Melt and Pour Soap: Skeleton Cupcake

What a fun soap and perfect for a pirate themed or Halloween party. It is made with Mold Market's Cupcake and Large Bath Bomb molds. Here's how:

• Mold Market Cupcake Soap Mold
• White Soap Base
• Clear Soap Base
• Fragrance Oil (we recommend 1 teaspoon per 1/2 pound of soap base used)
• Alcohol Spray
• Recessed Smoother Soap Tool
• 8-inch Silicone Jelly Roll Tray
• Mold Market Large Bath Bomb Mold
• Black Colorant

1. Melt 4 cubes of White Soap Base and add fragrance (Make sure to use a fragrance that is clear so it does not cause the white to be a yellow color, if that happens no need to worry! Just use a drop or so of White Colorant.
2. Spray alcohol spray into the Large Bath Bomb Mold and pour in the white soap and finish off
   
   with a few more spray of alcohol. While this sets up, melt 8 cubes of Clear Soap Base in the same manner as used for the white base. Add a few drops of Black Oxide Colorant and fragrance oil; gently stir together.
3. Spray alcohol spray into the cupcake bottom mold and pour until full. Pour the remaining soap into the Jelly Roll Tray.
4. Once the soap in Jelly Roll is set up, carve out the eyes and stitched mouth. Attach them all together using a little bit of melted down clear soap base. Once set, you have yourself a spooky spin off of a well known Halloween movie that everyone will know and love!

Franken Soap...Fun Party Favors

Sophie Soap Chick has been at it again. She created a number of ghoulish soaps to inspire you. Mold Market's Beveled Square mold was used for the above Franken-soap design. These soaps aren't just for Halloween, they are fun soaps to be used all year round.

I plan to make these soaps for my grandson's schoolmates when I read the book Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex.

SUPPLIES

• Beveled Border Rectangle Mold (Mold Market)
• Neon Green Colorant
• Fragrance (optional)
• Alcohol Spray
• Black Oxide Colorant
• Clear Soap Base
• White Soap Base
• Soap Injector Tool
• 8-Inch Silicone Jelly Roll Tray
• Recessed Smoother Soap Tool

 HOW TO

Green Head:
Melt six cubes of white soap base in microwave safe measuring cup. You will want a pouring temperature of around 140 degrees. Remove from microwave; add fragrance and 2 drops of GPE Neon Green colorant.

Spray the inside of the Beveled Border mold cavity with rubbing alcohol and then pour soap.Allow to set up until firm before removing from the mold.

Face:
Melt six cubes of clear soap base in the same manner as the white. Add a few drops of black colorant to the melted soap and pour into the jelly roll tray.

After the black is set, repeat the steps with White Soap Base to use for the back of the eyes. Use the Recessed Smoother Soap Tool to out the black pupils, hair, eyelids, nose, and stitches from the layer of black soap you removed from the jelly roll tray.

When the white soap is set, carve out the back parts of the eye and made sure they fit behind the already carved eyelids. Once all the cut-outs are completed, melt a block of Clear Soap Base and  attach all the facial features!
Now you have a creepy and spooky Franken Soap!

Clear Soap Base from GoPlanetEarth

Breakfast Worms

I promised to make these with the grandkids last month. Last night, we finally found time to create these slimy worms to celebrate Halloween. The kids are so excied to take take a baggie full of these worms in their lunch on Monday to share with friends.

For those interested, here is the delicious recipe.



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg. (6 ox) purple gelatin/jello
• 3/4 ounce (3 envelops) unflavored gelatin
• 3 cups boiling water
• 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• green and red food coloring
• 100 plastic straws with bendable necks

HOW TO:

1. You will need a container that holds at least 4 cups of liquid and is as tall as it wide (so that the jello mixture will fill all the straws). 
2. Make sure straws are flush with the bottom of the container. The bendable part of the straw should be fully extended and facing toward the bottom of the container.
3. I used rubber bands to help hold the straws together.
4. Combine the flavored and unflavored gelatin in a bowl. Stir in the boiling water and stir until completely dissolved. Set aside for about 20 minutes before stirring in the whipping cream.
5. Add 20 drops of green food coloring and 10 drops of red.
6. Place the container of straws in another container to catch any overflow.
7. Slowly pour the jello mixture into the straws. There will be jello that seeps up the sides of the container. That is OK. As long as the straws are tightly packed, the jello will fill the straws.
8. Chill the jello filled straws overnight. This is where it gets messy.
9. Run warm water the sides of the container that holds the straw. Wiggle the straws around until you are able to remove them.
10. There will be plenty of jello blob that follows this removal process. You don't want any of that mess.
11. Gently extract the jello worm from each straw by tightly holding the top of the straw and applying pressure down the entire length of the straw with your thumb and forefinger.
12. The straws will be slippery, so you may need to wipe them with a paper towel before you extract the worm.
13. Place extracted worms in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

Oh the Things You Can Do With a Drawer!

This idea started with a small dresser I purchased at a garage sale for $30. At the time, I was clueless what I would do with this piece of furniture until yesterday when I learned a good friend's father had passed away suddenly. I wanted to gift something more than the usual florist arrangements. I surveyed what I had on hand and pick up additional items at the local farmer's market to make a Bountiful Blessings basket.

I started by spray painting the drawer in contrasting fall colors. The local farm down the road donated a garbage bag full of  unbundled straw which I used to fill the drawer.

Holes were drilled in the sides of the drawer to create faux handles. I used the straw rope that was attached to the dried vines I purchased at the market.

The drawer knobs were reattached for decoration and the Bountiful Blessings lettering was applied.

 I played around with the arrangement to get a feel for item placement and balance. The Osage Oranges were a great addition and freely drop from the trees that line my property.

Osage Oranges

Green and orange ribbon was casually woven throughout the arrangement and hot glued in place.

There were faux autumn leaves leftover from a Halloween costume I made for my granddaughter. They were a perfect fit for my Bountiful Blessings basket. With a few snips of my garden clippers I added some colorful oak leaf branches.

Once the funeral is over, this arrangement will make a wonderful addition to the front porch as a memorial to a special dad.

The total cost of this DIY arrangement was $30 and it will have more meaning to my friend than any florist arrangement I could have sent.

Melt and Pour Soap Making: Severed Fingers

These are the severed finger cookies I made with the grand kids tonight. They had a blast helping shape the fingers and applying the almond fingernails. We embellished the fingers with a dusting of cocoa and red food gel.
I couldn't help thinking what cool soaps these would make. Guess what I'll be doing next week?

Powdered Color Fun for Hair!

 

 

If you thought powdered colorants were just for soaps, think again! It was crazy hair day at my grandkids' school for homecoming week. And guess who was elected (by the grand kids) to give them something crazy looking; ME! Their mommy (my daughter) just wanted to plop a Halloween wig on their head, but they would have nothing to do with that.

"NeeNee (that would be me) will do something fun for us." And so, these pictures give you my idea of fun with a few added touches by the kids.

 

Pictured above is my granddaughter, Olivia. She was thrilled with the Monster High look. She picked out the colors and I applied with a small paintbrush. Thankfully, she won't be showering at my house tonight. It's going to take more than one shampoo to get those colors out, but she wanted to go for the WOW factor. To my daughter I say, "Your mom colored, you can shampoo!"

 

The boys opted to make their own crazy hats to wear, but we colored their hair just in case they removed the hats. Carson's crazy hair hat is made from a nylon stuffed with tissue paper and sprayed pink (colored hair spray). I glued green paper shred to the cap with a hot glue gun. Ribbon bows were tied at the end of the pigtails.




My little buddy, Fischer was the most excited about this school event. He just started kindergarten this year, so all of this is new for him and he loves being included in the fun. He decided on a pair of stripped tights from one of NeeNee's old costumes. And yes, those are socks hanging from the cap; his idea.

A word of advice when using powdered pigments to color hair.... IT CAN BE MESSY! Hair chalk can also be used, but I didn't have time to make it. It is best done outside with a towel wrapped around the neck and shoulders. The dry powder does come out of clothing in the wash, so if a small amount colors a shirt or collar, don't get too stressed.

I used GoPlanetEarth's Neon Bright Colors for this hair project. Colors can be purchased here. With Halloween just around the corner, consider a creative hair project using powdered pigments.

My New Zombie Look

Well there's something to be said for a NeeNee (grandma) that is willing to showcase this zombie face online. My grandson, Carson, is so excited that NeeNee has committed to wearing this face at his upcoming Halloween Fright Night camp out. The only thing missing is a wig which I will purchase this week. I think a long hair black/grey wig is the perfect look for a zombie.

Here's a short video on how I got the zombie look. I'm now thinking about doing a zombie soap. Yes, I know, I'm a nut case and somehow soap stuff is always a background noise for me. I can't help myself!

Mad Scientist: Costume #2 with Slime

Last week, I posted pictures of my grandson's Mad Scientist costume for his upcoming backyard camp out. At age nine, he's all about the Halloween gore. However, for school it's not acceptable so we needed a back-up costume. This is it.

I purchased a second lab coat and dusted it with neon green powdered colorant (Yep, the same color used in soap making). I again used the salt tubes sold at GoPlanet and filled them with various ghoulish looking items. I also made some slime (see recipe below) that I will pin to the lab coat in various places. I won't do that until the day of his class party because the homemade slime needs to stay in the fridge until used.

I didn't have a pocket protector so I used a soft eyeglass case and stuffed it with some ink pens. Every scientist needs pens to formulate their calculations, right? I found some electrical wire and a couple of electrical wing nuts in the garage. Let's see... latex gloves, test tube vials, plastic syringe, creepy plastic spiders, a bat and of course, what's a lab cost without some kind of skeleton part?

Slime Recipe:

• 1/4 cup glue (I used Elmer's, but any off brand will do)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon borax powder (you'll find this in the laundry isle of your grocery store)
• 1/4 additional water (put this is a separate cup)
• Ziploc bag
• Food coloring (I used green)

 Add borax to one cup water. Stir until dissolved. Mix the glue and 1/4 cup water together (50/50 solution).

Add equal parts of the glue solution and borax solution in the Ziploc bag. One half cup of each solution will yield one cup of slime. Add food coloring and seal the bag. Knead mixture until it becomes putty-like. Store in the fridge inside a sealed bag when not in use.

Here's the squishy, gooey slime that will be part of the costume. Best part, kids can play with it even after Halloween is over.

Every Mad Scientist must keep records. I recovered the front and back of an old book (it was one of those hard cardboard baby books) with printed artwork. I didn't want to recreate pages, so I placed a rubber band around the outside of the book...seemed like something a mad scientist might do.

The back cover is a printout of chemistry equations and clearly indicates that this scientific book is the property of Dr. N. Telligent.

The little wiry gizmo by the book is going to be glued to the top of the mad scientist wig I purchased. It's just a bunch of gadgets glued to the top of a plastic storage container.

If your finances are strapped, head on over to a thrift store and purchase a white dress shirt for the lab coat. Cut of the shirt tails and use them to create extra pockets for the lab coat. Press the bottom of the shirt and stitch the hem for a nice finished look.

Melt & Pour Soap Making: Halloween Silhouettes

A molded soap shape, hair spray, powdered colorant and a silhouette cut-out.... it's that simple. Each of the soaps shown were created with a paper silhouette that was positioned on the face of the soap with hair spray. The hair spray keeps the cut-out in place while dusting the silhouette edges with color.

A rat, graveyard scene, ghost, beheaded lady, pumpkin, owl and cats. So many options for creating these easy and fun Halloween soaps. Just be sure to blow off any excess powdered color before removing the cut-out silhouette (do this outdoors or over a garbage container).

Before you ask, YES, the powdered colorant will come off when using the soap. And no, it won't stain your body when used in the shower. This soap is for fun, and the silhouettes are only meant to capture the season.

The silhouettes were printed  and then cut out with a craft x-acto knife. If you print your stencils on card stock paper, they can be used several times. A thin coat of hairspray on the top of each finished soap (allow the hair spray to thoroughly dry) will keep the powdered color from smearing when wrapping the soaps.

GPE's Mad Scientist Halloween Costume

It's that time of year for scare and fright. My 9-year old grandson is all about gore this year. It was decided (with parental guidance) that a Mad Scientist costume would be appropriate. Since face masks or face paint is not allowed at their school Halloween party, we opted to make the lab coat the primary focal point of his costume.

I ordered a basic child's lab coat online. Cost was under $20 and also included a white mad scientist wig. The use of GoPlanetEarth products completed the look.

1) Latex gloves dipped or soaked in red colorant. I used both DWP red and liquid gel tomato red or red oxide. LET THE COLOR DRY COMPLETELY before attaching gloves to the lab coat.

2) Every mad scientist needs tubes filled with disgusting, yucky stuff. I filled a couple of GPE's 1 x 8" plastic salt tubes with 4 x 4 gauze sponges soaked in red colorant, uncooked oatmeal, water, corn syrup... whatever you can find around the house to make the tube look gory. Place a label on the tube to identify its contents. I decided on Monster Goo, Werewolf Blood and Rat Brains.

Seal the tube caps with super-glue to ensure none of the gory contents spill onto the classroom floor.

3) GPE's natural plastic tubes are a great addition to the mad sceientist's lab coat pockets.

4) It never hurts to add a few plastic spiders to the test tubes. The soap injector makes a great accessory for this lab coat costume.

5) Now for the blood and gore. Take the lab coat, colorants and paint brush outdoors for a creative painting session. I started by dipping a large craft paint brush into DWP red colorant (with water added). Dip the paint brush and throw the mixture onto the lab coat. Paint streaks onto the coat as well.

The last coloring step was taking tomato red or red oxide liquid gel color (add a small amount of water) and splattering onto the lab coat (with a paint brush).  The darker red color is a nice contrast to the DWP red.

6) Attach a few vinyl bats to the lab coat with super glue. I dipped an old cotton rag into the red paint and pinned to the shoulder area of the lab coat. The latex gloves were pinned to the lab coat pockets.

The only thing missing is the wig and the surgical shoe covers. My friend is bringing me shoe covers from the hospital. I will spray them with red colorant and have my grandson put them over his shoes.

My grandson gives this costume an A++ rating!

Halloween Packaging Ideas: Coffin Box Invitation

My nine-year old grandson wants to have a Halloween camp-out at my house. We care going to park a camper in the yard surrounded by a scary graveyard scene. He's very excited about the event. Food, games, and a campfire are all part of the spooky night.

These are the invitations I created for my grandson's special party. The coffin boxes are being filled with gummy body parts. The party invite is secured inside the top of the coffin. Decorate as you like, as there are so many options. I am using gauze strips to wrap the coffin. Consider dipping gauze strips in red colorant for a bloody effect or wrap natural twine around each box.

Here are the events planned for the Halloween camp-out:

1) On arrival, each guest receives a survival flashlight. The bathroom is past the eerie cemetery.

2) Xplodez Guns. They shoot non-staining red pellets.

3) Bob for apples in a bucket of slime
4) Make a friend into a toilet paper mummy.

5) Air guns that shoot 1-inch glow in the dark plastic balls, along with brain splat balls.

6) Make bloody brain hats.

I'm still working on the food stuff. For sure, we will be drinking posion water and spider cider. Vampire bat wings are also on the menu.

Melt & Pour Soap: Ghoulie Ghost Popsicles

It's that time of year! Upcoming Halloween signals ghoulish, scary and bewitching soaping ideas. Here is another sampling of the fun things you can do with GoPlanet's Pop Mold. Start by pouring a 3/3" layer of white soap into a flexible jelly roll pan. Let the soap set up, then remove from mold and cut-out ghostly shapes. Our recessed smoothing molding tool is perfect for trimming the ghost shapes.

We used suspension soap base and added cosmetic grade glitter. Our color palette was a light purple, light orange and light green. You want the colors to have enough transparency to showcase the ghost cut-out. We used GoPlanet's liquid gel colors.

Step One: Melt the soap, divide into three containers and add the trio of colors (light orange, light green, and light purple). Fill each mold cavity 1/3 full, allow to set up until a thin skin forms. Insert the ghost shape. Here is what I recommend. Take a popsicle stick and the bottom portion into clear melted soap base. Place the ghost shape onto the stick (the melted soap will act as a glue adhesive). Once the ghost is secured to the stick, center the stick into the pop mold cavity. The use of our soap clips will help keep the stick centered.

Step Two: Once the wooden pop stick is securely centered with the clips, pour a second layer of colored soap. Allow the second layer to set up slightly and then pour the final layer. You want to soap to set up enough that the second and third layers do not puncture the previous soap layer.

I failed to mention to Gabby (my worker pouring these soaps) the importance of centering the pop sticks with clips. As you can see in the above picture, the sticks were not centered. It was one of those do and learn moments.

As you see, the finished product was success, even if the sticks weren't centered. My only advise on this project is to make sure you use "rubbing alcohol" between each pour (liberally spritz each layer before pouring the next soap layer). A couple of Gabby's pop soaps lost the top layers when they were released.

TIP: Once the soap are hardened in the mold, place the entire mold in medium hot water bath (you can do this in your kitchen sink). This will help with the release process. These little guys aren't the easiest to release, but once you figure out the process, it's a breeze.

Happy Haunting!

Melt & Pour Soaps: Halloween Soap Ideas

Halloween is approaching. Kristy and Chelsea were busy preparing holiday soaps while I was visiting Paris. A big shout of thanks to my former assistant, Kristy, who filled in while I was away. She knows the business well and her presence in the work place gave me peace of mind.

The above soaps were made with Mold Market's square loaf mold. A crinkle cutter was used to slice the finished soap and a few slices were cut into candy corn shapes.

Neon yellow (in white soap base), neon orange (in clear soap base) and white base were the colors used for layering. All of these soap colors can be found here.

These pumpkin soaps are easy to make with our economy pumpkin or silicone Jack-o-lantern molds. Use the soap injector tool to fill in the black areas and green stem. Colorants used: neon orange liquid gel, black oxide, and neon green (for stem area). Our favorite fragrances include apple autumn, harvest moon, green apple, spiced pumpkin egg nog, roll in the hay and turning leaves. These are all great fall scents.

The mummie cupcake soaps are an easy soaping project to do with kids. Use Mold Market's cupcake mold and layer thin strips of white soap over the cupcake top (you may want to slice off the cherry from the cupcake topper). Punch out eyes with a circular shape. Secure all the pieces with clear melted soap.

Thanks to Chelsea for this soaping idea! She did a great job. Her only tip is to be sure you use THIN strips of white soap. Her first attempt failed because the white strips were too thick.

Checkout these other soaping ideas for inspiration. We would love for you to share your favorite Halloween soaps.