{ Elevated Guest Experience Series: Refillable Toiletries }

At our home, probably much like your own, we already have a lot going on to get ready for the holidays! With guests coming (including my mom for 10 days—hooray!!!!), our annual Glorious Christmas Party to host, and a large house to decorate—including adding & making the decorations for what will be our 11th Christmas tree, woot woot!!—there’s just a lot happening. In fact, just a few minutes ago I was battling it out with our housekeeper over the schedule to get the oven cleaned, floors waxed, windows washed, etc. You know—all the extra crap you have to do to make it look like you’re actually on top of it the whole year, when in reality your oven is rarely clean, your floors don’t always shine, and your windows have plenty of spots. But, at Christmas, everything is…well, glorious!

Anyway, as part of all the preparations, I’ve decided to do a series of posts related to entertaining and hosting in general. This is the first in that series, which I’m calling the “Elevated Guest Experience”. I’ll be sharing very easy and (perhaps, most importantly) inexpensive ways for you to create a five-star experience for your own guests, regardless of if you have a dedicated guest space or if your guests just sleep on your couch. Either way, you can always provide guests with an elevated experience using just a little bit of extra effort!

Doc & I love to host and to entertain friends and family. It’s always so nice for them to have taken the time to come visit us. So, we work very hard to make sure that those staying with us feel like they’re being taken care of and don’t have to worry about a thing while they’re here. We try to think of everything for them—and then some. We’ve been very fortunate to stay in some luxurious hotels and I’ve tried to incorporate some of the things I’ve observed happening there into what our guests experience when they stay with us. It just makes for a much more fun experience and I know it’s what we ourselves appreciate when we stay with others, too. Here, I want to discuss the toiletry situation.

So, I have this thing about staying in other people’s homes: I hate using their half-used toiletries! It can be some of the nicest product you’d ever imagine, but I feel so weird squeezing shampoo out of the same bottle I know they themselves (or 100 other guests) have used. Don’t ask me why. It just is. My simple solution, of course, is just to travel with my own shampoo and body wash. But what about when guests stay with us? Do we just put out mini toiletries we’ve collected along the way? Short answer: no.

Having said that, I do travel quite a bit and have to admit I find myself taking the soaps and mini shampoo bottles from the hotel bathroom whenever I leave. I feel like a mini-toiletry hoarder. But, here’s the thing—I don’t like mini toiletries when it comes to the guest bath. Heck, I don’t typically even use the hotel ones myself (yes, I’m a product snob). So, why I take them after a hotel stay is beyond me. It’s like my little perk for paying for the room, I guess. At any rate, mini toiletries are not what I want to put out for guests. Especially because it’s a bit tacky to have a Hilton-branded shampoo bottle sitting in the shower at home. Guests know full well we aren’t a Hilton and there’s no big ol’ Hilton logo on the front of our house, so why would there be Hilton toiletries in the guest bathroom?!

To solve this, I keep full-sized toiletry bottles in the shower. My trick is that I have back-up bottles stored underneath the sink. After guests leave, I use the back-up bottles to refill the bottles in the shower so that each guest doesn’t feel as if they’re dealing with a half-used product. However, once I got my Cameo, one of the first things I knew I wanted to change was the full-sized bottles themselves. You see, the labels on the bottles didn’t match the bathroom. And that annoyed me greatly. (I know. I need help.) So, after a great deal of searching, I came across some frosted pump bottles (at Target, of all places!) that fit the bill perfectly.

I used my Cameo to cut vinyl labels for the bottles, making all of it coordinate nicely, regardless of what color the bathroom walls or towels may be. This is how they turned out:

Now, what’s funny here is that when I filled the bottles, I reversed the shampoo & conditioner and didn’t even realize it until my sister came to stay with us and pointed it out. So, that’s been changed since taking this picture.

It works beautifully, looks coordinated, and best of all—there’s no half-used bottle for guests to use. In fact, with these bottles, they can clearly see that they’re full. My neurotic self thinks that’s fantastic.

So, a couple of possibilities when you’re looking at your guests’ experience:

1) Forget the mini toiletries. Put full-sized bottles in the shower, refilled after each guest leaves using back-up bottles of the same product. Even if you just use the bottle the product came in instead of putting it in non-branded pump bottles, that alone will make a world of difference. And all for about $5. (I just buy Tresemme products at Target for the guest bath refills.) That’s it—$5!

And, if you have a bunch of mini toiletry bottles already and you don’t want them wasted, you could always use them as the refill for the bottle as it gets emptied until you’ve used them all up. Unless it’s a different color toiletry (i.e., pouring green shampoo into a bottle of white shampoo), nobody’s going to know the difference.

2) Spend a few more dollars to find or make labeled pump dispensers. (Remember to avoid anything with metal so that you don’t have to deal with rust.) My three bottles? Yeah, they cost a total of $12. Love that!

This is a very inexpensive & simple solution that will help your guests leave your home feeling like a million bucks!

{ Tutorial: Burlap Bubble Wreaths }

First off, I must make what I fear is going to be one of many apologies for the delay between entries. It has been an absolutely insane couple of weeks!

For those who don’t know me personally & who just happen across this blog, I currently work a FT job in marketing, have a wholesale business featuring dog apparel & accessories, and I have recently launched my Krafty Kade brand with retail space in a local boutique. Life can get a little hectic at times, so it seems that I’m always dropping the ball on something. (In this case, the blog.) Last week, I was out-of-town for team meetings for my FT job, which really threw off my production schedule for the launch of Krafty Kade’s retail space (which happened two days ago). Anything in-between is a blur. But, I’ve gotten in lots of crafting in order to have products in the retail space, so now I’m trying to get blog entries written that cover some of those really fun (and VERY doable!) projects. First up: the burlap bubble wreath. Something that looks like this…

Stay with me here. If you only knew just how easy this really is, you would not feel remotely intimidated. So, come with me through a detailed pictorial tutorial that will leave you with a fantastic wreath that looks so much more impressive than it ought to. And, the best part is that it requires zero unique tools. Just some readily available supplies. So, we’ll start with those…

Supplies

You’re going to need:

1) 6” wide burlap ribbon: about 10 yards if you’re doing a 12” wreath; 20 yards if you’re doing an 18-20” wreath. I think mine is a 20” wreath, based upon my rough measurements. What you see in the picture of the finished wreath at the top of this post is 15 yards of plain burlap, with five yards of chevron-printed burlap. The supplies picture above only includes two rolls of five yards. More on that little mistake later, but it ultimately led to the chevron-printed burlap coming into play.

Burlap ribbon is easily found at Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, etc. If you buy it at Hobby Lobby and aren’t in a rush to get this project done, wait until they put ribbon and notions on sale (usually about every-other-week) so you can get it all for 50% off. Or, pick up a roll at Michael’s & use the 40% off coupon, go back the next day & do the same, etc., until you’ve got as much as you need without paying full price. You can do this for cheap.

2) a wreath frame: select one in the size of your choosing; just remember to buy enough burlap ribbon to accommodate whatever size you decide upon. A 20” wreath is about as large as I’d go for a front door, if that gives you some perspective. Wreath frames are found in the Floral departments, typically, and are a couple of dollars. They’re green metal frames comprised of four circles (giving you three open rows) attached together using equally spaced crossbars.

3) any embellishments (bows, ornaments, flowers, pinecone clusters, etc.) you may want to include. I went with one large burlap flower that had sparkly stuff (technical term, of course) in the middle of it. It was on a pick and I ultimately just used the pick to attach it to the frame—no glue required!

Step 1:

Tie the burlap ribbon onto the wreath frame. Do it such that the tail of the knot points towards what will be the back of the wreath. That way, it won’t ever stick out amongst the forward-facing bubbles. In other words, the exact opposite of this:

I tied this, photographed it, and then realized I tied it on reverse from what I’d ultimately want. But, I forgot to re-photograph it the other way. (You’ll notice the curve of the wreath frame. You want the concaved side to be the back.)

Step 2:

Create your first bubble. What you’re doing is gathering small bunches of the burlap and pulling it through the wreath frame in alternate rows. You don’t have to do any tying or knotting for each bubble. As long as you alternate which row of the wreath frame you’re feeding each bubble through, they will stay just fine. I think the most logical and easiest method is to go in order from top to bottom row when putting in the bubbles. That way, it makes sure there’s even coverage. This is what I mean about gathering the burlap into a bubble (also note that in this picture the knot tail is going the correct direction)--

As you can see, it’s not hard. Just grab a bunch of the burlap. Some people choose to twist the base of the bubble gathering before feeding it through the wreath frame. I tried it both ways and didn’t see a difference. I don’t think one holds any tighter than the other, so do it whichever way you prefer.

