Monday, December 10, 2012

Handmade Christmas Gifts: Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub!

This year I decided to do a handmade gift for my 12 fellow admins at work, rather than my usual random assortment of mini lotions/body washes from Bath and Body Works. It's less expensive and way more thoughtful and fun! It also took me a million times longer than I expected it to, but that's okay.

Here is the finished product (inspired by this pin):


I didn't take any pictures of the process because, like I said, it was already proving to be a pretty loooong project, and trying to remember to take photos at each step stresses me out.

But anyway. I got the idea/recipe here, and I followed it pretty precisely. I may have used more grapeseed oil. I didn't really measure stuff; I just dumped a ton of raw sugar in a gigantic bowl, poured a whole mess of oil in and mixed it up, adding more oil until it looked like a good consistency. Then I splashed a whole bunch of peppermint oil in there, because I REALLY like peppermint and I didn't want it to be subtle.

After I packed the jars with the scrub, I poured the rest of my bottle of grapeseed oil over each open jar to use it all up and give the scrubs a little extra oily goodness.

Then I started on the really fun, but really tedious part: decorating the jars! I had red construction paper and managed to find a wine glass with an opening that was just the right size for the top of the lids, so I traced 12 circles, messily cut them out and used double-sided tape (I know, I'm so fancy) to stick them on before screwing on the cap to cover the imperfectly-cut circles.

I found some really cute washi tape at Michaels, which I stuck around the outer edges of the lids. I'm wondering in retrospect if I should've used a little mod podge or glue to help them stick, since they started to peel off a little this morning. Oh well.

Then I wrote out some simple directions, listed the ingredients and a "use by" date -- since apparently these scrubs last about two weeks before they "go bad"...whatever that means -- on little gift tags I found at Pier 1. I wrote in my prettiest cursive (which is not actually very pretty), "Merry Christmas! <3 Tabitha" -- only I drew an actual heart, not a less-than-three. And then I tied the cards and attached them to these cute little cocktail spoons I found at Cost Plus! Finally, I taped the spoons to the sides of the jars, since I couldn't figure out a good way to tie them on without a) using a LOT of ribbon, which I only had a little of, and b) the spoons inevitably sliding down off the jars when I picked them up.

So, there you have it! A fun, somewhat tedious, but heartfelt handmade gift for my co-workers. And of course I made a little extra for myself, because my heels are in desperate need of some exfoliation, my friends.

4 comments:

  1. So cute and festive; what a great idea! Looooove peppermint!

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  2. These are so cute! Such a great idea, and so thoughtful!

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  3. Awesome Handmade gifts. I love all type of Korean gift ideas.



    Thanks for sharing
    Paper lamps

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