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.

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.

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

 

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.

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

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.

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

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

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!

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.