New Week- New Giveaway!

     Summertime is my favorite time.  Bright colors, warm weather, LOVE!

   

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     So to celebrate summer, Spicy Pinecone is giving away a free Rainbow Rattle Mini Lovey!

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     This Mini Lovey has been hand dyed by me in a Rainbow Spiral, washed with professional, baby-safe detergent and finished with a baby-safe professional grade fabric softener for super plush, super snuggly softness.  A CPSIA compliant rattle has been sewn on the inside of one corner for your loved one's entertainment.  Our Mini Lovey measures 15" x 22" and is the perfect size for your loved one to chew and snuggle.

     As with all hand-dyed items, please wash by itself for the first few washes.  As always, machine wash cold and tumble dry low.

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Great Cakes Soapworks Peacock Swirl Challenge

   Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks started a Soap Challenge Club and the first technique was the Peacock Swirl.  I had never tried this before, so I decided to give it a whirl.

   

     Rainbow Sherbert Peacock was born!  This soap is scented with Rainbow Sherbert fragrance oil from Nature's Garden, and it smells good enough to eat!  

      Okay, now the process....

First, I had to get all of my supplies together:

     I used micas and titanium dioxide from The Conservatorie to color my soap.  The marbling rake was made using curler picks and a piece of cardboard.  I liked the look of a tightly swirled peacock swirl, so I spaced mine closer together.  :)

     I mixed up a slow-moving soap recipe to give myself time to work with the swirl, lined a pizza box (I wanted a lot of room to work), and then got all of my colors into my squeeze bottles.  Poured the majority of my soap batter (colored with TD) into the box, and then took a deep breath...

  It was time to start squeezing and marbling.  I went crazy with the colors, but also squirted some white to help define the swirls.

Above is a picture before using the rake and doing the "S" swirls...

And now (above) here is the photo AFTER swirling.  I am now SUCH a fan of this technique and really can't wait to try it again!  

     After a day of drying, it was ready to cut and shoot.

     Hungry?  ;)

Thermofax Screen Printing

     I've always wanted to learn how to screen print and recently found a very easy and economical way to do it.

    Thermofax screen printing!

     Super easy, and even easier on the wallet.  Also, babies look cute in hermit crab onesies.  ;)

Here's how:



TONS of possibilites.

The Music Made Me Do It... and More Experimentation

     Okay, so it took me a while to recover from Christmas.  With four kids, I think it's amazing that I made it through the holiday without any help (husband deployed, but returning soon) and with my sanity relatively intact.  Go, me!  *fist pump*  Everyone still has all their arms, legs, toes, and fingers... so I'll call it a victory.

     Cheerleading aside, I've been busy since my last post.

     When Kai was a baby, his all-time favorite song was Owl City's "Fireflies".  If you haven't heard it, you can hear it here.  I've had it on my playlist forever, and he still requests it every now and then.  The last time he did, I had an idea to put fireflies in his room.

     How to do it?  VINYL!  More specifically, glow-in-the-dark vinyl.

     And if Kai was going to have fireflies, it was only fair for Cam to have them too.  So I got to work painting up some (4) canvases.

 And then designed a file in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition for my fireflies.

Afterwards, I cut the fireflies out of glow-in-the-dark vinyl and enlisted the help of my kids to put them on the canvases.  They had a blast!

And then we lined them up to admire our work.

Next, we tested their glow-in-the-dark abilities.  Believe it or not, they glow BRIGHT!  I just couldn't get my iPhone to cooperate with a good pic.

Finally, we hung them up.  The boys love looking at the fireflies when they go to bed at night.

     After the firefly canvases, my latest project has been dyeing fabric.  I tried a few different experiments, and I think that the shibori dyeing technique is by far my favorite.  (All the way to the left.)

     These were done on cotton gauze with Dylon fabric dye.  I'm still experimenting with different techniques and would love to carry some hand-dyed baby blankets in the shop once I've tested a few different things out and see what I like best.

     Hope everyone is enjoying their new year!