Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Run, run as fast as you can!


You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Boy, was he ever wrong! Not only caught, but turned into wonderful (but inedible) soap. Of course, at the end of the folk tale, the gingerbread man ends up eaten by the fox. This gingerbread man will someday meet his end after getting you soapy clean. Meanwhile, enjoy his yummy-smelling gingerbready-goodness!

Want your own? You can go to the Soap Queen here for the video and list of ingredients. The complete kit is available at Brambleberry.

Don't want to do it yourself? Mr. GBM himself will be in my Artfire store very soon!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Soap crayons


Remember when you were a little kid going to school for the first time and Mom got you the jumbo crayons for your first day?

They're baaaaack! Bigger, sudsier and smellier than ever! What, your crayons didn't suds or smell? Ok, they smelled but only after the mean kid put them in his armpit......

These smell like ripe summer strawberries which is a whole lot better. A whopping 2.5 ounces of soapy goodness each. In bright Lemon, Apple Green, Blueberry, Grape and Raspberry mica colors.

Almost as good as naptime...and you don't have to share!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Veteran of the Mica Wars

Yet another case of "it seemed like a good idea at the time"

You know them, the little zip baggies full of powder that litter your workshops. Samples sizes offered to get you hooked on this one or that one. I know you've fought with getting a little spoonful out to use......

(If your thinking of something other than mica powders for coloring soap or cosmetics, you really should go somewhere else.....Please.)

So this weekend I decided to put the baggies full of pretty colors into little plastic pots to make them easier to use. I went to the big blue W and got a couple of 24-count boxes of little pots from the beading craft section. Easy to see each pot while keeping them corralled. I sequestered myself in the upstairs studio and proceeded with the transfer process. I am sharing my thoughts on Round 1 for the sake of others. Yes, only halfway through, *sigh*

1) For gods' sakes, wear a dust mask! No seriously, I mean it. Your dog and husband will thank you for not breathing in mica particles and spending the night hacking up a lung. I am thinking about procuring some of these CUTE masks.

2) Wear something that looks pretty when it sparkles. Wash your eyeglasses with water afterwards BEFORE you wipe them off.

3) If the mica has 'Sparkle' in the name, this is code for 'lighter than air particles capable of traveling long distances'. Do not shake the container, or the bag, or even breathe in the general vicinity. Tiny, tiny, tiny taps to settle the powder in the pot or even just poke it with the corner of the baggie.

4) To transfer, cut a corner off the baggie. First though make sure ALL of the powder is residing in the other corner. Or at least a majority, the stuff is stubborn.

5) If you want to reuse the label on the bag to label your pot, peel the sticker off and apply to the lid BEFORE you cut the corner off the bag.

6) Mica loves to live in the bag. It is happy, it doesn't want to move. It will not respond well to flicking, shaking, tapping or other abuse. Rub the bag between your fingers and give it a good massage to loosen it up. Everybody loves a good massage.

7) Mica expands on contact with air. It doesn't look like there is that much in there until you start pouring and find yourself scrambling for another pot. And every color take up a different amount of space. Really, it's one of those immutable laws of the universe.

8) Oh, and wear gloves and keep a damp paper towel handy. Unless you like people to think you have a horrible skin condition. And don't rub your nose.

That's it, except of course for the really important stuff that I have forgotten and will have to relearn in Round 2. I now truly appreciate the hard work our deal----err, that is vendors go through to repackage this stuff in the first place.

If you recognize the BOC song title borrowed for the post title and the classic animated film it was used in, shame on you! Nice people don't watch that kind of stuff! Not that I've ever seen it, or owned a copy on tape and on DVD and the soundtrack. The 'sequel' was meh. I'm sorry I seem to have wandered, what were we discussing again?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Taking the Artfire plunge!


I did it this time.....I actually listed a couple of soaps for sale.


Since they are currently offering no fees and making a big push for the holidays, I just had to.

It's a lot of work to take pictures and come up with a description and there is room for improvement. But baby steps first!

Started with a couple of MP bars:

Hummingbird & Lily cameo in Burgundy and in Yellow (and I would have posted pictures here but Blogger is having issues).

Have to work on listing some HP bars, and making more soap!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Jack 'o Lantern Soap

So I procrastinate a bit, and I am lousy at blogging. The punkins (yes, I know that's not how it's spelled) were done last week, but I didn't get pictures. Or write a post. And then I got a mild case of the flu (over a weekend)! So here it is finally.

Glow in the dark jack-o-lantern soap (sans glow):

With glow (after 25 minutes under a fluorescent bulb, 'daylight' photo tent bulb didn't make an impression either):


The brightly glowing blobs in the background? Unmolded glow soap (left) and the raw powder (right) which soaks up even the tiniest bit of light. The eyes and mouth were glowing the following day after unmolding, now.....I got nothing (ok - maybe a tiny, tiny glow).

Mold is one of Brambleberry's Heavy-Duty line. Glow powder and neon orange from TKB. I am sure the glow issue is due to some freakish combo of the color and powder since the "raw" soap is glowing and it wasn't even under direct light.

A word of advice on the neon color: if you think "it just isn't bright enough", Stop. Back away from the bottle and the soap. Look at something pastel for a moment. Then turn back to the soap and reevaluate. It's called 'Eye Poke Orange' for a reason.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year

I love Halloween (aka Samhain aka All Hallows Eve)! Absolutely the most magical day on the calender, followed closely by the Winter Solstice. This holiday isn't just for kids, it's for children of all ages!

A fun soap project for the whole family from the Soap Queen Blog:

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2009/10/flexy-fast-fall-pumpkins.html

I hope to be able to try out my new jack-o-lantern mold and glow powder this weekend! I will post pictures...That's something else I have to do this weekend...

New slippers

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