Christmas crafts

The Cheese ball poses for some pictures.

I feel like I've done so much home made/crafty stuff this holiday season.  This past week, I feel like I haven't stopped moving, it's crazy.  Cookies, candies, wrapping presents, making presents... it felt like it never ended.  It feels good to be mostly done.  I have two stockings and a few more presents to wrap.  The best part was that I did a lot with Lilia.  She and I had a lot of fun making clay ornaments, and all of us had fun painting them.  It was a really easy to make:

1 box baking soda (1lb box)
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups water

1. Mix everything in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring the entire time, until it's difficult to continue due to the thick consistency. 

2. Cool for about 15 minutes. Knead 5 minutes, or until smooth. Keep dough wrapped in plastic until you use it.

Mold it like you want, then let it set 1-2 days for the clay to dry.  The thicker it is, the longer it'll take to dry.  When it's dry, paint with acrylic paint (or similar.)

Cute ornaments!

It's that simple!  The smell was a fit funny, or so Lilia informed me, but she didn't mind.  She had too much fun.  She was coming up with little stories for each ornament shape she cut out.  We waited 4 days to paint, just to make sure it was dry, and then both kids painted them.  See the little patchwork Buffalo?  Yeah, that's the one I did.  And then Liam broke it.  Since I used a straw to put a hole in each, when the paint dried, we strung a ribbon through each ornament, and I attached some of them to gifts bags that I was giving to friends and family for Christmas.  It made a nice touch, I thought.

Speaking of gifts bags, I had my first experience making soaps.  It was a simple melt and pour recipe, meaning I melted it, added some color, fragrance, and poured it into a mold.  I've recently fallen in love with Brambleberry.com and can't wait to experiment more with soap and candle making.  I also made a gingersnap scented sugar scrub, and chocolate lip balm. I have the ingredients to make bath fizzies, but decided to not make those this week with everything else on my place.

Gingerbreadman soap, fresh from kitchen!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and it's good to know that I really don't have much left to do.  In fact, it's kind of refreshing and I look forward to relaxing with John and the kids instead of running around like a crazy mama.