make-your-own
Charms!
This charm consists of 3 main parts; the sheets of plastic, the background newspaper, and the pressed and dried flowers. Read each section carefully before trying them out.
This is made from the clear plastic of fast-food salad lids. I mean the lids on top of those take out salad boxes from Burger King or Wendy’s. I’m not exactly sure but I think that plastic soda bottles work too. Now get out two of those (unless you are making really small ones). One rule to remember is that a 1/2 inch diameter circle will shrink to about a 1/16 inch diameter circle after heating. So knowing this, cut out a size that you want in any shape. I suggest starting with a circle or rectangular shape practically the size of the lid. Cut out two that are exactly the same and put one in the toaster oven. You should definitely use the tray that sits on top of the oven rack (it should have come with the toaster oven). I covered it with tin foil just incase things get messy. Set the heat on toast and set it for about 5 minutes. BUT YOU NEED TO WATCH IT UNDERGO THE HEATING PROCESS!!!! Over heating it will cause the plastic to burn and get melty. After the first minute or so, the plastic will start to curl in on itself and it will look like you messed up, but don’t panic it’s supposed to do that. It will eventually become thicker, smaller, and flatter. You need to get it out of the oven immediately when it stops moving and it looks flat. After taking it out of the oven, it’s crucial that you remove it from the pan and flatten it while it’s still hot. I placed it on my counter top and pressed it with the bottom of a kettle. Be careful, it will be hot. If you couldn’t flatten it because it cooled too fast, you can warm it up in the toaster oven and try it again. Do the same with the other sheet of plastic.
This depends solely on you. All you do for this is cut out a size of newspaper a bit smaller than the plastic sheets you made, and color it. I suggest you clip a piece with lots of fine writing on it because it looks the best. Use highlighters to color on the newspapers since markers tend to be too dark and the letters on the paper will not show.
THE PRESSED FLOWERS
Pick out a few small flowers and some stems with small leaves on them. None of these should be bulky. The key to pressing flowers is drying them as quickly as possible to maintain the radiant colors. So just pressing them in a book will cause them to lose most of their color, that’s why we are going to use a microwave. Prepare two sheets of coffee filter paper and two heavy ceramic tiles. Put a sheet of filter paper on top of one tile. Orient the flowers and stems so that they are not touching each other on a sheet of filter paper and place the other on top. Put the other tile on top of the whole thing and microwave it for a minute. Then take it out immediately and remove the tiles. Separate the filter papers carefully, the flowers will stick to the papers so peel them off. Use toothpicks, tweezers, or whatever you need to fix your flowers so they are positioned the way you want. The flowers
Now that you have all the parts, you can put it all together. Just use a clear drying glue to glue the newspaper on one sheet of plastic, then glue the flowers in an artistic fashion. Finally, put glue on the edges of the flower side of the plastic and use the second sheet of plastic like a cover glass.
Make a Rice Bag Heating Pad
Get an old T-shirt (any kind of clothing you don’t wear anymore, but preferably stretchy and soft, but NO METALLIC - remember it‘s going into the microwave!)
Cut out rectangles twice the size of however large you want the bag to be (for instance, if you want a medium sized bag, cut out a rectangle the size of a sheet of paper 8x11 inches)
Fold it in half and sew (either by hand or sewing machine) two short sides of the rectangle together with the inside of the shirt facing outwards
Now, the bag should look like an inside-out tube. It should be a rectangle (or square) half the size of what you started out with when it’s lying flat on the table
Sew the bottom of the bag together (still inside-out)
Turn the bag inside-out so that the outside of the shirt is facing out and the inside facing inwards
Fold about an inch of the top of the bag into itself so that the frayed edges are now inside the bag
Pin that part you just folded so it wont spring back out
Put some white long grain (NOT INSTANT) rice in the bag (I suggest that it’s full but not too full so the bag can conform to your feet or hand shape)
Sew up the top. You’re all done!
DO NOT WASH IT!!
Microwave it for only a minute the first time you use it so you don’t smell a burning scent then add a minute or two depending on how hot you want it (the length of time you microwave it for depends on the amount of rice you have in it, so until you know how hot you want it and how long it takes to make it that hot, do it in one minute intervals)
It stays warm for quite a while
Don’t over-do it or you will scald (maybe even burn) yourself
Soap-Making
While we were making the trips back and forth to the barn, my Mom and Dad were heating water on the stove to bring it to a boil. At the same time I was washing the jugs to make sure that there wasn’t any milk scum inside. After the water had boiled they turned each burner off and mixed the ingredients together in the water. Then we added all the liquids together into a 5 gallon bucket and stirred them gently. Making sure not to make too many bubbles.
After we had finished making one batch we would fill the jugs full and place them on the dining room table to be labeled. Once we had finished filling the 29 jugs, Mina, Olivia and I sat down and started attaching the logos and information to the jugs, while the parents started to clean up the kitchen. This was the hardest part of the whole process because the labels and the contact paper didn’t stick well to the milk bottle. We ended up putting the contact paper all the way around the bottle so the labels would not get wet and they wouldn’t fall off.
In all it took 5 people about 4 hours to create 29 gallons of laundry soap. Today Emily and Laura went out with Mom and sold 10 jugs! Some people asked how it works on clothes, so it was a good thing we’ve been using it. We made extra jugs for each of the GKT members, so they can try it themselves. It cleans well, and the borax and washing soda are both whitening agents. Some people use borax with their regular detergent, instead of bleach. If you have a really dirty load, use a little more (just like you would with regular detergent).
Making all-purpose cleaner
You might be thinking ‘How is making cleaners better than buying them at the store?’ Yes, store bought cleaners are easy to get. But are they really the better choice? Homemade cleaners have less impact on the earth. You have to remember that before the cleaners you buy get to your store they have to be made in a factory, put into those nifty spray bottles that usually only get used once, then they have to be shipped to your store. Having all the things you need to make your cleaner already at home would save all that energy that gets used to make package, and ship the cleaners. Cleaners you make at home (like mine) may not be a completely environmental. I’m not sure how you classify things as 100% environmental because usually any cleaning product has to have something in it like phosphate that will clean well (which usually hurt the earth). But homemade cleaners don’t have any chemicals that are made in a lab. You make them yourself. Also there isn’t a need to keep buying new bottles with the new cleaner in it. You can use the same bottle over and over again. Which saves plastic. Homemade cleaners are definitely better for the earth than store bought cleaners.
The recipe I have been using is Alice’s Wonder All-Purpose Cleaner. If you want to check it out here is the link. Homemade cleaners work just as well as manufactured cleaners. You may have your doubts about them, but just because they don’t have that harsh chemical smell doesn’t mean they aren’t working. If you’re interested, but still not convinced, join us at a “cleaner-making party” sometime soon. Stay tuned for dates and times.
