Soapymomma

Also, beeswax is wonderful and natural, but it can also be fussy. You pour too hot or let it cool too fast, it will crack. You might want to do some reading on how beeswax acts in candles too before you use it again. I absolutly love it, but it did take some practice and knowledge before I was able to produce a nice candle. Wicks for beeswax do have to be bigger than wicks for paraffin or even soy. I wish you all the best. Don't give up because it is worth the trial and error. That is how we all learned this craft. By the way, I love glitter too. Soapymomma

Yes, I do love to help people get into our craft! I love to share thoughts and ideas. It makes us all richer. Thanks for the nice comments about my soaps. I was hoping to give ideas and to inspire. I also want people to know that melt and pour is lots more than just melting soap bases. It can allow a lot of creativity and does involve talent. Druin, I wish you all the very best and please share some of your work with us as you practice. Also, have you tried to do the fancy melts with embeds and toppings and stuff? Mine are not the greatest, but I have seen some with amazing foody, yummy stuff added to them. Some even have the look of birthday cakes and other cool stuff. Just a thought. Here are my apple and blueberry ones. We also love dragonflies and have several different soaps made with them. Yeah, no questions are weird. It is how smart people get smarter! Soapymomma

I have received that Australia email several times too. It is best not to reply at all - like someone said --- delete. They are creeps that is for sure. I don't know all of the ins and outs of the scammers or how they actually get someone to give them money, but it must work in some cases or they would quit. They deserve a swift kick in the you know where! Especially in these tough times when so people are grasping at straws just to stay in business. Soapymomma

Ah, that makes sense! Thank you. I attach stuff to soap all the time, but that had me baffled a bit! Always something new to learn-- Thanks for sharing. Soapymomma

Pouring clear soap over colored chunks is fun and makes a pretty bar. You can also make colorful chunks and pour white over them. You can do multi pour bars which can be awesome works of art and challenge your sense of creativity. There really is no limit to what you can do with soap. I get to the point that sometimes I just make a plain, scented bar to use for myself. LOL Soapymoma

Those are just adorable. I was wondering, how you got the curls to stick up there. They don't look like you melted them on. Did you just use the soap base as a sort of glue to attach them that way? They look like they are securely attached. Sorry, if this is a dumb question. They look good enough to eat!

HI Missy, Welcome to the board. I use three wicks for my pie candles. I use zinc - usually. You are sure welcome to look at my finished candles on my site. www.candlesbathandpotpourri.com I love making gel candles and other candles using gel for topping and such. I think that they sort of lost favor with all of the scares about the danger of gel and because lots of people did not practice safe candle making. I have hung in there with them because I enjoy them and I still have people who want to buy them. As long as we are using gel safe supplies and do test everything, I think gel might just make a comeback. It is as expensive as heck anymore though. Soapymomma

Those dots are probably long soap rods that go through the entire mold. Then he pours around them. I think. lol Soapymomma

HI, What is the web address where the soaps are located? I'd love to look a other soaps similar to those. I think I can make those, but I'd want to try it before posting to everyone - just in case. Those look like poppy seeds on top. Very cool soaps. I would imagine they are made in a rectangular loaf mold. Soapymomma

Those are really lovely soaps. Are there special qualities that beer offers to the skin? Putting beer in soaps is new to me. It sounds awesome! Soapymomma

Too bad about it being a fire hazard because they sure do look cool. What kind of wax are you using? It is sort of funny how the paper stays in tact. That process could probably be used for hurricanes and look really great. I am all over new and fun ideas, but the wise candlemaker sure does test how safe their creations are before anything else. Thank you so much for posting those test burns. Soapymomma

:yay: To you for testing that candle idea! It may look cool, but if it is unsafe-- then all that coolness goes out the window! Like others, I really thought that the ink might stay on the wax and not the paper. The things some people dream up to do and then actually do and promote without even a thought for being safe is amazing! Thanks for putting out that effort and posting. Soapymomma

The best way to know is for someone on here to try it and then test burn. I'd love to know how it turns out. There would be unlimited possibilities for design with tissue paper. Of course it has to be safe first, but if it is, then that is danged cool. If anyone does try it, please post. Soapymomma

Thank you, Ok, here is what was done. We had an error in the back of the cart - a page did not load properly and prevented us from using necessary functions. I looked through the forums for a similar error, did not find one. The most common cause of the type of error we had is truncated files from the original upload. It made sense to try to replace the majority of the site files with the originals - last ditch troubleshooting rule is to try to return things to the state they were in to begin with, when it should have worked. I re-uploaded all of the site file folders, EXCEPT the ones that would have customized stuff in them (template folders, image folders, etc), and of course, I did not overwrite the config file. I have verified, the config file was not touched, the correct database info is still in it. We now get an error that most people on the forums have solved by correcting problems within the config file. But the config file has NOT changed. And the other files were merely written over with fresh copies of themselves - this wasn't an upgrade or anything else like that. No one can tell me whether there are other files that may affect the database, and no one is saying whether there is a second config file - the info on the forums does not make reference to one. Soapymomma

Does anyone on here use XCart Gold shopping cart for their site? My designer was uploading some files and my site crashed. The only help seems to be through a two day wait -- ticket system. NO phone help is offered. This is not a FREE shopping cart sytem. I guess you never really know how good or not so good a system is until you are in the middle of a crisis. I am so bummed. Things have been going really well and now this! I did not need this right when the busy season is beginning to really jump. WAAAAA! If anyone knows about adding static pages and changing files in this shopping cart, please give any advice you might have. TIA Soapymomma

I really like the ones with the chunks embedded in them. I have a hard time getting that type of bar to look so good. Yours are lovely. Soapymomma

I'm sure you make really nice candles. It is exciting to have your site up, but that candle on the homepage really is not very nice looking. You probably do not want that to be the first thing a potential customer sees. The wick may be centered, but it looks off. There is a black speck in the candle and that makes it look uninviting. You want to make a good impression, so you should take a better picture. A 6 mega pixel camera is usually capable of taking wonderful pictures. Maybe you could set a couple of really perfect candles next to an interesting background or a basic background or some pretty flowers or something, but make sure the candle is perfect looking if you want it to represent your company and your creations. Just some thoughts, Soapymomma

Your soaps are completely amazing. I LOVE the colors. Beautiful work. Soapymomma

Melt and Pour soap needs to be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap most of the time. The high glycerin content in it causes it to draw moisture from the air. If you are storing it for very long or shipping it, you shoud wrap it in plastic wrap even if you are going to put in something prettier like a cello bag or a drawstring bag, a soap box or something else. If the soap is going to be used in a short time, then it doesn't matter so much. I ship a few soaps in cello bags for shower favors when I know they will be used right away, but we always wrap them really carefully in packing foam to protect them. Glycerin soaps do get beat up really easily too. They are not as tough as CP soaps are, so you need to treat them with some extra TLC. Soapymomma

I'm sorry, I don't know exactly what the additive is, but I got it at a craft store - maybe Joanne's. It was right there with the paints and simply said soap and candle additive. You can also just get soap paints lots of places too. Hope that helps a little. Soapymomma

Thanks, I just started posting here again after quite a while and didn't think to look up scammers. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. The guy has been turned in before. The point is he is still at it. I just got his emails a couple of days ago. Someone along the way must be falling for his scam or he would not continue doing it. Probably turning him in every time he tries something like this is a good idea if people want to stop the jerk. Soapymomma

Those are all really cute. I don't like to paint soaps either, but it really isn't that hard to do. You can get an additive at a craft store to add to regular acrilic paint to make it stick to soaps or you can get soap paint from Brambleberry or some other place. I paint on eyes and a few little details because it really makes the soap pop and look awesome. I love your chocolate chip cookies! That is an adorable idea. I bet they will sell like crazy. Soapymomma

There is this guy who is a known scammers who claims to be assoicated with an orphange in Africa. I know it is a scam for several reasons, but mostly because I checked on the internet and found the exact emails had been sent to others. The sender used a different name, but the text in the emails was exactly the same. He said he wanted to order 800 items and on and on. If anyone is interested I can send the text. The reason I am posting about this is because I want to turn this guy in, but do not know where to turn him in to. Does anyone know of where to turn someone in for trying to scam? I'd report him to several places if I could. This sort of thing makes me so mad. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Soapymomma

There are some amazing properties that charcoal adds. Here is a site with tons of info about it. If you promote a soap with charcoal in it, it would be good to know as much about it as possible. It has lots of uses too even besides in soap -- like for bee stings and stuff. Chech it out. I found this site very informative. http://www.BuyActivatedCharcoal.com Soapymomma

Oh, thank you. Now I see how you did them. They are wonderful and very different which is nice. Soapymomma