September "Shades of Autumn" Challenge at Our Creative Corner - Fallin' off the Page

One of my favourite crafty things to mess around with is Glycerine Soap.  While I love the chemistry of Cold Process soap from scratch, there is so much room for creative versatility with Melt and Pour Soap. From making the soap, to choosing the scent, to designing the aesthetics of the soap, for me its a blend of all different kinds of fun crafty creativity.

I have been waiting for an OCC challenge that would allow me to share some soapy craft - this month's challenge hosted by Julia with it's theme of "SHADES OF AUTUMN" allowed me to do just that.  And the coolest thing about OCC is that you can share ANY type of craft. I was inspired by the rich tones and hues of autumn leaves and decided to make a batch of soap creations which reflected that.

I have titled my contribution: "Fallin' off the page".   There is that self-evident play on words there.  I also wanted to share how I use paper crafting tools in soap crafting.  I made a bunch of different soapy creations which I plan to give out as gifts soon for upcoming birthdays of friends and family.

Play along with the challenge theme this month and you could be the winner of $25 gift voucher from our generous sponsor

 

Creative Embellishments.  

Here below are Julia's rules of the challenge.

"I love the colours of autumn! Those beautiful and dramatic reds, golds, yellows, browns, greens and all shades in between. Your challenge this month is to take some inspiration from the colours in the image provided and make an autumnal inspired project."

 I used different stamping and crafting tools to make my basket of gift soaps.

For the soap with leafy imprints.  

I used some rubber and acrylic stamps from my collection.  See a quick photo tutorial of the process.

I placed the stamps flat side down into a silicone mini loaf baking pan.

After I unmoulded the soap, I made a "soap paint" by mixing shimmer powder with some glycerine and alcohol and using a long bristled brush, carefully painted each imprint or debossed leaf design.

For the clear soap with maple leaf embeds.

I poured thin layers of different colours of soap into a baking pan.

I used modelling clay cutting tools to punch out the leaves. 

The trickiest soap was the Autumn Tree.

(woops about the blurry picture)

I used a kitchen grater to grate different autumn coloured soap into tiny strips and then I minced that with a regular knife.  To get as close to a tree shape as possible I squished the coloured chips into an egg holder.  I made thin block strip of brown soap and created the trunk of the tree.

And that there is a basic run down of how I created the basket of Autmny soaps.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for Julia's "Colours of Autumn" Challenge.

Happy Crafting!

Whats going on?

Hi guys, 

Well July 2015 has ended and it has been a great month, from multiple birthday parties, parties and excellent company.  Here is a little collection of what I have been up to.

two girls and a thing

In Cass and Dash's paradise garden

I no longer straighten out my natural curls and I have decided that I love red - thanks to my  new friend for this picture on the floor

With Tommy and Cass at Hidden Festival

Same fellas with Michelle

Psychedelic stomping boots with Michelle

A little pretend cabaret on a night out on town - FUUUUUNNNN

Witchy brew with me best bud Nicol

a night out on the town and the bicest dress I own and possibly the only time I will ever look "elegant"

AWESOME BIRTHDAY SURPRISES

 

work surprises

From Left to Right - Nicol, me. Brandon, Tommy, Cass and Isabel with a hidden Dash possibly behind Tommy at another one of the birthday bashes

Nicol my best buddy, and I at fancy schmancy Country Club for a joint birthday dinner

Yes - July was fun for me

Saucy Centrepiece

“We want you to grab any inspiration you like from these wonderfully exotic photographs...

Go for colours, shapes, textures, objects or style - There is certainly plenty of inspiration to choose from here in this selection of glorious, vivid, colourful photographs.
Join us in the summer holiday mood....!!!”

This is the challenge over at Our Creative Corner this month of August 2015.
Join in on the challenge because there are some nifto prizes to be won from our generous sponsor Tando Creative. Be sure to link over there (click on their logo to go) to see their mind blowing variety and collection of awesome stuff they have got going on.

I did a littl’ ol’ whoopdy whoop at this moodboard because my house loves these colours.  In fact I even have 

walls these colours, for real, “look it Linda, look it” 

So the moodboard made me do a little celebration dance, though that is not what that crazy picture on the right was about, that’s just random picture that got taken of me with my cute coloured walls behind me.  My lounge, dining room, kitchen is one big open plan townhouse meld, so whatever colour scheme happens in any one of those areas has to happen everywhere else too.

I have to tell you that when I see those vibrant colours like those in the moodboard, for some reason it makes me think of the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs, the Yucatan and that sort of thing.  I assume it is because of the association with the glorious, gorgeous woven cloth and patterns, traditional to that area.

So I had already had this little Aztec idea floating around in my head.

