What I Gave This Year, Part One

Hello everyone! I hope we have all had a happy and healthy Christmas! We just have the weird not-quite-Christmas-not-quite-New-Year week to get through, then it is 2019! I am looking to re-jig some things, get my blog schedule under control again (can you tell I have been winging it, these last few weeks?), and hopefully try some new stuff for 2019. 

As you are well aware, I got crafty for Christmas this year and now that everyone has had their presents I can finally share what I got up to! This is going to be in three parts, because I have three recipes to share. One is sort of a recipe, I don't know what else to call it. In any case, the odd one out is the one I'm sharing today.

This was my first year making stuff, so I wanted to keep it simple. Between amateur craftiness and busy work schedule, I didn't want to over load my poor tiny brain. I wanted to make a couple things: one edible and one smelly. For some reason, growing up we always called bath sets "smellies"; just some context on the labels for you there. With about fifty percent of my giftees being vegan, I knew I'd have to do two recipes for the edibles but only need one for the smelly. (Hence three parts.)

I used Pinterest as my inspiration. If anyone follows my DIY Plastic Free board, you might have guessed that the smelly I was attempting would be... A bath bomb! (Seriously, hundreds of bath bomb pins!) In the end, I used the following pin for it was laid out simply, used the same ingredients as most others I'd looked at but left lots of room for variation. 

Pin originally posted by Your Beauty Script

It is so quick and easy to do as well! The first trial batch I made, I did discover that silicone moulds work best - I tried reusing shampoo tins but could not get them back out! Still, I needed to test their fizziness so they had their use. 

For the presents, I had dinosaur moulds and silicone cupcake cases. I made Bubblegum Blue and Strawberry Red bombs. I just used food colourings and flavourings; so far no one has been dyed pink! Some recipes called for really specialist colourings and fragrances, which I did find a little off putting. But the stuff I already had in my cupboard worked perfectly well.

Cupcake bombs!

 

Bubblegum Blue T-Rex and Strawberry Red Diplodocus

Here is a step by step of how I did it, with a batch of Citrus Yellow dinos I made today. I made half quantity today, but the full quantity it on the original picture up there ^^^.

What I needed:

• 1/2 Cup Bicarb of Soda
• 1/4 Cup Citric Acid
• 2 tbsp Corn Starch 
• 1 tbsp Himalayan Salt (I actually used sea salt on the present batch, I think it just needs chunky salt)
• 1 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1/2 tbsp Walnut Oil (recipe called for almond oil, walnut was all I could find)
• Yellow food colouring
• Orange Extract
• Water-Vinegar mix in a spray bottle.

Everything ready.

First, you combine the dry ingredients: bicarb, citric acid, corn starch, salt. Today I added a little bit of edible glitter to see if that works! I find a whisk works best for combining the ingredients.

 

 

Adding citric acid to bicarb.

I guestimated the salt this time round.

Next add the moisturising ingredients: coconut oil and walnut oil. Also add your colour of choice, this will fizz a little but it is supposed to - means it's working! I usually add colour by eye, getting the it as bright or dim as I want. It's usually around a couple teaspoons of colour. The coconut oil will leave little lumps when whisked together, but that is ok as they will eventually melt in the bath.

Colour and oils.

Mix it all together!

Once the colour has evenly spread, add the fragrance and spray a little of the water-vinegar mix. The vinegar mix helps create the desired tacky texture and adds to the fizziness. Again, with the fragrance it's up to you how much or little you add. I aim to at least cover the vinegar smell. I have found they are very potent and you don't need more than a couple teaspoons.

Mix it all together. The desired texture is being able to squeeze it in your hand without it being too crumbly or sticky.

Don't be afraid to get a little smelly!

It is now ready to go into the mould! As I was only making four this time, I stuffed the mould full. With the presents I had a fair few more to make, so only half filled them. It does not seem to affect the integrity of the bomb, so stuff as much or as little as you want! You may find they even expand on you.

Stuffing the dinosaurs.

Ready to dry and set.

They need to be left over night to dry and set. They come out of the silicone moulds very easily and are bath ready! I really like the detail on the dinosaur moulds and am very much tempted to get some different shapes to see how they turn out.

So there you have it! Part One of what I made for Christmas. They really are very easy to make, but if the ingredients are a bit wacky you can always ask me to make some for you!

Did you make anything this year? Share with me what you got up to!