DIY Gel Air Fresheners

I am all about friends and my house smelling great at all times (we have a new kitten and man, it is a "skunky" little thing!).  My oldest friend (by oldest I mean I have know her since the day I came home from the hospital; our families lived next door to each other and she is 2 months older than me) started a blog recently, Simply a Mom. Simply a Mom is a blog specializing in homemaking, homeschooling, and DIY. Love the site and love the friend!

So let me stop rambling and get to the point! Because I love my house smelling good, I was pleased to see a quick way to make my own home "smell goodies".  Here is an awesome article on how to make a DIY Gel Air Freshener.  Super easy to do and easy on the wallet too.  I hope you enjoy this read.  Share your comments below and be sure to check out Simply a Mom on Facebook as well!

DIY Gel Air Fresheners

I am always looking for ways to make my house smell good.  I hate it when it smells musty, closed up or worse...like the cat's litter box!  So besides keeping everything as clean as I can, I like to use candles and air fresheners.  I think store bought air fresheners and candles are expensive though so I was looking for ways to make my own.

Once again, Pinterest to the rescue!  I came upon a pin for gel air fresheners and headed over to One Good Thing By Jillee for the recipe.  Seriously friends, check out her blog!  The woman is a genius!  She has so many great DIY ideas!  Her blog is one of my top 10 favorites!

Anyways, she has two recipes on her site.  I did the recipe with the liquid potpourri as I do not have any essential oils right now and did not want to drive 30 minutes into town to get some.  So, this is what you need for the liquid potpourri gel air fresheners:

2 cups liquid potpourri (you can find this at Wal-Mart in the candle section or any craft store)
4 envelops of plain gelatin (one box has four envelopes)
2 tablespoons of salt
Heat safe containers

I happened to have a bottle of cranberry liquid potpourri from Partylite on hand so that is what I used.  Get a saucepan and pour in 1 1/2 cups of the  liquid potpourri and the salt.  Stir over heat (I used medium) until the salt is completely dissolved.  Add the gelatin and continue to stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.  Add the rest of the liquid potpourri and stir.  Remove from heat.  Pour into your heat safe containers and let completely cool until the gelatin sets.

So easy huh?  I have mine on the table by my sofa and the fan is doing a great job of dispersing the smell.  Jillee added silk flowers to her candles to make them pretty but I did not have any. You can  also add some food coloring if your liquid potpourri does not have a color (mine did).

I am definitely going to make more of these!  It was 100 degrees here today and the gel held up pretty well.  I can't help but think what great Christmas presents these could be...

I will be trying the recipe with the essentials oils as soon as my oils get here and will let you know how those ones turn out!