Craftiness

I have had a few people ask me about how to start making cold process soap, so I thought I would gather up some resources and post them here for all to see.

Cold process soap making involves mixing oils with a lye and water solution. The resulting chemical reaction, called saponification, creates soap.  There is no lye left in the soap when the saponification is complete.

Lye is a caustic substance – ie it can burn you – so there are some safety rules you should follow.

Before you start making soap, watch this video from about.com on lye solution safety.

About.com Candle & Soap Making is an excellent resource for beginner soap makers.

Also check out their step-by-step photo tutorial on making cold process soap and the basic soap making video.

Another good resource is Teach Soap and the Teach Soap forum, created by the owner of Bramble Berry Soapmaking Supplies, Anne-Marie Faiola.  Anne-Marie’s blog, The Soap Queen, is loaded with lots of fun tutorials and other information for the soap maker.

Anne-Marie also has a YouTube channel, called Soap Queen TV.  Coming in April is a series of Soap Queen TV episodes on cold process soap making basics.

A wonderful book for beginning soapers is The Everything Soapmaking Book, by Alicia Grosso.  That is what I used when I started cold process soap making and it is great.

You can use many different things as a mold to make cold process soap.  I prefer a wooden mold, but when I first started out, I didn’t want to invest that much money, so I used a silicone bread pan.  They make great soap molds, but they are floppy, so if you use one, make sure you support it.  I use a shoebox.

A good starter recipe that does not require any fancy oils is a good place to start.  You can find all of the ingredients at the grocery store (except maybe the lye, but you can usually find that at the hardware store in the plumbing section – make sure it is 100% lye!).  Hold off on buying a bunch of fancy supplies until you decide that you like soap making.

Below is the first recipe I ever made, as recorded in my soap making notebook.  It uses olive, coconut and castor oils.  You can find castor oil in the pharmacy section of your supermarket, with the laxatives.  The castor oil gives the soap a very creamy feeling.  I personally don’t like it very much, so I don’t normally use castor oil anymore, but a lot of people like it.

Olive, Coconut, and Castor Oil Soap, 3-Pound Loaf

6.8 oz lye
16.2 oz water

31.5 oz olive oil
16 oz coconut oil
1.5 oz castor oil

All measurements are in weight ounces.

A few more tips:

• Always run your recipe through a lye calculator to make sure you use the correct amount of lye.  I have found mistakes in the recipes in soap making books!
• Make sure you have enough time to devote to making your soap, without any distractions.
• Have all of your materials ready ahead of time, before you mix anything.
• Be safe!
• Raw soap will hurt like the dickens if you get it on a paper cut!!
• Record everything you do in a notebook, for future reference and to see how far you’ve come.
• Have fun!

Remember the scrapbook paper-wrapped boxes I made for Christmas?  I used the same technique to make some Valentine’s Day boxes to package chocolate cold process soap hearts that I made using a heart-shaped silicone muffin pan.

The embellishments were made using “Candy and Cupcake” stickers and microbeads from Martha Stewart Crafts, available online or at Michaels.

I have a couple more Valentine’s Day posts that I am working on for today.  In the meantime, check out these other Valentine’s Day ideas from the web.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies (they’re heart-shaped!)

Rice Krispie and Coco Pops Treats (dressed up for Valentine’s Day)

Valentine’s Day Treats Recipes by Martha

Chocolate Lip Balm with Cocoa Powder

And don’t forget to check out my Valentine’s Day ideas from last year – tag: Valentine’s Day

The Valentine’s Day soap cupcakes looked good enough to eat.  Add to that the fact that I scented mine with a yummy amaretto-like fragrance oil, which is my favorite flavor, and I just had to make an edible version.

To make these yumtastic goodies, you will need 2 boxes of Jello (I used cherry), a bag of jelly hearts, a can of whipped cream, silicone cupcake liners or foil cupcake papers, and optional cake sparkles to give it, well, sparkle!

Make the Jello according to the directions for Jigglers.  Jigglers call for 4 boxes.  I used 2 and halved the amount of water.

Pour the jello into the cupcake liners.  If you use foil ones, leave the paper layer in.  I tried it with the paper and without.  It is much easier to remove the jello from the paper.  I think it would be awesome to use the silicone cupcake liners, but I use mine for soap and I don’t have any that I use for food.

The way I filled mine yielded 7 Jello cupcakes.

Melt and pour soapers, resist the urge to spray with alcohol to remove the surface bubbles!

Refrigerate until fully set.  It took one hour for mine.

You can leave the jello in the papers (as pictured above) or take them out (pictured below), before decorating.  It’s up to you.  If you want to remove the paper, first peel away the foil.  Then, go around the top gently rubbing the jello away from the paper.  Once you loosen the top all the way around, you can just peel off the paper and it should come off fine.

Top with whipped cream and cake sparkles, if desired.  Place a jelly heart on top.  Wait until just before serving to top, or the whipped cream will melt!  If you want them to last longer, try Cool Whip, which holds its form better.

If you push a toothpick into the jelly heart, then push the other end into the jello, the heart will stand up better.

