# Interpret a theme - Xmas 2014



## Relle (Oct 26, 2014)

Post photos of Christmas themed soaps in this thread. Link to other thread - http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49557


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## IrishLass (Oct 28, 2014)

I guess I'll start. This is scented with Sugared Spruce from WSP. The blue is colored with UM Blue, and the 'snowfall' is actually crumbled-up salt soap that I tossed in. I wish now that I had added more TD to the bottom to make it more white (or used some vanilla stabilizer), but it is what it is. The pine trees were made with a rubber stamp and painted in with powdered mica (shamrock green mica and bronze mica). The soap in front was made from the left-over batter which I poured into a 3-D mold, which did not gel as you can see from the color discrepancy:





IrishLass


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## dixiedragon (Oct 28, 2014)

WOW! Stunning!


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## Relle (Oct 28, 2014)

Love the snow effect - clever.


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## PinkCupcake (Oct 28, 2014)

Your trees are so pretty! I wouldn't be able to stop picking them up and smiling!


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## marilynmac (Oct 28, 2014)

That is beautiful.     I don't dare post anything of mine next to it.


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## SplendorSoaps (Oct 28, 2014)

Gorgeous soaps, IrishLass!  

There's no way I can follow that show, but here's what I've been working on for X-mas.  This one is Kringleberry scent from Nature's Garden (love the scent).  It's hard to see in the photos, but I used sparkly micas.


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## Meganmischke (Oct 28, 2014)

Here is sugar plum that I just finished cutting.  Not exactly what i was going for but the ladies on my list won't know.


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## PinkCupcake (Oct 30, 2014)

None of these have been beveled or cleaned up yet, but I got pictures while it was sunny outside.



I can't decide whether to call this one Christmas Candy or Christmas Sweater. It looks like a sweater to me, but it smells like candy. I used BB's Sleigh Ride.






Peppermint soap that I made for a friend's mother to give for holiday gifts. She wanted 40 bars!


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## snappyllama (Nov 3, 2014)

My first hanger swirl. It is scented with Snow Witch from Mad Oils. I was going for a wispy look with Nordic blue and black witchy streaks. The color on the cut pics is a off. The bottom picture is a little closer to how it came out.

It was a little soft when I cut and hasn't been cleaned up yet... sorry about that.


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## DWinMadison (Nov 3, 2014)

Wow. All so beautiful. I haven't made a Christmas themed soap yet.


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## PinkCupcake (Nov 3, 2014)

Beautiful colors, and beautiful swirls!


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## sefadiana (Nov 4, 2014)

Silent night...




Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making


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## alongsoak (Nov 28, 2014)

This was meant to be a tiger swirl but started to thicken up too much near the end. I'm still really pleased with how it turned out though!


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## CaraBou (Nov 28, 2014)

Hot fudge sundae tiger swirl, lol!.  Looks great!


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## snappyllama (Nov 28, 2014)

That came out fantastic. I reminds me of totem poles for some reason. I like it!


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## Saponista (Nov 30, 2014)

'Christmas tree' scented with juniper, pine, fir and cedarwood.

And orange cinnamon and ginger.


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## snappyllama (Nov 30, 2014)

Lovely soap, and I bet that smells fantastic!


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## Lynnz (Dec 1, 2014)

Cool idea love the soaps so far and will have to get my thinking cap on


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## alongsoak (Dec 1, 2014)

Oooo that sounds like it smells so good. :shock:


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## doriettefarm (Dec 1, 2014)

Here's my Winter Forest soap. Scented with spruce, rosemary, himalayan cedarwood & sweet birch essential oils. I used ground parsley for the green portion and the tan pieces are curls from a batch of unscented beer soap.


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## snappyllama (Dec 2, 2014)

I bet that smells fantastic!


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## grumpy_owl (Dec 3, 2014)

BB's Holiday Candy mixed with Peppermint. Yes, it's melt and pour, but these things fly off the shelves in December and I gotta make that money, honey.


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## snappyllama (Dec 3, 2014)

So pretty.  Your layers are just lovely.


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## cmzaha (Dec 3, 2014)

grumpy_owl said:


> BB's Holiday Candy mixed with Peppermint. Yes, it's melt and pour, but these things fly off the shelves in December and I gotta make that money, honey.


