Melt & Pour Soap Making: Cookies Ala mode Soap

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Shabby Chic Wedding Ideas

I've attended my fair share of weddings this summer. There's one more wedding on the calendar for late August. This one is extra special for me. My former administrative assistant, Kaylee, is the bride . Besides planning a wedding and working part-time, she starts the U of M nursing program at the end of this month. She's one ambitious girl and I'm extremely proud of her.



GoPlanet's wedding gift to the bride and groom are reception table decorations. Thankfully, Kaylee is no "bridezilla"; so, it's been fun sorting through shabby chic decorating ideas. The final verdict: Painted wine bottles. A collection of assorted wine bottles filled with hydrangeas, Queen Annes' Lace, and other wild flowers will adorn the tables.

Our monogram soap text matches some of the wine bottles wedding labels.

In keeping with the theme, my staff made monogram soaps using GPE water dissolving paper.  GoPlanet offers templates for use with a number of Mold Market basic shape molds. These templates can also be used with GPE Printable Soap Paper.

Keep in mind the water dissolving paper disappears when introduced to water. The GPE Printable Paper has a vinyl type finish. It does not dissolve.

Instructions for Using Dissolving Soap Paper

1) Print your picture onto the water dissolving paper. We used a color laser printer. Make sure the laser printer is cool before printing each sheet. Otherwise, the paper may become stuck in the print roller.

2) Cut out each design to fit your mold.

3) Melt a small amount of Ultimate Clear soap base (do not add any scent!). Cool to 135 degrees and pour a thin layer into the mold cavity. Let the soap set up until firm.

4) Position the picture logo on top of the poured soap. VERY lightly spritz a layer of rubbing alcohol onto the back of the picture. You don't want the picture to start dissolving, so use discretion when spraying the alcohol.

5) Fill the remaining portion of the mold cavity with white soap base. For our project we used Mold Market # 011. Scent as desired. Pouring temp should be around 130 to 135 degrees. You don't want to melt the paper.

6) Let soap set up for several hours until firm enough to release from the molds. DO NOT put soap in the freezer. These soap types need to set up at room temperature.

Melt & Pour Soap: Slider Burgers & Fries Tutorial

OK, Maria... this post on "how-to" to make the slider Burgers & Fries soap is for you. Below are the notes we have on file.

BURGER BUN

• Mold Market mold #65
• Clear Soap (about 10 ounces for two burger buns, top and bottoms)
• Orange oxide colorant with a small amount of snow white colorant added. Don't get over ambitious with the color. Start with very small amounts and add additional color as needed.

MEAT

• Clear soap colored with chocolate brown
• Basic shapes economy mold (use the round cavity, but don't fill all the way to the top)

CHEESE

• Clear soap colored with Flower Child Yellow Submarine color
• Partially fill the square cavity of the basic shape mold

TOMATO

• Clear soap colored with neon red
• Partially fill the round cavity of the basic shape mold

LETTUCE

• There are a couple of options. You can use clear soap and color it with neon green and Groovy Green flower child colors (mix to desired color). Or, you can use clear soap, add a small amount (about 10%) of white soap base. The addition of the white base will help soften the green color for a more "lettuce-like" color.
• Partially fill the square cavity of the basic shape mold

FRIES

• Clear soap with a small amount of white base added. Color with yellow oxide (very small amount) and Flower Child Yellow Submarine colorant. You will have to eyeball the color. Start with small amounts of color, a drop or two, until desired color is achieved.
• Use wavy soap cutter to cut the fries.
• Pour colored soap into a jelly roll pan. Let soap set up, then cut fries to size.

ASSEMBLY

• Melt clear soap base and drizzle between each layer of the burger. The soap will harden and keep the burger layers in place.
• Want ketchup with your fries. No problem. Melt clear soap and add a small amount of tomato red. Pour soap into a condiment cup.

Melt & Pour: Summer Soap Camp

Every summer I have a few workers graduating from college. It's both joyful and sad as they move forward in their career path. We are like a family at GoPlanet, so when someone leaves us, there are tears. As we wipe the tears, we welcome our new replacement workers into the fold.

Part of their initiation rite is learning to make soap. We call it our Summer Soap Camp. I'm a firm believer employees must be equipped with knowledge to provide great service. Summer Soap Camp helps acquaint new workers with the business they represent.

Day One: Basic soap making techniques are demonstrated. This includes how to melt, color and scent melt and pour soap. Opacity is discussed and how it affects color outcome.

Day Two & Three: Three easy dual pour projects using Mold Market's Soft Serve Ice Cream mold (#239), Funky Flower (#267) mold and Button mold (#265). Pouring dual colors, monitoring pouring temps, demonstration on injector soap tool and importance of using rubbing alcohol to promote adhesion.

Day Four: More complex use of the injector tool for beginning soap makers. This included pouring a grape cluster soap. An introduction to pouring loaf soaps with embeds was also on the agenda.

Our GoPlanetEarth newbies had no problem grasping the techniques presented at each session. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and caught on easily to multiple color pours. At the end of day four, they were hooked on soaping.

Day Five: This was the final session allowed everyone to "create your own" soap. Two soaps that stood out were the granola bars and embedded loaf. These were rather advanced soaping projects for beginners, but the outcome was awesome.

Gabby's loaf mold was a partial success. It was a learning curve in the importance of pouring layers at the right temperature to ensure the each layer adheres. When the loaf was released from the mold and sliced, several slices separated.

I was impressed that she carefully monitored her pouring temps and none of the embeds had a melt-down. That alone is quite an accomplishment.

Chelsea's granola bars were quite impressive. I will be posting a future tutorial on how to make these yummy smelling bars.

It's been a fun week training staff. The excitment displayed when the finished soap is released from the mold reminds me why I love this business.

Coloring Queen Anne's Lace Flowers

The whole state of Michigan, as well as 60% of the US, is suffering extreme drought this summer. Queen Anne's Lace is one of the few flowers thriving in the heat. It's considered a wild flower but, surprisingly it's a direct relative of the carrots we eat today. In Michigan, it is commonly found in dry fields or along road sides. Most of us never give it the time of day. However, the delicate lacy blooms are a coveted filler in summer wedding bouquets.

One of my staff members is getting married next month. It's a casual outdoor setting and she asked for help decorating the reception tables. Queen Anne's Lace seemed the perfect choice since Mother Nature has provided an abundant crop.

The wedding colors are turquoise and coral. Since this flower readily accepts dye, the petals can be color themed to fit any wedding. Here's a pic of the turquoise flowers. I'm experimenting with a coral color this week. I'm excited to see the trio of white, turquoise and coral flowers intermingled within wild greenery.

The flowers will display in chalkboard graffiti wine bottles with random placement of crystals and jewels to add conserative 'bling'. Fun graffiti plans are in the works for the wedding guests (can't share at this time).

You may purchase the dye to color these flowers at GoPlanetEarth. Mix 2 parts water to one part dye. Allow flower stems to sit in the mixture for 4 hours, then add additional water. Let stems absorb the dyed water overnight. You'll be surprised with the color change after 24 hours.

TIP: Cut the flower stems at an angle before placing the the colored water.

Business 101: Create A Business Plan

My daughter and son-in-law are vacationing in Mexico for their 10-year anniversary. Hence, the "free" babysitters have the grand kids for 8 days. Each day we do a special project. It keeps them occupied and away from electronic devices. Yesterday, our project was robot inspired.

Miss O helped set out project trays and disburse robot parts.

I handled the spray painting and hot glue gun. The first step, and most difficult, was plotting the robot design.

It was intriguing to watch each child explore their options. As you can see, their ideas were all different and unique.

Carson made a TV and remote for his robot. Four year old, Fischer gave his robot a light bulb brain  (he pretends the light bulb glows when the robot is thinking "really hard").

Of course, Miss O designed a Princess Robot in pink and purple colors. I opted for an all silver robot that we call the Techno Robot.

Positioning the robots for a photo shoot, I was reminded of the uniqueness of the human mind. Each of our project trays contained the same parts; yet, each finished robot was distinctly different. The direction each person took to complete the project didn't matter. The bottom line was they finished.

