How to make your own soap

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the You Can Do-It-Yourself series. If you haven't heard about this series I'm featuring in the blog in 2017, you can read all about it here. 

Today I'm sharing with you inspiration on how to make your own soap. Soap making is something I've been meaning to try for a long time, and I've decided that there's actually no better time than now. I want to use homemade soaps at our house as much as possible and if they turn out well (which I hope they will), I'll also use them as homemade gifts.

 

So, I have chosen several homemade soap "recipes" which come with detailed instructions and don't use any complicated or hard to find ingredients. They all look so pretty it's hard to choose which one to try first...

For many more homemade soap ideas, you can also visit my Homemade Soap Pinterest Board.

How to Make Your Own Cloth Napkins

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the You Can Do-It-Yourself series. If you haven't heard about this series I'm featuring in the blog in 2017, you can read about it here. 

Today I'm bringing you several alternative ways to make or customize your own cloth napkins. Switching from paper to cloth napkins will brighten your dinner table, and the planet will thank you. How's that for a great 2017 resolution?

All of these are pretty easy to make and come with instructions for everyone to be able to replicate them. And because I know not everyone sews, there are no sew alternatives included, so there's really no excuse not to try. Check them all out below:

How to make your own cake stands

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the You Can Do-It-Yourself series. If you haven't heard about this series I'm bringing to the blog in 2017, you can read about it here. 

One of my resolutions for this year is to learn to make cakes - not that I don't know exactly how to make a cake, but I need practice, I need to find recipes I can trust to work every time, and I want to make professional looking cakes I can bring to birthday parties and family celebrations, and be proud of. 

So, following that line of thinking, if I'm going to make great cakes, I'm going to need great cake stands, right? And the best ones, just like the cakes, are always those that can be made at home. 

All of these are pretty easy to make and come with instructions for everyone to be able to replicate them. And because I know not everyone has the same crafty skills, there lots of different alternatives included.

Check them all out below:

How to Make your Own Kitchen Towels

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the You Can Do-It-Yourself series. If you haven't heard about this series I'm bringing to the blog in 2017, you can read about it here. Today I'm sharing some cute and easy ways to make your own or just customize dishcloths and kitchen towels.

All of these are pretty easy to make and come with instructions and patterns for everyone to be able to replicate them. And because I know not everyone sews, there are alternatives included.

Check them all out below:

How to make your own lunch bag - six ways

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of the You Can Do-It-Yourself series. If you haven't heard about this series I'm bringing to the blog in 2017, you can read about it here.

The title is obviously self-explanatory. All of these are pretty easy to make and come with instructions and patterns for everyone to be able to replicate them. And because I know not everyone sews, there is one no-sew bag included. And if you're really convinced you can't make any of these, then at least you can follow the tutorial on how to print on regular paper lunch bags so that you can put your name or a cute message on them.

Check them all out below:

You Can Do-It-Yourself Series

Yes, while I labeled 2017 the year of healthy and I plan to share here on the blog lots of recipes, healthy snacks and related tips, I also want to keep it close to me favorite hobby: crafts. 

So, to replace the ABC Craft Series shared during 2016, I'm creating a whole new craft series, called You Can Do-It-Yourself. 

The idea for this series came to me a while ago, while reading comments to my posts. Lots of people go through craft posts and then say something like "It's beautiful, I wish I knew how to sew" or "I wish I was crafty but I'm not". This really bothers me, because I'm a firm believer we can learn anything we set their minds to. We may not have time (believe me, I know that) and we may not have talent. But we can have no real talent and still know how to make something. It may not be outstanding, but it's ours.

Some things will turn out great, some will be disasters. There is not one single crafter out there that has not discarded projects that were not working out. Does that mean you quit? No. Maybe you will never be able to sell what you make on Etsy, but it doesn't mean you can't make something, Or at least try. 

Creating things is also one of the most fulfilling activities you can engage into. There's much to be said about being able to use soap you made yourself, or just bake cakes from scratch. It doesn't have to be difficult, it doesn't have to be big or time consuming. 

So, the purpose of this new series is to round up 6 projects, revolving around a certain topic, and feature them on a weekly basis. Every project will come with instructions, materials, tutorials and the like. The idea is to provide you with easy alternatives and to motivate you to do-it-yourself. Some of those projects will have been tried by me, others will be added to the list of things I want to do myself. At best, we will all end-up with some nice homemade gifts for birthdays and Christmas. And if not, we will at least enjoy the process and learn something along the way.

I have a list of all the topics I want to cover for the next 52 weeks, but they don't necessarily follow a certain order, other than trying to adjust a few of them to the appropriate seasons. I will create a page with links to all the projects shared, for easy access. 

 

So this year we are all going to be crafty! Repeat after me: "I can do it myself!"

Quotes from sprout.nl and mashable.com