Quick Crafts #2: Kneadable Soap

Hello everyone!

Today I have another quick craft for you that you can make from materials you probably already have at home. This time, we'll be making soap that you can knead to add a bit of fun to washing your hands (or those of the kids). These can be a fun gift for friends and family as well and they are fairly easy to make!

You will need:

One part shower gel

Two parts starch

Cookie cutters

Optional: glitter, food coloring, a jar with a lid

How it's done:

Put some shower gel into a bowl and add starch. Knead the mixture and add starch or shower gel to get a consistency that is neither sticky (too much shower gel - add starch!) nor crumbly (too much starch). This part is actually harder than it sounds; try pressing the crumbs together to see if they are sticking to each other before adding more shower gel. And yes, as this is starch, it will be a bit messy.
Now, you can add glitter or food coloring as you like, but be aware that some food colors might stain your hands when using the soap. I'd recommend leaving the soap plain and maybe using shower gel in bright colors if you want colorful soap. My pink soap is made from pink shower gel and I didn't want to add any color since I like the pastel colors, they remind me of marshmallows. 

Now, spread some starch on your working surface and roll out the mix as you would with cookie dough (if you're only using up some leftover shower gel like I did, it's easier to press it flat with your palm). I used a piece of baking paper to cover my surface because this stuff does stick quite a bit. You can cut squares out of it or use cookie cutters or a dull knife to make nice shapes. I tried to make two little marshmallow shapes out of two pink and two white strips, sticking them together with a few drops of water. The dough does crack though, but maybe it's just because my mixture contained just a bit too much starch and I had run out of shower gel.
If you want to give them as presents, let your shapes dry over night and put them into an airtight container such as a glass jar afterwards so they won't dry out and become crumbly. You can tie a ribbon around the jar and maybe add a little tag saying that these are kneadable soap bars. If you want to use them yourself and don't really care about the shapes sticking together in your container, you can put them away right after making them. They only stick to surfaces if they were pressed onto them, but you can also put a little but of starch or flour on top and bottom of each soap cookie if you want to make sure they don't stick to each other.
Be aware that the shapes will probably disappear after washing your hands with this soap a few times, because no one can resist this somewhat fluffy kneadable structure of these little soap pieces. It's just too tempting!

About the Importance of Priorities

Priorities. Everyone has them in some way. Some value a good meal, others strive for glory or power, then again there are people who can't live without their family. 
But what is it about priorities that makes them so important? 
Well, priorities have an immense impact on our decisions. On important decisions that will be life changing. 

Personally, I struggle with setting the right priorities. For many people this can be problematic, because we all have certain role models like our parents who we value highly and think of as perfect somehow. 
We meet a lot of different individuals every day and they all seem to be happy or at least content with their lives. And we often find ourselves thinking about what it might be that makes their lives happier than ours. The truth is, everyone struggles sometimes and you might as well appear like a happy person that has everything you ever wished for. 

But if that's true, what does make people happy then? How can you actually become the happy person you deserve to be? Well, I think this highly depends on your priorities and the decisions you make accordingly. 
Do you really need lots of money to be happy? It is true, money can't buy happiness. But what else could, if not money? That, my friend, depends solely on you.
We've all seen these images and movies of happy parents playing with their children and watching them grow up. We have all seen people who don't have much money at all and who are still happy. We all know of rich people who are deeply depressed. 
Different people have different things that make them happy. It can be anything really. A wonderful home filled with precious memories, a cheerful family, a friend's joyful smile when they receive a gift from you. And in order to find the happiness you are looking for, you have to make sure you find out what it is that makes you happy. Then the next step is to make it your priority in life. 
You like to make other people happy? Try volunteering or look for a job that involves helping others. You want to see the world? Go for it and visit other countries or learn a new language and get to know different cultures. You want to have more time for your family and don't care that much about earning less money? Downshifting could be exactly your thing. 

I know that it might take a lot of courage, but acting according to your own priorities in spite of what everyone else does is the first step into a wonderful future. It doesn't matter if your role model says you're supposed to work for the money you earn if this is not what makes you happy. It is your own life. And no one can tell you how you are supposed to live it. 

Quick Crafts #1: Stickers

In this new series, I want to show you quick crafts with items almost everyone already has at home. This first one is really fun and versatile, so be sure to check it out!

When I was a kid, I loved stickers, but I never seemed to be able to actually use them because I didn't want to waste them. I think this mostly had to do with stickers being "rare" - I couldn't just make them, they had to be bought and they were quite expensive. So what would you say if I told you you can actually make them on your own? 

You will need:

* Clear tape

* Water

* An image

How it's done:

Stick your clear tape over the image you want to turn into a sticker. This can be from old magazines, advertisements, something you printed out (with ink) or even a picture drawn with colored pencils (felt tips won't work and pencil smears a bit; if in doubt test it out!). The magazines may also have glossy paper, it'll work just fine. If you need more width, you can stick a second piece of tape beside the first one, but make sure they overlap at the edge. 

Rub the tape on firmly, you want all of the image to be transferred. 

Now cut the image out in the shape you want your sticker to be and put it into water (I used a plastic cup, but if nothing's available you can also put it in the sink) for at least one minute. I'd suggest longer soaking times for glossy paper.

After soaking, take the pieces out and rub the paper off the back completely. It might stay at some edges, if so hold it under running water and continue rubbing until no paper is left. Shake off the water and hold the stickers for a while to dry before sticking them wherever you want them to be. Mine stick nicely on paper and glass. 

Now, what could you do with those? You could stick them onto paper of course (preferably white or at least light, there's no white color on the stickers), but what else? You can mark jars and plastic containers with them, for example print out words like "Sugar" and "Flour" in a nice font and stick these onto the containers they belong to. You can also put pictures or names onto glasses for a party so they won't be mixed up. The possibilities are endless!

Tips and Tricks:

You can store the stickers more easily if you haven't soaked them already. If you have, you can stick them to thick plastic from packaging, stickers are fairly easy to remove from plastic without damaging them. 

Some kinds of tape tend to turn yellow after a certain period of time; you can avoid this by using self adhesive clear book covering instead of normal tape. It's also possible to do this with a complete sheet of images you want to turn into stickers if you stick it on very carefully.

I hope you have fun trying this out!