Into The Craft

I have had my hands in clay, the last couple of days. I'd been thinking for a while of making a few spell candle holders, as I don't like any of the typical ones I've seen, online or in shops. So, finally, I dug in!     Today after I finished this last holder (for using in abundance spells?) I decided that it would be lovely used in an altar tile or pentacle. So did that too! Thinking it might be lovely on the outdoor altar this summer.  ♥

Put your magick into these whenever it feels best for you, but regardless, don't forget to make them with love, intention, and mindfulness. We'd been planning to make our bath bombs for way too long now, and after Maddie's recuperative bath today, and an online three hour visit with an also-sick friend, we decided that today was the day. I've been making this same recipe for years, sometimes at Christmas/Yule I give these as part of a gift basket.  They're my very favorite, and to me much better than anything commercial that I've ever tried. Gather your ingredients. Some might not have these things on supply at home all the time, but chances are if you often make your own soaps, lotions, and balms, you have all of the ingredients on hand. You'll need: 10 tbs baking soda 5 tbs cornstarch 5 tbs citric acid 1/2 tbs water 1/2 tsp borax 1 1/2 tbs oil (grapeseed, almond, sunflower, etc) Mix the baking soda, cornstarch, and citric acid toget

Though I certainly have many (many!) different concoctions of oils, I love this one as an all-purpose oil.  It's mixed with a carrier, so it's diluted, and I don't have to worry about putting it on everything . Magickal Oil Frankincense: for higher consciousness Lavender: altered state of consciousness Lemongrass: sharpened psychic awareness Lemon:  purifying the environment Rose: opening the heart Rosemary:  psychic stimulant Bergamot: magickal energy Cedar:  connection to the All Clary Sage:  creativity I often put a few drops in the altar burner (with water), but I find it lovely to use as a transitory oil... when I need to do a bit of something, I love it for personal anointing... Root chakra (a few inches above my tailbone) for purifying my connection to Earth Solar plexus, for my personal Center Heart Back of my hands, so that my hands might be guided Behind or in front of my ears, so that I might hear and listen well Throat that I might speak in al

In a conversation with a friend, I told her that I wanted to make panoramic eggs. I also mentioned that I wanted to make more nature-themed ones, but that I thought it would be a silly thing to do with sugar eggs. Every since I said that, I've been thinking that I really wanted to figure out a way to do it. I used air-dry clay (mine is a natural, earth clay), grass from our yard, tacky glue, a little bird from the craft store, a couple of small snips from a bush (with earliest spring buds), and a large, plastic easter egg. If you have egg molds, or a shell that opens length-wise instead of across - lucky you! Use these halves for molds. If you have the regular eggs that open into the top and bottom half of the eggs, then you can still use it, with some care and patience. First I taped the plastic egg together, so I wouldn't squeeze it apart. For the egg shape, I just pressed bits of clay onto the entire egg. When I felt it was covered evenly, I gen

I've had this thing for pretty papers, lately.  I'm sort of.... collecting them.  :)  Imagine how thrilled I was a couple of weeks ago when I started buying ones colored and patterned by Spring! This morning Maddie and I played with birds. We both made a template out of construction paper, then traced that onto the pretty stuff. We chose another color for wings, then I slit a hole inside the bird's body, and in went the wings.... and a tail for some. We used a small holepunch, and added thread. Hooray for cheerful and bright!

This was originally posted on my blog Ordinary Life Magic .  Another pretty project to chase away the winter blues!     We made a beaded bowl today. We're all about spring pretties in these last (let's hope) cold and gray days of winter. First we rolled out a 1/2 inch or so thick bit of air-dry clay. We cut it with a flower cookie cutter, then picked it up and placed it on a piece of plastic, and rolled it out just a bit more, so it would be bigger. We placed it over a rounded bowl, and put it in the oven on the lowest setting for an hour or a little longer. When it was somewhat firm, we took it out of the oven, and carefully pried it off of the mold. We painted our bowl with acrylic paint, and let that dry for a little while. I got out some small, malleable wire and a needle, and after poking a hole with the needle, I set the wire through the hole. (Very carefully - the clay isn't dry yet, to allow for easy beading.) I wrapped the end around the edge of the b

We've been under snow for months, and I think some color spread throughout our home might be just the thing to remind us that Spring really is coming! Our bird is on a wet-on-wet watercolor painting . Quite a while ago we made a beautiful paper art project . This time we're doing details. For this project you'll need paints if you like, any kind of paper (for quilling, we used actual quilling paper, patterned scrapbooking, construction, and regular printer varieties of paper), glue , scissors , and a quilling tool - you can use an actual quill, if you like, or even a pencil or wooden skewer, but I had the idea today of using an extra large embroidery needle as a tool -- it worked beautifully for little hands. For making the paper strips, first you need to find out which way the paper fibers lie... tear a strip off the paper (around an inch thick will be a good indication). If the tearing line curves, then try tearing it the other way. Following th

This post was originally posted on my blog Ordinary Life Magic. These little boxes are perfect for holding found spring treasures, or for colored eggs, to welcome Ostara. I have a wooden box that I purchased that looks like a fence. Every since I bought it, I've been thinking on how we could make one... I think handmade ones would be darling on the spring nature table. I picture them holding painted eggs or little nests, pretty rocks, bits of moss... whatever we find during our springtime nature travels. Our materials were popsicle sticks (craft sticks, if you insist), paint, hot glue, craft glue, salt, flour, and flowers. Our tools were a glue gun, sponge (for painting), and wire cutters. First we cut popsicle sticks in half with the wire cutters. Ours went flying, so be warned. Maddie had fun collecting them. Lay them out the width of a whole popsicle stick, and use a stick to line up the bottoms. We used five or six 1/2 sticks per side. Place a dot of craft glue o