What I did over my summer vacation AKA the 4th of July

Well my crafty friends life got crazy busy I have been crafting just not as much as I would like. 

Today however I was so proud of my craft I had to share! 

I have been using essential oils regularly now for about 9 months and. I love them! I love what they allow me to do (like not see the doctor as much and live a more natural life)

This latest craft is just for them. 

Okay not a huge craft and it didn't take much time but since I have room to improve these (hello Silhouette!) I know that I will! It's summer vacation and I didn't want to turn on the computer. 

I decided to use the new dōTERRA Summer Sunsational Flavors that I received free with my 200PV order last month (offer was extended until July 15th so if you want to learn more I would be happy to share with you at www.mydoterra.com/MarthaJeffery). 

I found some fantastic jars at Target yesterday for $1.00 each. I knew that I would be using them for oils but it wasn't until they were sitting on my counter that I got my brilliant craft idea. 

I decided to use them to make flavored salts and sugars for when I cook. 

Step 1 was getting those pesky stickers off the bottom. 

A little lemon oil with witch hazel and distilled water in a spray jar took care of that mess. 

Spray and let sit for about 30 seconds and the stickers peel off with ease! 

That was the second hardest part of my craft :). 

Next I washed and dried the jars and filled them with sea salt and sugar. 

That was the hardest part! I couldn't find the sugar and I didn't know I was on my last container of sea salt. 

    All the pretty jars!

Once they were filled all I had to add the oils. I think my only mistake was adding a little too much cumin to the first jar because it was very powerful. Next time I will use less. Shake to mix and write up some labels. 

    It is hard to see the oils here!

Now I have some wonderful seasonings and sugars for my tea that took very little effort! I can't wait to try the cumin salt the next time I make salsa and the dill on some grilled fish. I have already made a glass of sweet tea and the spearmint is so refreshing especially in the hot Texas sun! 

I hope you enjoyed my craft. 

Eventually I will make some vinyl stickers to label my jars but today I am on vacation! 

What you need:

1 small jar for each flavor of salt or sugar you want to make

Sea salt

Organic sugar

dōTERRA Essential Oils Sunsational Kit f(free with any 200PV purchase) or other dōTERRA essential oils like lemon, wild orange, basil and oregano

Fill jars with salt or sugar to the top

Add 1-6 drops of oil to the jar and shake

Let "rest" to ensure maximum penetration of Flavors and use in your cooking or baking! 

How to make Sticker Remover Spray:

1 2oz glass spray bottle

Witch hazel

dōTERRA Lenon Essential oil

Distilled water 

Fill glass jar with 20-30 drops of Lemon oil. 

Fill jar halfway with witch hazel and the rest of the way with distilled water. Place spray top on and use as a cleaner a gunk remover or sticker remover :) too strong use less oil! 

A is for Alligator

It is fitting that my first post on this blog is something completely new for me to make.

I have wanted to make a quiet book for my darling daughter MD ever since I saw one on Pinterest (darn you Pinterest for all your crafty ideas!).

Since we are crafting 365 projects this year I thought at least some of them need to be made with her. I know you weren’t apart of the first 33 projects but I promise that we will go back and revisit those early projects I made!

She and I sat down with Pinterest and reviewed all the Alligator quiet book pages and felt alligators I could find. I wanted to make her alligator fun and interactive for her. I was originally thinking we would have a peek-a-boo alligator where he hides in the swamp and she can lift the swamp and see him peeking out. She however took one look at Chompy and said him. So after looking at our sample I figured I could come up with one similar to the one she saw.

I started by sketching an alligator head and came to the quick conclusion that I would only need to draw half of a head to make it symmetrical and cut it out. I used freezer paper to make my pattern but I am sure any paper will work.

Freezer paper could have been pressed on to the felt to make it super easy to cut out but I was feeling too lazy to get out the iron and ironing board.

We took a little break to give MD a bath and came back to work on Chompy some more.

I cut out the “face” portion of the head and then using my first attempt at the head cut out (since it was about the same size and shape as the original) to make the lower half of his face. I added about an inch in order to round him out and make sure he lined up nicely with his top. I folded both in half and trimmed up any felt that didn’t match. MD practiced her scissor skills while we were cutting things out.

I wound up doing this on the fly and had to cut out teeth twice because the first time I failed to leave myself a place to sew them in place and I didn’t want to use hot glue. I cut about a 4” piece of felt for each set of teeth for the bottom and a 2” piece of felt for the top teeth. I folded in half and cut out triangles. This was not the easiest way to do this I think, but it worked.

Now it is time to sew! I sewed the teeth on to each side of each piece of the head. I also sewed one quick line up the back to hold the top and bottom together.

I took out my felting tools and felted the teeth together to hide the inside seam and make them nice and sturdy. MD insisted on helping with the felting which made me extremely nervous because those needles are long and sharp so she had lots of help (mommy’s hand didn’t leave the tool) and she felted some too!

I felted on the eyes and the snout.

About this time I realized Chompy needed a tongue and so I cut out a piece of pink felt that I had already felted onto itself so it was double thick. This one I just cut out a tongue shape and cleaned it up by folding in half.

I felted this in place and we are done! I will have to put him in the book when I start pages and he is both going to go into a swamp and have a tooth brush. I am still trying to decide if he is going to get a single cut out body or not. I will keep you posted.                                                                                

MD practicing her cutting!