Home for the Holidays Decorated Soap Weekend Project

Stamping on soap?  I didn't think it was possible.  I have always wanted to add a stamped image to bar soap for gift giving but just never knew it was possible and if it was possible (which it is) I also needed to know how.

I had bought some bar soaps a while back at The Dollar Tree and they had some pretty ugly images on them but they smelled nice.  I put them in my storage cupboard and had forgotten about them.  I was looking for something else the other day and saw the soap and noticed the label on top was coming off on one of the bars.  I wasn't surprised that the label was coming off, it was cut a bit too large and it was not added on there very nice.  SO I dug out the 3 packs I bought and set them on my work counter until I finished up the project I was in the middle of.  I took the one bar of soap that had the label coming off and removed it.  It came off so easily and quickly.  Hmmm. The gears began to turn!!!  If I could find an image to stamp and put on the soap I'd be thrilled.  I looked through the catalog in the Christmas section and wasn't finding anything that would fit that I owned.  Then it dawned on me, I got that free "Home for the Holidays" download and headed to my computer to open up that download and see what all was in it.  And lo and behold there was the tree!  I was able to scale it down a bit and make it fit in the area of the soap.  

The next issue was, "what do I stamp it on?"  The original label was sticky on the edges but not in the center.  I figured the center was no longer sticky because it could only stick for so long before it dries up on the soap.  There was nothing left behind on the soap so that is what it had to be.  I would assume there is some amount of moisture in something sticky. 

So then I took out an 8-1/2" x 11" label sheet and put it in my computer. I did run a couple test prints on scrap copier paper to make sure I got the size correct.  I printed out the trees I needed and cut them on the paper cutter.  I removed the backing and and stuck the printed label on the soap!  It worked!!  I was thrilled.  Now all I need to do is wrap them up individually with some type of cling wrap and print out the ingredients label on the back.  I'll just copy the ingredients from the back of the original package.  Simple as that.

This was fun.  I want to try it with some other soaps.  I would need a soap that I can carve a rectangle (or circle??) in without it chipping or crumbling. I recall many (yes, many) years ago I had carved Ivory soap.  I may have to give that a try.  I just need the area recessed an 1/8" at the most.  Then I can add the label.  Though as I'm thinking about this I will probably need to use water on it to smooth off the center so I would have to wait until it dried to add the label.  I'll give it a try and post it on here sometime. But first I may go back to The Dollar Tree to see if they have any more (to save me some carving time!!!).  I want to make a few of these for Christmas stocking stuffer gifts and I'd like to have a few for craft fairs.  I won't add the label until it's closer to the craft fair to avoid the label coming off!

This was a very fun project and now I'm off to wrap them up in some type of clear cling wrap and add that ingredients label!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda