A Valentine's Special

Valentine's is fast approaching this week. This is why Sunday's crafternoon was a Valentine's themed one. I'd prepared a couple for lovely little projects that could be handmade (with love!) and given to someone special this Valentine's.

A cross stitch style card and a yummy bath creamer made with cocoa and shea butter.
So first off, the crafternooners had to select a heart cross stitch pattern which I had drawn out on graph paper with a felt tip pen.

Cutting a border around the hear allows you to locate it properly on the card. A wee bit of sticky tape holds it in place for you while you get started punching holes through the paper pattern and the card. We put a folded towel under the card and used a needle to punch through.

Starting from the centre cross, begin stitching. As with cross stitch on aida, you should try to keep it uniform and stitch bottom left to top right, bottom right to top left and so on.

 Here are the results...

While the crafters were making their cards, I put together a mixture to make delicious bath creamers. I used a recipe from Kirsty Alsopp's Craft book.

100g cocoa butter
50g shea butter
50ml almond oil
2-4 drops of essential oil (we used lavender, lemon and bergamot)
Small paper cases
Decorations (we used dried lavender, lemon zest, rosemary and earl grey loose leaf tea)

In a plastic jug melt the cocoa butter in the microwave. Then add the shea butter and melt it too. Remove form microwave and allow to cool a little. Add the almond oil and your essential oils.
Pour the mixture into your paper cases. When the mixture goes cloudy (20 mins or longer if mixture is still hot from microwave) you can add your decorations such as lavender or lemon zest.

When the creamers were set, we added a little bit of packaging. Tissue and cellophane with ribbon worked well and looked lovely. The wee creamers are ready to use after 24 hours. You just pop them into a hot bath and enjoy a lovely smelling bath and super scented bathroom.

 My mixture made about six creamers and I would stress that you use little paper cases, like fairy cake ones opposed to muffin ones. They'll be too big and may take longer to set.