{this post contains affiliate links}One of the things we love most about our living situation in Kuwait is the fact that Miss G has had a built in community of friends since we first arrived… A posse of munchkins that she sees and plays with everyday. Of course, lots of kids means lots of birthday parties, which means more opportunities to put together thoughtful, creative gifts, which both she and I adore.
Now I know it’s good for kids to learn that they don’t always get something when someone else does, but I still really enjoy bringing a small and simple ‘sibling gift’ when Miss G and I attend one of her friends’ birthday parties. Most of the time it’s something handmade and useful or consumable – meaning not just another little plastic toy to add to the heap – so I don’t feel bad about gifting it.
So it’s very possible that I’ve passed my love of gift giving onto Miss G… Besides regularly packaging up her personal belongings in paper envelopes held shut with washi tape to hand out to people during our day-to-day, she’s always suggesting we buy things to surprise people with while we’re out shopping too. This simple gift, however, took it to a whole new level. I don’t think she’s ever been so excited to give something to someone in her whole life. We made it to take to a crafty little friend’s birthday party today and what was Grae most excited about? Not a morning full of friends, treats, and fun. Nope. She was most excited to give her gift.
To date, most of our gifts to Miss G’s friends have been personalized wooden block sets, wooden memory match games, pretty headbands, and DIY felt boards with a few of our favourite felt board games (can you tell that I’m a big fan of handmade?), but here at The Dunes, those things are a little too ‘young’ for the slightly order crew of kiddos. With the birthday girl being a big fan of arts and crafts, we knew exactly what we could put together for her… A fun craft kit filled with all sorts of interesting supplies! So that’s just what we did.
Okay, I fully admit it… Between the yearly handprint canvas we did just a couple of months ago and the paper strip handprint art we did just a couple of days ago, we may be a teensy bit handprint obsessed. I can’t help it. I don’t know if it’s the Kindergarten teacher in me or the mama in me, but having these little handprints frozen in time just makes my heart happy.
These keepsakes are a favourite in our house. Miss G and I have made variations of this project many times in the past, some of which have become decor, some heartfelt gifts, and others Christmas tree ornaments.
No matter what they become in the end, we always make them out of our very favourite homemade baking soda clay. This stuff is a dream to work with and is super easy and inexpensive to make {plus you most likely have erything you need to make it in your kitchen at this very moment!}
How you decorate them is up to you, but we went with GLITTER this time around, which both Miss G and I loved. So pretty, right?! {Not to mention that it’s super forgiving when it comes to little cracks and imperfections along the edges of the keepsake… Add glitter and consider them gone!}
For all of the details of this project, as well as our simple baking soda clay recipe, pop on over to CBC Parents and check out our Baking Soda Clay Handprint Keepsakes post.
FYI: With the recipe in the link, we made our handprint keepsake, plus 20 small cookie cutter ornaments, which is probably equivalent to 3 or 4 handprint ornaments {depending on the size you make them of course}.
Admittedly, baking soda clay can be a little finicky sometimes… For tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years, click here.
While you’re at it, check out some of our other favourite handprint projects here.
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A few weeks ago, Gracen’s {great} aunt sent me this photo of a footprint butterfly flower pot and asked if Miss G could make her one. After some serious detective work, I believe that the photo was originally shared on Carol’s Classic Gifts and Decor’s Facebook page, but I could be wrong (please correct me if I am!) Though there were no instructions attached, the project looked pretty straight forward, we went for it.
{this post includes affiliate links}Here’s what we used… A clay pot large enough to fit Grae’s growing feet on the side, some acrylic paint, a few old foam paintbrushes, a black Sharpie (though black paint and a fine brush or a paint pen would be great also), and lastly, a matte spray-on clear coat.
Because of the potentially {very} messy nature of this project, we opted to do it outside with the garden hose and a pile of old rags nearby (and I’m thankful we did…things got MESSY despite my precautionary steps). To get started, I applied a thick layer of paint to Grae’s foot. In our case, we used purple and green (Auntie Judy’s favourite colours) with a little bit of white in the middle, but you could obviously use any colours you like. One thing I would say is that if you want the colours to mix together where they meet, you should probably help them along with your paintbrush while on the foot. I expected the mixing to sort of naturally happen when Grae’s foot was pressed down on the pot, but it didn’t (not a lot, at least).
We carefully pressed one foot onto the pot, washed it off, then painted the other foot and pressed it on so that the two straight edges were in the middle (with a small space between them) and the two arched edges were pointing outwards.
After giving the footprints a few minutes to dry, I used the Sharpie to draw a very simple butterfly body and antennae in the centre.
Then we flipped the pot over and wrote a little message so that Auntie Judy will remember who made the pot and when it was created years down the road.
As a final step, I gave the butterfly part of the pot a light spray of matte sealant, just to make it a little more durable. Ten minutes later it was dry and we had an adorable personalized gift that was both easy and inexpensive to make.
If you love making personalized gifts, be sure to check out our ‘I love you’ pillowcase, our hand-shaped ring dish, our clay handprint keepsakes, and our paper strip handprint keepsake.
♥
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Seeing this adorable video tutorial on Jen Loves Kev inspired Miss G and I to create our own bath fizzies to gift to her two lovely grandmas (we love giving handcrafted gifts!) This lavender rosemary version was for her Grandma Charlotte who enjoys natural, woodsy scents, and her citrus-loving Grandma Sue got a lemon grapefruit version.
Here’s our line up of ingredients… Baking soda, cornstarch, coconut oil, citric acid, water in a spray bottle, epsom salts (we’d previously dyed ours pink just for fun), fresh rosemary from the garden, lavender essential oil, and purple food colouring. While we had most everything already on hand, we picked up the lavender essential oil at a local variety store that specializes in natural products and the citric acid from a very cool little Main Street shop called The Soap Dispensary (if you live in Vancouver, I highly recommend you check it out). Citric acid can also be found in grocery store canning sections, behind the counter at pharmacies, and in many bulk food stores too.
Making these was pretty simple, so as usual, my little helper did most of the work. First off, we measured out all of the dry ingredients, added them to a large mixing bowl, and dropped in a generous amount of essential oil before Gracen whisked everything together thoroughly.
Next, we focused on the wet ingredients. In a spray bottle that allows a very fine mist, we shook up some water, some liquid coconut oil (we just ran the jar under warm water for a minute to liquify it, but you could just as easily melt it in the microwave), and several drops of food colouring.
For the next step, you need to have some patience… Basically, the goal is to add the water and oil mixture into the dry mixture very slowly in order to avoid causing a fizzy reaction. If you get a little bit impatient (like we did the first time around), you’ll have all kinds of fizzy bubbles in your bowl, but your finished bath bombs won’t fizz all that much once in the tub (though they’ll still soften the water and smell fantastic). In order to do this, you want to mist some water/oil onto the dry ingredients, whisk it well, add a little more, whisk it well, and so on and so on. What’s fantastic about having a helper is that one of you can basically stir while the other sprays.
As you go, you’ll notice that your mixture will eventually start to clump while mixing and look less like a floury powder. When you can grab a handful, squeeze it, and have it hold it’s shape, you’ll want to stop adding water.
We could have stopped where we were in order to make straight up lavender bath fizzies, but ripped up a bunch of fresh rosemary and added it into the mix instead.
Next we scooped the mixture into the IKEA ice cube trays we regularly use for crafting, pushed it down well, added more mixture, and patted it down tightly once more. Then we laid them out in the solarium to dry out a little bit.
This is the next test of patience when it comes to this project… At the two hour mark, I couldn’t help myself and attempted pushing out a couple of our little bath bombs. Though they sort of held their shape, it was a crumbly mess and I totalled a couple in the process.
At the 3 hour mark, they came out much more cleanly and easily, so I’d definitely recommend waiting. Once out of the moulds, we let them dry on the counter over night.
The next day, we carefully placed them in a vintage mason jar tied with some pretty bakers twine.
And that was that. Simple and pretty.
For Grandma Sue’s batch, we followed the exact same recipe, but split the dry ingredient mixture in two before adding the essential oils and water/coconut oil combo. For one half of the batch we added lemon essential oil and yellow food colouring, for the other we added grapefruit essential oil and pink food colouring, and we skipped the rosemary all together for both.
The thing I wondered about most when making these was whether or not they would actually fizz… They do! (Well as long as you’re patient and add the water to the mixture slowly that is.) Though it’s not the explosive sort of fizz you get with the beautiful bath bombs purchased at LUSH, they have a nice slow release sort of fizz to them that lasts for a good long while. And the smell is amazing! Just one little fizzy makes the whole bathroom smell wonderfully!
Rosemary Lavender Bath Fizzies
Whisk the dry ingredients and essential oil in a large bowl.
Add the warm water, liquid coconut oil, and food colouring into a spray bottle capable of a fine mist and shake it well.
Spray the water into the dry mixture slowly, mixing well in between, until the mixture comes together and holds its shape when squeezed. Rip up the fresh rosemary and stir it into the mixture.
Scoop the mixture into the moulds, press it down tightly, and let dry for at least 3 hours. Gently remove the bath fizzes from the moulds and let them sit out on the counter overnight to fully dry out.
Package and gift. ☺
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