Homemade Treats for Dogs and Cats

Sigh...yet another home made project...

Home made dog and cat treats, made by yours truly in my kitchen! I am a former Culinary Arts student and have been trained in proper food handling techniques. I am also ServSafe certified. I first made these last summer for my doggies and just recently decided to make more to sell at the local Farmer's Market. I also have some on Etsy. I have made veggie flavor with real shredded carrots and parsley flakes as the main ingredients. I also have meat flavored with bacon bits and chopped chicken and beef. I have large treats as well as small size treats. I created a treat for kitties as well, as suggested by a customer on etsy. They are nuggets with salmon flavor. My dogs love all of these treats and beg for more.

Jewelry Making Supplies-Clearance Blowout Sale!

With a heavy heart, I have decided to close down my bead shop on Etsy. Unfortunatley, it seems that jewelry making supply shops are going in the same direction as jewelry shops, too many and not enough customers. I have been selling beads and other supplies online for about 5 years now, the last two on Etsy and this past year was the worst for sales. I have seen loads of shops open and surpass me in sales by the thousands. I guess I have been weeded out and it is time to move on.
So, I am going to sell off the rest of my inventory at below wholesale prices to move it out. Right now I have about 80 items listed and I have lots more waiting to list, but I need to sell some things first and pay my Etsy bill, then will mass list the rest of my inventory.
I will continue to make bottle cap necklaces and pony tail holders and continue with soap making.
BeadsOutWest, RIP...2003-2008. It's been a fun ride.
http://beadsoutwest.etsy.com

My First *Real* Attempt at Soap Making

Okay, so I finally did it. I finally had enough supplies to make a batch of real soap. I followed a recipe by Delores Boone called "Simply Soap". It consisited of castor oil, coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, lard(yup, real lard!!), lye and distilled water. I used the hot process method with a slow cooker. I was convinced that I would screw it up somehow or end up in the ER with lye burns. Well, I suprised myself with no burns and a great batch of soap so far. The entire process took maybe two hours including molding. Some of it I scented with lavendar and some with patcholi. Smells awesome. I tried using dye in the lavendar batch, but all it did was turn a grayish color with bits of the color suspended in the soap. Looks kinda cool anyways. The first 5 bars in the photo are lavendar and the other three are patcholi. My drying rack has seen better days, lots of paint!! The rest I molded in a handmade mold-from a plastic container that contained coffee creamer. I lined it with parchment paper and secured the bottom with plastic wrap left over from Halloween. It looks a bit scary but I think I will have some nice round bars once they are hard enough. This batch I left out the fragrance. I will probably use most of it for hand-milling. That is where you take soap that is already made and remelt it and mix with other things to make a totally different bar of soap. I am anxious to get started on that project as well, just awaiting some supplies to come in the mail. I am also anxious to use this in the shower, as I am NOT a fan of bar soap...hate the sticky feeling with it after showering. I may have a different opinion of it fter I use my own soap. I noticed the difference after cleaning the bowls and the pots that had left over soap in them. It lathered really nice and my hands felt smoother. So we will see...

Bottle Cap PonyTail Holders! Featured item!

I am updating today with a post about my latest favorite project (and I have a lot of favorite projects...LOL).

Today's feature is elastic ponytail holders with an attached unused bottlecap with an image. So far in my Etsy shop I have Bobby Jack the monkey, the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. My daughter's influence is pretty obvious in these creations, don'tcha think??? I also have High School Musical, Minnie Mouse and another set of Jonas Bros made but not listed yet, saving these for shows.

These were suprisingly easy to make and they hold up well. They have been tested on my daughter's hair. I have finally found a glue and sealer that won't run the image colors that are printed from my printer. Yay!!! (See my previous post below about glue)

Kinds of Glue That are in My Craft Box, What's in Yours?

Oh my goodness...two posts in the same week! Yay!

Okay, so I know glue isn't all that exciting to talk about, and some of you crafters may know about these products anyways, but I just realized the other day that I have 5 different kinds of glue in my craft box and one bottle of paper glaze.

