Make Up Monday: DIY Sea Clay Mask

Holy crow, Make Up Monday and a DIY in the same post? GET OUT OF TOWN. No seriously, I have been slackin' major on the Make Up Monday posts. I really am just super consumed with other projects *cough*Spellbound Soaps*cough* and blogging is on the back burner. :/ But I shall make it up to you today because I am going to teach you how to make your own mud mask!

Sea Clay, also known as Dead Sea Clay, makes for a fantastic facial mask and it's something I use in my soaps. For example, my Green Monster Bar is made with sea clay and naturally colored with it. Sea Clay has high levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium and sulfate, making it fantastic for the skin & ideal for a face mask. The bonus is that you can tweak this in any way you'd like, using products that are geared towards your specific skin conditions. If you'd like some anti-aging melt a little shea butter and mix the sea clay with shea butter. If you'd like to tighten the skin mix in a little bit of ground coffee (the grinds will also exfoliate your skin). The most important ingredient is the Sea Clay. It will cause the mask to dry on the skin and give you the consistency you want in a facial mask.

Sea Clay Mud Mask
For this particular recipe you will need:

• 1/4 Cup of Sea Clay (Bentonite and Kaolin are also good alternatives too)
• 4 Drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil (Optional)
• 2 tsp. Water PER treatment 
• Other optional ingredients to add to your mask mix: 2 T. Dried/Ground herbs, 2 T. milk powder or 2 T. Honey.  
• You can also replace water with milk, herbal tea or aloe vera juice.

A word of caution before you go mixing a bunch of stuff together and glop it on your skin. If you have sensitive skin, don’t mix too many ingredients that you’ve never used before.  Do a test spot. The best place is in the crook of your arm. If no irritation occurs proceed with an application on your face. It's fun to play around but no one wants to make something that irritates or makes their face swell.   Try this basic recipe the first time and then add or replace one ingredient at a time. For example, powdered goat's milk is great for the skin and could be used as a substitute for water (you'd actually add it to the water but go with me here). Don't add honey, goats milk and green tea to the mix and put it on your face. First try a treatment with the goat's milk. If everything works out fine, next time you do a treatment add the honey. Then switch out the goats milk and honey and try just the green tea.

Steps:

• For each application use a 1:1 Ratio. That is mix 2 tsp. clay mix with 2 tsp. water (or alternative liquid).
• Apply to skin and let dry for 5-15 minutes. 
• For sensitive skin, leave on for less time (5 minutes). 
• If you have oily skin, keep on longer (15 minutes). 
• Rinse with warm water and moisturize.

VIOLA! You are done and you should have lovely skin to show for it. I would do these at max once a week. You do not want to over work your skin.

If you cannot find Sea Clay, Benonite or Kaolin clay at your local health food store (I'm about 85% sure that Whole Foods does not carry these and I know Sprouts doesn't. I have a "Mom & Pop" that carries Sea Clay and Benonite but no Kaolin down the street.) then I would order some online from one of these suppliers:

• Wholesale Supplies Plus - For every dollar you spend you get a rewards point that you can later use to purchase items with.
• Brambleberry - they give out free fragrances every month which is lovely. Also, if you have any questions Anne-Marie (owner & CEO) is VERY on top of social media. She replies to most tweets and youtube comments.
• Soap Goods - They don't offer incentives but have a HUGE selection and great prices.

Have you ever made your own beauty supplies?

If you make this, tweet me pictures!

DIY: $2 Cake Stands

Hi guys, look who is FINALLY posting a DIY. Yeah, that's right I said it ME! Last one I did was back in June or July. The funny thing is, I've done about tons of crafting DIY's  since then  (like making paper flowers, or racer back tank tops) and none of them turn out! This one is fabulous.

Part sparked by my desire to do more with my soap I was looking for some inspiration for how to photograph and display my soap. I've come up with a cute idea for it based on well, what else, pins from pinterest!  Do you follow me on Pinterest? Should I be following you? Put your URL in my comments.

Pinterest has become a DIY lover's paradise as of late hasn't it? Anyways, I found this DIY Cake Stand Tutorial from Shelterness and have created my own. Their tutorial is VERY basic. Mine is going to be a little bit more in depth but essentially it will cover the same steps.

