Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Craft Fun with Herbs, series #1

My friend Tina Sams of The Essential Herbal Magazine started posting a craft a day in November 2015.  It was stopped when she got sick, but even the few posts that she did made me long to do some crafts in the winter time.

So I am picking up (sort of) where Tina left off with craft ideas in the month of January and February.  Get your fingers into the scents and feel of herbs and put aside the winter blahs.  And thank Tina by subscribing to one of the only remaining print herb magazines left!

I will also be launching my Herb of the year posts Wednesday, January 6, with my first post on the herb of the year, Capsasin genus (that is hot peppers) and I will do 12 posts this year as I choose my favorite hot peppers, from mild to hurtful.

Here is my first craft idea, first shared in my advent blog several years ago.  It is perfect to make in the winter because they dry more easily with the lowered humidity in the house while the heat is on.

Scented Stones

1 ½ cups white flour
 ¼ cup salt
 ¼ tsp cornstarch
 2/3 cup distilled water, brought to a boil
1 Tbls essential oil or or Fragrance oil
2 Tbls dried herbs, if desired
Directions:

The main thing to remember with these is they must be very well dried before using and not made too large or they could develop molds. In humid weather I add potassium sorbate as a preservative.

Combine the materials to create a dough much like play-dough.  Roll the dough the size of large marbles but flatten them so they dry more easily.  Adding the dried herbs will give the dough a more "rock-like" coloring. 


Once dry place them in a pretty dish along with colorful complimentary herbs, buds or petals.

Here is another recipe, slightly easier and more colorful, but without herbs.

Air Freshening Stones
 
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon Essential oil
2/3 cup boiling water
Food coloring

Directions:
Combine salt and flour, then add water, essential oil and food coloring.  Mix together then shape into little balls and leave to dry. As the rocks dry out they will remain soft in the center, this will not affect the scent or life of the rocks.

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