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Showing posts from November, 2016

Four Seasons soap moulds review and test

To cut a long story short, last August I've participated to a design competition for soap moulds organized by the fantastic  The Soap Kitchen  on-line store and I won  (see Facebook  and  Twitter )! My designs have been transformed into real moulds after a process including 3D printing of the models, silicon mould creation, resin forma production and final creation of the plastic moulds (production and manufacturing have been done at The Soap Kitchen, THANK YOU Colin and the whole team). Moulds are made from food grade PETG and each cavity of the set measures approximately  75 mm x 50 mm x 25 mm . If you need more details on the moulds, including how to use them, you can find them  HERE When I was preparing the sketches for the competition I gave each single mould a name (see picture ⇩), but they are sold as a set under the name of Four Seasons   I have been looking forward to testing this set and here you have some results and comments

Xmas stamped shaker cards

I have been amazed by a recent video from Jennifer Mcguire o n  stamped shaker cards  ( link at the end of this post for technical details ). I wanted to try something similar myself, but more on the Xmas theme. My post focuses mainly on the things I've changed, so if you need a step-by-step guide, again, hit the link at the bottom of the page (but please don't skip my post 😊) I was well aware that I was missing most of the cool items she used for her cards like for example the single stitch frame die, the shimmer pen and the Copic markers but I think I can be pretty happy with the result anyway. In order to create the frame I have used two dies of the  Sizzix Squares Framelits Die Set that I've stuck together with washi tape like this I've used the square left over as a background for the shaker window. I've stamped  an alphabet  with white ink and embossed it with white Jasmine powder  and glued some sequins and sta

Candle making question: at which temperature should you pour wax?

...well, it depends on the wax! I've been making candles for 3 years now and I have experienced several problems myself before finding the right temperature to end up with flawless nice candles. If you decide to make candles: take your time, use a thermometer and check the temperature of your melted wax before pouring, always ! It happened to me several times that, because I was in a rush, I poured the wax soon after I have melted it and I ended up with really ugly candles! If you pour at high temperature you may end up with fragrance loss (evaporation), frosting (this is a frequent problem with soy wax), massive shrinking (not good for container candles), cracking on top. If you pour at a very  low temperature you can have jump lines , wax can start to solidify in the container and so on... Full post on  FROSTING HERE . In my experience, buying certified frosting-resistant soy wax only partially limits the problem... Two golden rules to avo

'Let it snow' paper bands to decorate homemade candles

One more request from a dear friend: candles that she could put on the table as Xmas favours! In particular, she wanted pillar candles with chunks on the  white/turquoise  hues.  She also asked for decorations m atching the colours of the candles and  having  snow flakes .  It took me a while before deciding what to do (it's much easier to use red, green, silver and gold when it comes down to Xmas things,😂😂😂 ahahaha)... ...and then I thought it would have been fun to use  the  bubble wrap stamping technique  to give the paper a snowy-like background! For the white bubbles: Dovecraft   Crystal White ink and Aladine   jasmine white embossing powder. For the light blue bubbles: turquoise ink  (from ArtNic, #20) and Artemio   clear   holographic  embossing powder .  I've created the snow flakes  with a puncher  from white Bristol card stock, and decorated the paper band with Diamond Stickles glitters (from Ranger) and white/turquoise/b

Rosemary soap

This is rosemary soap   I had a request from a friend for a very simple soap, with no colourants of any kind and scented with only rosemary essential oil (EO). I didn't know what to expect from rosemary EO... but I have to admit that after 2 weeks of curing, I'm amazed by the balsamic and warm scent that this soap has! <3 Recipe: Olive oil (pomace)  25% Coconut oil  30% Palm oil (organic)  20% Canola oil  20 % Castor oil  5% Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Scent:   rosemary essential oil from the Soap Kitchen 1 day in the m