JacquiO

Well it's official. We're going! I just paid registration for 2. Pauline's going to book the hotel room. I'm really looking forward to meeting you all. I can't wait for July to get here. Now I just need to know about what time we need arrive by on Friday for the meet & greet. Cheers, Jacqui

Welcome to the board. The way I look at is that my family should be grateful. It is a sickness but I could be addicted to far worse. Crafting is my crack cocaine!

They take 2 days to make but only because the cupcake bomb part has to harden before piping on the icing. As far as time to take making - once your ingredients are weighed and combined you have to work quickly to mold them before it dries out so they really don't take that long. Less than an hour. Same pretty much for the icing the following day. Personally I think they are easier to make than the round bath bombs which for some reason I can never get the two halves to stick together after the first 2 or 3. If you want to try to make them just check out Van_Yulay's class in the tutorial section. The only thing I recommend is halving her recipes to start. You have to get used to pressing the bombs into the cupcake pan quickly and it's easier to work with the half recipe while practicing.

Van_Yulay may have the answer because she's the one I got the recipe from. I think you would treat them like bath bombs. Wrap them in tissue paper and store in a dark dry place or airtight container. I'll be honest mine get used too quickly so I don't get to keep them around very long. As long as you don't expose them to too much moisture I think they'll last a while.

I don't know if my hand slips and moves the log around when I try to hold it straight but I had a hard time. I finally bought a specially made cutter from the same person who makes my log molds. It fits the logs exactly but I still have to mark it with a ruler if I want all my bars the same size. He also makes one that has multiple slots so you just put the log in and cut, cut, cut your done but I haven't been willing to cough up the money for it yet.

She makes it look so easy. http://www.youtube.com/user/cwayneuc#p/u/4/rp3yxn4Xntc

I just finished these last night. These bombs I made out of what didn't make it into the muffin pans.

I always use chilled water from the fridge and if I make tea soaps I brew them real strong and refrigerate before using. Although some people brew them right in the hot lye solution.

I would just like to give you a heartfelt welcome to the forum. I've been a member of this forum for 10 years now and it's a shame you had to be greeted with such hostility. Try not to take it personally. Trust me we all get our share of abusive posts now and then and it's best just to ignore them. I read over some of your recent posts and I wouldn't classify anything you said as spam. There certainly are times I get on and in an hour I've done 10 or more posts and I don't consider that spamming - I'm just on a roll. There's nothing wrong with expressing your desire to participate in the marketplace. We do have the rule that you have to have 8 posts and be a member for 30 days before you can access those sections. This is done to protect us from people coming in and running bogus ads and co-ops, collecting a bunch of money and then disappearing and even that's not a guarantee. It's still an "at your own risk" transaction. But when you're the buyer and you're the one sending money before the items are shipped then you are assuming the risk. As far as it being a matter of only "seasoned" members getting the good deals I know from personal experience that it can take a while to unload your unwanted supplies and the more business one can get the better but ultimately it's up to the seller to do business with you. Cheers and good luck. We're happy to have you.

Yeah you have to be a member of the forum for a month before you can view the Marketplace and send PMs. I sent Dana a message for you with a link to this thread.

I made paraffin candles for years before switching to soy and I always had to cure them before getting a good hot throw. Curing is just one of those issues that candle makers tend agree to disagree. But for me the proof was in the pudding. I would custom make candles and give them to my customers pretty much a day or two after pouring and they would come back complaining they didn't smell only to find after refunding them their money that a week later they would throw just fine. It got to the point that I never sold a candle less than a week old.

There's a couple things you need to factor in when testing hot throw. One, did you let the candle cure for a least a week? Two, how many candles did you make before testing? Candle makers get what's referred to as candle nose where our noses become desensitized to certain fragrances. The best way to test hot throw is to take it to a friend or relatives house when the candle is at least a week old and then burn in a closed off room such as a bathroom or small bedroom where it won't get affected by too many other odors in the house. It's very hard to judge the throw of a recently made candle because it probably hasn't cured yet and your house is still probably overwhelmed by the fragrance from having just made it.

Personally I would wait until your kids were older but ultimately it's up to you. I waited until my daughter was five years old and then I only did HP because you don't have the lye sitting around or in the fridge cooling off. I kept my lye in a cabinet above the stove and I only soaped at night after my daughter went to bed. Only recently now that my daughter is almost eight have I started CP soaping and I do it during the day sometimes but I make sure my daughter knows when I mixing the lye and I make sure she stays out of the kitchen.

