Elmo Lens friend/ camera scrunchie DIY

My very talented cousin sporting his handmade Elmo camera scrunchie :)

I saw this idea of a photographers' accessory on etsy (http://www.etsy.com/listing/54888077/elmo-lens-friend) and thought it would be cool to make as Chistmas gifts for the two avid photographers in my family. The purpose of the "lens friends" is getting kids to smile at the camera.

I used an old fleece sweater, elastic ribbon and some felt for the eyes and nose.

1. I watched a tutorial on making scrunchies  here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBVGwiVSwhQ
2. I changed the measurements, so the piece of fleece was about 8cm x 30+ cms
3. I cut out the eyes and nose from felt
3. sewed it all together and voilá...

DIY gifts for teachers/hand-made soap with kids

Our class is buying my son's teachers a larger gift, but I wanted to make something special to give them too. My choice fell on handmade soaps. We used the melt and pour method with glicerine soap. I just bought some glycerine soap at the drugstore and we cut it up and melted it (over stream), and we poured it into Ikea Plastis ice trays (they say that the trays are for water only--- but I'm a badass crafter:) ).
It was super easy and lots of fun.

 You can buy glycerine blocks to make soap out of at craft shops but glycerine soap is actually cheaper than the craft kind.  I tried melting cheaper/harder glycerine soap, but it did not melt.

You can also add stuff like poppy seeds, cinnimon, dried lavender to make soap more interesting. I could not figure out what would smell good with olive.

Melting the cut up soap cubes

The cubes start to melt

We filled the trays and let the soap harden in the fridge.