Winter Wonderland

Hello, dear reader!

Ever since college, I learned the importance of becoming a life long learner. In my opinion, if you don't learn new things, you become stagnate and complaint, which makes things become boring, especially if you're just turning out the same products with worsening results. This applies to horses, barrel racing and soap.

Last month, I decided I was going to learn while putting myself out there. I decided I was going to join a challenge group put on by Amy from Great Cakes Soap Works. In there challenges, we have to adhere to guidelines/stick with a theme. Last month, we did a Taiwan Swirl, which when done properly, produces a lotus flower on the inside on either end of the load of soap. My soap may have only gotten three votes, but I was very proud of learning a new technique and couldn't wait to push myself again with this month's challenge!

This month, our goal was to create a soap the fit the theme "Winter Wonderland". When I was reading the blog, I immediately got super excited and envisioned snowmen, barren trees, mounds of snow, snow flakes and icicles. I started talking at my husband (poor Andrew...) and when he asked "what in the world?" I drew out my plan for him:

I am not very good at drawing...

Andrew promptly shook his head said good luck with that.

My original plan was for the tree to have icicles, which I was going to make out of clear LCP Melt and Pour. That plan changed for a couple of reasons.

1. The rules said that the soap had to be made primarily out of cold process soap.

While I realize I would have been ok to add embellishments such as icicles, I also realized...

2. I was out of Clear LCP Melt and Pour.

I decided it was time for a couple edits and decided to forgo the icicles and the snow flakes. I thought they would have been too much.

The next problem that Andrew brought up was "How are you going to make those trees and snowmen? Why, pipe them of course! I drew up a tree and a template of the snow man I wanted to use. Again, I'm not very good at fine art (please see previous blog and the previous picture! lol) but I did manage to draw a tree and snowman I was happy with:

 Well, OK. I made something passable. 

I kept asking Andrew "How does this look? How about this?" He would just look at me like I'm crazy (which in my defense, he knew that when he met me) and say "It looks like a tree/snowman."

Eventually I'll stop asking him questions. That was not the day, though.

The next task was piping all the trees and snowmen. which I needed a stencil for. I took my drawing and scanned it into my computer. Using Microsoft Publisher, I was able to crop down the picture so that I would have either tree or snowman. From there, it was a simple copy and paste to multiple the pictures. I had a sheet of paper with 20 snowmen and three sheets of paper with 6 trees on them. I purposely made extras because I'm accident prone and tend to break things.

Tracing Station

I had these stencils for a week or two before I was finally able to make the embeds. I ran out of lye, and needed more oils, so it meant a trip up to my parent's house so that I was able to go pick up my supplies. The best part of my parents living there the do? They're VERY close to Soaper's Choice and Boyer Corporation!

Once that trip was completed, it was time to get started! I made 2.5 pounds of soap, because honestly, I thought it would take more soap then it did. Oops. Hindsight: 1 pound would have done it! I split the batches into two, colored one brown and the other white. I used Snow White for the white and Sexy Stranger on a Train (both from Mad Oils) for white and brown.

Sorry there is no pictures of me piping... I work by myself and Andrew was watch Sam. 

Finished Trees

Finished snowmen... Does anyone else see the duck in the bottom right one?!

For the orange carrot nose, I added Orange Vibrance mica from Nurture Soap Supplies to the white batter and added Black Oyster (from Mad Oils) and Black Oxide (from Bramble Berry). I waited a little less than 24 hours to peel them off the cling wrap. I only broke one tree!!

Close up of finished embeds. I realized after I made them I should have painted the details on the snowmen with mica... Oops. 

And I apologize now, I don't have any pictures of me making the soap! Again, I work by myself and Andrew was watching our rather rambunctious toddler (who as I type this is chasing one of the dogs and our cat with one of his trucks that lights up and makes noise... Sigh). But! I will tell you what I used: 

Micas: 

-3/4 tsp Turquoise with 1/4 tsp Vintage Velvet (Both from Nurture Soap Supplies)

-1 tsp Aqua Pearl Mica (from Bramble Berry)

-1 tsp Neutral Grey (from Nurture Soap Supplies)

-1 tsp Opalescent Turquoise (discontinued, from Bramble Berry)

-1 tsp Snow White (piping, from Mad Oils)

-1 tsp Here Comes the Bride (piping, from Mad Oils)

-Super Sparkles Mica ("snow" dusting on top of piping, from Nurture Soap Supplies)

-Sparkle Me Blue Glitter (from Mad Oils)

Fragrance:

-4 oz Snow Witch (from Mad Oils)

The colors I chose are a bit cooler and I did that on purpose. What says Winter Wonderland more than blues, greys and white!? And if you haven't smelled Snow Witch yet, you need to! It smells just like you're walking through a pine forest in a snow fall. I'm not sure how Mad Oils managed to capture that in a scent... But they did! If you're a soaper, just beware that it does accelerate. Not horribly by any means, but I added this one at emulsification and by the time I finished mixing thoroughly, the batter was at a thin to medium trace. It poured like a dream and thickened up quickly once it was molded. 

My total batter for the piping equaled 2.5 pounds and I used every bit of it for the top. I used a round Wilton tip to try and mimic snow drifts. I'm not going to lie, I can't pipe straight to face my soul. But! I think it works. Snow drifts are never symmetrical... Right? At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

Here is what the finished top of the soap looks like: 

And FINALLY, here is the soap cut!!! 

For how quickly this soap moved with the fragrance, I'm super happy with how the drop swirl turned out!

How did I get texture on the tree? Good question. I have no idea! lol 

I might have had "Winter Wonderland" playing in my head while I was working on this project, along with "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" And yes, my head is a scary place to be.

Thanks for reading this insanely long post! I can't wait to see what everyone else has made for their entry into the Challenge and I wish everyone the best of luck!!! 

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Thanks for reading!
-Jessica

Here are some links to the suppliers I mentioned earlier in the post! Nurture, Bramble Berry, and Mad Oils are my favorites!!!

Nurture Soap: Click Here
Bramble Berry: Click Here
Mad Oils: Click Here

Also, if you're interested in the Soap Challenge, that can be found here!