More Necklaces!!
I still have more buttons laying around, and more storage space for jewelry. The day I run out of space will be a weird day. I had both of these things that I decided were just too shiny and pretty for me. How should I darken them up?
NAIL POLISH. I don’t just use it so much because I like the smell. I painted some on this metal heart, then rubbed it off with a napkin.
I love this because it looks like tarnished silver, instead of bright shiny new craft store metal.
I followed the same process with this one. I painted on some black nail polish, then rubbed it off. Rather than paint the whole thing black at once, I did each piece in thirds.
I love how the black really defines the detail on the rose, and makes the individual petals visible.
What else was I fooling around with? Nail polish and bottle caps!
I poured a little black nail polish in there, and swirled it around, gently. I used the brush to make sure it coated the sides completely. I love this stuff, because it gives you such a shiny, enameled look.
And here we see the final products: top left is a ceramic star I made and just finally glued a necklace thing onto, top right is a cute chick cut out of a magazine and glued into the black bottle cap (see this tutorial for bottle cap necklaces), bottom left is the swallow button glued onto the back of a black bottle cap, and bottom right is the filigree heart with skull and cross bones! I love having a mess of new jewelry to wear! It’s almost better than new clothes.
Yes, even more skulls!!
I guess you guys have figured out by this point, that I’m a little obsessed with skulls (as you can see here, and here, and here, oh and here, here, and here). I could wear a different skull t-shirt everyday for a week, and now, I can also accessorize with skulls! When Beans and I went to the thrift store, we found a tangled pile of mardi gras beads with skull and crossbones on them. Of COURSE I brought them home.
I simply cut the skulls loose from the rest of the beads, and threw those away. Yes, they are shiny silver, but that’s nothing some matte white spray paint can’t fix! A few of them, like those in the picture, were missing a bone or two. Hubby snapped the extras off for me, and sanded down the sides.
I decided Day of the Dead was the way to go with these (especially appropriate for Cinco de Mayo). I pulled out my paints and tiny brushes and went nuts! Here’s a mid-way through work picture:
And a couple of finished ones:
I used a fine point sharpee to do the detail work. The one with blood pouring out of its eye sockets is my favorite!
I just mixed small amounts of the colors I wanted, and went from skull to skull adding flowers, leaves, hearts, and other details. I just googled images of Day of the Dead to get inspiration. I can’t wait to do more stuff like this!
Several of these will be for sale at the Rockin’ Mama’s Day Celebration this Saturday, May 7, to benefit SafePlace. I hope to see you there!
My Super Cheapness: Laundry Soap
So Hubby is constantly teasing me about my cheapness. I purposely go to the grocery store on free sample day, I’m delighted to find pennies, and I am constantly hunting for free samples online. When I found this site with how to make your own laundry soap I was ecstatic!
I personally went with one with the fewest ingredients, and that didn’t require me to boil water or anything (#4 on the previous link). You need Borax, Washing Soda (also made by Arm and Hammer, but not the same as baking soda), and Ivory Soap. Borax and Washing Soda can be found in the laundry aisle at the grocery store, in cardboard boxes, somewhere near the bottom shelf. The proportions work out to 1 bar Ivory, 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda.
I use a tiny cheese grater or lemon zester thing I have (I have no idea where it came from), to grate the soap into a big tupperware. This is also the perfect place for your soap carving shavings to go when you carve your skull soap!
You only need to use 2 tablespoons of this mixture in each load of laundry. I used the scoop left from a tub of protein powder, and marked on the side with a sharpie how much to fill it up for each load. You can also use the little measuring cup that comes with Pepto Bismol or Nyquil. Use a real tablespoon, and measure 2 tablespoons of water into your scoop to make sure it fits, and to give you a guide for your sharpie line.
I have been using this for 4 or 5 months now, on everything from blue jeans, to bras, to microfiber blankets. It works awesome! My husband sweats like crazy (much like everyone else in the Texas summer) and this makes his clothes smell totally clean. They don’t have any of the perfumey scents you may be used to, but those aren’t good for you anyway.
The best part? This costs about 4 cents per load. Yep! Even the super cheap giant tub of powder from the store costs about 8 cents a load. Half the price? Hells yeah, Beaches!
Pirate Soap
We have a pirate themed bathroom in the house (yes, it’s awesome), and I believe in taking themes to the extreme. Thus, the skull and crossbones soap was born.
You will need: a bar of soap, and rather dull, small knife, and a bucket to catch the soap carvings.
You can scrape off the company logo if you want, or just use the back side of the soap for carving. The first thing I did was sketch the initial outline into the soap with the tip of the knife. I got a little over-excited and dug the eyes and nose out first, but it came out okay in the end. Other than this step, I basically just carved away the extra soap from my design.
This is it, the finished product. I used a wet q-tip to smooth out the insides of the eyes, and around the edges. Fun times! *Pirate Voice* “Yaaarrr, there be a treasure of cleanliness to be had!”
