Soap Queen

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Archives for August 2013

Facebook Photo of the Week (July 26th ~ August 2nd)

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Whoah. Okay, seriously. Where did that weekend go? We were so busy all weekend that I completely forgot to post Facebook Photo of the Week. It is hard to believe that August is already here and we are more than halfway done with the year. Jamisen starts pre-school soon. EEK!

If you’re already gearing up for fall craft fairs and preparing holiday gifts, we had a post full of tips for being successful at your next craft show. If you’ve got tips of your own, be sure to share them in the blog comments because we’d love to hear them too!

This week has also been full of pleasant surprises. Drumroll please — the Soap Crafting Book arrived to our warehouse early. You probably could have guessed, but I was absolutely beaming (and okay, maybe I shed a few tears of joy too)! You can order your own copy through Bramble Berry here. We shipped out all the pre-orders last week and any pre-orders that got in just under the wire on Friday are shipping today =)

As always, Bramble Berry’s Facebook page was filled with amazing photos of soaps, bath bombs and more. Check out this week’s feathery-looking feature below!

This week’s entry comes to us from Rebecca at Backwater Beauty. She used a technique that a fellow soaper created during the last Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge called the Feathered Mantra Swirl. The colors and design in Rebecca’s soap are so delicate and soft. This is a technique I’d love to try my hand at, and it’s such a nice twist on the traditional Mantra Swirl. Thank you for being part of our soapmaking community, Rebecca! Each week, I love seeing other soapmakers take the plunge with a new design.

Rebecca’s Website: Backwater Beauty

Rebecca’s Facebook Page:  Backwater Beauty

Be sure to post pictures of your soap creations on the Facebook page each week for a chance to be featured on the Soap Queen blog! 

Baby Sprinkle Series: Painted Vases

Filed Under: Home Crafts

It seems like a lifetime ago but Lily’s Baby Sprinkle was so fun with the extra projects we did and I just realized I haven’t shared one last DIY project. Another crafty touch for the Baby Sprinkle were these fun (inexpensive) painted vases, inspired by this tutorial from Pinterest (as seen in a past Soapy Social Media Roundup). The result added just the right touch to some coordinating seasonal flowers using just some water-based acrylic paint from the local craft store and a few leftover mason jars (and of course, friends and a stove).

Sprinkle Vases

The multiple sizes of mason jars brought charm to the vases. Their similar styles and color palette of the flowers and paint added cohesion to the project’s final look. Any mason jar will do (one that is designed for canning; these have to sustain heating in an oven).

Just the masons

Coating Jars

And yes, I was still pregnant in the photos. We did these when I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant. Like I said, it seems like a lifetime ago that little Miss Lily was in my belly. She’s currently in my arms as I awkwardly try to type this and her older brother is playing trains with Dad. For this project, we experimented with diluting the paint with water and  found that too much water requires multiple coats inside the jars (boo! hiss! extra work) and does not provide enough solid coverage in our mason vases. About 1 tablespoon of water in about 1/4 cup paint (about 1 part water to 4 parts paint) seemed to work well. But your experience may vary depending on the paint you use. Try small batches of diluted paint on empty baby food jars or other small glass containers if you’d like to test the coverage.

Pouring out paint

Once you’ve diluted the paint to your liking, pour a bit into a jar and roll it around in there until the inside of the glass is evenly coated. When the glass is evenly coated, pour as much excess paint back into the mixing container and possible. Note the large cardboard sheets we laid down to protect our counters. My long-suffering husband would have had a heart attack otherwise.

Turn the jars upside down on a protected surface to allow the paint to dry (any excess paint will also leave the jars). If I had planned better, this would have been covered with a white piece of paper so I could have framed the aftermath or cut it up into small squares to paste onto card stock for handmade thank-you cards.

Messy messy messy

Flattened cardboard boxes worked well as a surface protectant – thick enough to withstand the excess paint with no seepage! If do newspapers, make sure there are lots of layers to withstand the paint. You don’t want the paint getting through and staining your counters.

Oven Baked

An optional step is to bake the jars in the oven to help the paint to stick onto the sides of the jars. Go with the lowest setting on your oven and bake for about an hour on an. Be cautious and open up all your windows and get the fan going – the paint I used caused some pretty wicked fumes! After the hour, I simply turned off the oven and let the jars cool with the oven. You can also let the jars sit out in the sun for a week to “cure” or in a quiet place in your house for a month. Otherwise, the paint just falls off and mixes with the water and all your hard work is for naught.

