Sponsored by readers like you: Melt & pour soap!

We've used 19 pounds of soap in the last week in two classes, and you know it was good clean fun! 42 tweens and teens now know how to make melt & pour soap, and I suspect there are some moms who will be given some of these treasures for Mother's Day in May (and, I hope, a few dads in June). We also made cute little boxes and labels for cellophane bags, and they were adorable!

Melt & pour soap is an awesome project for kids, and you probably have most of the supplies already. (Click here and scroll down for the instructions for this project, although the general rule is melt, scent at 2% to 3%, colour, pour, wait, unmold, rejoice.) This is a very popular class with the kids, and they'll make them until the soap runs out. If you can get it, I do suggest low sweat soap if you're working fast - if you heat the soap up too much, you will get sweaty soap. But not so much with the low sweat soap. I bought both white and clear and it worked really well. And I definitely suggest making some cute packaging to go with the soaps (it works to keep them from eating chocolate in that class, but not really a concern in this one!)

I like to use silicone ice cube trays and chocolate molds both at home and in the classes. You can make 15 to 30 gram soaps, which are great for guest soaps and it means the kids can melt & pour and take home in as short as a 1 hour class (and the two hour class can make two batches in the same mold).

The Soap Queen's melt & pour soap technique is a great way to make your soaps look awesome (click here for my results and the link to her blog) and I love her flexible soap recipe for making sushi soap (both rolls and nigiri)! Here's my take on the cupcake soap with my recipe for soap cupcake icing with SCI.  And finally, here's my post on liquid vs. solid dyes for melt & pour soap.

As you know, our youth groups are funded by readers like you who donate by buying the e-books, Back to Basics, Hair Care Products: Shampoos & Conditioners, and Lotionmaking 101. If you'd like to learn more about our groups and what we do, please click here.


We're learning introductory quilting next week, and we have enough to buy a new sewing machine! It's a Janome and I have to buy a walking foot for it (they don't make machines with this attachment any more?) and it should be in my hands by early next week! Thank you so much, generous and kind readers!

Today's we're enjoying an afternoon with polymer clay! It should be great fun and I'll post the pictures in a few days! The kids make such amazing things with it!