Monday, December 31, 2007

Let the Love-In Begin!


The second in my series of Sweetheart Soaps, this one smells heavenly! The cherry candy gets a huge thumbs up from my hubby. I have lots more I want to make (different designs) but I'm going to wait and see if people want them before I wind up with piles of heart soaps that I can't sell after Valentine's Day! If you'd like to check out my Sweetheart Soaps in my Etsy shop, go to www.soapylove.etsy.com.

Oh - if you read my last post about vellum envelopes, that didn't really work out. The vellum was too opaque to see the soap design. Plus these boxes are so nice and easy!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Love is in the Air - Already!


Some of you may be annoyed by this, but I'm already thinking about Valentine's Day soaps! I love the new year and the springy energy, especially the romantic holiday many consider an evil plot by Hallmark.

One thing that excites me about it is that I am going to be doing a mini-collection of special heart soaps, all packaged in vellum envelopes. I have 4 styles and hopefully I can offer them wholesale, which I normally reserve only my soapsicles for. This year will be really great for Soapylove - I'm planning lots of cool new things! As I always say... "stay tuned!"

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Soap Challenge - Game On!


Anne-Marie of Brambleberry recently blogged about these gorgeous cookies from Martha Stewart. These are just the kinds of things I think would make gorgeous soaps, too! So I am challenging myself to create a soapy version that has the same happy vibe these cookies do. It'll be spring before I succeed, I'm sure, but those colors will be perfect then!

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Quest for the Perfect Aqua


One thing I've been very busy with lately is developing new styles for next year. I find it hard to make sure I have a good variety of colors in my line because the colorants available that don't bleed are quite limited.

I wanted to make a nice bright aqua this time. I started with a blue color and added yellow to brighten it, but that never quite worked. You can see in the picture above all the variations I got. Some were too dark, some too dull.

Luckily I have Erin to bounce ideas off of. She and I are both m&p addicts and have a few tricks we can share. Erin suggested starting with green instead, which turned out to be the perfect answer! It's still different than what I was striving for but is very pretty and will work great for my new Candy Carousel Soapsicle.

Stay tuned for final shots of this style!

Ooh! Pretty Flower!

Websites as graphs - an HTML DOM Visualizer Applet
If you have a site, this is a really fun toy to play with. I don't actually know what the dots all mean, but I like how my blog flower turned out! If I knew how to get a screenshot, I'd show you. But anyway, you should try it with yours, or with a major site like Craigslist and see what you get!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Sorry for the Bloggy Siesta!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! I'm working hard on shipping some large orders, finalizing some new styles for spring, and finishing my spring catalog. All that plus taking care of Sequoia and my newborn Althea who just turned 7 weeks old. It's been nuts!!

So thanks to everyone who has visited and is reading my blog while I'm getting adjusted. I love seeing those hits every day!!