Kids Soap Bracelet Craft

 

Making soap on a rope is a lot easier then most folks think.  Following the same directions as our Crochet Soap on a Rope the kids had a ton of fun coming up with these adorable bracelets. 

 

 

We put the soap molds out but the kids had more fun free forming the hearts!

 

Let dry overnight.

 

 

Claire enjoying the birthday cake essential oil fragrance we used to make this batch of soap.

 

Never lose your bar of soap in the tub again!

Feel free to share your project's on our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!

Kids Crocheting Soap on a Rope

Kids Crocheting Soap on a Rope

 

We ground down some of our handmade soap and put it on a crocheted rope (hotel soaps and saved up soap slivers work too).  This activity was easy enough for my kids to do and messy enough to keep them engaged.  It's the cleanest their nails have been all summer!

 

 

Supplies - grated soap or 2 cups of flakes, distilled water if you have it or tap, crocheted rope chain (my daughter chained double strand 100 with a 6 mm hook).

 

Step 1. Finely grate a bar of handmade or store bought soap. 

 

 

Handmade pantry soap in 3 easy steps instructions.

 

 

Step 2. Add a tsp. of water.

 

Step 3. Mold the soap flake mixture into a shape.

 

Step 4. Stick a skewer half way into the center of the soap ball to make a hole.

 

 

Step 6. Shove the knotted end of the crocheted rope into the hole.  Stuff it with the skewer if needed. 

 

 

Step 7. When the soap is dry (approx. 24 hours) it is ready to use.

 

 

We were too excited!

 

 

Great little gift to tuck into our Spa  baskets.

 

 

 We crocheted the rope to coordinate with the cloths.  Mmhmm, we are getting better at this! 

 

Soap Bracelet's Next

How to Make a Pinata

It's a Piñata! My children decided to get ambitious and went D.I.Y. style. From this angle it's a beautiful butterfly resting on a rose bush.

The first step to making a piñata is to decide what type of material you want to construct it from. We used a combination of newspaper and flour, plaster of paris and cardboard.  Next time we will choose only one of these methods.

 

We soaked newspaper strips in a salted 1:2 ratio of flour and water (approximately two tablespoons of salt will help prevent mold).  This is the cheapest method of making a piñata.

 

Cover the balloon with strips of thoroughly soaked newspaper. Let each layer dry in between to help further prevent mold. Keep doing this step until the piñata feels hard and strong.  Apparently, you can sand and drill a flour piñata.  They are that strong!

 

 At this stage the piñata started to get heavier.  We placed a rock in a bowl to anchor it to the table. The layers took at least a day in between to dry.

 

 

While making handmade chalk one morning from plaster of paris we added a layer of it to the piñata. We didn't let the newspaper strips soak long enough and they basically flaked off the next day. 

 

 

Our plan was to add cardboard wings and have the round balloon act as the body of a butterfly. We would need to plaster a long skinny balloon for this to work. Instead we cut a butterfly shape from a cereal box and pretended the balloon was a rose. 

 

 

Taping a cardboard shape together and decorating it is another method of making a piñata we will definitely try in the future. I'm thinking less mess!

 

We chose a traditional method of finishing off our piñata with crepe tissue paper.   We glued the entire piñata with scrunched flowers.  This took us at least half a day.  Next time we will consider fraying the edges of long crepe strips. Thankfully the kids remembered to leave a hole at the top for the candy and toys!

 

 

 A Butterfly!

 

We ran out of pink tissue paper so we changed the rose to a rose bush and added some green along the bottom. From this angle our piñata looks like a Ferbie or dare I say...weirdo bunny!

 

 

The children learned a lot about the artistic process of Paper Mache.  The party will have a two-in-one decoration-activity they can laugh about.   

 

Please feel free to share with us your craft stories.  Also, if you have photo's of your projects we would love to see them on our Facebook Page.

 

Cheers!