Three of the five are Aleene's products. I have Tacky glue, Fast Grab tacky glue, and jewelry super glue. I also have basic white school glue, and Martha Stewarts decoupage glue and sealer. So, what do I think of these products? Tacky Glue works pretty good, but not on slick surfaces, the glued stuff comes off very easily after the glue is dry. Seems to me that Tacky Glue is just glorified school glue, but that is just an opinion. Fast Grab works very well on slick surfaces and dries fairly quick and plays nice with Aleene's Paper Glaze. I like it and I think this will be my glue of choice with my bottle cap creations. Martha Stewarts glue is not all that...it has a brush attached to the lid, which I liked, but this glue was very runny and made a mess. It also ran colors from stuff printed on my ink jet printer. So, no I don't like it. Sorry Martha. Aleene's jewelry super glue works great also, sticks well to metal, but it has a strong odor that burns my eyes sometimes. So, I only use this occasionally and with a gas mask. No, not really, but may be a good idea...Last but not least is Aleene's Paper Glaze. what can I say? Does not run ink jet colors - actually highlights some colors that make them stand out. Seals very well too. Very happy with this glaze, despite the fact that it is a little pricey. I will probably buy my next bottle at Michaels with a 40% off coupon....shhh...don't tell anyone.Oh and I forgot one other product, which is Triple Thick Glaze. I use this on my paper creations to give them a nice shine and a hard finish. I really like it and the best thing is it doesn't smell!! Just slightly...

So, this was my exciting opinions about the types of glue/glaze in my box. What's in your box?

Handmade Soap...(from a kit, that is)!!

Yay! I finally did it. I have wanted to make soap for many months now and I did last week for the first time. I bought a kit at Michael's (with my 40% off coupon)that contained two clear plastic pump bottles, liquid concentrate and thickener, dye, fragrance, glass marbles and silk flowers. There also was a pound of glycerine soap and molds for bars. I made the liquid soap first, which was so easy! All I had to do was add warm water to the concentrate, add thickener and fragrance. Then added some marbles and silk flowers to the bottle and filled it with soap. Viola! Instant soap! It smells lovely and makes a pretty addition to my bathroom. As you can see, I have used quite a bit of it already. The bars were a bit trickier to make, the glycerin cooled pretty fast after melting, so I had to reheat a couple of times. I also learned that a little dye goes a long way. The purple bar was the first one I made and it turned out way too dark. I also made a pink bar that I let my daughter use in the shower that also tuned out dark. The green bar turned out real nice, the color was perfect and the pink flowers set it off nicely.

As for the kit, the directions were simple enough to follow, but I think tips about using too much dye and how quickly the glycerin cools would have been nice. They also did not label ANY of the items in the kit. I assumed that the powdery stuff was the thickener and the bottle of stuff was liquid concentrate. I had to look closely to see what color the dyes were. Ah well, I bought the kit for practice anyways and too see if I would like making soap. So, I came to the conclusion that I did like making soap and I will be making more in the future. I want to make my own concentrate if possible and add moisturizers to it because the stuff in the kit seemed to dry my hands a bit. I love the silk flowers and marbles inside the bottles. It's so pretty. I also want to try cold-process soap with lye, but I need to purchase equipment first. I checked out a couple of soap making books from the library and saw a LOT of soap that I want to try. I just need to find a supplier and get busy. Michael's doesn't carry a whole lot of soap-making supplies and neither does JoAnn's. I don't know of any local suppliers, so I guess I will have to purchase online. Any Tucson folks know of any suppliers here in town? I know there is a candle making supplier, but that doesn't help much.

Featured item!

Wow...it's been over a week since I updated. I have been busy with preparing for an upcoming craft show and others in the future and filing my taxes. I did it myself online using Turbo Tax and it was extemely easy...

Anyways, just wanted to update with a few favorite items from my shop. Right now I have two sets of Easter egg magnets listed in my shop, made by me with recycled paper. I have a couple of earlier posts about my paper creations. These were so fun to make and paint. I made a bunch as promos and hoping to get them out soon. I am hoping to post a more interesting topic soon...