Soaper's Shout Out: Cold Country Soaps

 



I will be sending Teresa a Mold Market soaping apron and a few other goodies tucked inside the apron pocket. Thanks Teresa for submitting your favorite soap and sharing your passion for soap making.

There is still an opportunity to receive a free soaping apron and goodies by emailing  a picture of your favorite hand-made soap along with a short bio about yourself. I have two more aprons to give away. Don't be shy. Strut your stuff and let us see what you've been up to in your soaping kitchen.
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Teresa's Bio

My name is Teresa Jensen from a very small town in Northern Minnesota (Bovey). I am mother of 2 fabulous children and married for 18 years. I am 8 months into soap making and loving every time I create a soap.

I started with MP and moved to Cold Process 5 months ago and now have started teaching myself cupcake piping. Love both methods so I make both. The endless possibilities of soap making I LOVE IT !! 

Loving the benefits of handmade soap, getting the word out to others in my community to try handmade soap, (with the help of family and friends) has been great that I started a little shop Cold Country Soaps. This is the perfect hobby/business for me. Now that my children are 17 and 19 I needed something to keep me busy.

I have tried other hobbies but after awhile interest faded until I bought $100 worth of soap supplies and I kept building shelves to add more supplies. After dedicating a room of my house to soaping I knew I found my hobby/business.
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Thank you Teresa for sharing your beautiful cupcake soaps with all of us.

Melt & Pour Soap: Minecraft Soap Creeps

 

My nine-year grandson is a huge fan of Minecraft. As you can see, he has all the Lego Minecraft kits available plus the app on his iPod. He hasn't seen the soaps yet, but when he does, I know he will lay claim to both of them.

The soaps were made using Mold Market's tiled square soap mold. Black colored soap was poured into the tiles to shape the creeper. The remaining tiles were poured in varying shades of green (bright green and Kelly green).

You must be certain that you are pouring at the right temperatures to ensure that the colored black squares don't get left in the mold when you release the soap. I recommend about 10-15 minutes of freezer time before trying to release the mold.

Also be sure to spritz the backside or the tiled squares before filling the remainder of the mold cavity with soap. It will help the tiles to better adhere to the second base pour.

Use clear soap base for this project and scent with your favorite soap fragrance. 13 ounces of soap base will make 3 soaps.

Soaper's Shout Out: LatherDash Soap Company

Meet Lori Appleton of LatherDash Soap Company in Jacksonville, Florida. Lori submitted a photo of her favorite soap and is a winner of an apron from Mold Market along with a special gift tucked in the apron pocket.

Lori's mission is to make the best possible homemade bath product's using wholesome ingredient's that you can pronounce. I like that!
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Lori's Bio

Our handmade natural soaps are made using full of natural ingredients such as essential oils, organic herbs & flowers and natural base oils. This handmade natural soap lathers richly, moisturizes as well as cleanses, and leaving your skin feeling clean and soft. You will find our soaps leave your skin feeling softer and smoother than those of a typical mass-produced soap since we do not use any chemical ingredients in our made from scratch soap recipe's.
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Beautiful "Vanilla Breeze" is Loaded with Cocoa butter, Chamomile, Rosemary, Shea butter and Mediterranean Sea Salt.

 

Lori didn't submit the above photo, but I discovered it on her FB page. I love the classic look, not to mention I'm a big vanilla fan. The addition of cocoa & Shea butters score big points with me. My skin needs all the nourishment it can get. Take a moment to visit Lori's FB page and check out all the awesome soaps she sells.

Thanks for sharing your soaping passion with all of us.

Melt & Pour Soap Making: Camouflage Birthday Soaps

 Next month begins what I dub birthday month. I host three birthday parties all within the span of 4 weeks. It's something my grand kids have grown to expect and, trust me, a few balloons with cupcakes and ice cream isn't on the party agenda.

My nine-year old grandson is having a camp-out again this year with a few of his friends. They will have over 10 acres of wooded property to run wild and play combat. These soaps will be included in the party gift bags.

This is one of the newest designs from the Mold Market line and each area was colored using our injector tool. This isn't a soap project for the faint of heart. It takes patience and time to fill in each area. You will want to have a recessed smoother tool on hand to clean up any over pours.

Use our liquid gel earth tone colors to achieve the camouflage coloring. You will need to experiment mixing colors until you find the right color match.

The soaps shown were all made with white melt and pour base.

 

If you aren't a patient person, consider pouring the soap in layers as pictured below. You can also mix up three camo colors, let them set up until a thin skin begins to form on the top of soap. Pour all three colors at the same time (slowly!) until you have a thin layer of soap. You will need a second pair of hands to help with the pouring.

 

Swirl the colors carefully with the end of a wooden skewer for a blended camo look.


Soaper's Shout Out: Kokolele Soaps

Yesterday, I posted on FB about a give-away for soaping aprons courtesy of Mold Market brand molds. The catch? You must email me a picture of one of your best soaps along with a short bio. If I showcase your soap on my blog, you will receive an apron with something special tucked inside one of the pockets. I have five aprons to giveaway. This is a great opportunity for free business exposure, plus free stuff. Can't beat that!
Maria, from Kokolele Soaps has been a long time customer of GoPlanet, and was also the first to submit her entry. Her soaps amaze me and leave me wondering, "How'd she do that?" Maria told me the above soap was made with Mold Market's #001 Basic Rectangle mold and GPE's liquid gel colorants. Look at what you can do with just a simple, basic shaped mold. Or, should I say, look at what Maria can do.
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Maria's Bio
My friends and family ,including my grandkids, they were the first persons who tried my soap creations, they loved them and gave me the idea to start to share them with others.

I have some business in Australia and the last year I traveled to Central America and I could start another little business in Costa Rica with success....and now the best part is that I am making a lot of Free Soap for children in Kenya, Africa..♥

I am very happy working in my home in Arkansas, making every soap by myself when it is ordered, I don't pre-make soaps, I like for my customers to receive freshly made soap , for this reason you can tell me your favorite scent and colors about any design you like, I will make it for you with love ♥
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I will be showcasing Maria's awesome soaps that were made using Mold Market molds. The things she can do with a mold is impressive. Check my blog over the next couple of days to visually sample her blue ribbon (at least in my opinion) soaping artistry.

Thanks, Maria for your submission. Your apron and special gift is on its way!

Melt & Pour Soap Making: Meet Aqua Lizard

Sophie Soap Chick up to some soaping shenanigans over Easter weekend. Meet Aqua Lizard. He loves water, smells good and loves to hang-out with kids. His favorite habitat is the bath tub and he occasionally likes to lounge around in a soap dish before splashing back into the water.

Sophie will be sharing with us later this week about how Aqua Lizard was assembled, soap colors used and materials needed.



About Sophie Soap Chick
Sophie is a graduate of Ferris State University with Bachelors in Criminal Justice, Minor in Forensics, and a Minor in Psychology.

She starts her internship this summer at a law firm and will also work as a dispatcher at the Department of Public Safety.

In between her busy work schedule, she will make soaps to inspire you and show you how to soap outside the box. If you enjoy Sophie's creative soaps, please drop her a line on our FB page. It will make her day.

I gave Sophie some ideas about how I would like the soap to look, but she took it a step farther and added her own soaping magic.

Sophie's in a soaping frenzy, so look for some great designs in the upcoming weeks. If you have any ideas you would like Sophie to try, email me and I will pass it along. She's always game to try new techniques and loves brainstorming about new designs.

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The "Are We Almost There?" Road Trip

“How long until we get there?”  This single question must be built into the DNA of every child, because there is likely not a parent in the world whose kids haven’t uttered these words on a short or long road trip. My daughter was planning a 10 hour road trip with her three kids over Easter break.  Heck, you can’t even take a 30 minute car ride with the kids without someone asking, “Are we there yet, or how much longer?”

I knew intervention was needed to keep my daughter from having an epic melt-down when the kids started with the, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Arewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyet?!!!!  I had a plan; a good plan I might add, a plan of all plans, an ‘are we there yet’ road trip plan.

