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SoapyLove book review

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516h37O9EOL._SS500_Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove has published her first book, SoapyLove: Squeaky-clean projects using melt and pour soap, and it does not disappoint!  SoapyLove is not only a great introductory book for the beginner melt and pour soap crafter, but will teach soapmaking veterans some new tricks as well.

The first portion of the book has an overview of  basic melt and pour techniques and materials, such as preventing surface bubbles; adding colorants, micas, and fragrances; layering soaps; and cutting soap. The balance of the book is dedicated to projects and more detailed techniques.  Some of the skills taught are layering, embedding shapes, cutting out shapes, soap on a rope, marbling, and using transfer sheets to create designs.

There are 25 wonderful projects included in SoapyLove, and several of the projects also have other suggested ideas for the skills used in the project. Projects include cameo bars, checkered stars, heavenly bars (clouds and grass with a blue sky), marbled ice cream cones, soap tarts (toaster pastries), and soap candies.  A couple of my personal favorites include the flame bars and plaid soaps.

Each project has lots of full color pictures and step-by-step instructions. While some of the projects are better suited to more advanced melt and pour soapcrafters, beginners should have no problem with the majority of the projects included.

The only thing that I would like to have been included would be a short resource guide in the back as a reference.  While Chialtas does mention some brand names of items and the occasional store, it would be helpful, especially for beginners, to have a resource guide giving more specific information on where to find some of the items, such as fragrances and molds, from such a seasoned soapmaker.  All in all, this is definitely the best melt and pour soap crafting book that I have seen!  Pick it up for only $19.99 at your favorite bookstore.

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Printable Houses to Use as Christmas Decorations

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.