Putting flowers in vases

If you’re worried about the paint coming off, some plastic cups into the jars hold water just fine and voila, some fun and functional flower arrangements are born! Shades of pink and aqua in the jars went perfectly with pink seasonal flowers. For other Baby Sprinkle projects, click through to see Mini Flower Bath fizzies, Strawberry Tart Melt and Pour soaps, Ombre Gift Bags, the free downloadable tag and finally the full wrap-up of the Sprinkle, complete with our DIY Mimosa station.

Soapy Social Media Roundup

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Welcome to August, everyone! This week we wrapped up our collection of Home Spa tutorials, which will hopefully keep you refreshed, relaxed and revitalized as warm summer days begin to turn into cool fall evenings. We also chatted with a fellow soapmaker about her delightfully tropical bath & body products and started wrapping up our August Soap Swap.

Outside the office, my parents celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary! My dad surprised my mom with that yummy looking berry cake, as well as a rather fun note (“Still happy to be married at 41 years to a hot babe!”). They are both great examples for me on how to be as individuals and also how to be completed in a relationship.

There was plenty of activity on social media too. Take a look below for my favorite tweets, pins, and ‘grams of the week.

Pins:

Top left: I think half the fun of creating your own bath & body products is creating the packing that goes along with them. Your presentation is just as important as your product, and I love this simple, elegant cardboard design.

Top right: Breezy summer evenings call for breezy summer tops, but why spend money on pretty blouses when you can make them yourself? These tops are super cute, and you can customize them any way you want. Definitely a good weekend project for me to practice my sewing skills!

Center left: I’ve been a devout vegetarian for 36 years, and I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more iron and protein in my diet. My secret weapon? Beans! They really are the magical fruit =) We have a local Bellingham store (The Market on Lakeway) that has the most amazing bulk food section I’ve ever seen with beans of all colors, shapes and sizes. Our household has been dining on delicious homemade chili all week thanks to the inspiration at The Market bean station.

Center right: It’s always exciting to give new life to old household items, and this old toolbox re-purposed into a garden planter is an excellent example of that. It has a such a rustic, old farmhouse look.

Bottom left: These dulce de leche cookies look like they are to die for. Nothing wrong with satisfying your sweet tooth every once in a while!

Bottom right: I’ve been spending what little free time I have working on my garden lately, and this Rose Geranium Sea Salt Scub has inspired me to look to my garden for both bath & body ingredients as well as tasty snacks. I’ll start with the trellis of sugar snap peas Jamisen and I built last week. And, I just happened to plan a fresh Rosemary bush last week too.

Instagrams:

Here’s a look at the Firedrop Swirl, from the Soap Crafting book. Want to try this for yourself? You can order a copy of the book, with full color photos and instructions for this recipe and 30 others, here!

More soap cutting madness; this is the Goat Milk In-The-Pot Swirl, another Soap Crafting recipe. It’s scented with a lovely (and pleasantly surprising) blend of peppermint and patchouli:

Tweets:

  •  This is an insightful article on something we all love so much: soap! From laundry soap to liquid soap to the evolution of the artisan soaps we see today, this is an excellent read for anyone who wants to delve a little deeper into how the bath & beauty industry grew to be what it is today.
  • We’ve all heard the phrase you are what you eat, but this article frames that idea a little differently. For entrepreneurs and other people in high-profile or high-stress positions, being in the workplace is like being an athlete in competition. You must eat like an athlete to perform like one, so that means lots of fruits, veggies and lean proteins.
  • Bramble Berry took a trip to a Bellingham Bells game on Tuesday! It was a perfect evening for baseball, and Lily sure enjoyed her first game. Jamisen even got to throw the first pitch! We may have the next Walter Johnson on our hands =)
  • This is a nice reminder that learning takes place at every age and in every stage of life. Learning on the job is something that should never stop.

Have a great weekend everyone. We’re headed to either a children’s festival or a tractor exhibition today. It will all depend on the whims of a two year old. Find me on Twitter here, Pinterest here and Instagram here.

Home Spa: Handmade Potpourri

Filed Under: Home Crafts

For the final installment of our Home Spa Collection of projects I made a short video on how to make your own potpourri. I used many of our dried herbs & flowers and placed them in a container in pretty layers. It’s very simple and the results are beautiful and much less expensive than a store bought version.

Interested in our other Home Spa Collection projects? Check out our Emulsified Scrub, Soothing Eye Pillow, Gentle Gel Serum, and Pink Salt and Shea Bath Bar.

To make this project you will need:

Click here to get everything you need to make potpourri
Click here to get the ingredients for the fragrance oil blend
Click here to get the ingredients for the essential oil blend.