Monday, December 13, 2010

25 Days of Hand Crafted Gifts and Ornaments - Personalized Stamped Soap

Continuing with out 25 days of gifts and ornaments I have a fun project I've been asked about several times...
Personalized Rubber Stamped Gift Soap! 

YES, you CAN stamp soap...sort of ;)

First you will need to find a plain bar of soap with at least one smooth flat side.  I found some nice smelling hypoallergenic white bar soap at the Dollar Tree ~ 3/$1.00.  It was about 2x3 bar and had a really nice flat back to it.  Use whatever you can find.

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Supplies:

Soap (flat sided)
Tissue Paper
White Beeswax
Archival Ink or Staz-On Ink
Rubber Stamps
Heat Tool
Natural Bristle Paint Brush
Baby Powder
(Optional) Embellishments (ribbon, mesh, tag, etc)

Instructions:

1. Stamp desired image(s) on white tissue paper using a permanent waterproof ink...I like to use Archival Ink but you could also use Staz-On or other inks.

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2. Trim the image from the rest of the tissue.  Leave about an 1/8" edge around the entire image.

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3. There are a couple ways to go about this step...  If you plan on making several bars of soap and have a Melt Pot you could fill it with white beeswax and melt it.  OR  You could place 6-8 beads of wax on the flat side of the bar of soap and melt the wax with a heat tool.  Immediately after the wax becomes liquid brush the wax over the flat area.

This is the initial base for our image.

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4. Position the image over the cooled wax and press into place. 

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5. Either brush on a top layer of wax.  OR option #2  Place 4-5 more wax pellets over the tissue image.  Melt with the heat tool and brush the liquid wax over the entire image.  Make sure to seal all of the edges as well as the image it's self.  Add additional wax if needed.

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6. A bit of the color may run if you didn't let the image dry long enough as shown in the photo...

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If this happens you can simply scrape this wax away with an Exacto Knife.

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7. Your waxed image may have a tacky feel to it when you are finished.  This is easily remedied by sprinkling a bit of baby powder in your hand and rubbing it over the wax image.

Your soap is now ready to be given and used!

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You needn't worry about the image rubbing off or getting ruined if used.  The stamped image has been sealed in between the two layers of the beeswax and will stay nice looking no matter how often it is used.  I tested the bar of soap with the black image in REALLY hot water ~ washed and washed my hands, rubbing it around and as you can see it still looks great!

I shared just the bare basic technique but if you're giving them as a gift you could wrap it with a bit of ribbon and/or mesh...add a nice hand towel and wash cloth for a perfect little hostess gift, stocking stuffers, etc.
They make very nice quick gifts for anytime.

16 comments:

  1. What a cool idea. This would make a great gift! TFS!

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  2. Thanks for a great tut, I haven't commented for ages, all the usual excuses :-) Hope you have a great Xmas

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  3. It's ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!..... I love everything you do, because you share with all your fans all your fabulous and curious techniques!!!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Big hugs from Spain

    Lourdes

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  4. What an amazing idea for giving someone something personal!! I want to get some beewax and try this!!

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  5. Roni, you just never cease to amaze me!! This is just awesome!! Thanks so much for another great gift idea!!!

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  6. What a fabulous project! So clever to enclose the stamped image in wax. What an awesome gift idea. Thanks so much for sharing your creativity and knowledge with us. :)

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  7. I really love this idea! I have never seen anyone do this and it's so easy and an awesome gift idea!

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  8. Very fun and quick inexpensive idea. Thank you for sharing. Happy Holly Jolly Joy...

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  9. Wonderful!!
    I love it !!

    Thanks INK STAINS !! :-)

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  10. what a fantastic idea - I will definitely try this one out :)

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  11. I love this idea and think that I'll try it. Thanks for all your awesome ideas and tutorials. They're easy to follow and so do-able! You're great, Roni!!

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  12. Roni -

    What an awesome idea! I love how this turned out and it looks like it is not very time consuming. Your bars turned out beautiful. Thank you for another great project.

    Elaine Allen

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  13. Fun technique and thanks for all the tips and hints (such as testing the black stamped image to make sure it stays on the soap and not on our faces!).Another new way to use my stamps...yay!

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  14. Thanks for the great idea! I really like the stamps you used -- perfect! Can't do it this year, but saved it for future gift giving.

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  15. This is an awesome idea....thanks for sharing!!!!

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  16. I have never heard of doing this with beeswax before I have always used modge podge i will have to try it this way

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Thanks for your thoughts and comments!