My little brother is the greatest! He is so thoughtful and caring- and I knew that I had wanted to get him something special for Christmas. He is a drummer in a punk band (The Snubs) and loves jazz and classical musics as well.  He also has a great beard! (usually untamed and very wiry!)
I searched and searched and then I came upon it, one of the perfect gifts..something unusual and musical and unique! A record bowl! I found this great tutorial at Ben Kling and set out to find supplies!

While on my thrifty hunt (cuz you know thats how I roll) I found two records, one was the war of 1812 and the other was a dean martin record. :) (I got two because what if I screwed it up? Better to be safe and have a backup right?! ;) )

Record Bowl:

The tutorial is pretty straight forward. I grabbed my metal mixing bowl (or as known in our house, the popcorn bowl) and turned on the oven. It really was super easy although did put a bit of a smell in the air. While Ben says that the record isn't too hot to work with- mine was! I didn't full on burn my fingers but it was quite hot to the touch and had to pinch, then wave my hands to cool then pinch again! It truly was such a fast process and it cools really quickly too. You just want to make sure that the base of the bowl stays flat or it will wobble once its cool. My brother love loved it! (And, he wasn't just saying that because he was a nice guy, because all my siblings told me that he raved to them about the bowl too!)
 I know your asking yourself, well was that the first or the second bowl- lol- well I am happy to report that that was the first bowl attempt! I ended up just mailing him the war of 1812 album as well because the album cover was completely fantastic and would look fantastic framed on the wall! (But that will be a project for him to do himself!)

I also found this great tutorial for beard balm. One of my brothers favorite quotes/comments is "Calm your beard". He says this when everyone is all riled up and needs to settle down.  So you know me- I labeled my finished product- the Calm your beard, beard balm!

I got all the ingredients from the Natural Grocers (well which ones I didn't already have on hand) and while she called for bourbon essential oil, i just used what I had on hand. (honestly I don't even know what the name of it is, but it was one of those where they mix up oils to find the perfect scent for you.) I also want to note that I put in less cocoa powder than they said, because well.. I didn't think my brother would want to smell like chocolate. (and let me tell you.. that raw cocoa DOES smell like that- but it is deliciously soft on your skin too!)
I found the the label guy online, he looks a bit like my brother so I thought it would work great, and just added the text type, printed on some card stock and then after it was out I ran it through my Xyron sticker maker. Done and done!

As always, Many Blessings and Happy Crafting!