 

I printed out a picture of a mini-van and road signs. Each picture has a front and a back side so mommy doesn’t have to hear, “Not fair, I can’t see the picture.” And we all know that NEVER happens! Cut out mini-van and the signs. Double sided tape worked like a charm in securing the front and back sides together.

 

A small hole punch and grommet pliers were used to create an opening at the top of each sign. This opening is where the paper clips are inserted to secure the signs and car to the string.

Here's how it works. All the cut-out signs will be attached to a string using paperclips. One end of the string is attached to the van's sun visor or mirror; the other end is tied to something in the back of the van. 

When the road trip begins, the mini-van graphic is parked at the start line. Every 45 minutes into the trip, the kids get to move the mini-van up to the next road sign.

The kids rotate turns to avoid any fighting over who gets to move the van. Since this is a 10 hour trip, I placed 13 road signs on the string along with a start and finish graphic.

Each time the van moves forward, the road sign is removed from the string and placed behind the mini-van. When the vehicle reaches the finish line (AKA destination), all the signs will be positioned behind the van.

There are countless variations to this road trip idea. If you're traveling to Disney World, make graphics of Disney characters. Use graphics of different States, license plates, historical landmarks.

 

 

When you are done with the game, simply wrap the string around a 4 x 3 inch piece of cardboard (to keep it from getting tangled) and store in the glove box for future use.

I will be using this same idea at Easter to tell the story of Christ's death and resurrection to my grandkids. The timeline will start at the Last Supper and progress to the cross, the tomb, and finish with the resurrection. The kids will enjoy moving Jesus along the timeline as the Easter story is read. Visual props breathe life into a story.

If you would like to recreate my Are We Almost There road trip you can download the graphics here.  

Easter Egg Geodes



Photo credits: Nana Jones at Craftknowitall

I am always looking for weekend projects to do with the grandkids. I spotted these beautiful geodes eggs made by Nana Jones over at Craft Know It All. These are jaw-dropping gorgeous and something the kids can do on Friday night and see the results the next day.

The biggest decision will be choosing what colors to use. Color choices are limited to one per grandkid and NeeNee will pick the fourth color. I'm fairly certain that Olivia will pick pink, the two boys will likely choose green and blue. My choice will be yellow.

Last week my little buddy, Fischer helped me prep the eggs. We had to wait for the alum powder to arrive by mail so we are going to finish up the geode project this weekend. If all goes well, we will have beautiful crystal eggs like Nana Jones to dress our dinner table on Easter.



The first step is to blow out the inside of the egg. I straighten one end of a large paper clip to poke holes in both ends of the egg. You will want one hole a little larger so the yolk and egg white can escape.

 

I gave my nine-year old grandson the egg blowing duty. He thought it was pretty cool, and trust me, he has much more wind power than NeeNee.

Once the eggs were cleaned out, I inserted the tip of scissors into the larger hole and cut through the center of each egg to create two halves.



Clean the inside of the egg halves and turn the hollow side down and allow to dry.

Once dry, place a dollop of white glue (I used the Elmer's brand) in the center of each egg. Use your finger or a craft paint brush and thoroughly coat the inside of each egg with the glue.

Sprinkle a layer of alum powder over the glue, covering all areas. Set the eggs aside.

This is the point my little buddy and I stopped our project. We didn't have enough alum powder to make the solution to grow the geodes.

But, the alum came today! So..... this weekend, we will be putting our prepped eggs into the colored solutions and see what happens.

I'm going to very disappointed if this doesn't work, and so will the grandkids. With fingers crossed I am hoping they turned out as nice as Nana's.


Alum Powder











My little Buddy, Fisher applying the alum powder to the eggs. He was such a good helper.







Here's a video clip of Fischer helping with the eggs. We'll keep you posted on how the geodes turn out.
 

 





Melt & Pour Alien Soaps

There was an invasion of little aliens in the soaping kitchen last week. This soap is made from Mold Market's original cupcake mold and large bath bomb mold. The antennas and mouth are hand cut using our recessed smoothing tool. The center cherry on the cupcake mold makes for the bulging eyes. All the pieces were assembled using clear melted soap base.

