DOUBLE LIFE OF A SOAP SUD
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What better way to keep the small fry occupied on a holiday afternoon than painting a Christmas mural on the living room mirror with easily removable “suds-snow.” An outline drawn on the mirror with a soap sliver or a grease pencil can be an easy guide for the young artists to follow. After the holidays, the suds painting can be washed away with a damp cloth, leaving the mirror shining clean.
It’s Christmas ... visions of sugar plums dance in children’s heads, What do you see—too much to do in a short time?
Those last-minute decorative chores, for example. Will they send you scurrying? You can end such anxieties—swiftly, and easily—with soapsuds.
That’s right—soapsuds! It’s a novel way to complete holiday projects; glistening suds whipped up like snow will decorate your Christmas tree and gift boxes ... adorn your creche ... bring three-dimensional artwork to your mirrors and windows ... provide an effective safety valve for your youngsters’ excitement.
“Suds-snow” not only works like magic, it’s as simple to produce as rubbing Aladdin’s lamp. All you do is pour several cups of packaged soap (or detergent) and a minimum of water into a bowl. Beat with an electric or hand mixer until suds have the consistency of whipped cream—and you’re ready to decorate!
Start with your Christmas tree. Realistic suds-snow will bring that white Christmas to your evergreen—no matter what the weather outside. Using a spoon, drift some “snow” artistically on the boughs of your tree.
If the tree is white, add vegetable coloring while mixing your suds to achieve a beautiful color contrast. (A similar “snowfall” provides just the right decor for the roof of your creche and on holly and evergreen sprigs that surround it.)
Invitation to the family to gather round for Christmas carols—the piano topped with a creche and holiday greens. Snow suds on the creche and branches add beauty to the scene. That big tree-background is red paper, decorated with homemade snowflakes made by squeezing a thick soap-and-water mixture through a cookie press. When dry, glue them to the paper with rubber cement.
This little Christmas tree never saw a forest—or real snow either for that matter! But here it stands, proudly laden with lacy golden cones, made of gold paper doilies, and filled with toothsome sweets. A delightful young decorator is heaping the life-like plastic boughs with suds-snow as beautiful as any in the great outdoors—only not so perishable.
This youngster is just bubbling over with enthusiasm for her artwork. She feels just like one of Santa’s helpers at the North Pole—because she’s able, with a bowl of suds-snow and tempera paint, to make almost all the Christmas presents for her gift list. Shown here are a stationery holder and a pencil holder for her dad; the picture above is for mother to hang in the playroom; and the Christmas card holder is a gift for the house!
After “frosting” your tree, complete your decoration with distinctive ornaments made from the same basic soap—but mixed to a stiff, dough-like consistency. For example, fill a cookie press with these thick suds. Then press snowflake circles or diamonds—with holes in the middle—onto a cookie sheet, and add glitter for a sparkling touch. Let them dry for 24 hours and they’re ready to be tied to the boughs of your tree with colorful ribbons or strings. You can also glue them to any flat surface.
Versatile suds-snow comes in handy for decorating gift packages, too. Just wrap your presents with attractive paper ... fill a pastry tube with medium dense suds ... and you’re ready to “draw” any appropriate design for the occasion—initials, messages, snowflakes, candy cane, or what have you. Place these on the broadest surface of your box and accent them with holly sprigs or miniature balls. You’ll find you’ve created the most distinctive packages under your tree!
There’s one more happy side to the advent of snow-suds for the Yule season. They provide a constructive medium for your children—a happy outlet during your flurry of Yuletide activity. Let them have fun decorating the mirrors and windows of their rooms with Christmas pictures. Armed with no more than paint brushes and a bowlful of thick suds, they can create striking 3-D effects—that wash off after the holidays easily as any soap does, leaving your mirrors and windows cleaner than ever!
Youngsters can also make Christmas gifts from suds! One idea: a pencil holder made from an empty frozen juice can. First, the top has to be removed. Then your child colors the can, using a mixture of one teaspoon of soap or detergent to two or three teaspoons of tempera. This is an important recipe because tempera paints adhere to shiny, waxed, or metal surfaces only when soap or detergent is added.
After the paint dries, Junior or Sis can design a suds-snow picture over it to provide an eye-catching decoration—and an attractive gift for any member of the family.
No matter which of these refreshing soap-suds decorations you use, remember to let it dry for 24 hours. It will remain bright as frost in the moonlight for a Christmas-through-New Year’s decoration that brings cheer to your holiday guests.
A Viking legend has it that the Lord sent his three messengers, Faith, Hope, and Love to aid a missionary by seeking out a tree for lighting that was as high as faith, as eternal as hope, as wide spread as love, and which bore the sign of the cross on every branch. After due consideration, they selected the balsam fir as the tree most nearly meeting these specifications.
L. D. “LEW” HAMMER
Landscape Contractor Tel. WE 5-5938