Halloween Candles

 I saw this candle bowl making "thing" on Pinterest and I had to give it a try.  Yes, I HAD to give it a try.  My niece is getting married and was trying to find some ideas for centerpieces for the tables.  I had some wax and I had some time so I thought I would give it a try for her.  I got the wax melted and I took out the water balloons I had bought last month on clearance.  I tried to get the balloon around the aerator but the balloons kept breaking.  SO I thought I would put the special nozzle on that came with the balloons.  I removed our aerator and tried to get the nozzle on but it wasn't designed for kitchen faucets, it's for an outside faucet.  I cleaned our aerator and put it back on. I figured worse case senerio here is that I would have a clean aerator!!  

Plan B went into place.  Put as much hot water in the balloon and blow it up.   I got the balloon tied up and I dipped it about half way into the wax.  I watched the wax set on the balloon!!  We were in business.  I dipped it again up to the same spot.  I was on my way to making these centerpieces!!  I dipped it a couple more times and the last dipping the balloon popped and there was wax everywhere.  All over me, my hair, my face, the walls, the refrigerator, the window, the sink, the counters, the cupboards, the blinds, EVERYWHERE!!!!  

Plan C.  Once all the wax I could see was cleaned up (which wasn't hard to do, it didn't stick hard on anything, it was just there and you picked it off.  It didn't even leave a mark. But it was still something I didn't plan for in my time frame) I thought I would try the faucet out in the bathroom.  The balloon fit and I came out of the bathroom with a nice size balloon filled with hot water.  I dipped the balloon and all was well.  After about 10 dippings the balloon was still in tact and I was not wearing any new wax I figured I was well on my way to making a wax centerpiece.  And I was.  I kept dipping the balloon.  The hard part was to know how many dippings the thing needed. The more you dip it the sturdier the bowl will be.

I even got creative and punched out some small black cats out of card stock and after a dipping I added them to the outside and dipped over them.  I thought it would be cool to see those shapes come out when the candle was lit.  Well, all you see are black blobs.  I think if I were to add things like that again I would do it before the last 4 dippings and you would still be able to see the images.  I got the piece done. I stuck it in the fridge to set up while I cleaned up my kitchen.  When it was cool enough I popped the balloon and got it out of the bowl.  I trimmed the top lip evenly and shaved a bit off the bottom to even it out.  The most problems I had was with the bottom, trying to get it even.  And I couldn't wait to see the punched cats with the candle on.  I took it in the bathroom and shut off the light.  I turned the candle on and all I was was these black blobs.  How disappointing!! But at least I can say I tried this.  I called my niece and let her know that there was no way I could make a bunch of these for her. Which is too bad but the dipping took so long to do.  Not worth the time. Or the mess!!!  And a few days later I found more wax on the other side of the blinds.  I have a feeling I'm going to be finding wax for days to come!!!   LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Sharing a Couple of Things That I Have Found

I have a couple of things to share with you today.  I found the first one on Pinterest.  And of course I have to test these things out before I share them with you.  Why pass something on that doesn't work?  I am doing a lot of taping and a little bit of painting in our home and I had seen this great idea to hold the end of your tape without wasting any tape.  You take a bread tag and stick it to the end of the tape.  Now the tape end is not only easy to find but you don't waste any.  I use to either fold the end of the tape back or just leave it and then try to find the end and once found I would try to grasp the end so I can use the darn thing.  Well, now my tape end can be found and there is a warm and friendly feeling associated to the tape rolls now!  They ARE your friend!!! LOL  As long as the other half puts the bread tag back on when he's done all will be happy here!!! 

And the other fun thing I want to share was something my friend Katie sent me.  It shows how to separate an egg with ease.  Almost every morning my cat Boo gets an egg yolk.  I hate giving them to her because it's so messy and she starts in with the meowing once she hears the egg crack on the counter edge.  Then the egg is moved back and forth between the shell halves to get rid of the white part.  I watched this video on You Tube and I will never have to spend more than a few seconds separating an egg ever again!  The video is not in English but it doesn't need to be to follow along.   You just crack your egg open (ignore the meowing cat) and take an empty plastic water bottle.  Squeeze the bottle and place the opening on top of the egg yolk.  Let up on the pressure on the bottle and watch the egg yolk get sucked inside the bottle.  And it's clean, the white "anchor" is gone (yup, actual word for that white "thing" stuck to the egg - which if left in the bowl ends up on the floor or the side of the cupboard!).  The egg yolk comes out of the bowl whole and clean. Then you just squeeze the bottle and the yolk comes out where ever you want to place it!  It's so simple and very amazing. It looked like the gal in the video put the cap back on the bottle once she was done. I'm not sure why she did that.  I rinsed the bottle out and put it in recycling.  I have this thing about egg and not cleaning up after it.  I just feel that one egg can contaminate everything it comes in contact with.  Simple solution here, get another water bottle.  Just open up a new one, put the water in a glass and you have a nice clean bottle every time!  I don't recommend saving the water bottle, it's not worth getting sick over.  Anyway, this is such a slick way to separate an egg.  Lucky Boo doesn't have to wait as long for her yolk anymore!!

I took the day off today from card making.  I do have some cards to share with you from a Stamp-A-Stack I was at last week and I card I was working on this morning but I just thought I would change things up a bit here today and share some fun finds with you!  I know you are curious about the egg yolk thing now!!  LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda