Pink Paper Peppermints - Craft. Create. Celebrate.

make your own foam soap refill tutorial!

 
Although being a one-income family has always meant that I have to be creatively frugal, these days, like most mamas, I am trying to cut the grocery budget down even a little bit more. 

One of the ways I've been doing that is learning how to make homemade versions of some things I would normally just purchase new. 

It's not always a huge savings, but often times it's "luxury" items that would just be cut right off the list like paper towels and sugar scrubs and foam pump hand soap. 

So today I thought, "I should really tell my bloggy friends about some of these." (my bloggy friends--that's what I call you guys in my head) and thus "Homemade Homemaker" was born!  And since I can't just do a post about something, I have to make a matching button.....

Ta da:



So this week I thought I'd tell you about foam pump hand soap (and in a couple of weeks I'll tell you my sugar scrub recipe...so easy and so awesome!)



I just love the foamy soaps don't you?  The only problem is that  you can't refill them with regular soap and the "special" refills are absurdly expensive for what they are, but thanks to some crafty experimenting on my part I can now tell you how to make your very own, super cheap refills!

Of course you have to make the initial purchase of the foam soap to get the special little foamy pump (I haven't figured out how to make *that* myself yet...heh-heh).



 
The one I'm using for the tutorial is the kid's soap Kandoo.  My Little-O *loves* this stuff and making my own refills saves lots of cash (and a little nagging from me about only pumping one time!). 

Step One

So the first thing you do when your bottle is empty is to wash it out with warm water. I pump some water through a few times too to make sure there are no clogs.

Step Two



Next fill the bottle about one third of the way full of regular hand soap - any brand will do.  If you have a warehouse type membership you can get the gigantic bottle of liquid hand soap for super cheap.

Step Two
 
Now, slowly fill the bottle up the rest of the way with water.  Do this gently so your soap doesn't foam up on you.

Once it's filled, you want to *softly* tilt the bottle back and forth to mix up the soap & water.  Don't shake it or it will get all bubbly and won't work right.




That's it!  Now you have an almost free, foamy pump hand soap refill!  Neat, huh?  And this works in all the brands I've tried including Bath & Body soap! 



 

Hope you're having a great Monday!  I'm still packing and cleaning and doing laundry and getting ready for our trip.  I'm trying to keep reminding myself that we are only gonna be gone for a week and a half and probably don't need to bring *everything* we own (I tend to over pack...heh-heh).

See you soon!

Grace & Peace,

♥ Melissa~

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"He saved us because of His mercy, and not because of any good things that we have done. God washed us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave us new birth and a fresh beginning" - Titus 3:5

summer crochet & such

Well hello there.  I thought I'd pull the dust covers off the furniture and open up some windows here and say hi again.  How are you all?

I've been busy, busy with wrapping up school, church activities, learning new craftiness and all sorts of fun things.

You may remember me learning to crochet awhile back. I'm completely head over heels for it now.  I want to crochet *everything*. 

I found a blog by a lovely lady named Lucy called Attic 24 that is just the most fun, eye-tingling, inspirational place you can imagine. 

The colors she chooses for her pretty crochet-y things are fabulous and she has lots of *free* patterns and tutorials!  She has such a fantastic way of explaining how to do the stitches that I feel like I can tackle the most complicated pattern now! 

I'm in the middle of finishing several of her patterns right now. The most wonderful, amazing, colorful, yarny bag (I'm not quite finished with it yet, but you can see it in the background below) and flowers and flowers and a little granny square pillow!!  It's crafty heaven, I tell you, working with all these beautiful, bright colors!

 

 

 

 

If you've never tried to crochet you have to pop over to Lucy's blog and read through her instructions you won't believe how easy (and addicting) it is once you get going!

Well, I'm busy packing for our summer trip to Wisconsin and looking forward to lots of summery, lake-y, road trip-y fun.  {I'm especially looking forward to another visit to the amazing Red Lead paper art store!)

I need to load up the ipod with lots of crafty podcasts and some good faith-building ones too as it's a long two-day drive up.  Any suggestions of favorite podcasts??  I'd love to find some new ones to listen to.

O-man & Little-O in Wisconsin last summer.

These last few months have been very busy and at times quite trying and I really need the rest.  Some time away to think and pray and visit with far away family that we love so much and see so little...it will do me well I think.

What are your plans this summer?  Have you learned any new craftiness?  I would love to hear what you're all up to.  I've missed you!

Grace & Peace in Him,

♥ Melissa~

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"Jesus said, "Come off by yourselves; let's take a break and get a little rest." For there was constant coming and going. They didn't even have time to eat. So they got in the boat and went off to a remote place by themselves." -Mark 6:31-32 (the message)