Pictured left are cut-outs of the ears and antennas. Pour a thin layer of soap into a flexible jelly roll pan. Allow soap to set up and then remove to a cutting board.

Our cupcake cello bags work best for these little guys. The bag  allows enough room for the taller antenna.

The base of the soap is poured in white soap that is colored with 2 drops of bright neon blue liquid gel and 1 drop of black oxide liquid gel.

The head is the poured in white soap base (about 6.8 ounces) with 2 drops of bright neon green liquid gel.

For the bulging eyeballs, use a soap injector tool and fill the center of the cherry in the cupcake mold. Attach the black pupils with scrap soap left-over from the mouth cut-outs.

Color white soap with 2 drops Kelly green and 1 drop bright neon green liquid gels. Pour a thin layer into the bottom of the flexible jelly roll pan. This is used to make the ears and antennas.

Do the same for the mouth except color clear soap black. If you try to color white soap, you will get a gray color. You need to use clear soap to achieve black. You can make the mouths any expression you want.

It's a good idea to score the cupcake base and head with a knife of molding tool. This helps the clear soap base seep into the scored areas for better adhesion. Use melted clear soap just like you would glue to secure all the pieces. The longest part of this soap project is carving the mouths and ear cut-outs.





Happy St. Patrick's Day

My grandkids are always excited about special holidays because NeeNee dresses the table with fun and colorful place settings. This is their place setting for St. Patrick's day.

After lunch, we will playing a Shamrock dice game. Well, it was going to be a dice game until four-year old Fischer misplaced the die. We will using the spinner from the game Chutes and Ladders instead. Those green bills are what they will be getting if they win. You will find the printable shamrock templete here.

How to play Lucky Shamrock:

The object is to color in all the numbers on the shamrock. Each person rolls the die and crosses off that number on the shamrock. If you roll a number that you no longer have, you pass the die to the next player. First person to color in all their numbers wins.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. May luck be on your side!

Melt & Pour Soap: Sophie's Easter Chicks

Welcome back, Sophie! Many of you may remember Sophie Soap Chick. She worked for GoPlanetearth for a number of years and is now finishing her Criminal Justice degree. On a whim, I contacted her to see if she would be willing to go to work on some soaping ideas I've had on the back burner. She answered with a big YES!!

I filled a big box with soaping supplies and sent them off to our soaping gal. This soap is her comeback soap and appropriately named it "Sophie Soap Chick".



Supplies Needed (makes two chicks)

• Mold Market small bath bomb mold
• 18-19 ounces white melt and pour soap base
• Neon yellow liquid gel colorant
• Neon orange liquid gel colorant
• Black liquid gel colorant
• 4-5 ounces clear melt and pour soap base
• Soap fragrance
• Recessed smoother tool
• Injector tool
• Kitchen shredder
• 8 x 8" flexible jelly roll pan

Cube and melt the white soap in the microwave in short bursts of heat. Add the yellow colorant  (about 4 drops) and 2 teaspoons fragrance oil. Mix well and pour into the bath bomb mold cavities. Reserve the left-over yellow soap. This will be used for the exterior covering of the chick (feathers).

Add a small drop of orange color to the leftover yellow soap. Reheat in the microwave until pourable. Don't overheat! Pour soap soap into the 8 x 8" flexible jelly roll pan. Let it set up completely. Remove from pan grate like cheese.

To make the feet and beak, melt 2 ounces of white soap in the microwave. Color with a couple drops of orange colorant. Pour the soap into the lid of a small plastic storage container. The 8 x 8" pan will be much too large. Let the soap set up and remove onto a cutting board. Use the recessed molding tool to hand cut the feet and beak. Sophie even included a template for the feet.

The eyes were made by drawing melted white soap into the injector tool. Let the soap set for about 90 seconds after removing from the microwave. Draw the soap into the syringe and squirt out soap dollops. Rinse the syringe.

