Easy, fun, inexpensive, handmade Christmas Gifts

Well today I have been looking on how to make soap and I came across some great recepies for inexpensive and yet personal gifts. I love scrubs! here are some interesting and  can be great gifts!

Solid Brown Sugar Scrub

4 oz. melted melt and pour soap
8 oz. grapeseed oil or Avocado Oil
3-4 oz. brown sugar
1/2 oz. honey
Fragrance oils or essential oils (20 drops)
Mix your grapeseed oil, honey and melted melt and pour soap together. Add the brown sugar and mix together with hands. You can add your fragrance or essential oils at any point during the mixing process. Divvy up into wide-mouthed jars. Wait 24 to 48 hours for the mixture to harden into a semi-solid mixture.

How about some perfume.
Solid perfume is fun and easy to make and is a wonderful idea for a personal, hand-crafted gift! You'll want some stylish little butter pots to hold your creations and Bramble Berry, Inc. has a terrific selection. To make your solid perfume, follow these directions:
For a 9 oz. batch (which will fill about 36 pots), you would use, by weight:
2 oz. Beeswax
3 oz. Shea Butter
4 oz. Olive Oil
.5 to 1 oz Fragrance Oil of choice
Melt all fixed oils together, and add fragrance oil to melted oils. Pour mixture into small jars or twist-up tubes and sell as a solid perfume!

This recipe reminds me of one year my family gave out corranders as Christmas gifts. Here is another idea.

Scented Stones

Great as room fresheners! You will need:
One ceramic or glass bowl,
1/2 cup flour (do not use self-rising flour)
1/4 cup salt,
1/2 tablespoon alum (available in drug stores),
1 tablespoon essential or fragrance oil,
2/3 cup boiling water and
food coloring (optional).

In ceramic or glass bowl, thoroughly mix dry ingredients.
Add essential oil and boiling water.
NOTE: scent will be strong, but will fade slightly when pastilles dry.
For colored dough, blend in food coloring one drop at a time until desired shade is achieved.
Blend ingredients to form a ball.
Working with a small amount at a time, roll dough between palms of hands to form small balls.
Note: cover unused dough to keep it from drying out.
Allow pastilles to dry.

The beginnings!

I have over the last year loved learning about how to make your own style cheap but also natural. Who wants to put tons of chemicals on your face and hair if it can be avoided and maybe even cheaper?! coming up on the Christmas season, I want to look my best for all those picture to come.
My first product is makeup remover. It can get expensive and so here is an easy way to remove and hydrate your skin at the same time.

Ingredients:

• witch hazel

• olive oil

These two simple ingredients make a wonderful eye makeup remover. In a small container fill it 3/4 of the way full with witch-hazel. Despite the name, witch-hazel is quite harmless and can be easily found at any health food store. Then put about 3-4 Tablespoons of olive oil in the container.
For use shake well before applying with a cotton ball. The Olive oil will help remove the oil residue on your skin and leave it with healthy oils. "likes remove likes" The witch-hazel works as a toner and cleanser.

I also use witch-hazel as a toner.
Ingredients

• witch-hazel
• tea tree oil
• lavender oil 

The witch-hazel is the toner, this helps in clarifying your skin. The tea tree oil is used as a cleanser, like for acne or any blemishes. Tea tree oil is amazing. I will do a blog post about it later. The lavender oil helps to stop any irritation or redness that might occur. Lavender is known for its soothing qualities.

I would like to start today in a prayer. Dear God I thank you for this opportunity today. I pray that it would be you who speaks to us today. God I thank you for Jesus and for the forgiveness of our sins. Thank you for this day let me glorify you in this speech today. In Jesus Name Amen.

“Forgiven, Beloved, Hidden in Christ, Made in the Image of the Giver of Life, Righteous and Holy, Reborn and Remade, Accepted and Worthy this is our new name.” These are lyrics from Jason Gray's song I Am New.

These are powerful words. Do you believe them? Do we live like we believe them? Or do we tend to think of ourselves only as sinners? I think far to often as Christians we focus on the sins in our lives rather than what Jesus is doing in our lives. We know that we are sinful in Romans 3:10b its says “no one is righteous no not one.” Then how does God see us? In Ezekiel 36:26 its says “I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart.” This verse shows how the Lord is changing us. He sees us as more than the sins that we commit.

Tenth Avenue North says this so well in their song, You Are More. The song says “ you are more than the choices that you've made you are more than the sum of your past mistakes you are more that the problems you create.” It goes on to say “its not about what you've done, but what's been done for you, this is not about where you've been but what the brokenness brings you to, its even not about what you feel, but what he felt to forgive you and he felt to make you loved.”
Isn't that freeing? We can do absolutely nothing about it, Jesus chose to die for us and he chose to love us while we were still sinners! As stated in Romans 5:8.

In Colossians 3:10 it says that “you have been clothed with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.” Then in Ephesians 4:24 says “you must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness-- righteous, holy, and true.”This is who you are if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus IS Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, Romans 10:9.
Now I would like to go back to one of my original questions. Do we live like we believe the words of Jason Gray's song? I know I far to often don't live like I am his Beloved or that I am Worthy of the new name I have been given. I look at the people around me to define who I am. What are people saying about me? Is that how you define yourself? Do you look in the mirror every morning letting it tell you who you are?
If we are sons and daughters of the Most High King wouldn't that change how you look at things. I know it would for me. As I wrote this speech I felt convicted and encouraged. I was convicted because I have not believed that I have been made new in Christ. Also I have let others thing than Christ define who I am.
I was encouraged by God's faithfulness and that his love never fails us. His faithfulness is shown in Genesis 28:15b, “I will never leave you until I have done what I have promised.” God was talking to Abraham but the same apples to us today.
What has he promised to those who have believed? Phillipians 1:6 says “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of the Lord Jesus.”
In a song sung by Barlow Girl, it talks about how in many cases we let a mirror define who we are. This is not how we should be defined, instead we should let Jesus define who we are. When he looks at us, he sees beauty beyond compare.
It says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” We all have an important role in God's eyes, He is no respecter of persons. We all have a role in God's plan, all we have to do is to be willing to accept what he has for us.

There is so much that God has planned for us. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says “I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare, and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” In Ephesians2:10 that “you are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Let us live our lives to the fullest potential that God has for you. Remember that you are Forgiven, Beloved, hidden in Christ, made in the Image of the Giver of Life, Righteous and Holy, Reborn and Remade, Accepted and Worthy, this is your new name