The photos above have not had a
chance to make it in the last newsletter, so I attended a craft show recently and was surprised to see a lady selling a dry "chocolate truffle mask." She raved about how great chocolate is for your skin and that you could even eat it. Of course I ran home and mixed one half cocoa powder with one half powdered oatmeal and then mixed it with honey to go all over my face. I also threw in a few tablespoons of dry milk and corn meal to exfoliate. I left it on 20 minutes, rubbing it in a bit. Afterward, more pores did look smaller. The vendor recommended her mask to be mixed with water, but I know honey is great for the skin too. In fact, this chocolate, oatmeal and honey concoction is great for the bath also. PERLIER, a French company has always been renowned for their skin softening bath gel with real honey. So, in a pinch you can mix one half real honey with one half milk bath foam. It does make the skin so soft. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives Making Your Own
Yogurt I love yogurt and I make smoothies everyday, but always believed
it would cost more to make yogurt than to buy it. I figured it would take an
entire gallon milk to make a few cups of yogurt. I was very wrong. Encouraged by a
good friend of mine I went out and found "the" yogurt appliance (skipping 
The day I got my box I went nuts and got right on it. I watched that process like I was about to deliver a baby. My kids thought is was very cool too. They already plan to make yogurt ice cream with our ice cream maker. I then wrote Yogurt 2003 with basic recipes and a few great smoothie recipes. Click here to download the 5 page PDF. Once you make your own yogurt you will never want to buy store bought again. It is just that much better! Basics to Making Yogurt You would first add your gallon of milk and any dry milk or condensed milk to make it rich. However, these are not necessary to add. Then you have to scald the milk in the microwave until steaming to kill and bad bacteria. After your sterile milk cools down to 110 Degrees you add your starter. That is, either a few tablespoons of store bought yogurt (at room temp) or a starter you buy in a dry pack. We do like the Bulgarian starter sold in Quebec City. Once the starter is well incorporated, you then keep the yogurt at 108 to 112 degrees for at least 3 hours trying not to disturb it. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives
Continue clipping each stem so that your finished arrangements appear arched, or rainbow shaped. I still insist to select flowers such as carnations and snap dragons that offer weeks of life. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives
• For hardwood floors: Add a capful of citrus-infused vinegar and a few drops lemon, pine, cinnamon or tea tree oil to a gallon of warm water; make the infused vinegar by saving citrus peels and placing them in a bottle of mild vinegar. • For kitchen counters: Add a few drops of peppermint or rosemary oil to warm water for cleaning. • For dishes and windows: Add 15 drops of bergamot to a 10-ounce bottle of biodegradable dishwashing liquid. • In the dishwasher: Put two drops of lemon or orange oil in the detergent compartment to keep the dishwasher itself (not the dishes) smelling sweet. • In the trash can: Two or three drops of tea tree or eucalyptus oil on a cotton ball in the bottom of the can will deodorize it for several days. • In the dryer: A few drops of lavender essential oil on a clean cloth will freshen clothes as they dry. • In your car: Five drops of bergamot oil on a cotton ball inside the heating vent should provide distressing effects for up to five days. • In the bed: Tuck a cotton ball with two drops of lavender, clary sage or chamomile oil inside a pillowcase for restful sleep. Does the thought of spring cleaning make you anxious or glum? Over stimulated or lethargic? No matter which way your attitude needs adjusting, aromatherapy can help, its adherents say. Here's a guide to some essential oils that should put you in the right state of mind. • Uplifting: Peppermint, rosemary, spearmint • Invigorating: Meyer lemon, orange, bergamot • Relaxing: Lavender, ylang ylang, clary sage • Distressing: Bergamot, sandalwood, geranium. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives How about a purple
bath melt ball surrounded by a white bath bomb outer shell? Bath Bombs are
like Ice Pops
Frames: My friends buy very basic frames at Wal-Mart and glue gun anything in site to them! They may spray paint them first, they may use alphabetical letters to glue a person's name to the bottom and usually set the theme around on a photo they had in mind--such as a baby photo or a fishing trip. Children can contribute beautiful art and collages so children are great to consult with first and invite into the creative process. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives
You could try to sell soap all day long and not sell one bar unless it has a "purpose." When we make a purchase it is always based on "what will this product do for me?" Soaps that have a purpose sell best. Examples would be a Laundry Bar, Kitchen Deodorizer Bar, Calamine, Fisherman, Mechanics and Gardener's Soap. French Pink Clay Facial and Almond Cold Cream Soap are also top sellers. Healing soaps such as Pine Tar for eczema or Emu for pain management are also very popular. Exfoliating bars such as Lemon Poppy Seed or soothing Oatmeal for sensitive skin is the most popular. My favorite is Honey Bee and Glycerin for its moisturizing and gentle properties. The photo above is a wonderful and revitalizing Orange and Ginseng melt and pour soap. Above all, there is no doubt the cold process soaps, such as our Emu, have the best sexy after smell that melt and pours cannot always achieve. Taken from Melt and Pour Soaps and Recipes by Deborah Dolen. To buy the new oriental soap mold, just click the photo of the sample soaps above. Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives Wax Tarts Don't Have to Be Shaped Like Tarts!
Perfect to tuck in a
suitcase or drawer to keep your clothes smelling fresh, our tarts below can be used
for more than just aroma warmers. Tired of paying Yankee
prices? We charge $5.95 for a ten pack of our heavily scented soy tarts.
They last at least 8 hours and clean up with soy is much easier than any other wax,
just soap and water. These make a great little gift too for an Strawberry-e is one of our own lip balm designs packed with primrose oil, (great for PMS and change of life) along with Vitamin e Oil, SoyWax™, a touch of beeswax and a tad of color and flavor. Since we all tend to eat our lip products, we designed it to be a good thing. We also offer PMS Raspberry-e in a lip gloss roller which is just 1/2 primrose oil, 1/2 vitamin e and a very strong raspberry flavor. Both lip products are $4.95. Click here for the PMS Lip Gloss. Mabel has about 10,000 subscribers and at least a few hundred sell items at country stores, craft fairs, or even at their kitchen table. No one seems near each other and I doubt you would do anything but enhance your own income by sharing what works for you. Just one example, a Craft Fair person in Maryland set out to sell soaps but swears her dip mixes and flavored vinegars sold much better and before long her focus was on the dip mixes. I can assume that is because everyone likes to eat! But all of your experiences add up and it would be great if you would share a paragraph as to what you started out doing and what you ended up doing, that worked. These tips will be compiled into a book rather quickly and distributed to all those who contributed. I really wish all people in this focus area would participate. Please e-mail mabelco@tampabay.rr.com with your story and you will get a PDF or e-Book mailed to you within a few weeks of the composite of what seems to succeed and sell best. How to Sell Your Crafts, a great book that I wrote--I will e-mail you pronto as a gift. I estimate there will be a few hundred entries for this composite and any idea that works is a good one, so please share. Subject title Craft Story and mention if you prefer to stay anonymous or want your business name mentioned. Get a Recipe Book for Free!
Top Be a Mabel Club Member! Craft Supply Store Mabel Archives |
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above to the very left is the lavender
deodorant, (everyone seemed to like the best,) rose bath oil (in front of
the deodorant,) bath salts in the background heart shaped bottle, rosemary
mouthwash to the right of the salts, and mango bath oil on the right hand
side in what I call the "Mr. Moon" bottle. Chocolate perfume,
strawberry-e lip balm and angel tarts for aroma warmers are front and
center. My own patio citronella soy candle shot is to the right. 
the
do it yourself beer coolers as old incubator methods) as I still prefer a time
controlled appliance that I cannot mess up. I found what I consider the best
yogurt maker (Donvier) along with an unusual
Bulgarian yogurt culture "starter" with acidophilus
that promised to be much "richer" than the average starters on the
market. The Donvier model is about $47. Salton, (photo on left) I
discovered,
also makes great yogurt, and is more affordable (about $27) skipping the cups and allowing for a one quart batch. When you make yogurt, you do need to have milk and a good starter,
always keeping some aside as start for the next time around. The strain
will weaken over time. Well now sell the Salton yogurt maker for $29.95 and
that includes a pack of the Bulgarian starter and recipe book.