Step 3:

Feed the gathered bubble through the frame.

Here, I fed it through the wreath frame’s middle row. It doesn’t really matter which row you start in—just remember that you’re alternating each bubble to be fed through different rows each time.

Important note: This is the point at which you need to decide how poufy you want your wreath to be. The bigger you make this first bubble (i.e., how much burlap you pull through), the puffier your overall wreath will be. Each bubble needs to be about the same height to maintain a uniform look, so decide now upon what that height will be. (I think this is about 3-4” high.) Also, keep in mind that the puffier the bubbles, the more burlap ribbon you’ll need.

Step 4:

Feed the next bubble through the wreath frame, using a different row. Here, I fed the second bubble through the outer row:

Another important note: To keep the back of the wreath mostly flat and to keep the bubbles in place best, make sure you are pulling each bubble tight after pulling it through. This will require you to hold onto the previously placed bubble (so that you don’t undo it) while you pull through the new bubble. The end of the ribbon that’s connected to the previous bubble is what you’ll pull tight so that the ribbon is right up against the underneath side of the wreath frame. Like this:

This will take a little bit of practice, but it’s not hard.

As you go along, it will ultimately look like this underneath:

Step 5:

Continue feeding bubbles through the wreath frame in the alternating rows. Be sure to keep pushing the bubbles together as you go along so that they’re in compactly. You will also want to fluff the bubbles a little as you go along so that you can make sure you’re sufficiently covering the wreath frame. You don’t want any of it showing from the front.  It should very quickly start to resemble something like this:

When you get to the end of a roll of the burlap ribbon, knot it onto the wreath frame, like this:

Again, make sure the tail of the knot is pointed towards the back of the wreath frame, like this:

Then, tie the new roll onto the wreath frame & continue just as you have been, ensuring that the bubbles cover up the knots you’ve just tied.

This is what mine looked like after two five-yard rolls:

And that’s when I started to panic. It was apparent that each roll did about one-fourth of the overall wreath, obviously meaning that I would need four rolls. The problem was that I bought three rolls of a darker burlap and five rolls of a lighter color of burlap. I was using the darker burlap to this point and knew it would look insane if I did one-fourth of it in a lighter burlap. I also knew that I was not about to do another two-hour round trip drive back to Hobby Lobby just to get one roll of darker burlap. And I didn’t want to undo all the work I’d just done. So, I kept pondering my options as I worked towards this point:

And then I knew it was decision time. As I slightly perspired over the stress of it all, it dawned on me that I had also bought a couple of rolls of chevron-print burlap ribbon, which I’d intended to use for another purpose. But, sacrifices must be made. And that’s how it ended up like this:

In the end, I decided I really liked having that chevron accent section. I also got positive feedback about it when I took it to the Krafty Kade retail space today. Several people commented on how much they liked the combination of the two, so it turned out to be a good mistake in the end.

Step 6:

Affix your embellishment(s). I don’t have a picture of how I did this, but it’s going to vary anyway depending upon what type of embellishment you go with. You may need to use florist’s wire to attach the object, or maybe hot glue will be best. For me, I just twisted the end of the flower pick through the rows of the wreath frame and it holds it in place perfectly. (Plus, I positioned it such that it covers the knot from the end of the chevron-print burlap and the knot from the beginning of the first roll of burlap.)

In case you’re wondering, the back of the wreath looks like this:

That’s it!  Oh, I guess I did miss one step—hang it wherever your heart desires! I think I’m going to try making some smaller ones next time and may do a trio of them on one wall, each positioned at different heights, hung by wide ribbon. That could look cool. Or, at least it does in my head anyway. Reality could be a whole other story.

I can’t give you a good estimate on how much time this takes to make, but if you’re not stopping every five seconds to take a million pictures in hopes one of them turns out good enough to be used in a blog post, I imagine it’s a pretty speedy process (i.e., 15-30 minutes, depending upon how distracted you get & the size of the wreath). The other great thing about this particular project is that it’s one you can easily walk away from and get back to later, if need be. You don’t need to do it all in one sitting.

At any rate, that is how to make a super-easy burlap bubble wreath. If you make one yourself, please come back and share pictures and any pointers you picked up along the way that I may have overlooked!

{ Glass Etching: Part 1 }

If you're like the me of a couple of months ago, you don't really have a clue how glass is etched--or at least, not how to do it very well. In my exploration on this subject, I progressively had a few key questions along the way that I hope to answer sufficiently in this post and subsequent posts:

1. How do you etch glass? What does it take to make the etching happen?
2. Does etching cream work to etch glass? Is it as effective as air erasing (or sandblasting)?
3. How do you use an air eraser? Does the Harbor Freight air eraser work? (The HF air eraser is a very common equipment option for home hobbyists looking to get into etching.) And, how does it work?

The project ideas I had in mind going into this were to do clear glass Christmas ornaments etched with our monograms and various Christmas designs, as well as to be able to etch vases, bowls, etc., for personalized gifts.  So, I started with Armor Etch etching cream. Does Armor Etch etching cream work? Kind of. This is what I learned in response to that and my aforementioned questions:

1) Glass is etched by one of two methods: etching creams basically eat away at the glass through a chemical process, leaving it slightly textured and white in color; sandblasting shoots tiny abrasive molecules (even baking soda can be an effective abrasive--that's how small of a molecule we're talking here) at the glass surface and essentially chips away at it to leave a white surface that's more defined than that provided by etching cream. Etching does weaken glass, so it is advised you don't put etched pieces in the dishwasher. I've never etched crystal objects, but if you're doing so, read up on that so that you don't shatter it. Somewhere I read that etched crystal will shatter if you run cold water on it. I didn't look into it further, so that could be a complete lie, but my advice: if etching crystal, first read from experts on the matter.

There are a million and one tutorials already out there on what steps to take to etch glass, but the basics are that you:

• Select an item to etch. Get creative.
  
  Perhaps you are taking flowers to someone; why not etch their name or initials on the vase? You can get some really inexpensive vases at Michael's (be sure to either print a coupon from their site or take your smartphone so you can pull up the coupon for use at checkout) and I've found that Whole Foods, interestingly enough, has some of the best flowers around. And their prices are surprisingly good (especially for Whole Foods!). Forget $30+ at the florists or cheap carnation bunches from the grocery store. You can get fancy for cheap!
  
  I also really like the idea of etching your casserole dishes. It would make it very easy to know which dish to reclaim after a potluck or party. While I've seen some that etch along the side, I think my favorite is one that was etched on the in the right-hand corner of the underneath side, close to the edge. The positioning made it look really cool, rather than just having it centered like one would expect. And, while of course you want your food to be liked, if it turns out that your dish isn't emptied, having it towards the front (and scooping from that edge first) allows you to easily see whose casserole dish it is.  (Just be sure to mirror your stencil before cutting it so that the sticky part of the stencil sticks to the underneath part of the dish without reversing the name.)
  
  You can take that idea a step further and give etched casserole dishes when taking a meal to someone who is sick, recovering, just moved in, just had a baby, etc. Casserole dishes are cheap (think Target, grocery store, maybe even the dollar store), but personalizing the item with glass etching really takes it to a higher level of righteousness.  Do remember that you can't effectively etch glass coated in plastic, as many casserole dishes are, so be sure you're etching ones not coated. You usually can tell by the feel of it; it may also be listed on the packaging.
  
  When it comes to things to etch, one of my favorite ideas (which also makes me now wish I had a fish) is one that's contained on the cover of a book of unique ideas for glass etching: 

 

(How groovy is that?!)

• Cut your stencil.
  
  I'm fortunate to have a Silhouette Cameo (more on that and my other crafting equipment in another post, but for those not familiar with the Cameo, it is a cutting machine that allows you to easily cut shapes out of paper, vinyl, fabric, etc. It is particularly helpful when doing stencils), so that's what I use for my own stencils. However, I do know you can cut your own (you'll not be finding instructions for that on this blog, as my cutting by hand would be krafty to the extreme) and another idea is to get pre-cut stencils at craft stores. Martha Stewart has a large selection of them at Michael's. They may be elsewhere and there may be other brands, too, but that's what I'm personally aware of. Be sure to get vinyl stencils that cling. (Reusable ones, preferably.) Martha Stewart also offers paper stencils. I can't imagine those working with etching cream.
  
  This is where you can get extra creative--it doesn't just have to be a name or monogram. Need some ideas? Don't forget to check out Pinterest for loads of them!
  
