Well starting today, I'm going to give you permission to take a break, work with your hands and create. Take a break from the fast pace and slow down with a simple art. Did you here that? I said simple. These aren't intricate crafts. These are simple, useful products you can craft with your hands. Slow down. Take time to savor the process and relax into crafting a handmade product.
The best part? You are actually creating gifts and crossing those stocking stuffers off your to-do list. Win-win-win-win. I encourage you to slow down and craft a bit this season. Maybe it isn't the soaps below or the luminaries next week or the easy evergreen bundles and wrappers, but put your hands towards creating something and avoid the chaos of Christmas for just a few moments.
Your Christmas will be all the better for it. I promise :)
So let’s jump right in! Today we are going to be crafting soaps with natural “fillers” in our microwave. Nope, you didn’t hear that wrong! Time for microwaving some soap!
Making soap can be a hot, involved and even dangerous craft. Try working with lye and bubbling cauldrons of the white stuff and you'll be running to the nearest Target for some bars of Ivory. However, handcrafting soap is a different story utterly and completely. You can craft soaps into various shapes with multiple "add-ons" to suit what is in season and your personal taste. Much better than working with lye!
First things first, you need the actual soap base. Lucky for you, they can be shipped straight to your front door in these thick, heavy grids. Choose from Goat's Milk, Shea Butter, Aloe Vera, Oatmeal and Glycerin. I went with the classic Shea Butter and delicious looking Goat's Milk.
*all materials provided by consumercrafts.com and Crafts Unleashed
Ingredients:
- Goat's Milk Soap Base
- Shea Butter Soap Base
- Molds (purchase or use kitchen molds)
- Fragrance Oils
- Natural Elements and Fragrances
- Microwave
- Wooden Spoon and Microwave-safe Dish
The real twist in this process are the "add-ons." I felt like a Cold Stone ice cream maker as I chopped up ingredients, mixed in oils and swirled them all into the hot soap mix. First on the list? Lemon Balm is growing in mass amounts in the garden, so I harvested some fresh, along with basil and lavender. To spike the fragrance even further, I added in synthetic oils for a punch. My mixes?
- Fresh Basil with Green Tea and Peony Oil with Shea Butter Base
- Fresh Lemon Balm with Lemon Extract, Green Tea and Peony Oil and Shea Butter Base
- Grapefruit Extract and Pomegranate Plum Oil with Goat's Milk Base
- Dried Lavender Flowers and Relaxation Oil with Goat's Milk Base
The next step towards crafting those bars of soap into real bars of useable soap is buying a mold. You can buy soap molds for this very purpose, but I wanted to get a little more creative with my soaps and save a few pennies by using molds around the house. Non-stick pans are a great choice for soap molds and you probably have a few in the cabinet. I chose this mini-custard pan.
My second choice of mold is a silicon brownie pan. The non-stick pan worked well, but the silicon pan worked AMAZINGLY well for soap molding. The pan can literally be folded and flopped and the soap pops right out perfectly.
You might have a cupcake mold or mini-cake mold at home or you can find a similar brownie mold right HERE.
Ready to start crafting your own soaps? KEEP READING….
Directions for making your own handcrafted soap: 1. Clean, dry and chop all fresh herbs 2. Clean, dry and spray all molds with a little cooking spray 3. Break the soap into chunks and heat 30 seconds at a time in the microwave 4. Place fresh ingredients into molds 5. Pour hot, melted soap into molds (carefully!) 6. Be patient and wait 20-60 minutes until the soaps are fully hardened 7. Pop soap out of molds and enjoy!
You might have noticed in my soap descriptions that I included a few extracts in addition to the oils and fresh ingredients. Those extracts are simply made by pouring vodka over lemon and grapefruit peels and allowing them to sit for several months.
Note: When using some herbs (like lavender), if the gift is not to be given right away, the herbs can start to brown with age. Wither gift and use soaps immediately or simply remelt and mold the soaps and browned herbs and create a pretty tan soap instead of a pure white.
So fresh from the garden and straight from the Consumer Crafts box...
Now we have soap!
So take a look outside your backdoor today and see what is still growing!Check around your house for items that could be used for molds! Could you make rosewater to add to a glycerin soap? Would those silicon cupcake molds work for pretty Aloe Vera Soaps? Perhaps you too, have some lavender ripe for picking! It goes great with Goat's Milk Base! Whatever ingredients you choose to mix and match, it is a fun process for adults and kids alike and the result is a hand crafted treat! 
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