Okay, here's my "final" product. I might do a little more doodling, coloring before I send it out tomorrow.
I didn't take pictures but I did have an awesome time experimenting with that recipe. I used some sample oils that I got from haydria perfumery (google it) and they turned out great!
In the future, I would use a little less beeswax to make the solid a little less so. It came out pretty hard which I should have surmised from the name but I hoped it would be a little less than "solid" and a little more like a congealed mass. Something like a thick oatmeal.
Anyway, my favorite one was actually a surprise one. I had a leftover/75% full bottle of papaya mango fragrance oil from the old Lotions and Potions that used to be downtown. I held onto it knowing someday I'd figure out a better use for it. It smells SO good. But. I used too much oil thinking "more oil equals more fragrance." No. The wax concoction has a saturation point so don't use more than the recipe calls for--you will end up with an ooze of extra oil along your solid's walls. When you press down, you will get a little splooge of oil. Not sexy.
My second favorite is "tainted love" (Haydria's). It smells fruity. The description says, "A flirtatious and feminine bouquet of violets, berries and light amber drizzled with honey. The scent to take you back to simpler times." It's really yummy. The fragrance had no trouble covering up the wax/shea smell I thought might be present. Somehow, I think more oil might have made the solid more solid because the ones that I correctly measured gave me a (slightly) softer product. Could be a lot of variables but this might be the reason. I also have the mango lidded and the other ones are in double shot glasses. I might end up taking a pic of the products. It sure makes the post more interesting.
I finished my top #1 (Anchors Aweigh) tonight. It turned out G-R-E-A-T, especially for me, but really for anybody. I'm really happy with it.
I tried a new method (that's the idea with the swaps for me, trying new things) that involved multiple layers of stencils. I started with the pink as a background then added the blue (the hardest layer; it involved a lot of hand-painting to fill in small spaces.
The anchor came from Microsoft Word's clip art. I just searched "anchor" until I found one that looked feasible. I tried to match the turquoise to the undies, but I sort of failed.
My partner said she likes turquoise and red but I didn't have any red paint. To make red, do I mix pink with black? That wouldn't make red. Yeah, I don't know much about color.
Then I added the black Old English on top. It was "LAMB"-inspired. I just love those Old English letters. Maybe I'll monogram part of her package in some way. Just love it! But I am not sure if I like those A's or not. . .they kinda freak me out. I make them like this-- 'a' -- with the upside down looking g type a, not just an o with a hook. But at any rate, I feel really good about this send out.
All I have left to do is make a cute "owl" top. I think I'm gonna stencil "ORLY" or maybe stencil a super cute owl on the front and do ORLY on the back. Idk.
But I feel super proud of this!
So I bought a three pack of undies to send to my partner. But we're only crafting two themes, so I only sent two pair. I kept a pair of weird lime green for myself and sent off two blues to be decorated.
Here's what I did with my green pair.
It's a pair of rhinestone wings. On my butt. That was fun and a new technique to master. In the future, if I do it, I might throw down some epoxy or mod-podge to create a sturdier bond between the rhinestones and the fabric. Maybe spray adhesive. Something that won't wash off, though. There's also a detail of a wing.
It was fun and totally worth the $1 I paid for the rhinestones (sale @ Michaels, score!)...