But I had a more pressing issue to deal with at hand.  Dinner time for me always requires one of the following hefty doses:  pickles, shaved chilli, Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce. Powdered Parmesan, Crushed dried Chilli or Chilli-Garlic Salt and a variety of peppery infused olive oil blends.

Lately I have been thinking that I need to have all my condiment and sauce bottles on the dining table instead of hunting around for it in the cluttery collection of everything I have standing on my kitchen counter.  I get a little frustrated when I can’t get to my chilli instantly.

So anyhow, I did rescue them from the certain clutter kitchen counter death,  took them out and placed them in the centre of the table for easy access,  but……. they just didnt fit with the whole theme going on in the space that they were in and to be brutally honest, they just weren’t cute enough in their original packaging.

A plan needed to come together. 

The necessity of cuteness, the hot tamales connection and the coincidence of the August theme at Our Creative Corner culminated in this here my “SAUCY CENTREPIECE”.

Not only do they add a nice design accent to the room, but they do have a practical purpose, functional decor is a score!!!

I pulled out a bunch of different mediums and techniques for this cheery collection.  I have to give props and kudos to my favourite South African brand of craft supplies –  magnificent DALA.  Yes, you have heard me go on and on and on about them before.

The first order of business was to wash out some older sauce, vinegar and oil bottles, and remove the labels.  I siphoned in some denture cleaner, added some warm water and let that sit

for a while.  My idea here was that if it can clean dentures, it ought to sterilise the inside of these bottles as well.  It was well worth the look on the Dischem lady’s face when I asked where I could find denture cleaner.  I literally did see her stare at my teeth, as she tried to reconcile her confusion about my request for fizzy denture cleaner and my not so denture perfect looking teeth.

I then became paranoid about denture cleaner residue being in the bottles.  So I boiled the bottles in a vinegar and water solution – not sure why, I just thought vinegar would remove the residue and that it would work better if it was boiling hot. No scientific basis for this step, just paranoia manifesting in weird ideas. This kinda also got the labels loose off of the bottles – aha, that’s what I am going to say – I boiled them in vinegar to get the labels off.  Important observation coming up – boiled vinegar reeks and gives you a strange craving for S&V Pringles.

Now that I have the bottles all sterilised and vinegar cured – I got to the fun part – altering the bottles. I stained them with Dala Glass Stain, I painted them with Dala Glass Glaze, I drew patterns with Dala Glass Liner, I plastered on some texture paste on some bottles and dyed the design with Dala Suncolour Dye. 
I made wire symbols (with -you guessed it - Dala Coloured Craft wire) that I thought looked somewhat in-theme and wrapped them around some bottles.
I made up some fake Aztec/Mayan symbols (I didnt want to blindly copy some symbol and then find out later that I have called down some kind of curse down from Atahulpa or something).

To add more interest to the stained bottles I wire-wrapped or hempcord wrapped the necks of the bottles and added a few beads and the like.

I dipped some of the tops in a sealing wax that I melted in makeshift double-boiler to which I added wax crayons to dye it the right shade of green.

Now I am pretty sure painting glaze and drawing designs on a bottle is self-explanatory, so I am going to forego a (redundant) tutorial as I usually include for that. 

I am sure that you can work it out and have fun messing around that way. 

What I am going to include though is a little bit of information on the products that I used – if you’re a South African, you probably know them cos they are pretty household I think when you think of paint and crayons and playdough, but I do want to let you in on the fact that they carry some other really cool products like glass glaze and stain and liner that I didn’t know about until recently. They also have a ceramics line of products that I have not messed with yet.


 
\

 

and I got jiggy with my new favourite craft thing GLASS LINER, this stuff holds shape and texture to a decent degree and adds a faux leaded glass effect. I am going to do a whole other post on all the  ways that I have discovered that you can use this awesome product to create some pretty darn awesome effects and texture some time later.

Finally I bust out the ol’ texture paste

and Dala Suncolour Dye Ink. 

Dala Suncolour will stain and dye ceramic tiles – I got some on my porch tiles and have never been able to remove it and it is still as garishy vibrant as it was four years ago when the accident happened. I have blogged about this before as well – here are some links to posts where I have done other things with suncolour apart from dyeing fabric – 
http://tincanhandmade.blogspot.com/2015/01/string-lights-alchemy-our-creative.html.
http://tincanhandmade.blogspot.com/2012/02/homemade-kraft-core-coredinations-duped.html
http://tincanhandmade.blogspot.com/2013/02/faux-weathered-leather-effects-with-dala.html
http://tincanhandmade.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-made-design-team-on-rad-craft.html
http://tincanhandmade.blogspot.com/2013/03/just-because-i-wanted-to-add-second-tag.html

I’m telling you guys DALA is the freaking best, they have everything and at the fraction of the cost that you would usually pay for similar products in other ranges.

