Spring soap

I did a run to Otion yesterday (well not literally, I don't think I'd even run around the block without hurting myself) and managed not to spend all my allowance in one shot. ;) The only thing I really needed was the 25lb box of clear MP soap, but that didn't stop me from buying some dark chocolate FO (I need it, really!), some stearic acid (Cee and Silvia inspired purchases), citric acid because I keep looking at the bath bomb tutorials and getting all excited, and the aluminum free deodorant base. I think I'm going to have enough to keep me busy for a while.

So after I purchased all those goodies, what do I make? Something with what I've had on hand for a while of course. My sister had given me a lovely 3D dragonfly mould when I first got her stash of soaping supplies, and I never tried it out. Don't ask me why, laziness mostly. Again, I had in mind how I wanted it to look but how it turns out is not quite the same.

One thing I knew for sure is I didn't want the whole thing the same colour, I wanted a pretty sky blue background to make it spring like. The dragonfly, by rights, should be more greenish, but being a purple gal, I went that route instead. The lighting was starting to go when I was scraping off the excess yellow for the stars and moon, and the moon didn't want to come out completely so let's just pretend some clouds are covering part of it, okay?

For some reason, they cornflower blue turned more green than blue, maybe something I had in the soap? For whatever reason, the background turned more greenish than blue, but it still smells nicely of Crafter's Choice Raspberry Kisses. I was going to try Silvia's technique of mixing a floral with a fruit scent, but I got…squirrel! But there's always next time right?

The end result accompanied by a card my sister made with dried flowers from her garden.

Hope you all have a great week.

♫How dry I am, ♬nobody knows♭

My sister says everything reminds her of a song, and it does happen more often than not.

But back to this week's theme. My sister-in-law bought a u-brew place. Need I say more?

I "heart" wine. Get it?

This is why BB says not to use low sweat clear for embeds because it's hard to see them or the green layer below. D'oh!

Originally I was hoping to make more of a cascade of grapes, but the size of the balls weren't conducive to the overall shape of the mould, hence why they look the way they do (as opposed to me having had too much wine prior to making these soaps).

I scented the soaps with raspberry and chocolate, the idea being those are flavours you're supposed to taste in wine. Even though the scent isn't grape, the subliminal effect makes one think it smells like grape. Cool huh? Either that or the original scent is grape, but calling it sun-ripened raspberry sounds way more appealing.

Hope you're all having a happy Easter. Any excuse to eat more chocolate is a good one right?

Mother Forklift!

I got that off a Pinterest humour page. Originally this post was to be titled Cherry Blossom, but I've been hit by the soaping gremlin and nothing's working right.

I always think of spring when I see cherry blossoms. Actually it used to make me think "yay, final exams are coming soon which means campus will be quiet again" but since I'm no longer affected by it, I don't think about spring that way anymore.

Cherry blossoms are quite prolific here and I love walking or driving down streets where all you see are  cherry blossoms in bloom. This is my tribute to them. Again I tried to make layers, hoping it'd show through with thicker layers of clear soap between.

This is the idea I wanted. However, I just *had* to add another layer, which made sense to keep all the "cherry blossoms" in place.

I scented it with a combination of pineapple cilantro and raspberry kisses. Maybe I put in too much of the raspberry kisses, but it turned my clear yellow, hiding the delicate colour of the pink soap (and totally negating my point of trying to make this look like cherry blossoms!) and that's why I put a few more on top, to show off the colour.

Well you can see the tree branches and other layers if you have x-ray vision, and you all have that, don't you?

You can almost see the branches from the underside of the soap. On the bright side, it smells nice. All 3 that didn't turn out.

My final attempt at getting the picture in my head into my soap mould.

If anyone has any ideas as to why my clear soap turned cloudy on me (besides the fact that I've wronged some soaping god), I'd love to hear it.

What is your sign that spring is coming or has arrived? Have a great week everyone!

Aaah, Freak Out

♪♬ Ahh, Freak out!

Le Freak, c’est chic.♩♫

Not so much in my case, mine is more the classic freak out, as in panic!! It’s tax season (which is enough reason to panic in and of itself) plus I need to apply for spring craft fairs and we all know how I’ve made procrastination into a profession.

So there you go, my version of “my dog ate my homework” as to why I have nothing new to show this week.

I hope you have a great week. Let me know what motivates you to get things done.

(I never knew the name of the band that sang that song until I googled it, did you?)