thesoapbox

I'm crafty but I failed shop in the 6th grade and would like to keep all my digits Angi

I have been avoiding getting power tools for my husband for a long time as I have seen nothing necessary for him to have them for....until now ! Guess who is getting some tools when he gets home in February!! Angi

Your salt bars look wonderful!!! Mine always come out horrible lol! Angi

Here is a couple of recipes I pulled up online: (note none have vinegar) Polish wood with 2 tsp. lemon oil and 1 pint mineral oil in spray bottle. Spray, rub in and wipe clean. Mix two parts olive oil to one part lemon juice. After rubbing the mixture in, let stand for several hours and then polish with a soft, dry cloth. Melt 1 tbsp. carnauba wax into two pints mineral oil. Use sparingly and rub hard. I did find one that called for White Vinegar and Lemon Juice. Then I found some that called for Beeswax, Carnuba Wax, Linseed Oil and Turpentine. Maybe for your recipe do what is listed in the first one posted here and go back a couple hours later and polish with the soft dry cloth. Maybe then you will see the shine. Dunno though as I have never tried any of these. Angi

I think it is perfect. I have made a beer soap and I loved it as well !! Angi

I was going to do the entire soap with black. So I will search to see how to use the charcoal in soap, where can this be bought? I also saw aussie black clay in a google search, anyone used this for black? Angi

... a really good black color and as close to red as possible color? I love my PoP colors but I am needing to do some black soaps and some soaps that have red in them. I understand that red doesn't really come out as red so something that would come pretty darn close would suffice. Thanks! Angi

Get Suckered has a cake batter flavor oil. Maybe you can use that and mix it with another flavor oil to create a cupcake one. They have a cotton candy one too, maybe you can mix those together to get a cupcake flavor Angi

Yeah I forgot about church kitchens as well. Good idea. Dog treats are pretty good sellers really and here in Louisville they have a huge animal festival once a year along the river that would be so worth it if you had this type of business! Angi

I love the top too! I can't seem to do that, someone teach me Angi

Sure you can. I use cupcake liners for my firestarters and put them in the cupcake baking pan to keep the shape. Comes out nicely. Angi

Yeah, they will inspect your home or you could rent out a commercial kitchen by the hour if there is one near you, to save the headache of having an inspection. I was making dog treats for awhile and then it was decided where I live that all the recipes had to be independently lab tested with all the pertinent info placed on all labels. Was too expensive for me to continue so I just stopped. But I did have tons of fun baking them Angi

Also, be sure to check your state and see if they are one of those states where you have to have all of your recipes tested before selling. I know many are adopting that after the pet food recall thingy recently. The testing isn't cheap either. Angi

I have been doing this for quite awhile and still nowhere near being able to do this full time. So I still must trudge on to my 12 hr shift weekend job every single weekend of my boring life Angi

Here are a couple of places I found on search. Not sure what size you need but maybe you can find it from one of these. Angi http://www.associatedbag.com/category.asp?cn=ABC&c1=ENV&p1=ENV_M350&c2=FC02&pg=1 http://www.uline.com/BL_3651/?pricode=wk457 http://www.cleartecpackaging.com/?gclid=CKPv4Nj48JcCFSMgDQodKiOkCw http://www.visipak.com/

Some people just have too much money for their own good I would imagine it is a name factor, they can sell items that high priced because of the name Hermes. Angi

I was thinking the same thing. It is soap. I personally wouldn't have even entertained the thought of a refund unless it was a liquid soap that ended up being ruined or ruined the rest of the box. It's simply mp soap blocks, pack them up in large ziploc bags and put them out of your child's reach. I normally order huge blocks of mp and cut them up and store in baggies and it does fine. I had some fbb that busted open during shipment and that I did request a replacement because the product was ruined. Angi

Sorry, didn't mean to perturb you. angi

Sampler boxes are just like any other type of advertising. Except you are sending in samples. You can not guarantee that your samples will generate sales or visits to your store same as you can't guarantee if that ad you paid for on a blog or other site will generate sales or visits. Some swear by the samplers as their sales have increased while others don't. It also depends on how you package your samples. I run a sampler and some of the samples I have received can tell you why there are no sales. While others that I have received will definitely generate sales and visits. I participated myself in The Little Black Box and received 2 Etsy sales as a result...I found out by receiving convos from both buyers where they got their sample from and that they placed an order. So, even though it was only 2 orders it had me excited . Angi

You have to read and read. The fees will go up to $20/month. I got that from following a link on the front page. Their forums are there for everyone to read and I know they also have a blog and I believe Twitter where they put their info. I just read the forum. If it is not the venue for you then that is fine, but certainly if someone else chooses to use it then I am sure they did all the research they felt they needed without having you around to steer them elsewhere. Angi

Most schools secret santa shops are PTA or PTO run. I have been on the executive pta board for my 2 sons' schools for 2 years now as the fundraiser coordinator (ways and means). Check with your PTO or PTA to see how they run it. There are over 10 companies that PTO's or PTA's can choose from. They are dollar store quality items that they deliver, set out for you in displays, give you a cash register and some even offer volunteers to help out if you can't drum some up from your school. I pretty much guarantee they used a company. We are a larger elementary school and do not ever receive enough donations to run a well-inventoried Secret Santa Shop, smaller schools would have an even tougher time getting enough donations to provide ALL the kids in the school at least 2 items to purchase. The shops are provided by actual fundraising companies. Only saying this because I have had to research this first hand for our school. Angi

Usually those Secret Santa shops are run by businesses. Not donations at all. Our PTA did it two years ago and just did not generate the sales that it cost to pay the company with all the stuff they delivered. We stopped doing that shop the past two years. All the ideas are great. If you want to give them as donations check your local shelters that cater to women. But if you want to make sales, the grab bag idea is terrific. I love buying mystery bags Angi

I had no problems reading it or seeing it and not being able to pronounce a company name has never turned me away from purchasing from someone. Thank God or I would have been screwed when we lived in Germany. If the logo pleases you then that should be fine. You are going to have people that love it and people that hate it. You can't please everyone all of the time! Angi

From what I have found John Jacobs owns Foxy Findings that was a power seller on Ebay and I believe that is the biz name that Artfire is working under. Not unusual. I can have up to 5 business names working under my registered name. Foxy Findings is a registered business in Tucson, AZ with over 80 employees. Here is an article: http://erootsnews.com/wordpressnew/ Angi

Artfire has very much advertised that they are in Beta and everyone that is participating knows they are in Beta. They are also in their forums contantly listing exactly everything they are fixing and have fixed. They work hard on the bugs that are reported to them. Choose which venue you would like..ebay, etsy, artifre, 1000 markets, lollishops..to name a few. But I certainly wouldn't put all your eggs into one basket. If you can, use a few of them or even your own website. Angi