Author Archives: Amy Warden

What is the Soap Challenge Club?

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I’ve been throwing around this idea for a monthly Soap Challenge Club for several weeks now, and by now you may be wondering what on earth this Soap Challenge Club is all about! Well, I finally have some details that I can share with you!

The vision for the Soap Challenge Club is to create a Members Only space where soapmakers from all over the world can come together to be challenged to learn a new techinique. Best of all, members will vote to determine the winner of the challenge each month – and that winner will receive a significant prize from a soap supply vendor!!

Soapmakers will be able to choose each month whether or not to participate. These will be the requirements to participate:
1. Register and pay a small fee to gain access to the private area where the technique will be laid out via instructional video and written instructions.
2. Create a soap using the technique of the month.
3. Create a blog post (preferred!), video on YouTube, or post a photo on a Facebook business page featuring your challenge soap entry. Uploading a photo from your computer will be allowed, but will only create a small thumbnail photo of your soap which will be difficult for others to really see. If you want to win a prize, you may want to consider starting a blog! (Soaps that have been created previous to the challenge will NOT be eligible to be entered in the link-up.)
4. Be sure you are able to get your challenge soap posted during the time the link-up is open.

First Challenge

The first challenge will open one week from today on May 27th – Memorial Day in the US. Registration will remain open for a full week, and participants will have yet another full week to complete their challenge soap. A link-up just like the ones we’ve done before will open on June 10th in the private area where the voting will take place to see who will win the prize that month. Only Soap Challenge Club members will be able to vote. The link-up will be open between June 10th and 12th, and voting will begin on the 12th!

peacock1 300x400 150x150 What is the Soap Challenge Club?

Peacock Swirl by Amanda Griffin

Yes, we will be doing the Peacock Swirl first, so be sure to gather your supplies! In addition to normal soapmaking ingredients and supplies, make sure you have a slab mold (can be a real soap mold, or a cardboard box, plastic kitty litter box, dresser drawer…you get the idea!), at least 4 bottles with a yorker-type cap (think ketchup & mustard dispensers), a piece of cardboard as wide as your soap mold, and about 3-5″ tall, 100pk of roller pix (found at beauty supply stores or online for about $3), and a wooden skewer or chopstick.

I have some excellent sponsors lined up for the “significant prizes”. You won’t be disappointed! Winners will be posted publicly right here on the Great Cakes Soapworks blog. (I haven’t figured out yet if the entire link-up will be able to go public after the voting has ended.)

Let me know if you have any questions so far!!

Survey Results!

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I have received the results from the survey! It maxed out at 100 responses less than 24 hours after I posted it – thank you to everyone who participated!

challenge club survey results1 Survey Results!

Survey Results

There were quite a few people who wrote in the mantra swirl as another technique they would like to learn. Based on the overall results, I decided to start with the peacock swirl for our first challenge…did my first test run today, and the results were less than stunning. Back to the drawing board!!

So besides needing to master the technique for the challenge, there are several things I’m working on to get the Soap Challenge Club up and running…it’s going to be a lot like the soap challenges I’ve done before, but with a few added twists, including some very special surprises! I know you are all just waiting on pins and needles to find out when we will get started, and the answer is SOON. I can’t tell you the exact date just yet, but I promise it will be worth the wait!

Which Soap Techniques Would You Like to Learn?

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melon supreme oils 150x150 Which Soap Techniques Would You Like to Learn?

Soap Challenge Club

Many of you were great participants in the Soap Challenges this year!! I mentioned that I am planning to create a monthly Soap Challenge Club, and I am in the process of gathering the information I need. This includes which techniques you would like to tackle! I have a few ideas already and created a survey that I would love for you to cast your vote. There is also space for extra suggestions. So what are you DYING to learn next?? (Survey closes on Friday at 10pm CST!)

Click here to take the survey!

