How to make beeswax wraps

I did some beeswax wraps last fall, and they turned out great. I opted for a method, where you iron the wax on the cloth. I don't have a video tutorial for that, but I'll explain what I did.

First, I lined my worktop with an old towel and laid a sheet of parchment paper on top. Then you place your cloth on top of the parchment paper. Make sure, your paper is much larger than your wrap, as the wax will melt and tries to run off the parchment paper.

Then I sprinkled some beeswax pellets, pine resin and jojoba oil on top of the cloth. Now my pine resin was in half inch size pieces, so I placed some in a ziplock bag, covered with another ziplock bag and hammered it away. The problem was, that the resin is sharp, so it pierced the bags and some of it stuck on my cutting board. Luckily I used an old board, so I just tossed it away after.

old beeswax wraps ready to be re-waxed

Then you layer a second piece of parchment paper on top of the cloth, and iron so, that the resin and wax melt (make sure you don't get any wax on your iron!!)

Problem with this method was, that some spots had more resin than others, and also the jojoba oil was not distributed evenly. I also used too much wax.

So this time, I wanted to try the oven method, with pre-melted wax.

Here is the recipe:
0.5 oz pine resin
1.25 oz beeswax
1 tbsp jojoba oil

I actually doubled the recipe, and was able to re-wax 8 old wraps and do 7 new ones with that amount. I wish I would have done even a bigger batch, as apparently reheating the mixture will be much faster, as the pine resin is mixed evenly with the beeswax and jojoba oil.

I placed some pine resin into a stainless steel can (wide enough to fit a paint brush in) and placed it into a double boiler (water bath) on the stovetop. It took over an hour to melt the pine resin!!

Once your resin is melted, you can add the beeswax pellets and jojoba oil. The beeswax melts in about 5-10 minutes.

Heat your oven to 300ºF (150ºC) and line it with parchment paper (use an old cookie tray, or make sure your tray is fully covered).

Place the wrap on the parchment paper and use a paint brush to spread the melted wax mixture on the wrap. You don't have to get a 100% coverage, as you will put this into the oven for 2-3 minutes, and the wax will absorb to the fabric.

Once you remove your wrap from the oven, you can reapply wax if there are uncovered spots, and return it back to oven. Once you have full coverage, you can almost immediately remove it from the cookie tray and lift the wrap on a clean parchment paper away from the stove heat. The wax will harden in few seconds.

Do not use wraps with meat, specially raw, as you cannot wash them with warm water. Use cool water and mild dish soap, if needed and hang them to dry.
The wraps will last approximately 6 months, depending on the usage.

TIP:
cut your fabric using pinking sheers, as the zigzag will prevent the fabric from fraying.

here is a video tutorial 

(if you go to my youtube channel, you can also find this video in Finnish)

How to dye Barbie's hair and remove stains from the face

I wanted to make 'Shimmer & Shine' Barbie dolls for my niece, and for that I needed a pink and blue haired dolls. I know you can buy those, but I had seen people dye their doll hairs so I went to Value Village and got two Barbie dolls for few dollars.

The pink doll already had 80% pink hair, with blond high lights. I tried to dye the rest of the hair pink, using acrylic paint, but it didn't stay as vibrant after the wash. But my niece was happy with the slightly tinted hair, so I left it as it is.

The blue turned out to be a bigger problem. The acrylic paint just tinted the hair pale green (like she would have been at the swimming pool too long). Then I tried fabric paint (just from the craft store). No change.

I had seen a youtube video on how to colour the hair using a Sharpie pen, but that seemed too labour intensive, so I decided to try liquid fabric dye (Rit). I used the one for synthetic fabrics. I did cover the face with masking tape, but I think it might have been better not to cover the face, and wipe the face when ever the dye got to her face. Now the masking tape got soaked in the dye, and allowed the dye to sit on the face several minutes.

So, the hair turned out fine, but the forehead turned blue in the process. So off to google to find out how to remove the stains. I tried nail polish - no change. I tried rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol) - no change. Then I read about Acne treatment option. The one they had used was 10% Benzoyl Peroxide, but the only ones I was able to find (in Canada) were 5% (I even asked the pharmacy). So I figured it should work, but maybe need multiple treatments.

