Only Natural 29-Nov-2011
The need to make, to hand-craft, is innate. And Christmas with kids is the perfect reason to re-charge or discover our crafty talents. There’s so much fun to be had, creating together. Especially a gift, knowing all-the-while love and thought are the key ingredient!
Ever-popular pantry pieces
The pantry is the starting-block for a plethora of hand-made gifts. Baked goodies like rocky road, melting moments and fudge are perennial favourites. Coast mum Jen says baked treats are impossible to pass-up as gifts, especially when they are ‘wrapped’ with love. “I enlist my kids to hand-paint jars which we fill with fudge or rocky road,” she says. The rocky road is simple to make, with good quality chocolate the vital ingredient, Jen says.
But there’s more than just edible goodies to create in the kitchen…
Bright bubbles
Mother-of-four Yvonne runs a soap making business, and says her kids love making melt-and-pour soap. “It’s a quick and easy gift everyone loves, and soap mould themes can be adapted to any occasion,” she says.
What you need:
A microwave-safe jug or double-boiler to melt the soap-base, a stirring spoon (stainless-steel is best) or silicone spatula, a sharp knife to cube the soap base, and various-shaped moulds - clean and ready.
Ingredients: 1kg of melt and pour soap base - (glycerine white, clear or goats milk), 100ml soap-making fragrance oil or 50ml essential oil, 1 x Winton gel colour (or a few different colours) or liquid colour and 100ml Isopropyl alcohol spray (removes bubbles from top of soap).
Steps:
- Weigh the soap base (the total gram-weight of all moulds you want to use) with a digital scale.
- Cut the soap base into 1 inch cubes (for easy-melting) and melt it. “The idea is to melt it gradually, stirring while melting, not letting it bubble and boil,” Yvonne says, because overheating the base will make the soap dry and low-in-lather. So for a microwave-melt, set at 30-second intervals. For a double-boiler melt, stir regularly to monitor it.
- Once the base is liquefied and lump-free, allow to cool a few minutes. When a skin has formed on top, the base is ready for colour and fragrance. Remove the skin and stir it back into mixture.
- Add a tiny amount of colour gel or liquid colour (a drop at a time) until you have the desired shade. Soft-pastel colours are best; bold colours are too aggressive and tend to rub off on skin, Yvonne explains. “… little is more and you’ll make hundreds of beautiful pastel shades very easily by combining different colours together,” she says.
- Weigh the fragrance or essential oil before adding. A fragrance oil will require up to 10 percent of the soap-base weight and an essential oil up to three percent of the soap-base weight. Too much oil will stop the soap setting, Yvonne explains.
- “Some fragrances and essential oils are much stronger than others, so it is a little trial-and-error here to achieve the strength you like and is very much personal preference,” she says.
- Stir well and pour directly into the mould
- Spray immediately with Isopropyl alcohol – this removes bubbles on top of the soap which ruin its look.
- Let the soaps air-dry. When they’re cold, tip the mould over and press lightly on the back to remove the soap. If they don’t come out, place into the freezer just for a few minutes (no more than five), this shrinks the soap slightly so they pop straight out.
- Your soaps are ready. It’s best to keep them sealed in a container until use (particularly the glycerine-based soaps), or gift-wrap them in cellophane as soon as they’re made, Yvonne explains.
Cool comfort-bags
Coast mum Clare says little heat wheat-bags and cooling rice-bags are magic ‘medicine’ for all ages, and have proved popular at fetes and for gifts. Fill fabric bags - in a range of sizes – with organic wheat (for heat bags) or organic rice (for freezer ‘bump’ packs). “They are quick, easy and the kids can sew up a little bit if they like – and choose their own fabrics,” Clare says. The wheat bags work wonders for a ‘sore tummy’ or as neck and shoulder therapy. The rice packs are perfect for putting on the forehead during a lie down, but they are also great little distractions (especially in fairy or fire engine fabric) for the myriad of little bumps kids get, Clare says. “Seems they forget about it pretty quickly when they use one of these!” The rice bags have also been popular for taking to bed on a hot summer night. “Whatever works!” Clare says.
What you need:
Fabric – any type of natural fabric is fine. The best for wheat bags is a thicker fabric like corduroy, for the rice packs a thinner cotton fabric works best.
- Organic wheat and rice kernels
- Funnel to fill the bags
- Overlocker/Sewing machine
Steps:
- Cut fabric to size, allowing for an outer and inner cover. Wheat bags can be any size you like – Clare says a little ‘sore tummy’ size is about 15cm x 25cm, the other popular size is a longer one that drapes around the neck and shoulders, which is about 50cm by 20cm. Rice packs are usually small, around a 12cm square size, but a ‘headache’ one could be about 20cm x 10cm.
- Stitch the fabric
- Fill the inner cover with wheat or rice using a funnel
- Finish the covers with overlocker or sewing machine (or with ‘little helpers’ stitching)
- Wrap/attach instructions (see above)
Recycled fun
Reverse Garbage, a not-for-profit co-operative that diverts high-quality industrial discards away from landfill by collecting it and selling it at a low cost to the public, runs workshops for kids to create gifts from recycled material. Reverse Garbage public relations co-coordinator Rozina Suliman, says one popular project for kids aged eight-plus is a Yellow Holey Strip Bag.
What you need:
2 x cork rings (or other rings approx 10cm diameter), lots of skinny fabric strips - stretchy fabric is great!, 1 x big rectangle holey strip (in yellow or black approx 40cm x 20cm) and 1 x skinny rectangle holey strip (in yellow or black approx 34 x 10cm).
The yellow holey strips are a Reverse Garbage product but, they do have mail orders even for small items (holey strips are about $1.50 for a bundle of ten). But any thin plastic could be used - a thin plastic and a hole puncher could be a good alternative! Rozina says. “Perhaps even a couple of ice-cream containers, but they would need to be cut into flat pieces and have holes punched in them. Or a broken laundry basket... these have holes in them already and enough space to wind fabric...” she says.
Steps
- Collect recycled materials
- Cut skinny rectangle holey strip in half (so you have two strips 17 x 10cm)
- Curve big rectangle holey strip and position skinny strip on the side with a slight overhang
- Tie fabric strips together till you have a really long piece
- Weave fabric through the holes of each of the two pieces to join together and continue until one side is joined
- Repeat for second side
- Cut off overhang to give a nice rounded edge on the bottom of the bag
- Position rings
- Weave fabric through the top of the holey strip and the ring to join them
- Decorate with additional fabric or you can glue pretty things on
Plants pots and promises
Looking for more ideas? Create potted plants with hand-made gift tags - herbs are a perfect because they grow so well – and decorate the pots with paper and ribbon. Model clay photo frames or clay pots – they can be fired or left unfired then painted. Or make kindness official with a booklet of tickets offering to do chores. For more information
Simply Natural Soap Making Supplies website provides loads of recipes and further instructions on how to make soap, as well as lists of useful books about soap and candle-making. Visit www.SimplyNaturalSoapMakingSupplies.com.au
Reverse Garbage Brisbane (20 Burke St, Woolloongabba) sell high-quality industrial discards and run a variety of environment and waste focused art workshops and educational talks and tours. Visit www.reversegarbage.com.au
Visit your local library for books covering just about every craft project you can imagine! www.library.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au