In the early years of starting an online business, I was a "newbie" seeking to carve my company's identity. The competition was intimating. Assembling a business plan was not unlike the robot parts. What glue would I need to adhere all the ideas into something functional? If I failed, could my business plan be revised and reassembled?

Current economic woes have forced many into seeking alternative ways of making a viable living. With the growing number of small businesses trying to gain entry into the market, you need a plan. Especially if the Internet is your major marketing avenue. My next blog post will be address how to create a realistic business plan for success.

New Blacktop at Warehouse

There has been plenty of heavy equipment hanging out with us the last few days. These guys are digging up, replacing and resurfacing the current blacktop at our warehouse. Gotta love 'em as it's in the upper 80's.

The guys told me I could post a picture as long as it wasn't on Face book. I promised it would only be on my blog.

Accolades to these hard working men! If you think you have a difficult job, think twice. Most of us aren't pouring black top in excessive temperatures. The temperature of heated black top is around 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thank you Black & White Paving for a great job! Our delivery drivers and employees will appreciate the newly paved area.

Fortune Cookie Wedding Favor

The last few weeks, I've been brainstorming about wedding favors. GoPlanetEarth is gifting wedding favors to one of  our long time workers, Kaylee. She been with us for seven years and is tying the knot in August. Her wedding colors are turquoise and coral. I love the bright color combo.

The final (Kaylee approved) favor is pictured. The coral ribbon was shipped from Hong Kong. Yes, that's correct... Hong Kong! I needed just the right coral color, so I jumped on Ebay and found the perfect match.  Bulk chopsticks and turquoise take-out boxes are enroute.

I designed the round monogram seal and seating placement card in MS Publisher. A personalized fortune cookie is tucked inside each box. Kaylee is foregoing seating assignments, so I will be revising the favor card. In place of the guest name and table, there will be a message for each guest to do a "fill in the blank" fortune for the wedding couple. Guests slide the card from the chopsticks, fill in a message and drop card in a fortune cookie shaped box. How fun!

This same favor concept will work with Mold Market's fortune cookie soap mold or our tutorial on how to make your own fortune cookie soaps.

Place 2-3  fortune soaps in each box (heat-seal them in a poly type bag before placing in the box). Consider dipping cookie soaps in colored soap base and embellishing with sprinkles. The packaging design pictured might include coral colored soaps dipped in a turquoise color and dressed with white sprinkles, or vice versa.

Let your imagination run wild! There are so many color combinations you can use.

Checkout GoPlanet's printable fortune cookie sayings.





40 Melt & Pour Soap Making Projects

Every week, numerous emails are received requesting help with melt and pour soap making. We decided to take action and create a CD featureing 40 of our most popular soaping projects.

This collection of projects provide step-by-step demonstrations of the 'melt and pour' method of making soaps. Learn tricks and techniques that will result in impressive hand-crafted soaps. These same projects videos are offered on our website, only now, they are in one collection.

We are giving away 5 CD's as a promo on our FB page in July. Be sure to LIKE our FB page to receive notification of the FREE offer. Retail price of the CD is $11.99. That's just 30 cents per project!



The CD will be listed on our website mid-July.

Once released, you will find it at this link.

Scratch Off Savings

I don't know about you, but I love surprise savings. When a Kohl's scratch off promotional flyer arrives in my mailbox, I scramble to find a coin to see what I can save on my next purchase. There's no need to scout out a coin with GoPlanet's new "Scratch and Save" cards. We include the coin!

For a limited time we are randomly including a scratch-off card inside your order shipment. The scratch off reveals a discount or FREE product when placing a future order. Enter the discount code at checkout and we will make sure you receive the appropriate gift or discount.

The scratch off card and coin will be attached to the receipt that is included in your shipment. Good luck!

Scratch off tickets expire 9-18-2012. Don't miss out.

Melt & Pour: Golf Ball & Tee Soap

Surprise that golfer on Father's Day with this golf ball & tee soap. Mold Market mold #050 readily accepts multiple color pours. Brown oxide, Kelly green and snow white colors were used in the above soap. It is scented with Bamboo & Citrus.

