4th of July Archives

Happy Fourth of July!

July 4, 2016 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Happy Fourth of July! I hope you are having a fun and safe Independence Day. Today the family and I are enjoying a low-key day in the sun at Lake Samish (a small lake just south of Bellingham). Jamisen is a particularly adept trail builder, Lily loves to throw rocks and I’m catching up on about 37593 books. I just finished “Secrets of a Charmed Life” (fiction book about WWII) and loved it. Mom, I’m sending it your way next!

If the kiddos stay up, we may go watch the fireworks over Bellingham Bay but that’s a long shot. Both Chris and I seem like we are more tired than the kids every night (haha). Bramble Berry is closed for the federal holiday, but will resume shipping orders tomorrow, Tuesday, July 5th. The website is open for orders 24/7.

In other news, today officially marks the first day of orange week for #SoaptheRainbow, so start sharing your orange projects on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I will choose the first winner tomorrow! =) Happy Independence Day!

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Happy Fourth of July!

July 4, 2015 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Happy Fourth of July! I hope you all are having a wonderful Independence Day. Today, the family and I are spending our holiday in the sun with plenty of good food and some kid-friendly fireworks (we love Pop-Its!) If you’re feeling inspired by red, white and blue, you can find the tutorial for the 4th of July Fireworks Cold Process Soap shown above by clicking here. If melt and pour is more your style, check out the Easy 4th of July Stars Melt and Pour Project. Yesterday, July 3rd, Bramble Berry was closed for the holiday, but will resume shipping orders on Monday, July 6th. I hope your Independence Day is full of fun!

Facebook Photo of the Week (June 28th ~ July 4th)

July 4, 2014 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Find this patriotic DIY project here.

Happy Independence Day! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday. This week, we rounded up our Summer Hair Series and featured a wide variety of guest posts. Then, Jodi of Empire Rose Soap Co. shared her takeaways from a HSCG 2014 session, regarding formulating scrubs and body butters. Dawn from Horsing Around Soap also shared her HSCG experience with tips and tricks for turning your hobby into a business.

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4th of July Fireworks Cold Process

June 17, 2014 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

With little ones running around, I like to keep our 4th of July fireworks display kid-friendly — lots of Pop-Its and maybe a heavily supervised sparkler. To imitate the big booms without actually having to set one off, I created this fun firework-inspired soap. This soap features droplets of gold mica painting and lots of swirly red, white and blue soap to imitate even the most dazzling of fireworks displays. If you make it now, it will be nearly cured just in time the the fourth!

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Fourth of July Challenge Winners!

July 6, 2013 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

A Happy Fourth of July weekend to all! I hope that you are enjoyed a day full of beautiful sunshine, healthy food and lots of fun with your family and friends. We had so much fun in the sun on the Fourth but alas, Jamisen did not see any of the fireworks since our tired little toddler was asleep by 8 p.m. (unlike his sister who stayed up until 1 a.m. crying). In the spirit of Independence Day, it is time to announce the winners of our Fourth of July Challenge. To see all the entries in this challenge, take a look at Bramble Berry’s Make It: #4thofJuly Facebook album. Are you ready to find out who won? Let’s have a soapy drum roll of excitement…

Top Row: Jill Cooper, Catherine Witt, Tanya from Baby Duck Soap Co.

Middle Row: Timmy from Ivy Coreen, Ada from SoapMuchLove, Wendy LaJoy

Bottom Row: Holly from Missouri River Soap, Tina from TrueSkin, Janet Schreiner

Many thanks to all the incredible soapers who joined in on the Fourth of July Challenge. It was so inspiring to see all your entries (from nail polish to bath fizzies, soap and more!) and to see the creativity that you put into your creations. Be sure to keep your eyes on the Soap Queen blog for new and exciting challenges. Do you have a full tutorial (+ pictures) to go with your entry? Submit your recipe to teachsoap(at)brambleberry(dot)com for a chance to win a $10 Bramble Berry Gift Certificate, click here for more details!

Fourth of July Melt and Pour Soap

June 30, 2012 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Happy weekend! I was inspired by this awesome 4th of July Fudge (pinned onto my 100 Days of Summer Pinterest page, naturally) to create a tutorial using our brand spankin’ new 4-sphere silicone mold, along with the 9-cube silicone mold that I’m still obsessing over. I built sand bottle-like layers in the cubes by manipulating the melt and pour as it dried. In the spheres, I used some of the ideas from this Soap Queen TV episode to create marbled swirls. The color scheme is as American as apple pie, so what better to use than Bramble Berry’s Red Apple Fragrance Oil? Either of these intermediate techniques can easily be modified for a beginner by creating basic layers in the cubes and spheres, and can be varied by using different thicknesses in the layers. If you don’t have these molds, it’s okay, this technique works for all kinds of molds (the thicker the mold, the better).

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Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2011 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I hope you have been enjoying the weekend as much as I have. Obviously, Jamisen is feeling rather patriotic about Independence Day.

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Easy 4th of July Star Soap

June 10, 2010 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

I love celebrating the 4th of July holiday with my friends and family. It’s tradition to do a big BBQ on Lake Samish filled with swimming, volleyball, food, drinks and SOAP! Send your guests home with something special! Learn how to make cute star soap below.

Ingredients

Stars Mold

12 Bar Square Silicone Mold

Liquid Blue

Perfect Red Color Block

Yields 4 soaps

Click Here to add all of these items to your Bramble Berry shopping cart.

ONE:Melt 4 ounces of white melt and pour soap base, stir in your favorite fragrance oil. Fill each star cavity. Let cool and unmold.

Variation:Add Liquid Red or Liquid Blue to 4 ounces clear soap base with a splash of glitter if you want to embed colored stars.

TWO: Melt 16 ounce of clear soap base in the microwave. Add a tiny bit of liquid blue colorant to get a clear effect (for more info on the “bluing” technique see this Soap Queen TV video). Do not add fragrance at this time.

THREE: Pour a 1/8” thick layer of the clear soap into each cavity of the Slim Square and spritz with rubbing alcohol.

FOUR: Spritz the thin clear layer of soap and soap stars with rubbing alcohol. Then pour another thin layer of clear soap into each cavity and place your stars into the melted soap. Make sure that your soap is around 125 degrees to avoid melting the soap stars.

FIVE: To the remaining melted clear soap base, add your favorite fragrance oil and either red or blue colorant (and glitter if you’re feeling sassy). Mix well.
Note: The Heavy Duty Slim Square Mold has been discontinued and substituted with out 12 Bar Square Silicone Mold

SIX:Spritz the cooled layer of soap with the stars and pour your final colored background layer. Spritz again with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any air bubbles. Let the soaps cool, pop them out of the mold and celebrate the 4th of July with your friends and family.

Ready to try making your own? Get everything you need added to your Bramble Berry shopping cart here. Don’t worry, you can always delete items or change quantities before you check out.

Don’t miss out on past summer projects a blog posts like Graduation Scrolls, Pinwheels, Parfait Soaps, Summer Lip Balm, Soothing After Sun Oil, Summer Flip Flops, Bug-Be Gone Candle, Summer Break Soap for Kids, Kumquat Blends, After Sun Lotion, After Sun Spritzer

Favorite Fourth of July Soap

July 15, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We had a little contest over on the Teach Soap Forum for a Patriotic-Themed soap. Thank you to all the community members that participated!

We took a vote and this soap, by Tomoe at Haiku Naturals, was our favorite overall as a group. But, everyone won! If you entered the contest, look for a PM in your Teach Soap MailBox with your code to take $5 off your next Bramble Berryorder!

American Flag Contest Entry

June 25, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

This soap by Sweet Caroline in South Carolina is scented with Salty Carmel Ice Cream scent, perfect for a food inspired soap. Enter your own Fourth of July Flag Soap Creation and get $5 off your next Bramble Berry order, just for entering. You can upload photos here.

American Flag Soap Contest

June 17, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

American Flag Soap_0157
Originally uploaded by haikunatural

If you haven’t had a chance to enter the American Flat Soap Contest, head over to the TeachSoap Forum here to enter.

It’s the kind of contest that everyone can win!

Here’s the deal: Create an American Flag soap using any technique and post a picture of it on this post.

You will receive $5 off your next purchase from Bramble Berry – it’s that easy! (one entry per customer – but you can post as many pics as you like!)

American Flag Soap – Final Reveal

June 2, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

If you missed the tutorial for making these soaps, click here for Part One and here for Part Two.

Flag Soaps – Part Two

June 2, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Part One instructions for Flag Soaps

Step Five: To get the white stars, pour a thin layer of white melt and pour into the star area. Allow to harden. Scrape off the bulk of the soap with your fingernail, a small putty knife or clean up tool. The white soap will stay in the stars, making a great extra touch detail for your Flag soaps.

Step Six: Since the pours are so shallow, the individual detail work should harden quickly (within 1 minute) making the second layer pour instant gratification. Melt 3 ounces of melt and pour per flag (if you have 4 to make, melt 12 ounces). Color and fragrance, if desired. Spray the stars and stripes with rubbing alcohol. Check the melted soap base to ensure it is not steaming and will not melt your stars or stripes.

Optional: If you are intending to do two or three colors, now is the time to prepare the second and third colors for the pour.

Step Seven: Pour the overpour base or bases if doing multiple colors.

Step Eight: Finish the soap off by spritzing with rubbing alcohol

Step Nine:Wait to harden and wrap!

American Flag Soap – Set Up & First Steps

May 30, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

To make patriotic American Flag Soaps, you’ll need:

White Melt and Pour Base
Clear Melt and Pour Base
Non-Bleeding Colorant
Fragrance or Essential Oil
American Flag Mold
Rubbing Alcohol
spoon
Droppers

Step One: Melt a small amount (3 ounces will be more than enough) of clear or white soap. If you want pastel colors, use white soap. If you want bright vibrant colors, use clear soap. Tip: use a small dish to melt the soap. If you use a large Pyrex container with such a small amount of soap, it takes longer to melt and may shatter your glass.

Step Two: Color your melted soap base with any color your heart desires, so long as it is nonbleeding. In the photos below, we used non-bleeding blue and non-bleeding red color. A list of all of Bramble Berry’s non-bleeding colorants is here.

Step Three: Use a dropper or the soap injector to slowly color in the detail striping in the flag. Spritz with alcohol liberally to help the soap fill in all the crevices.

Step Four: Melt a small amount of White Melt & Pour (if not already melted) and pour melted white soap base into the stars portion of the mold.

Check back this week to see the final steps and tips on how to make the stars stand out!