School is out for the summer and now is the time for kids’ projects galore! This project is suitable for kids 6 years and older. It’s technically safe for younger kids but usually, their manual dexterity isn’t quite up to doing extreme detail work. But, if you like a more free form, abstract art look, by all means, give your 3 year old a dropper and get to work.
This is all about using a dropper to accentuate the animals. As you can see from the above photo, some of the little critters have quite a few colors and layers to achieve their look.
clear melt and pour
white melt and pour (if you want opaque soaps)
non-bleeding colors (I used the Mica Sample packs)
fragrance oil
Milky Way Kids Critters or Amphibians Mold NOTE: These molds have been discontinued, you can use the 6 Cavity Kids Animals Silicone Mold instead.
Droppers
Pyrex container
Spoons
Rubbing Alcohol in a spritzer bottle
The molds hold approximately 2.5 ounces each and there are 4 cavities.
Cut 12 ounces of Clear (or White) Melt and Pour up into chunks and microwave until the soap is fully melted. Pour off one ounce of melted soap into three or four small containers. Fragrance (1 dropperful of 3 mls will be plenty) and color these small containers. You’ll use these to do detail work. Ideally, you want the containers to be microwaveable, just in case your soap hardens up before you can use it.
After the color and fragrance have been fully stirred into the soap, draw up the colored soap into your dropper. Be sure to have your alcohol close at hand so you can ensure layer adhesion and no bubbles. Carefully dropper the soap into the detailed crevices in the soap. If there are any bubbles, spritz with alcohol to break the surface tension and remove bubbles. Wait for a thin skin to form and move onto the next color. Continue layering and filling in details until the faces have been filled out. Spray with alcohol liberally between layers.
Once the detail work has been completed, fill in the rest of the molds with the remainder of the soap. There should be around 8 ounces (or more) left. Be sure to fragrance the overpour. If you are using the Bramble Berry house clear or white soap base, the ideal temperature for pouring the second layer is between 120 and 125. If the soap is steaming or is too hot to put your finger in, it will melt your detail work. Patience is your friend.
Spray the detail work with alcohol and pour the overpour. Wait four hours and gently pop out your fabulous creations.
Great fragrances for kids are Strawberry, Tropical Vacation, Watermelon, Sun Ripened Raspberry & Pearberry.
I’ve been using PJ’s curved tool that comes with her kit and it’s awesome – much better than the dropper once I learned that I needed to snip the tip (duh) and keep hot water to rinse in between uses. It’s a significantly better tool than the dropper.
I’ll have to try this with the boys (since we got some nifty Brambleberry animal molds recently). The last time we tried using a dropper for details was a bit frustrating, and I may have to get PJ’s tool to make it go more smoothly. 🙂
Can’t wait to try my amphibian molds with these… I think the nephews will think it’s way cool.
Recruiting new soapers is a worthy cause …
Some of the homeschooled teens and tweens in our area actually talked to me about us doing a summer soap project. I have been pulling out my melt and pour stuff to do with them. I can’t wait! We are making the same shapes. Recruiting new soapers 😉