Melt the clear soap base in the microwave. Reserve a very tiny portion to make the blacks of the eyes. Leave the rest of soap clear. You can add fragrance, but it's optional.



Join the two bath bomb halves with melted clear soap base. Make sure you have a nice, tight seal. Once the halves are set, start applying the shredded yellow feathers. This requires a little patience. Spoon melted soap onto the sphere and then apply the shredded soap. It will take several applications to completely cover the chick's body. Let dry.

Use melted clear soap to attach the feet, beak and eyes. The little chick weighs in at around 7.5 ounces.

St. Patrick's Day: Bite Size Cookies

Yesterday, I decided to get a jump start on making cookies for the grandkids' classroom party on Friday. It's tradition that NeeNee bring cookies, green lime-aid and treat bags for each student. And of course, green napkins and cups.

My husband returned from the grocery store with the ready made sugar cookie dough. I was expecting the dough to be in one of those sliceable rolls. Instead, in came in break-apart cubes. It's probably nothing new to most of you, but for a non-baker, it was a novel concept.

Now, what should I use to make a shamrock on these little bite-size cookies. Ah, ha, said the women who never bakes, "I can cut a stencil from the lid of my husband's to-go wonton soup container."

My shamrock application improved with every cookie. By the last batch, I had mastered the template.

Beaming with pride, I showcased the cookies to my husband. His reply, "I could have purchased ready-made cookies, all decorated, at the grocery store" as he popped a cookie into his mouth.

My response,  "Come here so I can knock you to the other side of the moon and don't come back without that cookie you just ate." Big hugs ensued as he told me the cookies looked great.

These are the cookie cubes. It was amazing how they turned into round cookies.

While making the cookies, I thinking soap. It's my business and in my blood. Hmm... how can I make this template work on finished soap.

Let's see... if using cake frosting on cookies, why not use soap frosting on soaps? BINGO! It's on this week's soaping projects list.

I think Mold Market's personal size cirle would be ideal.

96 cookies baked, 80 treat bags assembled...big sigh! Was it worth the time, energy and expense? YES, YES, YES! To look at the grandkids' faces as they pass out treat bags and cookies to school friends, I would do it again in a heartbeat.






A New Tradition: Prayer Bears

This Easter my grandkids are starting a new tradition. After Easter service, we are going to a local Caretel facility to visit with nursing home residents. The kids are taking a dozen or so of these Prayer Bears to gift to those they visit.

I am replacing the cards that came with the bears with a personalized prayer card that includes a photo of the grandkids and a message that reads, "Whenever you are lonely, sad, or sick. We are praying for you."

If the facility allows, I will take a photo of the Prayer Bear recipients. The grandkids will have a matching Prayer Bear for each one they gift.

The matching bears will have a photo with the resident's name and photo. At bedtime, we will prayer for each of our Prayer Bear friends.

Teaching our children a culture of sharing starts in the home. I want my grandchildren to understand that those perceived as a burden (such as the elderly) can be our greatest blessing.

How to Make a Money Card with Handmade Paper

Today, my daughter, Jamie, celebrates her birthday. Last night her husband and friends rented a party bus to take them to the 80's Show. Before they left,  I gifted Jamie with this money card (to help cover drinks) and a personal birthday letter.

I made the card using misc items I had around the house. Of course, I tend to have just about everything per my grand kids.

The letter to my daughter was printed on a handmade paper bronze colored paper. The edges were trimmed with a scrap booking punch.

I used two sheets of GoPlanet's handmade natural weave paper. The sheets were joined using double-sided tape and then folded toward the front and kept closed with ribbon. Use a small hole punch to make the openings for the ribbon.

I used a skewer to punch the holes for remaining ribbon. For a little bling, I brushed a paper heart doily with gold mica powder. Poke holes in the heart that align with the centerfold of the paper. Thread the same ribbon used for the center of paper through the heart. Fold money into fan shape and attach to the middle of the heart using the ribbon.

GoPlanetEarth offers a nice selection of handmade papers. They can be used for cards, soap bands or scrap booking projects.