All Things Hold Together

Just in time for the Fourth of July, I present this American flag-inspired soap bar.

You will need:

• a rectangular bar mold (or other desired shape)
• white melt and pour base
• red and blue colorants (be sure to use non-bleeding)
• a small star-shaped cookie cutter (make sure it fits in your mold)
• summery fragrance of your choice
• alcohol in a spray bottle

You will also need equipment to melt and mix your soap. Most people use a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave. I use a small slow cooker to melt my soap and mix the colors in small dishes. You can also use a double-boiler or a bowl set atop a pan of simmering water.

Each layer should be fragranced. I melt my entire base together and add the fragrance.

Color enough melted and scented base for the first layer blue.

Pour it into your mold and spritz with alcohol to remove any air bubbles.

When it is firm, use your cookie cutter to cut a star out.

I had a little trouble getting the star out because the layer was still very soft.

Spritz the blue layer with alcohol and immediately pour the melted and scented white base over the blue layer to desired height. Remember, you need to leave space for the remaining layers.

Spritz again with alcohol to remove air bubbles.

Color enough base for the next layer red.

When the white base is firm, spay with alcohol and pour over with the red colored and scented base.

Spray again with alcohol to remove any air bubbles.

When red layer is firm, spay with alcohol and pour the final white layer to the top of the mold. Spray with a final spritz of alcohol to remove air bubbles.

Wait until all layers have fully hardened. This takes a few hours. Alternately, you can let it harden over night.

Turn over mold and gently press to remove your American flag-inspired soap.

You have to see this Strawberry Shortcake Soap over at The Soap Queen’s blog.  Have to.  It is so cool.

The other day, I set out to make a great loaf of multi-layered soap. I carefully melted, scented, colored, and poured each layer. I gently textured the top as it hardened. I patiently waited until the next day so the soap would be fully set before I unmolded it.

And here’s what happened to my bars of soap:

The reason was that the soap I used for the yellow and green layers was remelted from another project and the soap I used for the pink and white layers was a freshly opened 1 lb. bar.

Let this be a lesson: Always use the same base for multi-layer pours to ensure better adhesion.

Not the type to give up (or waste three pounds of soap!), I came up with another idea.

First, I melted a pound of clear glycerin soap in my handy crock pot.

Then, I cut my split loaf into cubes.

Next, I scented the clear soap (with the same fragrance oil as the other soap).

I poured a small layer of clear into a silicone loaf pan, sprayed it with alcohol, took a handful of cubes, sprayed them with alcohol, and put them into the loaf pan, adding more clear soap over the top and spraying with more alcohol.

(The alcohol helps the solid soap adhere and it pops the air bubbles on the top of the melted soap.)

After that set, I repeated the process, first spraying the set layer with alcohol.

Here is my final loaf.

I cut it into large 4 oz. body bars and half-sized 2 oz. hand soap bars.

I have been making melt and pour soap for quite a while now. A couple of years, at least. I really enjoy making it and giving it away.

Some time ago, I decided that in order to sustain this hobby, I need to start selling some of my soap creations. I make more than we can use and, as much as I would like to just give it away, it is really not economically feasible.

The problem is that I have done little to nothing to promote my online shop. I don’t even have a link to it on this blog.

I am just not good at selling. It is not that I do not think that I have a quality product, it’s just that I can’t believe people would pay $4.00 + shipping for soap. The whole reason I started making my own soap bars is that I am too cheap to buy glycerin soap in the stores.

Anyway, I am kind of getting off topic. Actually, this post was supposed to be about the fact that I am going to start sharing some of my techniques and recipes on this blog. I love soap making and I think you will, too. If you already soap, I hope that my ideas will inspire you in some way.

For you newbies out there, here are a couple of basic melt and pour tutorials.

The first is from About.com: Candle & Soap Making. It has lots of good photos and a video option, too.

The second is from Teach Soap, a website and forum from Bramble Berry Soap Supplies, where I buy my stuff from.

