Ladies Craft Night: Poured Candles

Hey Crafters,

I just had an amazing Ladies Craft Night.

I offered my services to a organization near to my heart for their silent auction. The deal was I would facilitate and gather all supplies for an evening of crafting if the winner hosts and  invites guests. A friend bought the package and we decided to make pour candles. We played some late 90's boy band tunes and danced in the kitchen. We ate some great dips (artichoke onion garlic dip!!). We made some candles. It has been a long time since I've been able to host a Ladies Craft Night and this one was a tremendous success.

I used a mass DIY Survival Candle recipe from Teowawki Blog and figured out how to add fragrance. We made the candles individually in a Pyrex measuring cup so we could change the fragrance by guest preference. It was so easy and a real big blast.

BK's Slightly Adjusted Soy Candle Recipe

Supplies:

• Soy wax, flakes or chips (est. 3 8oz. candles per 1lb. of wax, so do the math!)
• Wicks with metal base
• 8oz. Ball jars
• Candle fragrance
• Pyrex measuring cup (at least 8oz.)
• Spoon
• Microwave
• Pot holder

Optional: pot with cold water and butter knives

Instructions:

1. Pour soy wax up to the 8oz. line of your Pyrex, microwave for 1:30 mins.
2. Pour a finger's width of wax in the bottom of each jar. Put in a wick and let cool. Use your butter knives to keep the wick up right by laying them across the top of the jar. This will keep your wick in place as you fill. *This is also where you may place the jars in your pan of cold water to speed up the cooling process.
3. Pour soy wax up to the 8oz. line, microwave for 1:30 mins.
4. Stir in three drops of fragrance and fill to 6oz. with more wax. Microwave for 1:30 mins.
5. Stir and pour into jar.
6. Wait for the candles to cool before cutting the wicks to a half inch.

**To make large batches follow the original Teotwawki Blog link.

Keeping the light on for ya, BK

Ladies Craft Night: Sky Lantern Fail

Hey Pie in the Sky Eyed Crafters,

Ladies Craft Night had an interesting trial run working with Sky Lanterns. I think every young woman thinks these brightly glowing, floating, paper lanterns are super magical and idyllic. The Ladies and I found them to be the EXACT opposite.

I found a Groupon that made ten Sky Lanterns $25 plus S&H (about $8). It is one of our more expensive crafts but we all wanted to take a crack at floating one of these babies in the night sky. When they arrived we decided to wait out dusk on a picnic blanket in the park and snack and chat. I picked an evening with little to no wind and a park with a lake thinking that the lanterns would be less of a fire hazard in case they floated into the lake.

We decided, after realizing we had many unanswered questions, that we would send up a single test lantern.  Not knowing how far away our lantern would go, how fast it would travel, how long it would burn we decided to follow it so we could pick up the wire frame (the paper would biodegrade but not that frame) and make sure we weren't setting our neighborhood on fire.

The first thing we realized is that this lantern is made of paper and if we're not careful, we could light the whole kit and caboodle on fire. I held the small wire frame, another held the paper part upright, and a third lady lit the fuel pack provided with the lantern.

The bag they come in says Sky Lanterns can go up to 3,000 feet and we wondered whether that was horizontal or vertical. We soon learn that it is horizontal. This paper bag can move! After about 7 seconds of Ooo-ing, we realize that it was on the move and immediately split into two teams, one on foot and one in a vehicle.

In the end we lost that darned Sky Lantern. We haven't the foggiest where the frame ended up but I believe that the fuel pack dies, then the lantern just floats to the ground with no danger of setting anything on fire.

This is a BK's Craft Blog first: A video! This video shows our first and only attempt at launching a Sky Lantern. You can see just how quickly our joy turns to safety awareness. Right after the video stops, we immediately split into teams to track the lantern.

This week we are trying a modified version of the Sky Lantern (since we had 9 left!) by tying a length of yarn to the wire frame so we can control their height making them...FIRE KITES! Stay tuned for Part 2 for the exciting conclusion of Sky Lanterns!

BK

Ladies Craft Night: Chicago Edition

Hey Craftnight Oilers,

During a recent trip to Chicago to visit friends I hosted a Ladies Craft Night complete with hot tea, red wine and cupcakes. Although I cannot take credit for inspiring the edibles (thanks, Liz), I have been eyeing these henna patterned jars from LITdecor and thought we could grab a jar from the recycling and a tube of puff paint and go to town!

Boy I'll tell you, it took a lot more patience than I had anticipated. The slow lines take a steady hand and a keen eye to keep the designs balanced. We got creative looking for places to hold our jar while you paint. And have a doodle drawn out on paper to guide you before you start so you're not wasting any time thinking of your design. As for the wire hanger, try a 22 gauge wire and pliers, once around the neck and one half circle for the hanger.

 BK

PS While at the Michael's we found these totally cute cards designed after patterns in the dollar sections ($1.50-ish for six) The clincher are the envelopes covered in the tissue pattern's shapes. We saw three different sets which I immediately bought. LIKE I NEED MORE STATIONARY!

Ladies Craft Night: Bi-triangles

All the Crafters is the place I'm calling out to ya!

The latest Ladies Craft Night was all about folding paper. It was the first Ladies Craft Night in a while and I knew we would need to ease back into group crafting slowly, so a simple paper craft would do the trick. We made bi-triangles with this Mr. Printables Blog tutorial. Bi-triangles are just what they sound like; a shape that has a triangle on both sides.

All you need to make bi-triangles are paper and scissors. For the most part, the ladies took the first first triangle as a trial and error but by the second and third they had the hang of it and were pretty proud of the shape their crafts were taking.

I made this mobile, as suggested by Mr. Printables; with fishing line, seed beads, and a few heavier beads at the bottom out of the group's efforts.

Mr. Printables is a great, creative, colorful kids crafting website. If you need a rainy day activity to take your mind off the lack of Spring, click your fingertips right on over to Mr. Printables.

BK