Create
a perfect floral arrangement every time with these easy directions: Choose a
single bloom as the focus of your bouquet and hold it in the center of the vase at
the desired, (measure from the outside of the vase). Clip the stem on an
angel to let the flower drink (flat-cut stems sit flat on the bottom of
the vase preventing entry of water to the stems). 
You can make your own aromatherapy cleaning products
with essential oils, sold at health food stores and other locations.
giant alka-seltzers for your bath - they spin, whirl and swirl in your bath while
releasing scent and skin-softening agents. They make bath time SUPER fun and we
found a way to re-invent the basic bomb! Using a lavender bath melt recipe for
the core, we packed the exterior with our vanilla bath bomb recipe. We did try
to cut the product in half to demonstrate but that did not work too well!
Still we aim to try other colors and scents together. 
Most
likely available at Wal-Mart, these molds are great to have around. We use
natural juices to make ours, but as you know, you can use just about any kind of
drink. And you guessed it, they are great for frozen yogurt pops! Why is
Wal-Mart in my spell checker and words like "typo" not?
Okay crafter's, it is
time to scour your house and collect old buttons, little silk flowers, charms, marbles, pearls, paper
clips, photos or any other small object you want to collage. Kids will enjoy
such a hunt and present items you either long forgot about, or never even knew you
had. An old coke pop top can do for a simple refrigerator magnet. You can
even cut out pretty images and decoupage them onto a heavy stock piece of paper and
then use a glue gun to attach the design a magnet. I use Aleene's Dual Temperature Glue
Gun, only about $17 and it does so many things. The glue
dries clear, so I use it to stop a run in my Berber carpet, patch part of the Berber,
add objects to my old wreaths, position wicks to the bottom of large candles, as
well as making magnet's and adding objects to frames just to name a few ideas.
Plain old magnets and photo frames are offered in many sizes at office supply or craft stores. 
The pattern's are for subscribers only and can be found in
the year 2003 section. You can use these patterns
for many things to include taping inside a wine glass and using it as a guide to
hand paint the glass. You can also use patterns for tile pieces that you
intend to non-heat gloss coat, or to make stickers, decoupage, magnets, labels, iron
on transfers or basically whatever your heart desires! Just copy and paste into
paint and then print! I recommend using the highest DPI (Dot Per Inch) printer
setting.
Drop
five of these soy based roses into an aroma warmer and you have it going on.
We used rose candy molds to make these, and of course used a strong rose
scent. Soy tarts burn soot free and have great fragrance throw. We
sell a pack of ten for $2.95.
We are in the process
of writing Kitchen Art's Volume II for the fall line. If you truly have a
recipe for stacked dinners in jars, cakes, whatever, that is your own, and does work
great, please share it. It should also be original as we sure do have enough
items like chocolate chip recipes and bean soup recipes. But if it is
"the bomb" please submit. It can even be a secret family BBQ sauce
or dry dip mix. People who participate in this and have a sincere submission
will get the Volume of Kitchen Art's II when it comes out, PDF Format, and Kitchen
Art's Volume I right away via e-mail. Please e-mail 
Dip mixes and
flavored vinegars sell best at craft events. Dip mixes usually require 1
ounce of various spices and ask for 1 cup of mayonnaise and 1 cup of sour
cream. Most dip mixes can also be marketed as a "meat rub" and
as a salad dressing by alternating the dip ingredients for 2 Cups of mayo
or buttermilk and 1 cup of water. Shake well! Popular mixes include Cajun,
garlic, onion and ranch. Some even have chicken and/or beef bullion in
them.