It took me 4 treatments. I applied the lotion on the forehead, covered it with cling wrap, heated it with hairdryer and placed it under a desk lamp for the day or overnight. I wiped of the ointment, and reapplied. The face still has a hint of blue on it, but it is barely visible. As you can see, the hair is more vibrant in this picture, compared to the one above. I did do several strikes with Sharpie, and blended the colour with a Q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol. The hair was super bright, but once I rinsed it with fabric softener, it turned out perfect.

Here is a little video tutorial on the process also

How to rewire a desk lamp

Okay, this is totally out of my comfort zone and a bunch of first things for me!

I found this old desk lamp at my in-laws garage. The wire was frayed and the switch was broken. But the lamp looked so nice, I figured I'd like to get it rewired. When I looked at it at home, I thought, well I'm going to take it apart and see if I could rewire it myself.

I took a women's handyman course several years ago, and we did some simple electrical wiring there (mainly light switches and wall plugs), so I wasn't totally unfamiliar with electrical stuff.

I went to my local Home Depot and got some supplies and got some wrong ones too, so took me few visits to the store.

This was my first video, so it is a bit long (14 minutes). I tried to cut out anything that was not needed, to get it to this length. 

Party on

And with new year, the Barbie dolls also need some new party gear!

New year, new things

So, some of  you may have heard this already, but I've decided to leave Stampin'Up! this year. Not that I would stop crafting and making cards, I just find I don't have the same drive and time to do cards, and I felt bad not giving it my 100%. Part of the problem has been me being away from Ottawa for longer periods of time, and often that happened during the catalogue change time, so it was always a hassle for me to get the catalogues out.

So, I still have my demonstrator status, but I will be losing it within the next 6 months or so (I will only stay active, if I keep my orders up, and I'm not planning doing that.

One of my regular customers, Rebecca James, joined Stampin'Up! and you can find her website here http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/thestampinlink

And with new year, everybody starts new health regimes, so I made some exercise outfits for my nieces Barbie dolls

Christmas Card stash

It got so hectic just before Christmas, and during the holidays, that I never got to post my Christmas cards. So here goes, the whole selection.

Last of the crochet dresses for Barbies

Okay, I'm done with the crochet Barbie dresses... 

for now :-)

Bikini, with top 1

bikini, with top 2

Lilac bikini (top is Ariel's top!

slippers

skirt and top

this next dress can be worn in 3 different ways

Over one shoulder

As a skirt, with a separate top

as a strapless dress

top and matching hat

 This next one is actually my favourite. It has the tightest fit, it is actually pretty hard to get on and off, due to the narrow sleeves, and intakes

this next one was done with thicker yarn, which was not that great for the dress. It worked great for the hat and the crochet shawl, but the dress is a bit stiff.

Disney Barbie dresses

So my niece is into Barbie dolls, and Disney princesses. She has several Disney Princess dolls in Barbie size, but since she is missing few, I decided to crochet her few dresses, that she can use on regular Barbie dolls.

The first one is Belle's dress. It is a one piece dress, with a scallop ruffle at the neck line, and at the hem.

The second one I made was Rapunzel's dress (from Disney's movie Tangled). This was a bit tricky, as the front has a different colour panel. I also just realized, that the bodice is missing lacing. I guess I have to add that too.

This dress is a two piece outfit. The top is separate, and it has snaps at the back.

The bodice was crochet in two parts, the front and back is one piece (see picture below) and the sleeves were made separately (see separate picture)

sleeves in making

bodice in making

The skirt was made in two parts, the solid lilac is one part, and the multitone is another. I then joined them and crochet an edge to give it a feel of layers

detail of the hem line and the two parts meeting

And the third dress was Ariel's dress. I didn't want to make it a closed bottom fish tail, but rather a mermaid style skirt, that can be used for other than Ariel's dress.

 As you can see, the skirt has underwear attached to it, since the skirt is see-through. I didn't want to make the top more solid, and switch to a different stitch, as Ariel's tail is fully covered in scales, so I opted adding an underwear to it. I also wanted the underwear to be attached, so that the top is seamless.

closeup of the inside