Melt & Pour Soap Making: Last Minute Valentine Cupcake Soaps

Looking for some last minute Valentine soap ideas? These cupcake soaps were made in no time flat using the base of the Mold Market Cupcake Mold. We added our own twist for the topper.

The above cupcake base was poured in clear soap base and Flower Child Rock Me Raspberry colorant was added. Our scent choice was Hugs & Kisses (very yummy!) It was topped off with a tuff of whipped soap frosting and a pink colored deep heart. A pinch of white sparkle glitter added a bit of cupcake glitz.

Above: An eggshell colored base (1 drop DWP eggshell color added to white soap base). Next we added a white-colored round cut-out, a chocolate heart, a tuff of whipped soap frosting, and a deep heart colored red. A pinch of red glitter was sprinkled over the finished soap.

Who doesn't like chocolate and cream? We made this cupcake soap using our Milk & Cookies scent.

Layered hearts, and more layered hearts. Use the Mold Market cupcake base to stack different sized hearts. We added glitter to the some of the hearts (we added to the melted soap). A few candied hearts on top add a "sweet" touch.

All of these soaps fit our cupcake boxes. I'll be posting a tutorial soon.

My Mom: The Horrible Effects of Cancer

Those who follow my blog know that I lost my Dad to Cancer in September of 2008. I watched the devastating effects of prostate and bone cancer cripple a man full of strength and vigor. I now watch as my precious Mom endures the effects of this disease. This week, she had cancer removed from her nose (this is the 4th recurrence). The cancer was very invasive and reconstructive surgery was necessary.

I spent all day Thursday at U of M Ann Arbor hospital while she underwent reconstructive nose surgery. The plastic surgeon was amazing. Even though this picture looks pretty frightening, the end results will be incredible. They have rebuilt the cartilage and bone in the nose and grafted skin from the forhead to sculpt a new nose.

In another 3 weeks they will trim away the skin at the bridge of her nose and, believe it or not, she will begin to heal and look normal. I have posted this picture as an example of the heartache that so many individuals are going through with this terrible disease. My Mom is 79 years old and it breaks my heart to see her in this state.

There are some who may find this post offensive. I don't apologize. This is real life and cancer is ugly. I hope it prompts you to join the fight against this killer disease. I will be posting the final results of my Mom's reconstructive surgery once she heals (in about 4 weeks).

For those of you suffering from cancer, my prayers are with you. For those wanting to help fight this disease, plan to participate in the 2010 Relay for Life event.

More Designer Soap Fun with GPE Paper

More printable soap fun using our GPE paper.

Watch our FREE tutorial and learn how to make these snazzy looking melt & pour soaps. These are some of the latest designs done by our staff using the GPE printable soap paper. It's sooo easy. All you need is colorful artwork and a printer (we offer the paper in both ink jet and laser). Think of all the neat Valentine soaps you can make!

You can purchase a printed tutorial that includes templates for several of the Mold Market basic shape molds. However, you can use many other Mold Market molds that are not included in the printed tutorial (such as the plain heart) by tracing the shape of the mold cavity onto plain paper. Cut out the traced shape and use as a template when printing your artwork onto the GPE paper.

Soap of Many Colors Tutorial Now Online

As promised, the new "Soap of Many Colors" tutorial is now online. You can view this FREE tutorial below or on our website. You can also purchase this project as a printed PDF tutorial.

Update on Corrugated Eavestrough Aloe Vera CP Soap

For those following my blog, you will remember my post about the corrugated eavestrough mold. For those of you just coming aboard, check out the first post here. Dawn graciously forwarded some photos of her finished soap using this mold.

Dawn told me that the first three CP soap batches went great in the mold. However, the fourth batch wasn't without problems. It seems the soap got too hot and melted one end of the mold. Dawn's suggestion: DO NOT wrap the raw soap in a blanket or towel if using the vinyl eavestroughing.

Dawn is going to make her next batch of soap in a metal eavestrough. She promised to keep me posted, so I'll be sharing her results in a later post. I still haven't forgotten my promise to try melt and pour soap in this mold. I'm hoping to whip up a soap batch this week.

Melt & Pour Soap Making: Miss O Princess Heart Soaps

A few posts back I showed pics of the Miss O Princess Soapsicles. Here is a follow-up that shows the coordinating Miss O Heart soaps. Easy, easy, easy... AND, a great way to use up any leftover soap from the soapsicle project.



Our tutorial (shown below) will show you how to make these awesome soaps. Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Watch the FREE tutorial:

Corrugated Eavestrough as a Soap Mold? Read on...

Some time back, I made a blog post that included the photo shown below. It was a stock photo and really had to relevance to any of the molds that we stock at GoPlanetEarth. However, one of my customer's, Dawn, was intrigued by the shape of the soap shown forefront and wanted to know what mold she should purchase to obtain that same shape. Sadly, I had no clue since it was not one of our molds, though this very shape had been on the drawing board for a Mold Market mold. Unfortunately, some thermoforming issues related to release put a snag in the preliminary design.

I did some brainstorming and suggested to Dawn that using a piece of corrugated eavestroughing might achieve a similar shape. I wasn't sure it was a viable idea, but anything is worth a try, right?

Well, Dawn grabbed ahold of the idea and gave the eavestrough idea a whirl. She was kind enough to email her results to me and graciously consented to let me share those results with you. Thank you, Dawn! Below is Dawn's email to me.

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"I recently wrote to ask where to find the mold for soap like in a picture on your website and you wrote to say "Maybe a rain gutter?" So I tried it with a white vinyl rain gutter ($7 for a 12 foot piece at Home Depot) cut into 12 inch length, oiled the inside lightly with olive oil and then poured Aloe Vera cold process soap into the mold.

• First try, soap leaked all over the place, even though I meticulously taped one end shut with real sticky tape.
• Second try I used thick plastic with tightly wound wide rubber bands.
• Third try I used several layers of saran wrap with tightly wound wide rubber bands. The third time the soap still leaked out but did stop leaking soon without losing much soap. Then to get the soap out of the rain gutter was a problem. Today I noticed that the soap was shrinking from the sides more so I put the 12 inch piece back in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then I laid it on it's side to thaw. A few hours later I noticed that the soap was sliding out one end! It rolled right on out! Beautiful!

So this mold is quite cheap and works great if you are patient, something I'm not!"


SIDEBAR: The soap leaked immediately when using tape... so tape DOES NOT work. So far, only saran wrap withwide ruber bands has worked. But the soap turns out so beautiful. I put the rain gutter with soap inside a flat bottomed bowl to catch any leakage, which wasn't much once I tried the saran wrap.

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If you want to try this and are looking for wide rubber bands, you can find them here. You will want to order the Size 84.

The next trip my husband makes to Home Depot (which is almost every weekend), I am going to have him purchase a 12 ft section so I can try with Melt & Pour soap. Not so sure it will release as easily as the CP since MP soap doesn't have the same shrinkage as CP soap. But what the heck! It's worth a try. I'll let you know how it works out.

Melt & Pour Soapmaking: Miss O Princess Soapsicle Tutorial

The Princess O Soapsicle tutorial is complete. You can view it below and also on our web site. A great soap for Valentine's Day. Pair it with coordinating heart shaped soaps.