Christmas Crafts Galore continued ... again ...

Some other things that we made as gifts this year were finger paint, pumpkin spice body scrub, and brown sugar coffee body scrub. 

The finger paint was really fun and easy to make and looked like pudding! 

All you need to do is: 

Combine: 

3 Tb sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C corn starch

2 C water

in a small saucepan. 

Warm until mixture starts to thicken. (This took a lot longer than I thought it would. I started with the heat low but then moved it up to medium and whisked more frequently and that sped things up considerably. I recommend removing the mixture when it's a little thinner than you want for the paint because it thickens more as it cools.) 

Cool. 

Pour in containers. 

Add food coloring for desired colors. 

Enjoy! 

Our red looks a bit too pink because we ran out of red food coloring! 

Aren't they pretty though? I love them!
And they're safe to ingest so if you have little ones, like I do, that still test everything with their mouths than these are perfect for you. 

We also made Pumpkin Spice Scrub as well as Brown Sugar Coffee Scrub. 

Both also super easy but awesome to have around. 

The Pumpkin Spice smells amazing! 

The Brown Sugar Coffee scrub also smells amazing AND I love the oil content in this one. It feels amazing in the MN winter. 

Pumpkin Spice Scrub:

2 C Brown Sugar

1 C Granulated Sugar

2 Tb Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 C + 1 Tb Sunflower, Safflower, or Olive Oil {Almond Oil is also wonderful} 

I also added a little bit of Vitamin E Oil

Mix all but the oil and get the lumps out. 

Add oil and mix. 

Close up of the Pumpkin Spice

The next one was the Brown Sugar Coffee scrub.
This is a recipe that I adapted because I wanted to add the coffee. :) 

Me and my coffee. 

Gotta have it, even in my bath scrub. 

The basic recipe is: 

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 olive oil

1 tsp vitamin E oil

1 tsp essential oil {I used lavender}

1/4 C coffee grounds

I doubled this recipe to fill a pint size jar. 

We had great fun making these! Emma thought it was a splendid Christmas activity complete with "spectacular" Christmas music! 

Manic Monday: Christmas Crafts Continued!

Alright, on to craft number two: salt.

Salt? You say.
Yes, salt. 

Seasoned salt and Italian Herb Salt.
Ohhhh the deliciousness. 

You can taste it can't you? 

It's glorious! 

This is Seasoned Salt. The original recipe I found here. It contains both salt recipes. 

Superbly easy and definitely tasty with no added fillers or gunk. At least, depending on where you get your spices! 

Seasoned Salt:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Kosher salt

1 Tbs. fresh ground pepper

2 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. ground red pepper

Instructions:

Stir all ingredients together.

Makes a 1/2 pint jar.

Exhausting and labor intensive right? Right. 

I know. 

Isn't it pretty?

Next up, Italian Herb Salt. This one, oh, it smells divine. 

Italian Herb Salt:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Kosher salt

4 Tbs. oregano

4 Tbs. basil

4 Tbs. thyme

1 Tbs. crushed red pepper flakes

1 Tbs. fresh ground black pepper

Instructions: 

Stir all ingredients together.

Makes 2 jars, 1/2 pint each.

Again, so labor intensive. How we will fit this into our day? 

This, this is the kind of recipe I love. 

Ingredients I always have on hand and 2 steps. 

Bada boom, bada bing. 

To take this to the next step, I added personalized labels to the top. 

Secured with my handy homemade modge podge. 

I got the labels free from a free printable website! Score. 

These will be modge podged onto the body of the jars themselves to label each salt. 

Also a score from aforementioned website. 

I will be sad to give these ones away because they are oh, so tasty! 

Manic Monday: Christmas Crafts Galore!

I have far too many blog posts in my head and far too little time to get them all out! So today's blog posts will just be about crafts I've taken on for this Christmas season.
Most of them Pinterest inspired, of course, because I am thoroughly addicted to Pinterest. 

Craft One: Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix & cookies

We made these for our neighbors and plan to bring them over tonight along with homemade tags. 

Bags of cocoa and cookies ready to go! 

"We hope that you are able to experience the unconditional and unending love of Christ this Christmas." 

Very fun jar packaging. I'm in love with this. I want to keep it for myself and display it for all the world to see. 

From the Kitchen of The Kapala Family

This was a hybrid cocoa recipe of this recipe and this recipe. 

I also made this today to attach the homemade labels: 

I found this recipe here. 

I am thoroughly enjoying a time right now of having no photography projects or work because it means I have time to do all this!