Her yarn veggies and sweets are hand crocheted and stuffed so they’re “washable and squashable”.
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
We love what Paula from PJ’s Soaps did with our Geometric Tutorial. Her little logs of soap are all scented with different unique blends. Paula actually scents each layer separately to ensure full strength blending. That is one singular commitment to personal exclusivity. I shouldn’t be surprised; she told me that some of her creations take up to four hours per bar!
Paula was one of the teachers at our 2008 Soap Intensive Weekend and has an absolutely creative and beautiful way of blending scent and visual art. If you head to her site, be sure to check out her Obama soap. It’s a fun soap for this momentous week. I just received mine in the mail and it’s a stunning work of functional art.
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Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Salah & Craig are the quirky geniuses behind MyObamaBar.com Originally tech geeks, they ran a technology company for ten years and sold it in 2005. At the time, they had over 60 people working for them. After they they sold the company, they started to take stock in their lives and what they had accomplished and decided that any new ventures they worked on or started needed to include a social and charitable contribution component. Salah and Craig both felt blessed and like they had some great opportunities because of the American capitalist system they were born into. They decided that they had the responsibility to bring something back to the table.
Originally, they founded www.soaphope.com and started donating 100% of their net profits to funds that invest and make loans with women owned microbusinesses. The idea of the Obama Bar came soon after that. Their family loved it and with their support, “The Audacity of Soap” was born.
The site is funny and irreverant while staying above above any political and partisan politics. With clever soap names like “United We Scrub” and “Lemongrass Roots Support”, it’s clear that Craig and Salah don’t take themselves too seriously.
What they do take seriously is their support of Obama’s message of hope and transformation. The entrepreneurs are committed to focusing on Obama (as opposed to expanding to other politicians) and modifying the messaging of the soap and the site to keep up with what’s going on with Obama’s presidency. Says Salah, “Obama is asking us as citizens to change the way that we live, to be of service of country and to the world. If people are doing that, we will give them soap! So anyone that submits their ideas to change .gov, or volunteers for an initiative that Obama is proposing, we’re giving a bar of soap. So as he is going forward and puts his request for us to be of service, those are the kind of things that we will do to help change the branding going forward.”
To learn more about Craig & Salah’s campaign, head to MyObamaBar.com and buy a bar of soap or three. 25% of profits from MyObamaBar.com go to the Yellow Ribbon Fund.
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Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
3. Combine melted coconut oil and beeswax with warmed olive oil. Add sweet almond oil and mix well.
4. Pour mixture into small containers. Let harden. Yields 5-7 pots of lip balm
*Optional: To make a sweet lip balm, mix 1/16 tsp. of honey with other ingredients. Since honey is not soluble in oil or wax, make sure to stir until mixed well
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Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine
3 3/4 cup flour (I used organic, whole-wheat pastry flour)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp sea salt
10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted, softened butter
2 1/2 cups packed dark-brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbs + 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 tsp dark rum
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1. Trim the sides of the cake and the top to create spongy, flat surfaces. Brush the Butterscotch Syrup onto all exposed sides of each layer (top and sides). Use 3/4 of the mixture, not all of it.
2. Frost the bottom cake piece, carefully setting down the next layer on top of it.
3. Spread remaining frosting on the top and sides of the cake.
Dump the pecans in a sauce pan. Turn heat to medium. Pour the remaining Butterscotch Syrup on the pecans. Constantly stirring, heat for approximately 10 minutes until the syrup is sticky and thick, evenly coating the pecans. Turn pan over and place the pecans directly on the cake or onto wax paper. The Pecans are very sticky and will stick to any surface so choose wisely.
I used whole wheat flour because I was trying to make the cake slightly less sticky sweet. My Dad appreciated the texture (which was sort of like a fine cornbread) but did gently suggest maybe trying regular flour for the next time.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
We recommend wax paper lining for cold process soap and a plastic (saran wrap or plastic paint drop cloth) for melt and pour soap.
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
Welcome Disney Radio Listeners! Thanks for listening to my interview today. Here is the easy project we talked about on the radio. For some of the other kits, including the Mineral Make Up Kit or the Bath Bomb Kit, head to the Bramble Berry site by clicking here. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments or by emailing me at the “Contact Us” link at Bramble Berry.com
Happy Soaping!
1.Check the fit of your trinket in your mold. Make sure that it fits. You can use a yogurt container, a tofu container or a tupperware – just make sure your barrette or eraser or cute lip gloss container fit into the mold.
6. Spritz your barrette/trinket/eraser part with rubbing alcohol.
7. Embed your item into the soap.
8. Pour the rest of the soap all the way up. Tip: If you’re doing another color in the back of your soap, allow your first clear layer to harden before pouring the second, colored layer. Make sure that you use only food or soap safe colorants (like food coloring, micas, or Labcolors).
