Homemade Soap Stamp

[DWinMadison]

Two Accomplishments in One Weekend

Made my first goats' milk soap...came out beautifully. I used condensed gm that I added to the oils and half the water volume to dissolve the lye. It was about 40f at our house Saturday night, so I let it cure outside on the patio lightly covered. Only the very center pieces have a faint sign of gel. Scented it with with honey and almond FO and added lemon zest too. This a.m. I applied my new homemade stamp, and it works beautifully! Will post pics tonight. Hope you all have a great day.

 

[Body_Basics]

I would love to try a homemade stamp but I can't draw worth a crap

 

[DWinMadison]

Me either! I took my church's logo and scanned it in. The I traced the outline into a bar of soap using an Exacto knife. From there, it was just a matter of scooping out the design. Obviously my original interest was in personalizing soap for our church to use as visitor or hospital gifts or even as a fund-raiser for missions projects.

Now, I'm wondering about the business/sales applicability for things like wedding gifts and/or corporate gifts. Imagine giving a bride and groom a set of soaps stamped with their name(s). The gift could also include the actual stamp that they could use again in the future. The same idea could apply to groomsman, bridesmaid and other wedding-related gifts that he couple might want to give. Then, companies with whom I do business send me gifts every holiday ranging from cheesecakes to gourmet cookies. I could easily see one of them sending me a set of handmade soaps with their company logo or giving them out at trade shows. That could be an order of literally hundreds of soaps for some lucky soaper. Clearly, I think too much.

Do any of you have corporate clients that purchase soap to give?

 

[chicklet]

You are just the idea machine!! You've got the wheels in my head turning. Your stamp turned out great - thanks for posting this. A friend has one of those cricut machines and I've never used it, but I'm wondering if it could be used to make templates for stamps, use the sticky paper so it would stay put on the die as you trace around it with the exactly knife ...lots to ponder.

 

[DWinMadison]

That would be nice. I went low-tech and stapled the paper to the bar. I saw a post somewhere on line where they colored the BACK of the image with a pen, fixed it to the "mold" soap and sprayed it with "Goo Gone" which caused the image to transfer. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Soap-Stamp/.

As for corporate gifts, I'd say on average the cost of gifts I receive is easily between $25 and $50. For instance, my hospital's insurer shipped a time of gourmet cookies to my office with a collection 12 cookies. It retails for $24. For the same $24 I'd WAY rather have a variety of 4 hand-made soaps in a nice gift box. Add their logo (assuming it's simple enough), and they would gladly pay more.

 

[lizflowers42]

As for corporate gifts, I'd say on average the cost of gifts I receive is easily between $25 and $50..

Do you mind if I ask what your day job is? When we get corporate gifts we have to put them out to share with the entire staff....meaning a few cookie crumbles and bites of popcorn for about 20 of us! lol

 

[houseofwool]

hehehe, I had the same question. When I last worked for a Big Company, we weren't allowed to accept any gifts over $25. It sucked because we were always being gifted really nice stuff and it had to be returned.

 

[rodeogal]

That is something else! I have been really lost in reading this post, wondering how that would all work. I have never stamped soap, and I don't think I have ever seen any that was stamped. Did you just cut new soap and stamp it? I guess it has to cure now. Is that right?

Do a lot of you stamp your soap? How do you package it? I use cigar bands on my soap so I would have to change that.

That is really cool!!

 

[2lilboots]

We are allowed to accept anything that is below $50.

 

[DWinMadison]

Do you mind if I ask what your day job is? When we get corporate gifts we have to put them out to share with the entire staff....meaning a few cookie crumbles and bites of popcorn for about 20 of us! lol

Well, my post may have been a bit misleading. I am a hospital CEO, so yes, if gifts come to the hospital I generally share them with my staff. The cookies and other items generally I mentioned are related to a couple of volunteer boards upon which I serve without compensation. Im sorry for the confusion.

 

[DWinMadison]

That is something else! I have been really lost in reading this post, wondering how that would all work. I have never stamped soap, and I don't think I have ever seen any that was stamped. Did you just cut new soap and stamp it? I guess it has to cure now. Is that right?

Do a lot of you stamp your soap? How do you package it? I use cigar bands on my soap so I would have to change that.

That is really cool!!

Well, I'm seriously just experimenting here too, but the round soap that I posted the picture of was right out of the mold when I stamped it...bad idea. I stamped a loaf cut this morning that I unmolded and set to cure last night. It was fine, and I'll post a picture of that tonight. I'm thinking probably 3 days after it's cut would be about right, but others may be able to give better advice. I think it's probably more art than science. If your soap still feels tacky or you can make an indention with your finger using mild pressure, I'd say wait.

 

[2lilboots]

I think Hazel would know when to stamp soap.

 

[lizflowers42]

Well, my post may have been a bit misleading. I am a hospital CEO, so yes, if gifts come to the hospital I generally share them with my staff. The cookies and other items generally I mentioned are related to a couple of volunteer boards upon which I serve without compensation. Im sorry for the confusion.

:think: Yes, indeed you have mislead us DW. Kudos to all the volunteer work you do, and charities you assist with. I love my job and am only kidding about the gifts. We joke that you can put any type of food out and our staff will eat it, no matter what or how old it is.

 

[melstan775]

Here's the resin in the mold and a later picture of the unmolded stamp. Sorta reminds me of my kids when they were born...gunked up and gnarly and needs to be cleaned up before I want to show it off to anybody, but you guys are basically family, so....

Aaaaw, the miracle of childbirth. <3


Okay, that cracked me up, so I had to comment on it, back to reading the rest of the thread.

 

[melstan775]

I think you have some good ideas. Stamps would be an excellent gift, especially custom ones for weddings. Not just on soap either, but think of signature stamps and wax stamps. You're very creative, DW. I am wondering how deep your stamp impression on your soap is. you said the soap was soft so I'm hard pressed to tell if you meant it that deep or not?

 

[DWinMadison]

I think you have some good ideas. Stamps would be an excellent gift, especially custom ones for weddings. Not just on soap either, but think of signature stamps and wax stamps. You're very creative, DW. I am wondering how deep your stamp impression on your soap is. you said the soap was soft so I'm hard pressed to tell if you meant it that deep or not?

...about 1/4" deep...too deep, but it's easier to trim it down than build it up.

 

[DWinMadison]

OK....here's the whole deal. First goats' milk soap, homemade soap stamp and homemade cigar bands. Thanks for listening. This was really fun. I can't wait to float the proposal to my church.

 

[houseofwool]

Very pretty soaps!

 

[DWinMadison]

Very pretty soaps!

Thanks. I'm not sure I would mix this hanger swirl technique with a soap stamp again...at least not THIS stamp. They really don't go together well. All in all, I'm very please with each of the components...just not together.