I don’t own a microwave, so I used to melt my soap base in a double boiler (actually a bowl over a pot of water). Now I use my little 1.5 quart slow cooker. It was free with the 8 quart one I got for Christmas. I just cut up my soap chunks, put them in, turn the cooker on low, and leave it for a while.

It works very well for me, especially since things tend to come up that interrupt me and the slow cooker will keep the soap warm, if needed.

I look forward to sharing my first tutorial with you. In the meantime, you can see a few of my soap creations at charityt.etsy.com.

I made Bakerella’s cupcake bites for my mom for Mother’s Day. They came out pretty well for my first try. Next time, I would make the balls of cake mixture a little smaller. (Like hers are.) My cupcakes look very top-heavy.

The link above has complete directions.

They taste oh so yummy! They taste like a candy - kind of truffle like, yet reminiscent of frosted cupcake.

The kids made some of them, too, and had a blast.

This week, I have been experimenting with crochet washcloths to see which ones I like best (making and using). The winner(s) will end up in my Etsy store, which is a major work in progress, just to warn you.

Here is what I have so far.

The back left is a simple double crochet with a single crochet border. The back right is a simple single crochet with a single crochet border. The blue and white one is, obviously, a granny square. And the one in front is a face washing pad, made with single crochet in a round.

I wanted to make gift boxes with soap and a crocheted wash cloth to sell for Mother’s Day, but I am not sure if I will get my act together in time.

In other news, I found this neat idea on Family Fun today: Chore Dice.

I am not sure I would ever use anything like that - the kids have set chores - but it looks like a fun idea, so I thought I would share it.

The die template could be used for a whole host of other things, too.

This was my first attempt at amigurumi. I made this bunny for Little E for Easter.

I found the small stitches to be kind of tough on my hands. My fingers ached when I was finished. Next time, I will have to take more breaks.

Little E loves it though!

We went to visit my parents-in-law for the weekend. I meant to post before I left, but things were pretty hectic.

Bob took Friday off, so we could have a long weekend.

It was great.

My father-in-law brought me to a local apiary to get some raw honey. The place is called Warm Colors Apiary.

I already have a jar of their Deerfield Wildflower honey, which I got for Christmas. This time, I got some of their Raspberry Blossom honey. It is so good!

I also bought a 1 oz. brick of beeswax to make my own lip balm.

I found many recipes for beeswax lip balm on the internet, but I wanted to use things I had on hand. And I wanted one that contained honey.

I ended up using a variation of this lip balm recipe from Martha Stewart.

I used equal parts olive oil and bees wax, not the ratio in the recipe. Also, I omitted the essential oil because I liked the delicious honey flavor!

I did add a few drops of orange oil before pouring the final container of balm. That was yummy, too!

I had these empty lip balm containers from some Strawberry Shortcake lip gloss that my mom gave me at Christmas. I didn’t like it because it was too chemically, so I washed the gloss out and used the containers for my own lip balm.

I made this one for my sister, who visited us yesterday.

I had an old skein of white Caron Simply Soft yarn in my yarn box and I couldn’t remember what I bought it for. So, I decided to make a hat.

I used this pattern from the Caron website. (I think you need to register to see it.)

The pattern uses a yarn that is discontinued. I substituted the yarn I had, using the hook size in the pattern. Since it is a more delicate yarn, it is more open than the picture in the pattern, but I like it.

It did come out a little short, so I had to repeat the last two rows twice each (rnd 10, rnd 9, rnd 10, rnd 9 - the pattern ends with repeating rnd 9.)

Here is out it turned out.

A while back, a favorite wool sweater of mine was accidentally put in the dryer.

For some reason, I kept it. Probably because it was so pretty and purple. And I guess I thought I might be an 8-year-old again.

Well, I am glad I did. I found this craft on Martha Stewart that shows you how to make mittens from a felted wool sweater.

After I washed the sweater in hot water and ran it through the dryer again, I had a nice piece of felted wool to use for mittens or whatever else I wanted.

Now, I have the warmest pair of purple mittens!

Someone in the comments of that project said the sweater needs to be 100% wool. Not true! Mine was 10% something else. I cannot remember what, though.

I will post a picture later tonight. Right now, I have pancakes on the stove!