A bar of Blue Rain Drop Swirl soap can give your shower the lovely scent of a Pacific Northwest rain. Using tall narrow wood loaf mold, ocean rain fragrance oil, and a swirl recipe quick mix, you can make this great soap at home for yourself or your online soap shop customers. Get the full recipe here:: Blue Rain Drop Swirl Cold Process
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Alignment Tools to Aid Embroiderers
Design placement when embroidering can be a hassle, whether it’s to center a logo on a sweater or finding the right location to put a monogram on a napkin. EmbroideryLibrary.com can help! The website has a bunch of charts and templates to help your project. Get more information about EmbroideryLibrary.com here:: 6 Alignment Tools and Resources for Embroiderers
Soapmakers’ Guide to Craft Fair Applications
You have gotten some good responses and a few sales at your online craft soap shop. While it is important to maintain your online business, it wouldn’t hurt to show off your inventory at a craft fair to make some sales, network, and get your name out there. The first hurdle in getting into a craft show is the application.
First, be sure that this craft show is for you. Some craft shows have a jury and some don’t. Other may have larger entrance fees due to mandatory competitions you might not be interested it. If you find a show you like, be sure your application appeals to the organizers in order to keep their interest. Doing such simple steps can help you find the show you want to get the audience you need. For more tips about craft show applications, click here:: 5 Keys to a Successful Craft Fair Application
Help Fido Beat the Cold: Knit a Pet Sweater!
Just because our furry friends are furry doesn’t mean they’re prepared for the colder months. Give you pet a warm gift of a sweater with a great design or a cowl to cover their body when you take them out for a walk. You can even knit a felt cave for your cat to crawl in and sleep. For more ideas and tutorials for pet cloth crafts, click here:: Celebrate Love Your Pet Day with the 8 Cutest Pet Knitting Patterns
Make a Colorful Scrub to Exfoliate Your Worries
Treat skin and add a bit of joy by making a great scrub for your skin that uses five different colors of jojoba beads. Using jojoba beads, potassium cocoate, mango butter, and other ingredients you can make a homemade scrub that can leave the scent of fresh flowers on the skin of your craft shop customers. Get the full recipe here:: Rainbow Jojoba Bead Sugar Scrub
Add Warmth to Cold Process Soap by Mixing Colors
While a soap’s ingredients are a major sales draw for the soaps in your online shop’s inventory, color is an important factor. Giving your soap a mix of colors gives it a personality all of its own or reinforces a soap’s feel or theme. So how can you mix colors in cold process soap effectively?
First, get plenty of primary colorants: pink, blue, and yellow. Red is traditionally a primary color, but pink is chosen since red is a difficult color for cold process soaps to attain. From there, just use different ratios for mixes to achieve different colors (example: 3 parts yellow to 1 part blue makes a sea green while 3 parts blue to 1 part yellow makes a dark teal). For more details on making different colored cold process soaps, click here:: Create a Rainbow: Mixing Colors in Cold Process
Check Out These Artsy Location-Inspired Soaps
Soap is not only good for the skin, but can be a work of art. Using artistic skill, a soapmaker created a soap that had its colors look like the New York City skyline at night. Using various ingredients and sculpting skills, a South Dakotan made soap that looked like a patch of South Dakotan grass. Get inspired and take a look at these soaps and others here:: Location is Everything Soap Challenge
Make Fun Felt Designs for Coasters, Notebooks, and More!
You can add a bit of softness and colorful design to notebooks, iPad covers, coasters, and other items by making and customizing felt! Using freeze paper, an X-acto knife, wool felt, fabric paint, and your imagination, you can add little bit of pizzazz to dull objects. Get the how-to on custom designed felt here:: DIY Printed Felt
The Essentials About Essential Oil
Essential oils can be an important ingredient when making a soap. They can be… well, essential. However, it’s more essential to find the right essential oil and using it properly for your soap.
First, make sure the essential oil you are using is from pure, organic aromatic plant oils without diluents. Pre-diluted, inorganic essential oils might have harmful pesticides in them. When mixing it into your soap recipe, be sure you dilute it with organic vegetable oil, hydrosol, witch hazel, or alcohol in order to use it without overpowering the soap. A little bit goes a long way. For more information about using essential oils, click here:: 8 Tips for Buying and Using Essential Oils
Say Aloha to Worries with Hawaiian Red Sea Salt Soap
Treat your skin and the skin of your soap shop customers to naturally rich Vitamin E and antioxidants using a soap using Hawaiian Alaea Red Sea Salt. Mixing the salt with red palm oil and lye can make a great earthy soap for your skin. Get the full tutorial and recipe here:: Red Palm & Hawaiian Alaea Salt Soap Recipe