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
I came across these photos from soap I made this summer. I just love the positive hope expressed in the colors. It makes me realize that spring will be here soon enough and that the sun truly will come out, if not tomorrow, in a few months.
Happy Weekend! I’m headed to my parent’s house for the weekend with the entire family to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. I can’t wait to see my family and celebrate the passing of another positive year for my Dad.
Filed Under: Business Musings
The possibilities are endless
At the beginning of this series, I said that growing your business can be like cooking up a good bar of soap. I hope you now see just what I meant. A simple business plan, your base, is really the first step to growing those fabulous businesses you’ve all so courageously started. Identifying the various elements we discussed in those plans will help build the foundation for your business to thrive. Then, building on top of those business plans with values and vision will give your business that ‘special mix of ingredients’ which make it unique. And the goals you set, and achieve, will continue to mold and give shape to your company for many years to come.
Growing your business, just like making soaps, is an enjoyable and rewarding process. What you want the outcome to be is completely up to you. And once you get started on these easy-to-do steps, you’ll find that the possibilities for growing your business even further are wonderfully endless, and quite frankly, an awful lot of fun!
Putting it all together with one last day of homework: You’ve done all the work already. Now is the time to arrange it in a coherent format by typing and ordering the last 8 days of homework. Arrange it like this:
Market analysis (the research you did on day one)
Ideal Customer Profile
SWOT
Unique Value Proposition
Your Values
Your Vision Statement
5 Goals for the Year
Your dream Advisory Board
Type it all up. Put it in a notebook and title it “Business Plan for XyZ Company, 2009.” If you ever need to go for a bank loan, all you’ll need to add is historical and projected financials and you’ve got everything you need to present. More importantly, you now have your roadmap for turning your business into what you want and need it to be.
I hope you enjoyed this series and found value in it. The entire series, complete with links to individual days, is below.
Part 1 – Defining Your Business
Part 5 – Using Your Vision To Inspire
Part 7 – Put Your Goals To Action
Part 8 – Surround Yourself Well
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
I went to the store to get a birthday card for my Dad today (Happy Birthday, Dad!) and was a little shocked to see Valentine’s Day Cards. Wow! In less than 30 days, Valentine’s Day will be here. We whipped up this quick and simple melt and pour soap to get you in the mind to “Think Pink” and get ready for the romance. If you need a refresher on how to make melt and pour soap, check out the tutorial here.
White Melt and Pour soap base
Clear Melt and Pour soap base
2 Different Non-Bleeding Colorants, Pinks or Reds
Glitter
Rubber Heart Embedding Mold
12 Bar Round Silicone mold
Fragrance
Spray Bottle filled with Rubbing Alcohol
1. Cut up and melt about 5 ounces of the Opaque melt and pour. Separate into 2 containers and color each with one of the 2 colors. We did one with Non-Bleeding Red Liquid and the other with Red/Blue Mica. Note: you do not need to fragrance these. You will have some soap left over and they will work best with other projects if left unscented.
2. Pour this into the Rubber Embedding Heart mold. Doing half the hearts one color and the other half the other color.
3. Set this aside to harden. Do not put into fridge as we want our layers and embeds to adhere well. We also need to slice these and frozen/cold soap does not slice well.
Once you have given the hearts time to harden, you can go to the next step.
4. Disassemble the 3-D mold and lay flat on counter. You can prop the molds if needed to keep flat.
Note: this mold has been discontinued and substituted with out 12 Bar Round Silicone Mold
5. Cut up and melt some clear Melt and Pour (this you can and should fragrance) and pour a little into each half of the 3-D mold. Wait for this to thicken and get a nice sturdy skin.
6. While you are waiting you can un-mold the little hearts. These are too thick to fit into the 3-D molds evenly. You will need to slice them up into thinner pieces. Lay them flat on one side to slice. If you put the point down and slice it will get smooshed and not look like a heart. (Note: Updated Instructions on 12/21 to include mold in Supplies List that does not need to be cut down)
7. Once the clear soap pour has hardened, spray it with rubbing alcohol and place a heart or two on top of the clear. Spray again with alcohol.
8. Pour another little layer of clear soap to cover the hearts and “glue” the pink embedding hearts into place. Make sure the molds are not filled all the way to the top though.
9. Once this has hardened, you can give it another squirt with alcohol and sprinkle a little layer of glitter onto the soap if you want to get festive.
10. Assemble the molds and put on the rubber bands. There should be a little gap between the two halves. The two halves should not meet each other.