  
• Affix your stencil to your object.
  
  This isn't hard, except when you're talking about curved items such as ornaments. You can't just lay the straight stencil on the curve without it looking all sorts of crazy. I've still not mastered this, but I'm working at it & will do a later post with more details once I figure out some good solutions.  But, straight stencils on flat or perfectly round surfaces (like cylindrical vases) are easy.  Just make sure to go over the stencil repeatedly to make sure it's on there good and that the vinyl edges within the shape you're etching are all firmly affixed to the object's surface. Otherwise, etching cream will go under the stencil & leave your object looking extra special. (And not in a good way.)
  
  Here's an example of a stencil on a curved object; notice the puckered edges. Those didn't matter to me, as that's away from the area I was etching. I just had to make sure the interior edges of the shape were all smooth. But, it was still a beast to get that "K" on there without the interior edges of the shape puckering up.
  
  
  
  
  Once you have the stencil on the object, it is helpful to use painter's tape around the edges of the stencil so that you give the surface area extra protection. That way, if you get a little crazy and start spreading the etching cream all over creation without thinking (no personal experience on that or anything...), you're protected. I'm all for one protecting themselves from their own stupidity, so take the extra measure of using the tape. Especially if there's not a lot of edge space to work with on the stencil surface. (See the picture above for an example of this; notice that the lower left curve on the "K" gets very close to the edge. Yeah, that.)
  
  Also, I read somewhere that it's helpful to leave the stencil on overnight to let the vinyl relax and settle so that you have a cleaner edge. I have tried that and I've tried doing the etching immediately after applying the stencil; I personally didn't notice a difference, other than that I needlessly spent a day of impatience waiting to try the etch. If, however, you find that you're not getting clean edges and you've made sure to get that stencil on there firmly, perhaps try the overnight method. (It may also have something to do with temperature of the room, too, as cold vinyl doesn't relax as well as warm vinyl.)


• Apply the etching cream.
  
  Liberally coat the stencil area with etching cream. As in, glop that stuff on there like you mean it. Make sure you get every edge and curve and nook and cranny covered. I love using the cheap foam brushes for stuff like this. I can use it, then chuck it. Sure, they may rinse easily, but that's too much work when the brushes are dirt cheap to begin with. (They're cheapest at Michael's when you buy a variety pack, but yesterday I scored the $0.49 1" foam brushes for 14/$1. Watch for those types of sales. They're delightful.)  A regular paint brush, maybe even a popsicle stick--who knows?--just use something to get the cream on very thickly AND evenly.
  
  And then wait.
  
  Follow the directions on the bottle, but I waited around 20 minutes for the stuff I used. I know some people say cream works in 60 seconds. That's not been my experience. Perhaps it's a different brand?  Not sure. But, you also need to pay attention to make sure that if you do leave the cream on for a long time that it doesn't also start disintegrating your stencil.
  
  
• Remove the etching cream.
  
  VERY important tip I read somewhere: etching cream is reusable, so don't rinse it down the drain! Instead, carefully scrape it off and back into the bottle for use later. (The foam brush works well for this, too.)  This is such a fantastic money-saving tip (etching cream ain't cheap!) and I'm so glad I happened across it. (I wish I could remember who posted it so I could give them credit. But, thank you random lady out there in the interweb!)
  
  
• Remove the stencil.
  
  Carefully remove the stencil (and surrounding painter's tape, if using the stupidity prevention method) and immediately rinse the item under running water. Remember that if the cream is there to etch, having little bits of it anywhere else on the object is going to leave little etched spots, too. So, rinse thoroughly.  One thing to pay attention to if rinsing an ornament: make sure water doesn't run down inside through the top opening. If it does, remove the metal hanger and prop the ornament upside down on a paper towel so that it can dry.
  
  
• Enjoy your etched item.
  
  -The End-

2) Etching cream does etch glass, as promised. However, it does not produce the kind of result I had hoped for. Here's an example of etching cream (on the right) compared to sandblasting (on the left) of an identical clear glass ornament:

As you can see, there's an extreme difference between the two & the sandblasting result was much more what I had in mine. However, that's not to say that etching cream isn't effective. It's just not as effective.

The topic of air erasing is so complex (yet simple...there's a fun dichotomy there) that it deserves its own post. That will be coming up next. It'll be a fun pictorial adventure worth waiting for with bated breath!