So that's my creation for the August challenge at Our Creative Corner

and if you want to get into a debate with me about it - I am going to stick little Mateo on you!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9iEgdujjA

Changing Karma (and my first Tim tag of 2015)

Right so my Tim tag is there on the left.  But I cant just make something and not tell you the story of the what and why of it.  So guess what you get a little insight into the inner workings and struggles of me today as well.


I am a bit of a R.M Drake junkie at the moment.  Maybe we attach to the things that we need for our lives in the current space that we are in.  I loved this because it spoke to something that I have been struggling to come to grips with. 


Oddly enough, in the same day that I read this quote – I received an email from my dear old friend Andreas who wrote me an encouragement that read: 
“Whoever doesn’t appreciate you isn’t worth it. You’re too special to waste your time with anyone who doesn’t carry you in his hands and adores you 24/7.”


And then later on in the evening my girl Ashmin, sent me this incredible poster below.  I had a good cry over all of it. I needed this.











I am blessed and feel so touched that I have these awesome people in my life who see me and value me and remind me that I have something to offer and that it is good enough. 


I have really struggled with this recently, as you might remember from a few posts back.  I berated myself for not being more like I wasn’t.  I desperately sought to become something that would have negated the very essence of who I actually am, because I convinced myself that it would make me more worthy of love and affection.



In that space, I have questioned myself, I have wondered whether it was wrong to like who I am, whether it was wrong to be comfortable in my way of life, the ideas that I have, and the way I organise reality. I have wondered if there was something fundamentally wrong with me that despite all my best intentions, offering the best and purest form of love I could possibly give, why that was just not good enough? And why I keep failing at staying in the space of the intention and falling over again and again.


Perspicaciously I have begun to sense that throughout a large part of my emotional life, I have just perfected a pattern of falling in love with someone that maybe I unconsciously do know is bad news and who manifests the role of the disembodied voice of my self-scripted diatribe of judgement against myself. There might also be a sense of comfort in familiarity - the predicted outcome of a familiar pattern is known, and there is a sense of security that happens when you know you have been there before, you have survived it.  Unknown territory is frightening - even good unknown territory.

But Karma is what you create for yourself?

As for changing your karma? It is a hard battle to change this pattern of behaviour, to make yourself believe that you are enough, that you are good as you are, that there are those who can see you and love you and accept you for the unique being that you are, when you have become so accustomed to berating yourself.


I have become aware that the people that I foolishly loved the most and felt most sore about losing were not the ones that were actually good for me, but the ones that demonstrated the least amount of respect and value for me.   When I think about that – I see how ridiculous it is.  But I keep returning there. Why do I attach such emotional energy and pain to the ones that were the least honourable? What is this dependence?


To create such angst and anxiety about anyone who cannot accept and love you for who you are is a colossal waste of your precious perfection.  I have to remind myself that that includes myself, the people outside of myself, as well as the part of me that gravitates towards the people that enable that self-loathing. Because each of us are uniquely perfect and deserve to be loved and valued for that unique perfection, anything less than that does not serve you in the way that you were meant to be served to be the best that you are. And that applies to what I must work toward myself as well as have the strenghth to offer that to whomever I choose to be with.  I hope that I can hold true to this promise.


Paulo Coelho is one of my favourite authors. I read him up voraciously and with the zealous fervour of a disciple.  I religiously read his blog too.  I remember reading a post once and being thoroughly surprised at what he was saying.  It wasn’t the usual peace, love and happiness stuff that I had expected him to say. I do admit that I even thought that he was not being as guru-like as I was wanting him to be and I didn’t like that.  He was talking about how we should not entirely forgive and forget those who visit dishonourable and unnecessary grievances upon us, those who exploit our naive vulnerability and affect, they that toy with our affections and our trust.  
I was gobsmacked.  How could my sage, the lovely Coelho suggest such a thing?  Today, I finally understand what he was trying to say.  Dont allow anything that dulls your sparkle, and dont agonise over the “tarnishers”, don't make excuses for the people who treat you badly. I get it now. I really, really get it.  You are perfect as you are.  Anyone who doesn't see that in you and want to keep you close for it is not worth YOU.


I want change. I am trying.  Its hard but I am trying, and I am going to keep trying.


I created something to remind me of this resolve.  I also want to celebrate and honour the people that fan the brightest flames of my little life.


Out of my great respect for Tim Holtz, whose positive inspiration in my life has brought forth some of the best parts of my personality that I am happy about – the desire to create and love what I create – I made a Tim tag for this June, with a message for us all to embrace….oh yeah and I also borrowed a Meghan Trainor “quote” for it. 

Just in case you don’t know what or who the fuss Meghan Trainor is – here’s the cute little song I borrowed the quote from.