ag's spring art sale

today is the second day of AG's spring art sale. if you're around, stop down in town square. i've made soaps, lotion bars, sugar scrubs, lip balm and tea towels.

Soap of 2011

i haven't done too many posts on soaps that i've made so i thought i'd compile what i made in 2011. actually this isn't all the soap i made last year, i don't have pictures of any of the holiday soaps i made or the latest apple soap with dead sea salt that i made. but here's some highlights. above i have: lemon cake bug repellant soap; eucalyptus with shea soap; lavender jasmine soap; honey almond shaving soap; cotton candy dead sea salt soap; pearberry with sparkle soap; and oatmeal stout soap. the beach and shell shapes were made to be the restroom soap for alex's beach blanket birthday party. i think the fruit ones made of lavender jasmine turned out cute. and i love my owl silicone molds and the fairy silicone molds. the smaller shapes like the shells and the fruit are from silicone ice cube trays. the holiday soaps that i don't have photos of were pumpkin spice with real pumpkin puree and cranberry pomegranate which was delightful. i plan to make more cranberry pom soon.

Cupcake Bath Bombs

it seems lately that it's quite the trend to make cupcake bath bombs and i wanted to try too. as a gift from my husband i received a starter kit that came with everything you needed for one batch of full size cupcake bath bombs along with a recipe and instructions. these are cream cheese frosting scented - oh yum they smell delicious. it is surprisingly easy and fun to make bath bombs, but watch out with the weather conditions because humidity and rain can really mess up a good bath bomb (hence why i haven't been able to make any lately with this insane amount of rain we're getting in ohio). plus, there aren't that many ingredients needed to make a basic bath bomb. so the bottom of the cupcake is regular bath bomb packed into lined molds (after they have set and hardened you can peel off the paper cupcake liner) and the frosting is a sugar meringue mix that's piped on and then glitter sprinkled on top. i found some clear cupcake boxes that would be cute but they were kind of big. to fix that i took some decorative paper and cut out a strip with a hole in it to keep the bath bomb in place. i think that paper holder along with the label i glued on really makes for a cute package. and these are super fun, great fizz and your bath will turn blue (but don't worry, you won't).

christmas gifts: cold process soap

now that the holidays are over i can show off some of the gifts that i crafted. earlier in the year i had become interested in trying to make my own soap from scratch with the lye and all. i found a book and tried out the basic step by step recipe it had. actually i tried that recipe a couple of times - the first time the soap never reached saponification (i believe that's what it's called) because i was mixing by hand (so the soap never thickened). the second attempt at the recipe i used a stick blender and the process went much smoother. that soap turned out but i definitely learned some stuff that i did and did not want to take away from that attempt. so anyways, fast forward, i made four batches of soap dedicated to giving away as christmas presents. part of the reason that i made four batches was because i only have six of the decorative molds and then a nine bar birch mold and i wanted everyone to get one of each soap. i made two recipes, an oatmeal stout beer soap and a sore muscle shea butter moisturing soap. all my molds are from brambleberry - the decorative molds are a silicone mold that are so cute and easy to use. i printed out labels on sticker paper and wrapped the soaps in wax paper sealed with the label. next year if i make soaps again i do need to plan ahead a little better - since they have to sit in the molds for a bit and then they need to cure for about six weeks before they are usable i was really cutting it close and wrapping the soaps the night before i gifted them. next step with soap, i plan on tweaking the shea butter recipe and trying some roses or lavendar from the garden in the soap.