Also, THESE ARE NOT FOOD SAFE! Do not place cakes or cupcakes or any kind of food item on these stands unless you have a paper doilie (Baking isle of Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Joanns or any craft store) or cupcake wrapper on your food products. The chemicals used could be absorbed into the food and could potentially poison you!

These stands were intended to be made for sale display's only. (All of my soaps are wrapped in plastic to retain their moisture and prevent soda ash, cracking or contamination).

I went into The Dollar Tree looking only for some ceramic plates and the Candlesticks. You can get the same materials anywhere but for $1 a piece why not? Hence why the post is called $2 Cake Stands. Essentially all you need to buy are the candle sticks and the plates. If you already have the glue and everything else then that's the only thing you'll need to spend money on.

The original tutorial said to use plates. Personally, I didn't like the plates that the Dollar Tree had. Apparently every Dollar Tree has different stuff but I went to 5 and couldn't find any plates that I liked. Remember, I'm going to paint these so to say I couldn't find plates I liked enough to paint says something. Then at the last one I was going to try, the one closest to my house (go figure) had some decorative serving trays. I picked up a silver one. It was lightweight and when I put the candlestick under it I liked what I saw. So I grabbed three. So far I've spent $6 to make a 3-teir Cake stand. Not bad when you try to buy them and they cost $24-$100 at stores. Just type in "ceramic cake stand" and see what Google pulls up. Ridiculous. Anyways onto the tutorial side of things.

You'll need some supplies (most of these you should have already):

• Plate or tray (whatever you plan to use for the top)
• Candlestick (or whatever you are using for a base)
• Multi-Surface Paint or Spray Paint (Needs to work on glass! I am using Americana [Brand] Gloss Enamels)
• Glue (I used a hot glue gun but you could use any kind of super adhesive that works on Glass)
• Paint Brush (if using paint like I am)
• Newspaper or Plastic Bag (to cover work surface)

What I had to purchase (Bottom) Vs. Supplies needed (top)

First paint the candlesticks. I used 3 coats on mine. I had tons of colors to pick from and I was going to use multiple colors but once I got going with the "Light Buttermilk" I fell in love. Seriously, it looks so cute.

According to the label the paint needs to dry for 48 hours and then bake for 30 minutes at 325. Or air dry for 21 days. WHAT?! I can handle waiting 2 days but 21? Oi! So yeah that wasn't included in the tutorial from Shelterness. Since I didn't use spray paint I'm not sure what you'll need to do but make sure you read the directions and follow them. I have a hard time breathing strong fumes so I decided spray paint was not an option. Especially since I would have to do it outside and it's cold and really windy here. I really don't want to wear spray paint. The paint does have some fumes but nothing the ceiling fan can't take care of.



When painting the candle sticks I discovered a little problem. There's a lot of nooks-and-crannies in it where paint can collect so I worked out a system for painting them. First you're going to want to paint in light layers. Don't worry if there is streaking that will fade with the layers. Paint the bottom circle in a downward motion. Next paint the next "tier" in a downward motion all the way to the bottom. Yeah, go over the part you already painted. Next, paint the skinny middle or "stick" part in an upward motion.

I did that 3 times before I moved to the upper part so it would give me something to grasp. Then once that part was dry I moved to the top. I waited about 10 minutes between each coat.

When I got to the top I ran into a similar problem as the bottom. There are two little ledges or lips to this part and another middle or stick. I painted them the same way. Downward first, then the stick and top lip upward. Then for good measure I painted the top rim.

I did not paint inside where the end of the candle stick would go because it is going to be irrelevant when I glue the candle stick to the platter and I didn't paint the bottom underneath because again no one is going to see it.

I was going to leave the plates alone and just paint the candle stick but I liked how it looked and I thought the uniform color might be prettier. I was right. I just squirted paint straight onto the plate and used a wide brush to paint it in circles so that the streaks would all be in the same direction. The surface of the plate did not hold the paint well. After two coats it started to flake off. I let this dry overnight and then the next day while I was still waiting for the candle sticks to finish I added another coat. This helped but not by much. Oh well, it's going to be covered anyways. I let that dry over night.

Then as instructed I preheated the oven to 325 and once it was set I placed the candle sticks in oven and let them bake for 30 minutes. As instructed I let them cool off inside the oven - I waited 15-20 minutes before I took them out. I suppose you could take them out using an oven mit or if you placed them on a cookie sheet take it out and air dry but I didn't.