Not a thing wrong with m&p. Your layers look gorgeous. My daughter does beautiful m&p and I cannot even do simple m&p, so I have full respect for anyone that can make it work and love the beautiful soaps that can result. At the end of the day it comes down to what sells  for a lot of us


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## Saponista (Dec 4, 2014)

Nothing wrong with melt and pour, those look lovely


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

Inspired by IrishLass:
Scented with BB's Feliz Navidad (which smells like laundry detergent, btw).


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

My mom makes a batch of this every year, it requires 3 pours.
Scented with Southern Garden Scents (now Rustic Escentuals, I think) Applejack & Peel:
The green is from spirulina, which is a bit too "pea green". Usually we use a green oxide, but we were out.


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

Sugared Plum (I think Lebermuth). Colored with FD&C Blue and dusted with purple mica on top. I added TD b/c I was actually trying to get a crackled purple look, but no dice. Still, it's, pretty.


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

Maybe my salt crumbles were too fine and that's why my stars aren't as bold as IrishLass's? I'm planning on doing a blue and blue-green swirl and trying for a Van Gogh "Starry Night" affect.


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## snappyllama (Dec 19, 2014)

Lovely soaps, dixie.  How in the world did you do that green, red and white one? It looks like a M&P project?!? 

The best I can try to reverse engineer it... pour thin tray of red and thin tray of white. Wait. Carefully cut into strips. Line loaf mold on bottom and sides of loaf mold with alternating color strips. Pour green. Top with alternating color strips.


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## snappyllama (Dec 19, 2014)

Are you using the green CP like a grout? Am I close? This is driving me crazy.


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## snappyllama (Dec 19, 2014)

Am I rude to try to figure this out?  If so, sorry and I'll delete. Your soap is driving me crazy. I said that already. ARGH


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

We do this over a weekend so each pour is only about 12 hours apart, so the soap is still new and sticks well.

Since the soap doubles each time, the end result is 4 logs of soap.

First we do a log of red. We slice it into strips using a wire cheese slicer.

We put the strips of red in 2 logs, then pour the white. (We usually add some TD so the white part is WHITE.)

Again using the wire cheese slicer, we slice these two logs so we get long strips of red and white striped soap. The strips are the full length of the log (about ten inches).

Then we line the mold with the red and white striped soap. 

My mold doesn't make a perfect square - it's about 3.5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. (something like that). So since this technique makes square bars, we use sheets of mylar from the quilting part of the craft store to give us a little extra height on the ends. The red and white striped parts keep the soap in on the sides, but not on the front and back, so we put a piece of Mylar there.

We pour the green, and use a bit of it as "grout" (like you said) to glue the edges together. Then put a piece of red and white on top. 

The strips are very flexible, so we put some soap scraps in the middle to act as braces, so the middle bar of each log has some extra bits.

ETA: We gel, so I think that soaps up the red and white stripes during the final step and helps them stick together.


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

Not rude to ask! Learned it from another soaper years ago at a small local soap convention.


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## snappyllama (Dec 19, 2014)

That is simply fantastic.  I really love the effect.  Thanks so much for explaining it... it was driving me crazy, ahem.


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## dixiedragon (Dec 19, 2014)

I'm just tickled that another soaper was that interested!

This produces 4 logs. The first and second batches are 2.5 pounds, and the final batch is 4 pounds. This isn't perfect - there are some left over red and white strips and some left over green. I have a round column mold and I sometimes take the left over red and white strips and line that with them, then pour the extra green in there. It doesn't makes a perfect red-and-white circle, but it still looks good.


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## snappyllama (Dec 19, 2014)

It is just adorable and would also be awesome to make a whimsical frame for a stamp design. I love the column idea too. Hats off to you!


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## TVivian (Dec 19, 2014)

Woah Dixiedragon! With that kind of talent and attention to detail... I'm so excited to get one of your soaps in the swap! It's just lovely, nice work!!!


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## CaraBou (Dec 21, 2014)

dixiedragon said:


> First we do a log of red. We slice it into strips using a wire cheese slicer.
> 
> We put the strips of red in 2 logs, then pour the white.



So for this stage, did you cut thin red bars width-wise across the mold (like thin regular bars), then space them out in a new mold, and then pour white in between them?

Not sure I'm visualizing correctly... it is, after all, quite late after a bit of bit of wine.


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## jade-15 (Dec 21, 2014)

Doing this off my phone so I hope I can work it out...

