Oh My Crafts! Archives - Creative Jubilee

Because this is how we roll

By Christina Lee| February 18th, 2021|Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen, Learning from the best, Oh My Crafts!|

It’s been nearly a year since we’ve been working remotely and zoom fatigue is at an all-time high as we continue to buckle down on work and hang tight hoping the tides will change this year. Increased levels of productivity and stress call for a much needed time out and a chance to come together as a team to reset.

Our manager suggested a virtual team building activity — one where we can sculpt and make something out of clay or one where we can fill our bellies with chocolate goodness — and the scale tipped at chocolate making (which was almost a no brainer!).

We each got a kit from Tiny B Chocolate where we got to learn Brigadeiro Basics, Brazil’s most loved dessert and cousin of the chocolate truffle. The kit came with three jars of brigadeiro, eight toppings and a jar of spread along with plates, spoons and everything you need to get started on becoming a chocolatier.

Making these brigadeiro chocolates couldn’t be any easier than 1-2-3. You scoop out the chocolate and roll it into a ball, dunk it in your favorite topping, and set it aside or put it into your mouth. There is no need for baking. What’s great about this virtual team building activity is you get to make gourmet Brazilian chocolates and bond with your team without any “whoopsies”. And best of all, you create photo-worthy creations that are yet to impress your friends and family. What a fun way to break away from the office.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

By Christina Lee| December 10th, 2020|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Are you making your gifts, buying your gifts, or do a little bit of both? I guess it’s a little late in the season to be asking you about your holiday gift-giving game plan, but it’s still fun to ask and hear about it. This year, I did a combination of both: making some gifts and buying others. Throughout the year, I went through a number of phases: making coffee cozies, trying my hand at new hobbies (ie: punch needle embroidery and marker drawing) and continuing to build row upon row of my knitted and crocheted blankets. Along the way, I made new friends after starting a new job the previous year and spent time checking up on old friends throughout this hard-hit year. If you haven’t already checked up on someone, it’s a good time to pick up the phone, write an email, send a card or mail a care package. All the while, I decided to dust off my crochet needles and put some finishing touches on my coffee cozies. I love making custom cozies that pair with a plain porcelain cup — especially for the holidays — since most of us are bundled up and ready for a tall cup of hot cocoa. There’s nothing more heartwarming than happiness in a mug.

For once, I ended up getting most of my holiday cards and Christmas gifts out by early to mid-December. Everything was wrapped, stuffed, packaged, sealed and stamped — all ready for my trip to the post office before the holiday rush. Some careful planning on my end helped make a handful of these gifts extra special. The best part about sending these gifts and spreading holiday cheer are the happy faces and photos of their Christmas cheer.

Hot Cocoa in my Cooper cup

By Christina Lee| December 1st, 2020|Creative Inspiration, DIY Home, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen, Oh My Crafts!|

With Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s officially Christmas season every single day of this month. Christmas music on KOIT 96.5, living fireplace (with the Christmas tree), warm scones and hot cocoa in my official Cooper cup.

Earlier this year, Cooper and I decided to make these photo cups as gifts to the family in honor of his tenth birthday. Each mug has a photo of Cooper as a puppy and a more recent one throughout the year, paired with a family photo. Of course the red and green ones have a special holiday family photo with Cooper. It’s especially difficult to get Cooper to look at the camera if we are all in the photo, but sometimes the photographer just has that magic touch. Regardless, I love that we have Cooper cups for every season, but the Christmas ones just seem more magical.

Well, now that I have my hot cocoa in my Cooper cup in hand, it’s onto holiday cards.

Virtual Team Building: Terrarium Making Kits

By Christina Lee| September 29th, 2020|Craft Day, Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!|

With over six months of shelter-in-place orders in effect, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken both an emotional and physical toll on our well-being. The extreme work-from-home measure has left us craving human connection, mental sanity and work/life balance. While we aren’t able to get together as a team, we try to keep things normal — even if it means doing our team offsite virtually through Zoom.

Over the last two days, we blocked off a total of six hours (three hours per day) on the calendar and did what we could to connect as a team. Introductions, planning sessions, work break-out sessions, guest speakers, and of course, ice breakers made up the two day agenda. Never had I imagined the possibility of conducting these team activities online. But we did and it was fun.

One of our team activities came in a box which contained everything you need to build your own terrarium. A glass bowl, soil, moss, charcoal, rocks, succulents and even trinkets like sea shells, glass jars, and dinosaurs came in this terrarium kit that my manager found online at Etsy.

We emptied all of that good stuff out of the box and began building it together. Does the soil go in first or the rocks? What do you do with the moss, and does it go above or below the soil? How do you insert the succulents? While everything came packaged up nicely, by the time we poured out all the contents, the table was covered in dirt and my hands were black.

It was fun talking through the process and interesting to see the unique spin that each of us took designing the terrarium with the exact same kit. I now have faith that we can have fun and do great things as a team even if it is online.

Now, to find a home for this little guy.

Stepping up my soap-making game

By Christina Lee| September 13th, 2020|DIY Home, Handmade, Homemade Soap, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!|

With the soap charms I made earlier, I mentioned I’d be doing something special with them. Now that I have an abundance of these little guys hardened and sitting ready on my countertop, I am stepping up my ‘melt and pour’, soap-making game and taking it to the next level by embedding them in more soap. If all goes well, you should see the fine details of the flamingo, palm leaves, cacti and ice cream inside a clear glycerin base. If you can’t see them, well… something didn’t go quite right.