Jello and soap cupcake BFFs.

Learn how to make this simple, yet adorable felted heart scarf from The Crafts Dept. blog at Martha Stewart.com.

I have always wanted to try needle felting.  It looks fun and rather simple to do this beginner project.  I might have to try it.

Okay, I am a blog slacker lately, I know, but on the bright side, my long-time readers are used to it!

I really wanted to do tons of awesome Valentine’s Day posts and here I am, only a week before the big day, just now kicking it off.

And what better way to kick off a week of Valentine’s Day posts than with Melt and Pour Soap Cupcakes all dressed up for V day?

I left the “frosting” white and, even though the Jewelry Box colorants are not non-bleeding, it has been a week and there has been no bleed whatsoever.  If you are worried about bleeding, make the frosting pink.

I colored clear soap with the red colorant and soap-safe glitter, and added fragrance.  I poured a thin layer (~1/4 inch) into a silicone pan.  (I only wanted a couple of hearts, so I used a muffin pan, but if you want to make a bunch, use a brownie pan.)  I poured the rest of the soap into the silicone cupcake liners.  When the thin layer of soap was set, I popped it out and used a small metal heart cookie cutter to cut out the hearts.

When the cupcake was set, I made the frosting using white melt and pour soap, with added fragrance.  I stirred it with a fork until it was thick and poured/scooped it onto the cupcake, which was sprayed with alcohol to make it stick better.  Then, I sprayed the top with more alcohol and sprinkled on more glitter!

While the frosting was still freshly poured, I popped in the heart.

Give one to someone you love.  Just don’t let anyone eat it!

My sister and brother-in-law bought me these awesome silicone cupcake cups fro Christmas, Regency Sili-Cups.

Unlike other silicone cupcake cups, Sili-cups gold their shape without needing a muffin tin and the edges are crisp little zig-zags.  They are, in a word, awesome.

I decided to play with my Soapylove Jewelry Box colorants and make some soap cupcakes.

I melted clear soap and mixed in fragrance, color, and the sparkle dust soap-safe glitter that comes with the color set, then poured the soap into the cups.

I played around with filling the cups to different levels.

While the soap hardened, I melted white soap and added the same color and fragrance.  These colorants are not non-bleeding, so I used the same color for the cupcake and frosting.

The “frosting” needs to be stirred and stirred until it cools and thickens enough to hold shape when it is poured on top of the cupcake base.  Then, you only have a few second before it gets too hard to pour, so be prepared to work quickly.

Spritz the cupcake with alcohol just before putting on the frosting.  Then, pour the soap frosting on, using a spoon to shape it.  If it floops of the edge of the cupcake when you pour it, just smoosh it back on; it gives it a more realistic frosting appearance.

Spritz again with alcohol and top with a sprinkle of the sparkle dust.

I loved them so much, I made lots of different colors!

Looking for a last minute gift?  Looking for a way to wrap your gift of homemade baked goods, so that the outside of the box is as irresistible as what’s inside?  Look no further.

Grab your scrapbooking paper, decorative punch, double-sided tape, paper cutter or scissors, and embellishments, and your box, and let’s get started.

Cut a strip of paper almost as wide as your box (or smaller, if you want the box to show in the margin).  Next, cut a coordinating strip of paper about three-quarters the width of the first strip.

Use the decorative punch to punch one side of the smaller paper strip.

Wrap the bottom paper around the box, making sure it is centered, creasing the corners.  Secure with double-sided tape.  I like to slip the paper band off and make sure the tape is pressed down securely and the edges are creased.

Repeat with the second strip, aligning the non-punched edge with the edge of the bottom paper.

Add an embellishment to the top of your box.  Three-dimensional scrapbooking stickers are perfect.  I also used gift tag stickers, with the recipient’s name written with a ball-point glue pen, from Martha Stewart Crafts, then topped with super fine glitter (also from Martha).

For an alternate layout, punch both sides of you top strip and center it over the bottom strip.  There are so many ways you can make this project reflect your own unique style.

You can fill your boxes with anything from soap to fudge and everything in between.

And, if you see this post after the holidays have passed, just remember that you can use this technique to decorate boxes for any occasion.

Christmas is only a couple of days away, so I am sure you can’t possibly be looking for a last minute Christmas dinner menu, but if you are, you’re in luck.  All of these recipes have been tested out on my parents-in-law to rave reviews.

Appetizer

Sweet Onion Dip

Dinner

Slow-cooked Cranberry Roast (I doubled this and cooked it in a 6qt slow cooker)
Potatoes Anna
Sauteed Peas and Red Onion
Roasted Parsnips and Carrots
Rolls

Dessert

Holiday Fudge Torte

For a quick and easy to make, but lovely to receive, Christmas gift, try making vanilla-infused sugar.

Just place a few vanilla beans in an air-tight jar and fill with sugar.  Allow to sit for a few days and the sugar takes on a wonderful vanilla essence.  This vanilla sugar can be used in place of regular sugar in everything from baked goods to coffee.

For added elegance, print out a white mailing label and punch the top and bottom with a decorative edge punch before applying to the jar.