Melt & Pour Soap Molds: The Moose Hunt is On

Father's Day is rapidly approaching. Consider these Mold Market Moose molds for the hunter in your life. My personal assistant, Kristy, is leaving GoPlanet after four years of service. She is heading to the Northern part of Michigan where hunting is a BIG event. Kristy poured these soaps in tribute to her departure.

Thank you Kristy for all you have done to make GoPlanet a successful online soaping company. You have always remained committed to providing outstanding customer service.

How fortunate to have such wonderful staff through the years. They continue to embrace friendships even after parting ways as they move into long-term career paths.

Melt & Pour Soap: Asian Twist

The Goplanet staff had fun pairing soap colors for Mold Market's #214 Eternal Love mold.  My favorite is the pink and black, though each soap turned out equally well. Email for the colors used in this photo shoot. They are all colors from the GoPlanetEarth liquid gel line.

These make awesome wedding shower favors. Pair with bamboo chopsticks and a gift tag that reads,

Love is like a pair of chopsticks.
One cannot function without the other.
Both must be willing to handle all kinds of tastes:

sweet, sour, bitter, spicy...

These soaps fit GoPlanet's  4 x 2 x 9 cello bags. Just be sure to wrap each soap before placing inside the bag. Close the bag with a colorful fabric ribbon and a set of chopsticks (you can cut the chopsticks to size if you want). 

Melt & Pour Soap: Fries with your Burger?

I'm preparing for my grandson's 4th birthday party. These soaps are going to be part of the favors. We are cooking out burgers on the grill, so this theme will certainly tie into the "picnic party" theme.

I'll have a how-to posted soon. This is such an easy project and perfect for those starting out in melt and pour soap and looking for fun, creative projects. I rate this an A+ soaping project to do with 6-10 year olds at a birthday party.

Melt & Pour Soap: How to Use Leftover Soap Base

What's not to love about these multi-stripe loaf slices? These soaps were made from leftover soap base using Mold Market's square loaf mold. Some of the loaf cuts were made using a wavy soap cutter. Other cuts were made with a straight soap cutter.

GoPlanet's custom made miter box is ideal for cutting loaf soaps. If you're looking for a way to use up leftover melt and pour soap, this is an option. I would love to tell you what scent was used, but it was a blend of fragrances from all the leftover soap. It actually smelled quite nice.

You can always override the original scent by adding additional fragrance to each layered batch.

The key to successfully creating a layered loaf soap is timing. Each layer must set up until a soap skin has formed. Then, generously spray the soap skin layer with rubbing alcohol. Pour the next layer at a 130 degree F temp. You don't want to break the soap skin of the previously poured layer. If you pour to hot, the pour will penetrate the previous layer and you won't have nice clean edges to your colored layers.

NEVER, never dispose of your soap scraps. They can always be recycled into new soaps. Keep all leftover soap in a plastic bag and securely tied with a twist tie. Heat sealing the bag is even better as it keeps out any residual moisture and prevents condensation from forming on the surface of the soap scraps.

Summer is in the air in Michigan (finally!) and USA Independence Day is just around the corner. If you're a soap nut, it's time to get in the spirit  for summer holiday craft shows. These star soaps are easy to do and a perfect Fourth of July craft for the kiddos. If you run a summer camp, this is a project for all ages.

The following molds were used:

Mold Market Mold #219
Celestial Freedom Stars Economy Mold
Mini Embed Stars Economy Mold
Lollipop Sticks 

Melt & Pour Soap: It's Graduation Time

These graduation cap soaps are made using two Mold Market molds. The base is #276 cupcake mold and the cap top is  #256 s'more mold. The graham cracker portion of the s'more mold was flipped over and secured to the cupcake with melted soap. The round button in the center of the cap was made using a mini circle cutter.

Gold and silver cording was attached to the cap with melted soap. How fun to make these soaps in a graduate's school colors.

Have fun with this idea and enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. It's going to be hot, humid and sunny here in Michigan, 91 degrees!