Day212 - These fingers were made for burning.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008: My kitchen: Gold seals

I am currently under a deadline to get wedding invitations done. It is stressful and not always awesome living in this house right now, especially for Troy.

So, part of the invite was these little gold wax seals. 150 little wax seals.




First, there are two main types of seals - wax and a plastic polymer. The plastic are cheaper and can be found in most craft stores. This is what I used. These have a little wick that needs to stay lit to burn the faux wax. It smells a little like a burnt crayon, but worse.



And you can burn your fingers a lot.

I did buy some online that you can put into a glue gun but the stick was HUGE and would not fit in my smaller glue gun. So, back to the little candles.

I made a template so I had a general idea what size to go for. It took a lot of practice, but towards the end I got really pretty good at judging how long you need to keep the seal in the wax before you can move on. (Don't forget, the candle is burning the whole time. You need to be able to both press a seal while dripping wax into another circle. This is exhaustive.)

It also helps to have a little bowl of cool water to cool your stamp off in. Otherwise, you will not be able to remove it from the wax.




I didn't always make the best seal - especially in the beginning. You need to have a real idea of what kind of pressure to use as well. Sometimes the wick goes out and you have to relight it while praying that the wax you already dumped doesn't not harden. This is real juggling - especially since I did them all by myself.

To try to save some of what I did not do perfectly, I set up a little crucible using my Yankee Candle tart burner, a teaspoon and some foil. This worked so well and made the most darling shaped seals.




Here are the seals made with the crucible. They have a slightly different color and a more round shape. They used a little more wax had a larger profile. I don't know which I prefer. The seals at the top of the page look more natural, where as these look like buttons.




Either way, I can do with a vacation from manufacturing them again for awhile.

Day158 - But what else can 3 dollars get me?

Friday, June 6, 2008: The garage: Strawberry Smoothie

First, expect a lot of garage in the next two weeks. The Bellefonte Cruise is fast approaching and pretty much all my time will be there. Any waking minutes are taken for then next week or so.

Now you probably know that I am addicted to Sheetz Steamerz. Hot vanilla milk is so yummy on a cold winter day. Well, Troy is now addicted to their strawberry smoothies. We tried this one today and now that he has a taste for them, I see no end in site.




They are good. Too good. I had major brainfreeze from chugging one too fast. I haven't had brain freeze in years. Guess what? It still sucks as bad as it did in the past.

Ouch!


In case your wondering what Nikko did today, it was this: