Sunday, November 22, 2015

Christmas Presents for under $8

$Eight dollar Christmas present for 6 people
This can be a child involved, thoughtful and cheap present.  Without a child it is just a cheap present.
Items needed:
Dirt, Pot, Paint, Paintbrush, Plant, and child labor
Notes for the “items needed” can be found at the bottom of the post. 
First create an area for your child to paint, think how “Dexter” staged the apartment of his first victim way back in that first season. 
Please note your child will get paint somewhere they weren’t supposed to no matter how much newspaper or wax paper you lay down.  I believe this concept is considered Murphy’s Law.  Just accept it as fact and move forward with life.  A little color never hurt anyone.
Use the child labor to paint however many pots you will be using as presents with the paintbrushes.  While this is in progress, pour yourself a drink and relax.  You deserve it.
We turned the pots upside down but my free labor didn’t understand that the pots would be in the opposite direction afterwards.  If you go this route let the labor know which direction the art will be viewed from once completed.
Once the paint on the pots is dry, fill them with dirt and plant your plants.  Depending on the age of your slave you can even have them complete this portion as well while you have another drink. 















Dirt – Which can be taken from outside (you know that place we used to go before the internet) or purchased.  I advise purchasing so that you don’t have to till or fertilize the outside stuff.  Mine cost $3 from Wal-mart.  I believe it to be discounted because it was winter.
Pot/Pots – [insert marijuana joke here].  Get what pots are available from the Dollar Tree but terracotta with a drainage hole in the bottom would probably work best.  Mine cost $5 because I bought five.
Paint/Paints – I used the Acrylic variety because I already had them so I consider this another “free” element of this craft.  You can use whatever type and color you want Sparkles.  Yes I called you Sparkles.
Plant/Plants – I used spider plants because they are fairly hardy indoor plants.  Another bonus is mine propagated and I didn’t have fork over any moola on new ones.  Another idea is to also get these from that outside place but only if you know what in the hell you are doing.  No person would appreciate receiving poison ivy except for possibly Poison Ivy.
Paintbrushes - Finger painting will also work if you aren’t such a control freak that you dictate how your child makes art. 

Child labor – This is optional but vital if you want the receiver to actually enjoy your present.  Not a single soul cares how good your macramé necklaces are now that you are grown.  If you are doing crafts after the age of 13, you better be bringing some serious art or function.  What’s that you say?  I am hypocrite because my site is dedicated to DIY crafts.  Not so, Sparkles, not so. My site is dedicated to documenting my alcoholic activities which is the distinction. 

Sunday, November 15, 2015

DIY Soap

Christmas is terrible.  You always spend too much and people don’t want the crappy scarf you bought them for $50.  No matter what they say.  Instead spend time with your family and friends and stop buying crappy presents, unless you are rich.  Then indeed buy away.  I will gladly take a diamond tennis bracelet for a present.
As Christmas time was rolling around this year I decided I didn’t want to focus of the material value and commercialization of what Christmas normally is to people nowadays.  In place of buying things that leave much to be desired in my loved ones life and leave my bank account empty, I was going to create items that would make this time of year less stressful for me.  With less stress I may actually have some holiday spirit instead of spending obscene amounts at the mall with worry. I decided I was going to place a value on what I created for the time that I put into them. 
TLDR: Christmas sucks now so I handmade all of my presents this past year for under $60 total.
So let’s get to crafting



Items needed:
·         Glycerin Soap
·         Essential oils (fragrance)
·         Molds
·         Small toys or inserts
·         Microwave safe bowl


I bought pre-made soap bars that you can melt in the microwave.  Simply cut in cubes and toss in a microwave safe bowl.  Then microwave for the time indicated on the instructions.





Once out of the microwave add whatever fragrance you choose.  I picked vanilla and grapefruit essential oils as I already had those on hand.

Add inserts/toys into molds and slowly pour soap over them.


Once dry you will be able to pop out.




Drunk Proof It or ways it could have been better.  This is drunken arts and crafts not artisanal arts and crafts.  These are crafts that I try and sometimes fail at.  I am not a professional.  Please try it at home; results may vary if you are sober.
1.       Most of the soaps seemed “bubbly” probably from stirring in the essential oils too quickly.  Go Slow
2.       If I wasn’t trying to keep the budget so low I would also have also sprung for some soap dye / coloring.  The vanilla did tint the soap.
3.       These molds were tipsy.  If I had it to do over again I would have purchased a completely flat mold.  It would have also been doable if I had a sandbox or something along those lines to set the mold in while pouring and drying.
4.       I found that while microwaving the sides quickly became hard while stirring in the essential oils.
5.       I didn’t check the size to mold ratio on some of the inserts. This meant that Woody’s hat stuck out the back of his soap mold.
6.       Last tip don’t wrap these in tissue paper as it will stick.  Wrap in wax paper or put in an cellophane wrapper.
I hope this helps.   This was probably the most expensive of the Christmas crafts as I had to buy the soap, molds and inserts.  The mold was about $5, the soap around $9 and the inserts were less than $1 each.
You can see the rest of the cheaper sets from this past Christmas to come on the blog later this month.


Btw:  I only went to the mall once during the Christmas season to get photos taken with Santa.  This made me happy.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

How to cut fabric when you live with cats

Step 1 - Layout the fabric you want to cut for your project. Adjust the fabric so that it is as flat as possible.  You may want to use a cutting board depending on your project.

Step 2 - Your cat or cats will immediately lay on the fabric. They allow you to live with them so you simply must obey at this point.

Step 3 - Re-adjust the fabric so that it lays nicely again

Step 4 - Your cats will now claw at the fabric.

Step 5 - Re-adjust the fabric to avoid the parts that now have holes.

Step 6 - Your cat will now run around over top of the fabric.  Enjoy the show.

Step 7 - Give up and have a drink

Step 8 - Re-adjust your fabric. At this point if your project calls for you to pin the fabric to a pattern do so now.

Step 9 - Give the cats catnip

Step 9 - Cut as fast as you possibly can while they are distracted.



Voila you are done