11. Get the rest of your Opaque soap (remelting if needed) and add your fragrance to this as well.
12. Squirt down into the closed mold with alcohol 1 to 2 times then pour in your opaque soap.
Note: this mold has been discontinued and substituted with out 12 Bar Round Silicone Mold
13. Stop when the soap comes just above the top, tip the mold side to side and give it a few good taps on the counter. This helps remove any air bubbles that get trapped in the mold. Then fill the mold up the rest of the way. If you fill it all the way it gives you a nice “stump” that comes in handy for un-molding the soap later.
14. Set soap aside to cool. Again, since these are doing double pours and embedding, you do not want to put the soap in the fridge/freezer.
15. Once the soap has cooled (ideally overnight) you can unmold it. Use the little stump at top to help wriggle the soap out.
16. The soap will have a little ring around it where the two halves of the mold came together. You can get a small sharp knife and carefully slice this off.
17. Spray with alcohol to get rid of any unwanted fingerprints.
18.You are finished! Give the soap to someone you love or put it into your own shower to make sure you start every day with a smile on your face.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Filed Under: Business Musings
Building on yesterday’s post, something that goes hand-in-hand with ‘rule of five’ is the idea that you get what you focus on. An extremely successful friend of mine, Jody, uses this strategy. Every morning, she wakes up a few minutes early and spends 15 minutes thinking about her goals. Then, she goes to work on her ‘five things’ for the day after she’s focused on her goals. She is a good example of how useful focusing and the action-oriented ‘rule of five’ can be. Ruthless execution of both habits (focus coupled with action) has led her to be the owner of a multi-million dollar art and greeting card company. If you spend just a few minutes each day focusing on, or reminding yourself about your goals, you help keep them alive in your mind. This makes achieving your goals more likely. You tend to get what you focus on! So, why not focus on your positive future?
Another good way to keep your business aspirations at the forefront of your mind is to surround yourself with other goal-oriented, positive people. Hang-out with people who mirror your goals and the values you hold for yourself. Nothing will kill your dreams faster than being around people who constantly tell you that: ‘You can’t do it!’ So get around positive people with healthy, ‘goal-happy’ attitudes. Ideally, you’ll want to surround yourself with people that augment your weaker points, who absolutely stun you with their strength in certain areas and wow you with their talent every time you’re around them.
While goal-setting for your business is partly about identifying what you want, why you want it, and how you’ll go about getting it, it is also very much about keeping those goals alive by breaking them down into manageable pieces, and surrounding yourself with people who encourage you to achieve them. It’s easy to set goals! You can get started on them right away. And you don’t have to know millionaires or billionaires. Simply look around you – there are positive ‘goal-happy’ people everywhere. Look for them in your surroundings. Then, as each goal-setting time of year comes around, and more and more of your goals have been achieved, your company’s shape and mold will grow stronger and stronger.
Your homework for today is to make a list of five people in your town that you respect, admire and want to learn from. This will be your list to work off of for the rest of the year as you start to build either a Mastermind Group or a close group of positive business friends who can help inspire you to your highest success. Ideally, down the road, these same five people will turn into your unofficial Board of Directors or Advisory Board.
Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the final part of this series.
Looking for another part in the “Kickstart Your Business” series?
Part 1 – Defining Your Business
Part 5 – Using Your Vision To Inspire
Part 7 – Put Your Goals To Action
Part 9 – Endless Possibilities
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Rachel from Athena’s Olive Tree Soap Company is up for “The Sweetest Things” contest in 2008 on Daily Candy. Head here to vote for Rachel. Let’s show Daily Candy that handmade soap is one of the sweetest things in any year because it’s better for the environment, better for your skin and supports small women-owned businesses.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
“It’s easy to create a pampering body scrub,” according to Anne-Marie Faiola, DIY beauty expert of Bramble Berry, a beauty supplier. The ingredients you need are right in your kitchen. This weekly scrub will shed scaly skin and promote healthy glow.
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
10 drops essential oil
Combine ingredients and gently rub over your body. Concentrate on areas prone to dry, rough patches, like elbows, knees and heels. Rinse off and pat dry.
Need help finding an essential oil right for your skin? Check out our essential oils here. You can also mix and match oils and exfoliants to create your own recipe. Check out Bramble Berry’s fixed oils here and exfoliants here.
I’m in Seattle today, running from meeting to meeting (and writing this on the fly in a Starbucks across the street from my next meeting). I haven’t been able to give the next “Kickstart Your Business in 2009” post enough editing to make it valuable for you so look for that lesson tomorrow after I’m happily back in Bellingham. As for today, I’ve been learning a lot: I met with an angel investment strategist to get the skinny on raising money in 2009, gave a presentation to the Women’s Professional Organization about utilizing social media in business and now am getting ready to meet with my unofficial boad of directors about an energizing new soapy business idea I have for Bramble Berry. Their feedback will be helpful in moving forward.
I’ll “talk” to you all tomorrow. Happy Soaping!