Gift Kit: Evening at the Home Spa

One of the most fun things about holidays and birthdays is getting to give people gifts.  Granted, you can give gifts anytime, but I get squirmy thinking of just showering my friends with gifts whenever I make things.  So I save my giving till I can get them all together in one place.

And the boxiness really highlights your legs
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This year, I've decided to pull the powers of Pinterest together for a small kit for relaxation in the home.  The goal for Christmas gifts is to also keep the total under $20 per gift.  I think the result ended up being fairly good.

 
Components:
Custom votive
DIY candle
Hand turned wood box
Tea Soak
Scrubbie
Emergency Chocolate
Small tub

In this post, I'll cover what I did for the different elements and share the links to the various men, women, and stars of the interwebs who helped me pull this together.

Custom votive & DIY Soy Candle

I've already done 2 tutorials for getting these votives cleaned out and prepped:
Recycling Glass Votives
Marbled Votives

The next thing I did was make the candle following the directions on the back of the box of soy wax I got from Michaels.  Luckily candle making is more about the hardware than anything else.  For a short tutorial on candle making:

Materials:
soy wax
sent blocks/Yankee candle sent blocks -> chopped up if in blocks
color dye -> chopped up if in blocks
wicks; highly recommend using the wicks with the clips already attached designed for soy.  Makes life so much easier
wick glue/wick glue dots -> yes, it's as awesome as it sounds

Glue the wick to the bottom of the votive.  Use the Melt the soy wax in a double broiler until the temperature reaches 170 degrees.  After reaching that add the color and the scent blocks and stir in.  Surprisingly the Yankee candle blocks work well if they're crumbled up, and they're a) much cheaper and b) much more diverse than the "specialty blocks" they sell at Michaels.  Or at least my Michaels which seems to restock once in a blue moon which is probably when everyone besides me visits a craft store.  The hardest part seems to be the ability to grab the pot to pour the wax into the votive.  But you can do it!  Let it cool then clip the wick.

You can substitute 2 candles for the tea soak in box & it'd work just as nicely.  I used recycled Glade votives for the candles.

Hand-turned Wood Box with Tea Soak

I've recently discovered turning wooden boxes on the lathe and it's awesome (thank you Tech Shop!) The class is taught by the Weekend Turner.  The complete directions are over on his blog: pop fit boxes.  Seriously, they're the easiest thing to make after getting over the whole "omgtherearen'ttwopointsonthewood" part.

Pop!

So you're probably asking how I'm serving up this drink to ya after talking about reducing costs.  Well folks, not going to lie, sometimes you got to pay extra for the Bull Rush instead of just getting a vodka and lime.  My love goes out to all the bar tenders who treat vodka and lime as a glass of vodka with a slice of lime on the side..  I love making things by hand, so the personalization was worth it.  Plus it means that I can keep making copies of the same thing so I can crank out duplicates if there arises a time where I'll need an extra set of them.

Mass production

So after turning, I stained them with Ipswich Pine and coated with food-safe wax.  I know a little goes a long way, but it's really important to make sure it is because you're putting things that will hit a body in here.  Just extra safe peoples.  Filled them with some oatmeal tea soak.

Ahhhh

Now you're ready to draw some water.  And that leads to needing...

Scrubbie

So as my fuddled interwebs searches would indicate I really don't know too much about what actually happens at a spa.  I assume there's relaxation and no work but those things are mythical.  Luckily Beverly over at Flamingo Toes has a better idea of what a day at the spa is.  I used her idea of a tea soak and a scrubbie to add some swag to the kit. Spa Scribbie and Tea Soak

Shimmy shimmy coco bop

I pretty much followed her pattern for shapes, but I decided to use 2 layers of terricloth instead of cotton.  Because it works.

Yep!

They look good!

You know, after you trim the edges

Emergency Chocolate

There are 3 things that you need in every crisis: duct tape, medical tape, and chocolate.  Everything else can be derived.  For relaxation, chocolate is key.  Include some sort of chocolatey indulgence as the cherry on top.  Chocolate covered cherries are optional

Went all the way to Denmark to fix this emergency.

Small Tub

Target has me coming back for one thing: the dollar bin.  I don't know how many dollars it's got from me with that siren song of a price.  It knows I'll keep coming back.  And that I'll text my mom about my find.  It's better than Goodwill for those smaller items; I know, a big claim.  So when this showed up, I knew I had a winner on my hands.

It just speaks: "Should have stockpiled me...."

 One thing crafters and hoarders have in common is the ability to see things and think that they can use it at a later date.  I used to raid the clearance isle at JoAnn Fabrics near my house for cheap notions that I could use to decorate my knitted bags.  I have a stash of addons that makes Michaels reroute to me.  So I went digging through and found some premade pins to attach to the tubs.

Probably the easiest thing to make in this guide.

If you are not packing the stash, I suggest checking out Target, Kohls, or Walmart for discount broaches.  I don't know who's actually wearing them, so that might be how they're in clearance.

The same for the earrings.  They must complement big heads

Hold up, you may be thinking.  Didn't you JUST go on about how much greater it is to have homemade things?  Don't think you're getting out of that one.  To this: sure you can knit up a swatch, felt it, and sew your own flower to attach.  I'll admit I'm trying to craft stash burn.  I recently overflowed into a 3rd milk crate so raw materials must go down dear patrons.  & yes, I do have flower pin kits.

Happy now?

  Putting it all Together & Final Product

Last but not least you've got to put it together!  If you have extra stuff that you bought for your spa kit, you can slip it down in the tub.  One nice thing is that this tub can hold a lot.

On a mini boat

Time to wrap and give.

How appropriate

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