Thursday, May 30, 2013

Made in the USA Cupcake Soap

 
 
Our Soap Chick, Sophie, has been at it again. This "Made in the USA" cupcake soap was inspired by nothing other than the American flag.
 
 
Sophie used Mold Market's cupcake base and Mold Market's large bath bomb mold. The stars were hand-cut from red and blue soap. You can also use varying sizes of star cookie cutters.


Score the cupcake base with fork prongs to help seat the cupcake top. Clear, melted soap secures the two pieces together as well as the stars.


Sophie used white soap base in this project so the red and blue colors don't really POP. I suggest using clear soap and red colorant for the cupcake base and pour the top in white soap along with clear soap (add ultramarine blue to the clear soap).

Using clear soap would give the same red and blue colors in the American flag.





Other ideas for the Made in the USA soap:

  • Pour the top in alternating blue and white colors only make the stripes thinner
  • Use clear soap for the first layer of the top and embed a star, sprinkle with silver glitter. Pour remainder of top in stripes.
  • Make the cupcake base blue and the stripes white and red


Monday, May 06, 2013

Melt & Pour Soap Making: Embellishing Your Soaps



Mold Market's soap molds take soap making to the next level. If you don't believe me, take a look at what Maria at Kokolele Soap has done with Mold Market's ice cream cone mold. Maria told me she was so delighted to discover this mold could me used to make a 3-D soap.


Mold #239 (Soft Serve Ice Cream) has a flat back. However, when you join the halves, you get this wonderful 3-dimensional soap which you can embellish to your heart's content.

Maria's soap artistry is amazing.

These are the new border trims from Mold Market available in June 2013. Use them to embellish your soaps. There are six border strips on each mold.

 
Here is a former blog post on how to make the different colored layers for the ice cream soap.
 
 

Here is another creative soap by Maria using Mold Market molds. I have purchased a number of soaps from Maria's Etsy shop and I must say, they are perfection with lovely packaging and labels.


The above soap is made with Mold Market's cupcake base and a small bath bomb mold. The two pieces are connected with clear soap base and embellished with a rickrack soap border.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

How To: Mother's Day Picture Frames



I've been on a Mother's Day craft marathon this past week with my grandkids. We've made paper Mache vases, sun catchers and our final project is ice cream stick picture frames.


These refrigerator picture frames are easy, inexpensive and colorful. Supplies include:
  • Craft Popsicle sticks
  • Craft glue
  • Glitter
  • Paint
  • Plastic buttons
  • Scrap ribbon
  • Business card magnets
  • Printer and camera


Form a square frame with the pop sticks. I attached two parallel sticks at the top and bottom, and one stick between the two layers. A diagonal stick was used on the back side to keep the picture in place.

Spray paint or brush on tempera paint with a brush. I used spray paint. Allow the sticks to dry between each coat of paint.


Decide how button arrangement and where you want to place glitter. Layering the buttons by size will give added depth. Allow the picture frame to set up overnight.


When the embellishments are dry, print and trim photos to side into the sides of the frame. The diagonal pop stick will help keep the picture in place.


The last step is to adhere the business card magnets to the back of the frame. I used on full magnet and trimmed a second to fit. Hot glue worked best for securing to the wooden sticks. Even though the magnets had an adhesive backing, they didn't seem to stick well. The hot glue worked great.

Glue the business card magnet to the back side of the frame.