Today I took a break from my art to make some fun faerie crafts and things. I was feeling very cozy and happy about the coming winter. I made rose petal and patchouli soaps, gathered holly and oak twigs for my Yuletide fae house (more about that later!), prepared a magical mixture to preserve the holly leaves, and created TWO yule-ish crowns.
Here’s some of my soaps (still in the mold), with rose petals!

PROJECT #1-I have a HUGE holly tree outside my house. I gathered some leaves (mostly ones from broken branches *treehugger!*) and put them in a glass tray.

Ok- here’s the plan. I am going to preserve these holly leaves, which will become “shingles” on my “Holly and Oak Yuletide Faerie House”. The recipe is as follows: place holly leaves in a glass container, mix one half glycerin and one half water, add green food dye, cover and let sit for 6 days. The holly then soaks up the glycerin solution, replacing the water. This sort of “preserves” the leaves, which would normally crumble if dried or pressed. The supplies:

I rambled around outside and collected oak twigs for the walls (sort of rustic cabin style). I spotted this cute gnarly piece of bark alongside the road- a perfect little window!

PROJECT #2-I had extra glycerin left over, so I decided to make some soap! a few weeks ago I bought rose buds and patchouli leaves at the apothecary, perfect for the soap!

Mmmmm….my hand picked rosehips were a colorful addition, as the rose petals turned from a deilcate pink to BROWN when they were exposed to the glycerin! “Captured” rosehips!

PROJECT #3- TWO crowns! Here’s a frosty silvery white crown I made today as well…

The crown is now resting on the wings of one of my fae statues.