Soap! Soap! Soap!

So, I decided to play with something different than plushies one day, and I ended up making soap! I wont lie, I did cheat and I didn't make legit soap from scratch, but someday I will (when I have more time). Instead, I went to Michaels and got some bulk glycerin melt and pour soap, a whole bunch of scented oils, soap coloring, and molds.

It was so easy and a lot of fun making my own scents and colors! All you have to do is melt the soap, mix your scents in, and make your colors, and pour it in the molds. Wait for them to dry, pop them out and WALLAH! you have lovely soaps. I would love to figure out a way I can make my own molds though..

If you mix little batches at a time you can make layers of colors, or marbled mixes of colors, or even layer your scents (although that can end up horrible real quick!). I made some with shea butter soap and some with goats milk (both were glycerin based). Both were wonderful, but I think I like the shea butter a little better.

TIP: Use an eye dropper and drip some rubbing alcohol on top of any bubbles in the soap right after you pour it into the mold, while its still hot. The rubbing alcohol eliminates bubble but the heat of the soap evaporates the alcohol.

Also, I got some frosting mix stuff that you blend into the soap with a hand mixer and it makes "soap frosting" with which I created some adorable cupcake soaps. The soap "frosting" stays soft, just like real frosting, so it makes it a little difficult to transport and a little weird to use at first, but they look amazing! and delicious!

Photo courtesy of Chavilah Bennett

This would be a really fun thing to do with your friends or with your kids for a party, or even if you just want something to keep your kids occupied and away from video games for an afternoon ;). You dont even need to use an oven, you can melt the soap in the microwave, making it extra kid friendly. Although, obviously, they should be supervised as the soap does get pretty hot.

TIP: If your melting the soap in the microwave, melt it for 30 sec and then continue in 10 sec intervals until its fully melted and liquid. You want to make sure not to burn it!

I decided to sell mine in my booth at the Moonlight Market on Gay Street. A fun addition to my plushies :)

Happy crafting!

New Website

A couple months ago, I made a website that I was very proud of. At the beginning of May, My web hosting got screwed up and all my domains got locked and (long story short) I can't ge them back (very frustrating). So yesterday, I got some new hosting (YAY!) and a new domain and my website is back up! Hooray!

My new web domain is www.fluffy-buttons.com

Curly Yarn Hair Success!

Continuing from my last post, I FINALLY went through and took all the yarn off the dowel rods from my experiment of making curly yarn doll hair. They've been sitting for about 2 weeks probably, and whaddayaknow, they're suddenly coming off perfect! Except for the larger dowels, they didnt turn out so well. I think last time, they just didn't dry all the way, so if yours does the same thing, leave them sit on the dowels for a few weeks and then take them off. Last night I redid it with better yarn (one kind was 98% acrylic the other was 50% acrylic and 50% wool) and they both did much better. I only made 5 dowels this time which I think made a huge difference in the drying. I baked the for less than an hour and they came off perfect. So, in conclusion is that you shouldn't use cheap acrylic yarn, get some more fuzzy stuff or wool or mohair, and don't do a hundred dowels at once, just do a few at a time. Yay! So excited to make some dolls now! :)

smaller dowel

Large Dowel

Curly Yarn Doll Hair Fail

Recently I've started getting into making felt dolls. I love them, but I wanted to try something different and use yarn hair instead of felt hair.

Of course, I couldn't be easy and want straight hair though, NOOOO i wanted curly hair. So I went searching online and found this tutorial on making curly yarn doll hair. I love how hers turned out. Its so cute and bouncy. So i put it to the test.

Since I was just testing this, I went to walmart to pick up some cheap yarn and I found a bunch of fun colors. I also picked up some 12 in dowel rods. They came in packs, so I got one pack for each size since I didnt know how this was going to turn out.

I wrapped the yarn around the dowel rods, ending it in a slipknot so it wouldn't come off.

I used up all the dowels I had and wrapped a whole bunch of colors, cause I was dead certain that this was going to work perfectly. My sink was in use, since I hadn't done the dishes yet. So, instead I put them in a large baking dish and filled it with water to let them soak over night. I had to put a plate overtop so they would't float to the surface.

After they had their soak, I took them out, layed them out on a baking sheet and baked them at 200 degrees. In the tutorial I was following, she had baked them for less than an hr. I had to bake my for over 2 hours to get them to dry, checking on them every 15 min or so. Even then, I let them sit over night to dry completely.

 I was so excited to finally pull the yarn off the dowel rods (and I admit this part was rather fun), but to my dismay, they did not turn out correctly at all :(. They barely have any curl, its not bouncy, and its all weird and floppy. Where did I go wrong? I have no idea. In the tutorial, she said she was using acrylic yarn, but I have a feeling it wasnt 100% acrylic and I need to find some mohair yarn. So sad, I really liked my colors. But thats how you learn, So I will just try it again and I will be back with hopefully better results :).

My first ever art sale

2 saturdays ago (april 13) was my first ever art sale! (Im a little behind on posting) It was ALOT of fun! Thanks to everyone who came out to support me! After lots of stress and frustration, my booth came out looking great and i managed to finish 48 o the 50 plushies i planned to have there.

I made all kinds of new plushies which i will hopefully get up on etsy soon, but currently i have photos up in my gallery of each one :) www.fluffybuttons.com/gallery.html
Thanks again to everyone for making this such an awesome experience! My next sale will be at north market on may 26 :)

CCAD Art Sale

This year Im doing my first ever art sale at Columbus College of Art and Design! I will have lots of things there that aren't on my Etsy shop....So everyone come on out and visit me and check out my awesome booth!