Home made beauty supplies are better for you, better for the planet, and less expensive than their conventional counterparts. If you want to make your own, check out my roundup of beauty supply recipes over at Crafting a Green World! >>

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by meaduva

<3,
Becky

Tonight, our pal Davis is playing a masquerade ball! Obviously, this meant we got together with some friends and made masks for the occasion!

To make the masks, we drew the shapes we wanted with marker onto two pieces of cardboard. You could really use just one piece, but gluing the two pieces together makes for a sturdier finished product. The one pictured above is made from a frozen dinner box. The feather is a single piece of cardboard that’s sandwiched between the two mask pieces. We used glue sticks to decoupage salvaged book pages on top, then added embellishments. I decided my mask would be the shiniest and did a layer of blue glitter glue (of course!) and a layer of glitter mod podge! Christy brought over a basket of ribbon and ric rac, and Lori had a tray of rhinestones and feathers and other sparkly things for us to use!

I took this picture because it makes me laugh a lot. This is me getting back to my crafty roots, after applying all that sparkliness to my mask!

<3,
Becky

Our friend Christie posted a really awesome writeup of the most recent Mission: Possible! It has lots of great pictures from the evening. Please just promise to scroll past the one in which I look like a man. You’ll know the one.

<3,
Becky

For starters, we made laundry detergent and rinse. We’ll be making dryer balls at a future point. The laundry recipes both came from the modcottage blog, and just like she claims, they were super-easy to whip up!

For the detergent:

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated. We found the smaller grating holes made it easier to mix up. We also discovered that two of our bars were hard, while the rest were more soft. You might want to peek inside the soap wrapper before you buy.
2. 1 c Borax
3. 1 c Washing Soda
4. 1/4 c OxyClean (not necessary, but we add it)
Mix it all together into a bumpy, granular mix. Don’t worry about stuff getting correctly dispersed, it does, even if it doesn’t quite look like it.

Use 1T for a light load
Use 2T for a large or dirty load (It’s true! Only 2 Tablespoons per load!)

And the rinse:

1. 1 gal white vinegar
2. 25-30 drops essential oil in whatever scent you want your clothes to smell like.

Use 1/4 c in the rinse cycle. The vinegar clears the last bit of soap remaining on all your clothes and reduces static. (and doesn’t leave a smell behind, promise!)

The next products we tackled were window cleaner, and a general purpose spray cleaner/disinfectant.
We got these recipes from the women and environment blog

WINDOW CLEANER
1/4-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent, we use Dr Bronner’s
3 tablespoons vinegar
2 cups water
Spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past. Remember, one of the best things to use for a “rag” when cleaning windows is old newspapers. Streak-free!!

ALL-PURPOSE SPRAY CLEANER
1/2 teaspoon washing soda
A dab of liquid soap (we use Dr Bronners!)
2 cups hot tap water

Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply and wipe off with a sponge or rag.

The last thing we made was a soft scouring powder. You can mix this up as you go, but we chose to add the vegetable glycerine so we could make big batches to store. It keeps for about 2 years in the fridge.

CREAMY SOFT SCRUBBER
suggested uses: Use this creamy soft scrub on kitchen counters, stoves, bathroom sinks, etc.

2 cups baking soda
½ cup liquid castile soap (again, Dr Bronner’s)
4 teaspoons vegetable glycerin (acts as a preservative)
5 drops antibacterial essential oil such as lavender, tea tree, rosemary or any scent you prefer. We chose lemon and a thyme tincture that Kip made with thyme grown in her garden. She’s going to show us how to make tinctures soon, so we’ll have a tutorial for that up in the near future as well.

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We’ll be posting notes and reviews from everyone as they roll in, so check back for updates!!

Tonite, we’re planning to celebrate with a craft nite! I few of us are getting together at a pal’s house to work on turning some trash into treasure! We’ve got 3 projects planned, but I’m not sure we’ll have time for all of it tonight. We’ll seeeeeeeeee! Here’s what’s in the works:

1.Finish up our bottlecap buttons. These are going to be our swag for Inman Park Festival. They’ve been in a box in my craft room drying since Saturday, and tonite we have just the last step remaining: to add pinbacks! I just peeked at the little guys this morning, and they’re lookin good! The resin is still a little tacky, but I think they’re dry enough to flip and finish!

2. Sew some more newspaper bags I’ve got a big box of newspaper that I rescued from a recycle bin at work. I hope we have time to whip out a bunch of these!!

3. Work on our display. A friend who got married recently had a bunch of frames left over from the wedding and gave them to us! We have an elaborate plan to make them into an awesome showcase for Liz and Lori’s jewelry.

What are you doing to celebrate?

Last night, we got together and did some glass etching! It was really easy to do, and a great way to add a little pizzazz to plain ol’ thrift store glasses.
What You’ll Need:
soap
water
glasses
white vinegar (optional)
sponge
Etching Cream
masking tape or stickers
Exacto knife
permanent marker
paintbrush
rubber gloves

Got all that? Rad! Let’s get etching!

Of course, the real first step is to wash the glasses. You need them squeaky clean for the best results. If your thrift store is like the one we went to, they probably used grease pen to write the glass’ price on there. You can get that off with some white vinegar and the scrubby side of a sponge! Once you’ve gotten off any labels, stickers or markings, wash with soap and hot water.

Time to make some stencils! You can use pre-cut stickers, if you like. We opted to make our own stencils with masking tape! Just layer 2 pieces of masking tape onto a clean, flat surface, like a cookie sheet, and draw your design on with permanent marker. Stick the tape onto the glasses and use an Exacto knife to cut out your design!

Now, you’re ready to apply the Etching Cream! You can pick up Etching Cream at your local craft store or order it online. The bottle may seem pricey, but it doesn’t take too terribly much to do one etching. Do make sure you have a nice, even coat. We had good results painting the cream on with a paintbrush using up and down strokes. The glasses that turned out the best had a couple of layers of cream on them. You might want to head out onto the porch while you’re applying the cream and letting it set. Things get a little fumey.

The bottle recommends leaving the cream on for 5 minutes, but we found that 7 minutes gave us really good results. Once you’ve got all your glasses painted up, leave them to set outside.

We’re almost there! Take your glasses to a sink and rinse the cream off really well. You might want to wear gloves for this…it can sting if you have any cuts on your hands! After you’re done rinsing the glasses, just dry them off, and you’re all done!

Voila!

We’d love to see pictures of what you guys turn out! Feel free to email pictures to supercute @t shinyandfuzzy dot com or comment with them right here on the blog!

<3,
Becky