Sudz n' Hunni Aloe Vera Calendula Soap

Aloe Vera Calendula Soap -

A luxury handcrafted specialty soap left natural and unscented. 

This soap was made using oils infused with Calendula Petals, Aloe Vera juice and a strong Calendula tea in place of the normal distilled water, then added to skin loving oils of Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Castor Oil.

Minimum Net Wt. 4.5 oz.

Available in my online Sudz n' Hunni Soaps store -

Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown Challenge

My card today is for our Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown challenge, the theme is Thank You!

I also wanted to say thank you to Sandy at Operation Write Home for the fun opportunity she gave me as her Midweek Throwdown challenge coordinator for the past several years, it's been long enough I can't remember how many...  Anyway, it's time for me to say a fond farewell to my "job" as OWH's Midweek Throwdown challenge coordinator and move forward with my new soap business.  I've been much busier than I expected with the new business and I'm having a hard time getting everything accomplished for my commitment to Operation Write Home so it's time to turn it over to someone new.  That certain someone will be Allison, she's been part of our OWH team for awhile now, she's awesome and I know she's going to take the Midweek Throwdown challenge to the next level.  

A big Thank You to all the friends I've made while being involved with Operation Write Home, what a wonderful group of dedicated card makers we have!

So... I challenge you to make a Thank You card for Operation Write Home this week and send it in!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Thank You Cards

Sudz n' Hunni Carnivale Stripe Handcrafted Soap

Hi blog friends, I have another experiment for you today!

I've been working on different soap techniques and swirls lately and my favorite 2 lb. acrylic mold has soap in it that isn't ready to be un-molded yet.  I just wanted to make a little (more) soap,what's a girl to do?!

My family is used to me saving boxes and containers (garbage to most people) for something I'm going to create in the future.  My husband will actually tell the kids - "You'd better put that away before your Mom makes something else out of it!"  

Anyway, I've been saving this Velveeta box... it's sturdy with the heavy cardboard on the inside, has walls that are straight up and down and holds 32 ounces of what ever I'd like to put in it!  I lined it with freezer paper just like a real soap mold and went forward with my experiment.

Here's a top view of my mold ready to go.

I mixed up my soap recipe, added Carnivale fragrance from Aztec, tried two new liquid colorant samples from Wholesale Supplies Plus and proceeded to try my hand at a tiger stripe technique.

The soap colors are Crafter's Choice Matte Teal Green Liquid Pigment and Matte Lavender Liquid Pigment.  I think I'll be buying the larger size sometime soon!

Here's my finished soap in the mold right after the pour.  Next it goes into the refrigerator because I want this one to be "un-gelled", in 24 hours it will be un-molded and then in another 24 hours I will cut it into slices.

I scraped the soap batter out of the bowls and had enough to fill my almost empty Guest size silicon mold.  I have plans for my Guest size soaps and I'll show you when I have it all together another day!

This is a picture of the aftermath of my soap making.  It's difficult but if I walk away and give it a few hours it's easier to clean up because what's all over the dishes has become soap.

Ohhhh the anticipation of waiting to cut this little loaf of soap!  It's un-molded but needs another twenty - four hours till I can cut it into bars.  

Sudz n' Hunni Soaps Sparkling Arizona Citrus

Sparkling Arizona Citrus Soap

A luxury handcrafted soap scented with crisp white grapefruit and fresh tangerines are blended with tart Cassis, star jasmine, neroli and sparkling musk.  

In the bright white body of this soap you'll find drops of lime green, lemon yellow and amber, fragranced with the delightful aroma of white grapefruit, fresh tangerines blended with tart cassis, star jasmine, neroli and a sparkling musk. 

Sudz n' Hunni Sparkling Arizona Citrus Soap

I've been experimenting with a new soap recipe that is slower to come to trace so I can play with new techniques like swirls, stripes and other fun things.  I was reading the July/August issue of Saponifier Magazine and there are three soap artists that have picture tutorials and I want to try them all!

This is my first one, Celine Blacow a.k.a. The Soapstar on YouTube did a photo tutorial of a drop swirl or high pour that was featured in the magazine.  I have tried it before for my Arizona Back Country soap and it turned out nice but not as vivid as I would have liked so once again I'm inspired!

This recipe behaved beautifully, I followed her suggestion choosing a fragrance oil in the citrus or fruity family to help slow down the trace and the only thing that happened with that was it turned my soap batter yellow...  since this recipe was slow moving I had time to go get my Titanium Dioxide and mix a little in a separate measuring cup to add to my base.  Normally I would be running if I even tried to change that at all.

I kept the extras in this recipe to a minimum, just a little Colloidal Oatmeal and Tussah Silk to start out with.  

I waited twenty four hours to un-mold my soap and then another 24 hours before I cut my soap.

Here it is being sliced using my wire soap cutter.

...and all the bars of soap on a piece of parchment paper after being cut into one inch slices.

I like the way each bar of soap is a little different making each one unique.