As a hobbyist, we all know it takes a few wrongs to get things right, so the sacrifice of a few flamingos and palm leaves were highly likely. The first batch of soap charms sat ready in their molds and I heated up the glycerin soap. The soap was near a boiling point, so I stirred out some of the air bubbles, then began to pour. Wrong move.

Shortly thereafter, the flamingo and palm leaf began to melt and ribbons of pink and green laced the soap tray. And not long after that the flamingo and palm leaf began to dissolve. Oh no, caught up in a frenzy, I tried to save it by scooping back parts of the pink and green ribbons to try to keep it intact. Was I successful? No. That first one was a goner.

The second time around, I heated up the next batch of glycerin soap and this time, I stirred and let it sit. I didn’t have a thermometer handy nor did I know how long to leave it out for. Every now and then, I poked my finger in. Too hot? No clue! Moments later, I began to pour the soap base in the tray only to find it thicken, cloud up and gel. It sat out too long. Doh.

Third time’s a charm, right? Back to the stove, I stirred in another batch. I let it completely dissolve, then took it off the stove to stir out the air bubbles. I knew not to pour right away since it would melt the soap charms and now I knew not to leave it out for so long or it would thicken. It’s around that five minute range from what I could estimate, so then I dipped my finger in, acknowledged it was hot, but not overly hot. I took my chances and poured into the soap tray. It didn’t melt! However, I still didn’t know whether it would melt in time so I acted quickly. I poured in the rest, sprayed it with alcohol and transferred it to the freezer for three hours — all while hoping for the best.

It worked. Ta da!

Chocolate, fondant or soap?

By Christina Lee| August 21st, 2020|Homemade Soap, Oh My Crafts!|

Chocolate, fondant or soap? You tell me. If you guessed soap, you are correct. We’re whipping up soap charms in the Creative Jubilee kitchen. While you typically find silicon molds in the baking aisle at Michaels, there are so many creative ways you can use these silicon molds and one of which is making soap charms to embed in soap or to accompany larger soaps.

A few of these silicon molds caught my eye. Who can turn down popsicles and ice cream cones in the summer? And flamingos, leafy greens and cacti, oh my!

You approach this as you would with any Melt and Pour project. Pick your favorite base, grab your essential oils and some dye. In this case, I am using what’s left of my Oatmeal and Goat’s Milk soap and blending in some pinks, greens, blues and browns. You want colors that will pop and really show off the fine detail of each piece.

Pop it in the freezer for a few hours and then you end up with these fun soap charms. For those of you who have kids at home or friends coming to visit, make sure to label them as S-O-A-P, otherwise… they’ll learn quickly that it’s neither chocolate nor fondant.

Little red rose

By Christina Lee| July 11th, 2020|Craft Day, Craft Paper Scissors, Creative Inspiration, Oh My Crafts!|

Handmade, homegrown or store bought? You tell me.

With my mom’s retirement and the pandemic keeping us mostly confined to our homes, we all have to find ways to motivate ourselves, cheer each other up and lift our spirits. For me, I tend to lose myself in yarn projects, soap-making and other DIY home decor projects. Since the SIP, I’ve made my first pair of slipper socks, explored punch needle embroidery and now, I’m crocheting a scrap blanket. I love that you can do so much with just one hook and a ball of yarn.

For my mom, she never really took much interest in these hobbies or any others. She just admired them from the sidelines and encouraged me to do what I love. It was only until she cleaned the garage and found stacks of paper and excess supplies that my sister and I left behind that she found her passion.

It started with one petal, then two petals and three, and then it transformed into this paper rose. In making this rose, my mom found a hobby, something that she’s passionate and proud of. Something that makes her smile. Something that brings her to life.

My mom found herself.

No ‘one sockiatus’ over here

By Christina Lee| May 10th, 2020|Crocheting, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

I remember attempting to knit a pair of socks in my earlier years of knitting, but didn’t quite make it that far. We knitters and crocheters often start off with scarves and usually make a fair amount of them, until we aspire to do something more with the ball of yarn and knitting/crochet needles. Oftentimes, circular knitting/crocheting can be intimidating but once you take a class, follow a YouTube video or learn to read a pattern, you are soon exposed to a brand new world — a world of making your own clothes!

I’ve been wanting to revisit sock making, but always found it tricky wrapping my fingers in such thin yarn. Coming across this YouTube video on Crochet Ballet Slippers by Heart Hook Home, I got inspired to make these Sunday Ballet Slippers using worsted weight yarn size 4. Author Ashlea Konecny provides both a step-by-step video and written instructions for those who are visual learners like myself.

The best part is, you can make these slippers in a single afternoon. As long as you can make a magic ring, single crochet and slip stitch, you are good to go. But watch out for the notion of “One Sockiatus,” the idea of knitting or crocheting one sock and thinking you’re done with the project when you’ve still got another pair to make. It can offset your progress leaving your feet bare if you end up coming down with that syndrome.

Lucky for me, I was just too darn excited to finish the project!

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