in the back of the line. Meanwhile, the next person steps up to the towel and the stool. As you walk past a counter you can tap the bottom of your candle on it to flatten it. You can also lay the candle down and roll it somewhat gently but with firm even pressure so that it gets a shiny and smooth exterior. Overall the drips on the kitchen floor were kept to a minimum; worked pretty well. Then I stood two kitchen chairs back to back with some space between to hang the wooden pieces and candles to dry.

Today the girls are with their dad from 3 to 7 for Pizza Night and I get to -- finally -- wrap some gifts!!!