Gold, frankincense and myrrh.  I wanted the gold to be less yellow and more gold but I was starting with a yellow green base colour (olive and avocado oils).
Scented with brambleberry frankincense and myrrh... Not a fan.  Especially having smelt frankincense EO (but not myrrh), this shells completely different. Oh well.


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## jade-15 (Dec 21, 2014)

Ooh it worked!!
Candy cane soap - forgot to photograph before wrapping.


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## Cindy2428 (Dec 21, 2014)

Very nice Jade - I love your peppermint soap. A lot of work making those candy canes!


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## JustBeachy (Dec 21, 2014)

Those turned out really cool.


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## snappyllama (Dec 21, 2014)

Your candy cane soap is just adorable!


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## dixiedragon (Dec 21, 2014)

CaraBou said:


> So for this stage, did you cut thin red bars width-wise across the mold (like thin regular bars), then space them out in a new mold, and then pour white in between them?
> 
> Not sure I'm visualizing correctly... it is, after all, quite late after a bit of bit of wine.



No, the strips are about 10 inches long. I think we turn the log on its side, so we start cutting from a top that is perfectly flat, b/c it was against the side of the mold.

Next time we do it I'll take pics.


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## jade-15 (Dec 21, 2014)

Cindy2428 said:


> Very nice Jade - I love your peppermint soap. A lot of work making those candy canes!



It was! My first time using melt and pour. It was very fiddly - but worth it, I think.


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## honeysuds (Dec 22, 2014)

Great looking soaps! Here is my HP gingerbread soap. Used a blend of ginger, cassia, and clove EO's and matching ground spices, molasses, and 1/2 coconut milk 1/2 water as liquid.


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## snappyllama (Dec 22, 2014)

It looks lovely, and I bet it smells incredible. I love the smell of gingerbread but never found a perfect soft cookie recipe like the ones I used to get from tiny bakery around the corner from my first house. That scent is forever linked to holding my toddler daughter's hand while she skipped on the sidewalk crunching leaves underfoot when we would pass by on our way to the library for story hour. The bakery would perfume the whole block with its gingerbread.


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## honeysuds (Dec 22, 2014)

Sounds like wonderful memories snappyllama. My husband makes gingerbread cookies from scratch with our kids every year for Christmas, they decorate them and bring them to the neighbors around us. Ironically, I don't like gingerbread cookies, mostly because his are rather crunchy whereas I prefer chewy cookies. But I love the smell of them baking, so I made this soap as my compromise :mrgreen: 

I mixed 1oz molasses, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cassia (sweet cinnamon, you could just sub cinnamon leaf or bark), 1/4 tsp clove EO's, and 1/2 as much matching ground spices to a one pound batch of soap. Well, minus the 4oz I took out for the stripe, but even if you left that in it's plenty of scent. Don't want to go too heavy with all those warming spices or you risk irritation. Try that out and see if you can relive memory lane whenever you shower


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## snappyllama (Dec 22, 2014)

honeysuds said:


> Sounds like wonderful memories snappyllama. My husband makes gingerbread cookies from scratch with our kids every year for Christmas, they decorate them and bring them to the neighbors around us. Ironically, I don't like gingerbread cookies, mostly because his are rather crunchy whereas I prefer chewy cookies. But I love the smell of them baking, so I made this soap as my compromise :mrgreen:
> 
> I mixed 1oz molasses, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cassia (sweet cinnamon, you could just sub cinnamon leaf or bark), 1/4 tsp clove EO's, and 1/2 as much matching ground spices to a one pound batch of soap. Well, minus the 4oz I took out for the stripe, but even if you left that in it's plenty of scent. Don't want to go too heavy with all those warming spices or you risk irritation. Try that out and see if you can relive memory lane whenever you shower



I will definitely try that out!  Thanks so much for sharing.


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## seven (Dec 24, 2014)

my holiday themed soaps..

meant to be as a pair... scented with love spell, and i forgot what was the other one  the red was so hard to get right


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## Saponista (Dec 24, 2014)

Where do you get your soap stamps from seven? They are so pretty with the shiny mica.


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## seven (Dec 24, 2014)

Saponista said:


> Where do you get your soap stamps from seven? They are so pretty with the shiny mica.



the deer head one was actually bought in a papercraft store. it was made from thin wood, so all i gotta do was glued it in a piece of wood, and voila 

the SC one was from Omar in Spain (pasito)


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