Green Team--Day #1

Every year, I have such a hard time with Xmas gift. I want to give something that is cute, trendy, creative--but I can't get past the USEFUL and PRACTICAL side of gift giving.

So when I came across the tutorials in my Craft of the Day e-mail from Martha Stewart, I knew I had a winner--something cute AND practical!

Star shaped peppermint soap



A cross between these two tutorials: Striped Soaps and Heart-shaped Soap

I improvised the soap tutorial and made only two layers and used a star shaped cookie cutter to cut the soap. Some people had commented that they had problems getting the layers to stick together. So, for the first batch, I scored the soap AND sprayed it with rubbing alcohol. (I won't go into the shenanigans we had to get into to get the soap OUT of the pan for that first batch). The second batch, I FORGOT to score or spray with alcohol....and the layers still didn't separate (and I used aluminum foil to line the pan so the soap popped out MUCH easier....).

(PS -- I melted down the scraps of soap and poured it into a silicon ice cube tray -- heart shapes -- the pink hearts popped out SO easily -- I totally think this is the way to go!!)

Peppermint lip balm: (although I didn't really follow the tutorial because I found a pre-made kit to use!)

The lip balm was REALLY easy to do, and I think it turned out OK. I'd like to tweak the recipe a bit to include Shea butter and Vitamin E next time.

And, while I used Aveda essential oils to scent both products, I think using an actual peppermint essential oil (nearly impossible for me to find!!) would have produced a bit more of a scent.

I plan to play around and tweak both recipes with the leftovers I've got at home.

Enjoy! And don't forget to pamper yourself this Xmax season!!

--From Stef