This Sparkling Arizona Citrus Soap will be on sale in my Sudz n' Hunni Soaps online store starting today!

Thanks for visiting my blog - 

OWH Midweek Throwdown Challenge

My card today is for our Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps Midweek Throwdown challenge.  The theme is Friendship,  I colored the cute House Mouse stamped image this last summer but didn't have a nice sketch/layout for it.  Splitcoast Stampers has the perfect sketch #355 and I had lots of fun making the card!

I'm sorry I couldn't find the scrap of paper I wrote the Copic marker color numbers on.  That's one of the pitfalls of setting aside a colored image.  The patterned paper was a scrap I'd air brushed with Copic markers and stamped using Copic blending solution and a background stamp.

The other cardstock colors are Mohawk Bright White, Neenah Solar White, Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie & Garden Green and Astro Brights Galaxy Gold (the closest I could find to the retired Stampin' Up! Summer Sun).  The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set called Signature Greetings and is cut out with Spellbinders Mega Ovals and Mega Scalloped Ovals.  I added three color enhanced (G28) Dew Drops for balance and the embossed panel is made with a polka dot Cuttlebug 5 X 7 embossing folder.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Friendship

Essential Depot Soap Making Kits

I have a fun soap making project to share with you today!

I need to tell you up front that I'm NOT unhappy with the soap making kit I used from Essential Depot today, the problems you'll see pictured are from not completely evaluating and thinking through our Arizona spring and summer weather.

To get started with my story and project today a little background -

My friend Dagmar followed a link from my blog and was looking around online at Essential Depot, she came across their soap making kits and bought a couple of them.  When I visited her last she told me about the soap kits and asked if I'd make them up for her and I could keep the molds from the kits.  

You know I said yes!

She ordered these kits in the beginning of May, they shipped and arrived at her home in Arizona.  The next time I visited we opened them up and checked them out...

Oh oh, the butters had melted in shipping and were all over!  The one good thing was the included red mold, it caught most of the melted butters.

I scraped off all that I could from the containers, wrappers, etc. and put it all in the RED silicon mold.  I next put the silicon mold in my oven at 170 degrees and kept an eye on the butters, when they were almost melted I took the mold out of the oven and stirred until all the butters were incorporated.  I should add right here that I did add a tiny bit of Shea Butter I had to the recipe, I had a container that needed to be scraped out before tossing in the trash and thought the addition would help make up for what was lost in the kit.

For those readers who know me, you already know I'm not a "kit type" of person, I like formulating my own recipes so of course I had to deviate.  My friend Dagmar has been really sick this past year and fighting an unknown battle with her health, I wanted to do something with her soap that would make her smile.  Her favorite color is purple, so instead of having a plain cream colored loaf of soap I had to add color!  Above are the colors I used, a purple mica from The Conservatory called Cosmo Martini, Titanium Dioxide & Fizzy Lemonade from Brambleberry and my home brew of Annatto Seeds infused in Olive Oil.  

And I didn't use the RED silicon mold that came with the kit, I wanted to see "what's happening in there" so I used my 3 lb. acrylic slab mold.  This was a really nice soap recipe to work with, it didn't come to trace too quickly.  I had time to work with the colors making an in the pot swirl, then added more color to the top and swirling it with a chop stick.

Because this was a kit the soap making aftermath wasn't so bad either!

The soap making kit is called Bonnie's Triple Butter Soap and it's available at Essential Depot if you'd like to make this yourself.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Link Parties:

Clever Chicks

Frugally Sustainable

Gingerly Made

Adorned From Above

iGotta Create

Green Living Thursdays

Sudz n' Hunni Soaps

Happy Sunday afternoon!

I thought I'd pop in here for a moment and let you know I've updated my Sudz n' Hunni Soaps online store with a Pre-Order page.  The soap pictured above is part of the handcrafted soaps on the new pre-order page and will be available 8/20/13.

I hope you'll go take a look and maybe find something you'd like!

Sudz n' Hunni Soaps

Nature's Garden Bite Me

Even a rough day making soap is still a good day...

When I started my new soap business at the beginning of June I wasn't expecting to be very busy and I've been pleasantly surprised with plenty of orders to keep me busy!

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who's bought my soaps!  I've been staying busy (and totally enjoying myself) making 3 to 4 different soaps each week but I feel like I missed last week blogging completely.  

Wednesday I started my day dreaming up a soap for Halloween using a fragrance oil from Nature's Garden called Bite Me.  I did all my "homework" on the fragrance and formulated my recipe to fit my 5 pound mold and have some extra for samples, then I went to work.

The house was quiet, husband at work, kids at school...

When I got my oils and lye solution mixed together it came together really fast and I had "soap on a stick" when I tried to get my spatulas out of the bowls.  What???  I have five colors going on here and the soap has gotten so thick it's hard to get it into my molds.  After I'd gotten it in the mold I looked at the table and saw I hadn't added the Coconut Milk, oh duh, no wonder!  

Since the lye to oils ratio is off from not having enough liquid in the finished recipe it was time to chisel it out of the mold and get it into the crock pot to save it.  It was going to be so pretty too!!!  The above picture is the soap right out of the mold and in the crock pot.

It was looking good at 45 minutes in the crock pot but needed to be thoroughly mixed to incorporate the missing Coconut Milk, so I set the timer for another 20 minutes.  I ran and got another small crock pot and weighed out some of my cream colored soap shavings and had them melting down too.  Since my pretty soap took a turn I decided I'd try adding color back into it later using the light colored soap.

As the crock pots are heating I got out two clean molds.  The white one is a support for the red silicon mold inside that had just come in the mail, lucky for me!  

I was able to add some color back into this soap but won't know for 24 hours what it's really going to look like.  That's the fun of cutting it, seeing what you really have in there!  At this point I have six pounds of soap that smells good and I've washed up the mess of dishes I made and it has great lather and bubbles.

Oh, I forgot to mention at the very beginning of making this batch of soap I had all my ingredients measured out and lined up on the table ready to go.  I went to check something on the computer for a few minutes (still in the kitchen) and thought, "wow that fragrance is really strong!"  When I turned around and was back at the table the fragrance oil had melted the plastic cup I'd put almost 5 ounces in and it was all over the table, yikes!  I took it in stride and cleaned it up and tried to air out the house.  Re measured out more of my fragrance oil and put it in a small mason jar.

Thursday I cut the small 2 lb. loaf of soap and it revealed what it's going to look like.
I'm waiting until Friday or later today to cut the larger soap loaf, this first one was kind of soft yet.

Not exactly what I'd planned but I like it!

Bite Me seems like an appropriate name for the fragrance oil, not that I think my problems came from the fragrance oil, they came from my own operator error.  I think the name of this soap should be "Monster Mash" because I had to mash it up and mix it together again to save it.  

So... even a rough day soaping is a good day!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Whimsy & Stars Studio Blessed Harvest

We have a new challenge starting today at Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps, the theme is "Fall" and I found a wonderful fall themed digital image to use!  This pumpkin image is from Whimsy & Stars Studio, it's called Blessed Harvest.

A "fall theme" sounds so good living in Arizona right now too, our high temperatures are still 110+  I don't know about you but I'm so ready for cooler temperatures even if we don't get to see all the leaves turning different colors...  anything under 100 degrees would be a welcome relief.

I love coloring pumpkins and had so much fun coloring this digital image.  I used Copic markers E41, E42, E43, E44, B21, E35, E39, E44, E47, E49, Y04, YR02, YR04, YR07, YG03, YG67.

I was following a tutorial from Marianne Walkers blog she'd made in 2007 or 2008 coloring pumpkins and teaching about color contrast and high contrast.  The blue background on this really scared me, she called for B23 and the colorless blender.  I had everything colored and added the B23 and thought I'd ruined the whole thing, yikes!  I continued on with B21 and used the colorless blender to add dots to push the color away and blend it out more.  I like the finished affect and was happy I could save it. 

I hope you have time in your busy week to come play in our Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown challenge using a fall theme!  

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Fall theme

Sudz n' Hunni Soaps Mocha Mint Frappuccino Soap

Hi blog friends!

I acquired a new soaping tool recently that I'm loving!  It's a planer/beveler that was handcrafted by Annette's husband who I met on the Soaping 101 Facebook group.

The bar of soap you see above is my Chocolate Marble Cocoa Butter Soap, before I used this new tool it didn't look very nice.  It was lumpy bumpy and out of shape from being un-molded from one of my silicon loaf molds too soon.  Now it reminds me of a marble counter top and I have a bowl full of beautiful shavings!

Those shavings seemed like the perfect opportunity to incorporate them into a new soap and make it beautiful.  They are already scented with Chocolate fragrance and smell delightful!

While waiting for the oils and sodium hydroxide solution to cool to just the right temperature I lined my 5 pound loaf mold with freezer paper and set out my 2 pound acrylic mold just in case I might need it.

I made up my favorite 5 lb. recipe for this soap and divided out a little soap batter to color with Cocoa powder and each portion received fragrance.  Chocolate in the dark soap batter and Peppermint essential oil in the creamy batter.  

It turned out that I did need my 2 pound acrylic mold too.  This is the 2 pounds of soap still in the mold before being cut.

And this is the 5 pound loaf of soap after it came out of the wood mold.  Notice a color difference?  I think it's because of the different molds, one being acrylic and one being wood.  

This is the soap from the 5 pound wood mold sliced into one inch bars.  As I was making this soap our house smelled like a Peppermint Patty and I was hoping that the soaps turned out as "pretty as they smelled" and I think they did!  This is going to be pure delight in the shower =)

If you'd like to try my Mocha Mint Frappuccion Soap it's available in my Sudz n' Hunni Soaps online store starting today.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -  

Link Parties:

Clever Chicks

Frugally Sustainable

Green Living Thursdays

Gingerly Made

Pink Recipe Box

i Gotta Create