Then I added a nice layer of glitter. I used Martha Stuart's Multi-purpose craft glitter acrylic paints. I mixed a TEENY-TINY bit of the "Onyx" shade with a bunch of the "Seafoam" shade and sparingly painted just the bottoms of the candlesticks.

As I waited for that to dry, I turned on my hot glue gun and let it heat up. Once the glitter was dried I took my top and turned it upside down added the hot glue to the top rim of the candlestick and then turned it upside down, positioned it just above the plate into roughly dead center. Once I confirmed that was where I wanted it, I firmly pressed it to the bottom of the plate. I let that sit and repeated the steps with the other two sets.

One tip on the "testing" phase. I used a hot glue gun and since I knew I was going to end up using these as a soap stand I decided to test out their weight capacity. Hot Glue does not hold well. Ok, well, not the tiny amount I used in the picture. I literally spaced out all of my Melt and Pour soaps trying to take cute pictures and guess what happened? BOOM! The back side was heavier than the front side and the tray popped off the candlestick. I decided MORE GLUE was the answer rather than buying a more heavy duty glue. This is my frame of caution to you; I didn't like the look of gluing one on top of the other and I'm glad I didn't. They can't hold much if you're only going to use hot glue and if you are using hot glue - GLUE THE SHIT OUT OF IT. I not only put glue on the rim like above but also on the outside rim on the plate so that it literally is a glue-ring and you can't tell where the plate ends and the candle stick begins. It's underneath and no one can see as shown in the bottom right picture.

Once all of that drama was out of the way I had one thing left to do. Apply a finishing gloss coat. I bought this in a spray so I went onto the front porch, which is open and set up my newspaper. I put the whole stand upside down so I could seal the candle stick part first. In 2 short bursts I sprayed the bottom and let those dry. Then I daringly turned them right-side up and sprayed the top lid. Once that was dry I brought them inside and viola! I am done. *phew*

TIP: Come back next Friday for a chance to win one of the two gift bags in the bottom picture!

What do you think of my cake stands?

DIY: Hair Clips

In an effort to get my facebook page a little more lovin, if you "Like" my blogs facebook page you will get a sneak peek of my DIY projects before they are posted. So if you had done that already you would have seen this blog post coming.

When my hair gets long, or if I am in that awkward bang stage where they can't be side swept but you don't want straight bangs either I usually pin up some piece of hair or braid those awkward bangs away and pin them with a clip. Now I could go on Etsy and spend $10-$15 plus S+H on cute little bows or I can make my own.

Supplies:

• Plain Hair Clips or Bobby Pins
• Buttons, fabric, jewels, rhinestones, glitter - ALL OPTIONAL
• Nail Polish or Acrylic paint
• Mod Podge
• Hot Glue Gun
• Spray or Paint on Varnish

Cost: $3 (+ other supplies if not already owned)

If you're a pretty big crafter then these should all be supplies that you have on hand. I used flat beads I had left over from another project and I also had all of the other supplies. The only thing I purchased were the hair clips and those cost me $3 at Walmart. You can also use bobby pins for this so depending on your hair needs you may have those as well.

To start, get your hair clips and whatever you plan to decorate them with. I used nail polish on two of them and acrylic paint on the others. One pair I even left the color that it was because I thought it looked better.  Slide the clips onto your envelope or cardboard so you can paint them and then go to town.

Obviously you will wait for said paint to dry. If you don't plan on putting some kind of design on be it glitter, painting patterns then you can begin the next portion. If, however, you do decide to put glitter or patterns on now would be the time to coat the parts you want to attach glitter or rhinestones with modpodge  and apply those. Wait for those to dry.

Once everything is applied spray with varnish. Varnish will keep the glitter from falling into your hair and keep it on the clip. It will also make the clip glossy if all you did was paint it.

Next, get your gem or in my case I used a flat bead in the shape of a feather and then glued the feather onto my clip. At first I used mod podge to glue on the bead but then one some of them the bead came off. I then hot glued them on and their staying power lasted. So if you are wanting to put gems or beads onto your clips I highly recommend hot gluing them on.

Then wait for everything to dry (hot glue takes less time) and once dry you can put them into your hair and you are ready to wear! I wore the above ones to work and then to my court date for my red light ticket. Brittany, my room mate thought I just stuck beads in my hair. :( Guess I'll have to let the whole clip show.