Tuesday, September 1, 2015

September "Shades of Autumn" Challenge at Our Creative Corner - Fallin' off the Page


One of my favourite crafty things to mess around with is Glycerine Soap.  While I love the chemistry of Cold Process soap from scratch, there is so much room for creative versatility with Melt and Pour Soap. From making the soap, to choosing the scent, to designing the aesthetics of the soap, for me its a blend of all different kinds of fun crafty creativity.

I have been waiting for an OCC challenge that would allow me to share some soapy craft - this month's challenge hosted by Julia with it's theme of "SHADES OF AUTUMN" allowed me to do just that.  And the coolest thing about OCC is that you can share ANY type of craft. I was inspired by the rich tones and hues of autumn leaves and decided to make a batch of soap creations which reflected that.

I have titled my contribution: "Fallin' off the page".   There is that self-evident play on words there.  I also wanted to share how I use paper crafting tools in soap crafting.  I made a bunch of different soapy creations which I plan to give out as gifts soon for upcoming birthdays of friends and family.


Play along with the challenge theme this month and you could be the winner of $25 gift voucher from our generous sponsor
 

Here below are Julia's rules of the challenge.
"I love the colours of autumn! Those beautiful and dramatic reds, golds, yellows, browns, greens and all shades in between. Your challenge this month is to take some inspiration from the colours in the image provided and make an autumnal inspired project."
 I used different stamping and crafting tools to make my basket of gift soaps.

For the soap with leafy imprints.  
I used some rubber and acrylic stamps from my collection.  See a quick photo tutorial of the process.


I placed the stamps flat side down into a silicone mini loaf baking pan.

After I unmoulded the soap, I made a "soap paint" by mixing shimmer powder with some glycerine and alcohol and using a long bristled brush, carefully painted each imprint or debossed leaf design.



For the clear soap with maple leaf embeds.

I poured thin layers of different colours of soap into a baking pan.


I used modelling clay cutting tools to punch out the leaves. 

The trickiest soap was the Autumn Tree.
(woops about the blurry picture)

I used a kitchen grater to grate different autumn coloured soap into tiny strips and then I minced that with a regular knife.  To get as close to a tree shape as possible I squished the coloured chips into an egg holder.  I made thin block strip of brown soap and created the trunk of the tree.


And that there is a basic run down of how I created the basket of Autmny soaps.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for Julia's "Colours of Autumn" Challenge.

Happy Crafting!