Soap Challenge 2013 – Leopard Spotted Soap Link-Up

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This is it! The final link-up for the 2013 Soap Challenges! I am so excited to see all the leopard spotted soaps out there! I know this was a difficult challenge because I certainly haven’t mastered it yet. It’s such a fabulous concept – especially since animal prints are definitely “in” right now!

Here is my cutting video of the Lavender Leopard Soap:

For those of you who enjoy learning new techniques, I will have an announcement about a new Soap Challenge Club very soon! My thoughts so far are to host one challenge per month. More details to come!

Now it’s your turn!

Bloggers: Create a post about your leopard spotted soap – with photos of course! You can describe how you picked your scent and colors, any problems you may have encountered or advice you might have. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!). When you link to your post, be sure it’s the link to the actual post, not just your blog link. Otherwise, when someone clicks on it later, and you’ve made more posts, they won’t be able to find the one you wanted to link with.

Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post, including the scent you used and any other information you care to share. To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)

YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! UPDATE! If you upload a photo of your soap as your YouTube profile photo, it will show up in the link-up! If you don’t have a profile photo, I believe you can still upload a photo from your computer and use your video as the link. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. If you have a photo in your profile, you should be able to select it. If not, you can either ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button OR click “upload from computer” and select a photo from your hard drive.

Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. UPDATE: Put YOUR NAME in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.


Soap Challenge 2013 – Final Week

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This is it! The final soap challenge! So many of you mentioned that you were looking forward to learning this technique when you signed up – probably because it was something new and different! Leopard spotted soap is created by piping contrasting lines of soap in a particular pattern so that when the soap is cut, it will look like leopard spots! At the very least you will need one color for the base of the soap (could be white or uncolored), one color for the center of the “spot” and another color for the outside of the “spot”.

I don’t know if you follow the Oil & Butter blog, but this is where I discovered this technique. Cee is a very talented cake decorator as well as a soapmaker, so she gets inspired by cake designs. Her leopard spotted soap was inspired by this video:

Now, it took me a couple tries to get this one right. Not because it’s all that difficult, but because I had watched the video so many months ago that I had forgotten how to do it! So, just yesterday I finally made it “correctly”.

I just cut the soap, and the bottom layer of stripes really doesn’t look like leopard spots – more like purple clouds. I think the dark purple soap was just a bit too thick. Also, I think it would have turned out better if I had done the stripes more long-wise diagonal, like corner to corner with a couple more stripes on either side of the long diagonal.

Tips:
1. The only “special equipment” needed is some ziplock bags. I prefer the freezer quart-size.
2. Definitely and for sure you will need a slow-moving fragrance or essential oil!!
3. Soap thickness is key. It has to be thick enough to support layers, and thin enough to remain workable for a fairly long period of time. Having the soap base just a bit thinner than the soap for the “spots” worked really well for me.
4. Color choices are infinite! Just be sure you use some high-contrast colors for the best effect.
5. When using a log mold, you can make your lines diagonal like I did or long-wise down the mold.
6. Have fun!!!

The link-up will open this Saturday at 6am CST and remain open until Saturday May 4th at CST.

Soap Challenge 2013 – Mica Swirled Tops Link-Up

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I really am embarrassed to show you the inside of the Coconut Lime soap I made this week for the mica swirled tops challenge! Not one of my better efforts, but I will chalk it up to another experience to add to my “what not to do” list. At least the mica swirls are decent. I will definitely have to try this technique again some time with a better behaving soap batter!

Now it’s your turn! Each participant may add ONE link to their creation. Here are the instructions to add your link:

Bloggers: Create a post about your mica swirled top soap – with photos of course! You can describe how you picked your scent and colors, any problems you may have encountered or advice you might have. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!). When you link to your post, be sure it’s the link to the actual post, not just your blog link. Otherwise, when someone clicks on it later, and you’ve made more posts, they won’t be able to find the one you wanted to link with.

Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post, including the scent you used and any other information you care to share. To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)

YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! UPDATE! If you upload a photo of your soap as your YouTube profile photo, it will show up in the link-up! If you don’t have a profile photo, I believe you can still upload a photo from your computer and use your video as the link. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. If you have a photo in your profile, you should be able to select it. If not, you can either ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button OR click “upload from computer” and select a photo from your hard drive.

Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. UPDATE: Put YOUR NAME in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.

Please note: I will not be available most of the weekend. Hopefully by the third week you’ve all figured out the link-up anyway!

(This week’s link-up will remain open until Saturday, April 27. The final challenge will be posted on Sunday, April 21st!)


Soap Challenge 2013 – Week Three

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Wow! That elemental swirl was a huge challenge and a huge success for a lot of people this week! You can check out the link-up here.

We are now ready for our Week Three soap challenge: Mica Swirled Tops. The basic technique is to create a mica & oil mixture and drizzle it over the top of your soap, and then swirl it like you would with a contrasting colored soap. The oil will be absorbed into the soap leaving a beautiful mica swirl on top.

The first place I saw this was on the Shieh Studio Blog. Emily has several photos of her soaps with mica swirls on this post. She also posted a video recently, so if you need to see how she did it, you can check that out!

Still need more? Pipestone Soaps also has some fabulous photos of mica swirled tops on their Facebook page! I asked Sacha for some tips before making my soap, and she recommended starting with just one metallic color to begin with, so I went with gold.

Here are the results of my first attempt at this technique:

Tips:
1. It takes very little mica & oil to create the effect. Even using 1/2 tsp. oil with 1/4 tsp. of mica I still had about half of my mixture left. Of course, it depends on how big your soap is, but just know that a little goes a LONG way!
2. You can use any color mica, but metallic micas will be the most shiny.
3. Stick to one color for your first batch! Because the oil is so fluid, it’s a lot more difficult to maintain separate colors if you do more than one.
4. Kenna of Amathia Soapworks says she textures the soap first, then drizzles the mica & swirls it with a chopstick.
5. I would highly recommend having a little more fluid soap to begin with – medium trace at most! (Feel free to use any technique you like for the inside of the soap.)
6. As always – have fun!!!

Please note: You will actually have TWO WEEKS to complete your soap for this challenge since there will be a break next week. The link-up will still open up this Saturday at 6am CST, but it will remain open for two weeks.

Soap Challenge 2013 – Elemental Swirl Link-Up

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So, are we loving the soap challenges so far? I hope those of you who participated in the Tiger Stripe challenge took advantage of the free colorant offer from Brambleberry!

And now it is time to show off our beautiful elemental swirls! Here’s my Apple Berry Picnic soap:

apple berry picnic soap2 Soap Challenge 2013 Elemental Swirl Link Up

Apple Berry Picnic Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks

Now it’s your turn! Each participant may add ONE link to their creation. Here are the instructions to add your link (I’ve added two new updates since last week – one for YouTube, and one for uploading a photo from your computer to work around some issues):

Bloggers: Create a post about your elemental swirl soap – with photos of course! You can describe how you picked your scent and colors, any problems you may have encountered or advice you might have. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!). When you link to your post, be sure it’s the link to the actual post, not just your blog link. Otherwise, when someone clicks on it later, and you’ve made more posts, they won’t be able to find the one you wanted to link with.

Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post, including the scent you used and any other information you care to share. To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)

YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! UPDATE! If you upload a photo of your soap as your YouTube profile photo, it will show up in the link-up! If you don’t have a profile photo, I believe you can still upload a photo from your computer and use your video as the link. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. If you have a photo in your profile, you should be able to select it. If not, you can either ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button OR click “upload from computer” and select a photo from your hard drive.

Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. UPDATE: Put YOUR NAME in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.

Please note: I will not be available until late Saturday afternoon to comment or help with any issues! I will be anxious to see all your soaps then!!

(This week’s link-up will remain open until next Saturday.)


Soap Challenge 2013 – Week Two

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If you haven’t had a chance to see the Tiger Stripe soaps from last week’s challenge, you are in for a treat! Go to the bottom of this post. The response has been absolutely phenomenal!! The goal of the challenges is to push ourselves to the next level of soapmaking – whatever that level may be, so please don’t feel intimidated to share your work! The link-up will remain open all week. We are all here together to encourage each other to do great things!

This week we will tackle the Elemental Swirl. This technique was first posted on the Otion Soap blog and another soapmaker suggested that I try the technique when I was asking for inspiration on my Facebook page!

caribbea diva Soap Challenge 2013 Week Two

Caribbean Diva Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks, made with the elemental swirl

It’s basically two in-the-pot swirls divided by a pencil line. You will need to divide your soap into eight equal parts – 3 colored parts with similar tones + 1 uncolored part for each layer. Sounds complicated, but it’s not so bad, I promise! Just take one step at a time, and be sure you have plenty of mixing bowls!

Here are my instructions:

Tips:

1. BEGINNER VERSION: If this technique seems overwhelming to you, try dividing your soap into just 4 pots – 2 colored, 2 uncolored. Swirl one colored pot and one uncolored pot together for each layer and do the pencil line in-between.

2. Definitely use a fragrance or essential oil blend that will NOT accelerate trace! Slow, slow, slow.
3. You can use any type of colorants you like and mix them up to get the colors you want for each layer.
4. The pencil line can be done with mica OR activated charcoal, cocoa powder, powdered clay, etc.
5. Prep work is key!! Make sure you have all the colors dispersed, bowls & spatulas ready, and mica (or other powdered colorant) for the pencil line ready to go before you begin. You can use the tea strainer method as described in the Otion blog, or nylons stretched over a jar with a rubber band like I did.
6. The trickiest part (I think) is getting the soap the right consistency. If your soap is too thin, you will need to be careful pouring the top layer over the pencil line without disturbing it or the soap underneath too much. If it seems pretty fluid, just test it out by spooning on a little bit of soap before pouring it! If you bring your soap to a medium trace before swirling in the pot, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with this. It’s actually more interesting if the top layer breaks through the bottom one a little bit!
7. Take a deep breath and have fun!!

Soap Challenge 2013 – Tiger Stripe Link-Up

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It’s finally time to share our work from this week’s Soap Challenge! Tiger Stripes seem like a fairly easy technique, but I did hear from several of you (perfectionists!) that you took several batches to get it up to your standards. Ok, some of it was due to finicky fragrances, so we can blame it on that!

Here is my cutting video:

Now it’s your turn! This is the fun part, of course, because we all get to oooooo and aaaahhh over everyone else’s soaps. Everyone loves comments, so if you can leave an encouraging word for someone, do it! And here’s some exciting news: Once you post your work, you can take advantage of an offer from Brambleberry* for a free soap colorant sampler! The kit includes Titanium Dioxide, Electric Bubble Gum, Activated Charcoal, and Fizzy Lemonade Neon Pigment. Use coupon code TIGERKIT and it will be added to your order, or you can call them up and arrange for them to send it to you for the cost of shipping (estimated at a couple dollars).

So, let’s do this!! Each participant may add ONE link to their creation. Here are the instructions to add your link (this is how it worked last year – please let me know if anything has changed or you have problems!):

Bloggers: Create a post about your tiger stripe soap – with photos of course! You can describe how you picked your scent and colors, any problems you may have encountered or advice you might have. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!). UPDATE: When you link to your post, be sure it’s the link to the actual post, not just your blog link. Otherwise, when someone clicks on it later, and you’ve made more posts, they won’t be able to find the one you wanted to link with. I’ve already edited several of the links so they point to the post itself.

Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post, including the scent you used. To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)

YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! There will be a little frog icon instead of a thumbnail photo of the soap, but anyone who clicks on your link will be able to see your video. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. Then in the next step, ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button.

Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. Just put n/a in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.

This week’s link-up will remain open until next Saturday!


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