Welcome to the forum Cindylou. Newbies and experienced chandlers alike can gain so much from this site. From time and money saving tips and techniques to new suppliers, distributors and products to help expand your line and lower your mfg costs. The only thing you got to watch out for is getting bit by soap and B&B bug. I've been member of this site and making candles for 10 years now and it tempted me into trying soap & B&B now I don't want to do anything else LOL. Also once you've been a member for a month with 8 or more posts you'll have access to the forum's marketplace where you can buy,sell and trade excess stock and equipment, you can participate in co-ops and you can swap finished products. I love participating in the swaps. You get to try new scents, see new ways of doing things, check out different packaging and even learn a new recipe or two. Best of all are the people who are so helpful and nice and willing to share their talents. I hope to see more of you on the boards in the coming months. Cheers, Jacqui

The basket looks great! I hope it brings in a good donation for the cure.

I've wanting to try HP in the oven but my problem is finding a container to put it in. I saw a guy on youtube use 2 large pyrex casserole dishes and he colored one and swirled them together but it only made one loaf. I can cook up to 5lbs oils in my 7qt crock pot. What do you use? I have a crock pot that has the removable ceramic insert. I wonder if I could just use that and put it in the oven? Would it crack? Probably not at 190 degrees.

I don't know where to begin they're all so beautiful! Man I got to get my hands on a slab mold. :rolleyes2 I really like the lavender vanilla. I love the way that light purple contrasts with the browning of the soap. What did you use to get that color? Did you have to scent the swirl differently to keep it from darkening too?

How about Sun-Catcher Scents? The aroma ornies remind me a of the sun catchers I made as a kid with the little plastic beads that you melt together in the oven.

Yeah I'd say that is a good price. When I was able to get it locally I paid about $6.99 for 2 lbs. You can get it cheaper by buying in bulk online but you also have to pay an extra hazmat fee for shipping. Just starting out buy from your local source then if and when your hooked you can buy in bulk.

It looks like MP to me but it could very well be transparent handmade soap. Olive oil is one the oils recommended to get a clear result. If your curious I found this tutorial that explains the procedure. http://crafty.dyskolus.com/cosmetics/clear1__cosmetics.html I haven't ever tried to make it myself and considering all the other things I want to try it's pretty low on my list.

The CBL-141 is excellent votive/pillar wax. It has a nice smooth gloss finish, high fragrance load and great throw.

Song titles, book titles and movie titles can't be copyrighted. Just because there's a song with that name doesn't mean you can't use it. I learned this when I took a screen writing class. BTW Moon Shadow is a song written by Cat Stevens.

If your making crock pot soap you don't have to wait until everything is room temp. Actually I do HP in reverse. First I heat and melt my oils and butters right in the crockpot then I dissolve my lye in water and add it straight to the oils. The lye solution does not need to be cooled down. Stick blend it to trace and then comes the cooking. The reason your soap boiled over on you is because you didn't stir it down. I cook my crock pot soap on the high setting but if you're starting out use the low setting. It will take longer but you will have less chance of volcanic soap eruption. Use a kitchen timer and set it at fifteen minute intervals. Every fifteen minutes stir down your soap until it's finished. The soap as it is cooking will go through 3 phases. First is the applesauce phase, then it will become a mash potato like constancy and then finally it reaches the Vaseline stage and that's when it is done. Once it becomes a translucent gel then you can start to mold it. Let it set up over night If you have trouble releasing it you can stick it in the freezer for an hour and then take it out for 20 minutes so that it starts to sweat a little and then it should release from your mold very easily. The soap is then done and usable. You don't need to cure it but it may be a little soft and you can set it on a drying rack of baking rack for 2-4 weeks to harden up. This tutorial helped me a lot when I first started making crock pot HP. http://www.candletech.com/soap-making/hot-process-soap-instructions/ You can use any recipe for CP for HP. Just run your recipe through the soap calc and and follow the water and lye measurements it calculates and you should have great results.

SOS has Vanilla Frosting. I used to blend it in with my gingerbread. http://www.saveonscents.com/product_info.php/products_id/2416

My first felting adventure... I first started with the heart shaped soap but since I only made them about a week and a half ago they felt too so soft beneath the felt so I decided not to do anymore of those or the flower shapes until they firm up more. So I switched to some HP soaps I had that were older and nice and hard. I started out using the knee high stocking to hold my felt together during the first phase but by soap number four I stopped using it. The thing I realized after doing it for a while is that you don't want to rub too vigorously whether it's in your hands or on the mat. You want to keep it gentle and smooth. I used tap water as hot as I could stand it. Tonight I'm going to wear rubber gloves since my hands are pretty dried out from yesterday. I feel like I washed my hands 50 times over last night. which I pretty much did. The mat I used is a bamboo place mat I found at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I wanted a sushi mat but they didn't have any but for $2 the place mat worked just fine. The colors bled a little at first but now after being soaped up and rinsed out 5 times it doesn't anymore. My favorites were the round soaps. I think they felted the best. The rectangle ones were a little challenging around the edges and I'm still not entirely happy how the ends turns out. In the last photo showing all six that I completed last night the top row were the first three and the bottom were the last. You can kinda see my rate of improvement.