Mother's Day: Wash Your Mouth Out Soapsicles

This little soap pops would be really cute as teacher gifts as well.  I made these for a friend of mine on her birthday.  I usually make people food 'stuff,' but considering we go to Weight Watcher's together, I didn't think that would be such a good idea.  This is the next best thing.  I saw this precious idea on Greenbean Crafterole, and I fell in love.  She got the idea from this site, which is also where you can order the mold, and bags.  There are also a lot of great project ideas on the site, and I can't' wait to explore them!  I knew I wanted to try this, but I had the good fortune of finding the same mold at Ross (a store that carries overstocked items). 

It came with sticks, I had the bags already, and I bought some soap, and a scent at Michael's with a coupon, and used some dye, and the color wheel to make the colors I wanted.  One block of soap makes about 9 of these soap pops. 

 You melt the soap in the microwave (as the package instructs) for 30 seconds, and then 20 second intervals, stirring between each (sort of like chocolate).  Once the soap is melted, add your scent, and your dye.  I could have made each pop a different scent, but I didn't take this project that seriously!  The dye really did go a lot way.  Two drops was plenty, anything more brought about a pretty dark color. 

One difficult thing I encountered, I tried to mix a few colors at a time, and then pour them into the mold.  The really do set really quickly, and so you have to pour them quickly into the mold, and insert the pops.  Without 15 minutes, you can lift the lid, and add your next melted soap color selection.  Hold the sticks in place with little binder clips, or paperclips will work as well.  The instructions also include spritzing the top of the pops with rubbing alcohol to get out any bubbles in the soaps.  You do this before you pour them into the molds, and again once they are in the mold.  I only did this once I poured them into the molds, and it seemed to work out well. 

 
Let them harden, (about 30 minutes or so), and here is where I lost my mind.  You are supposed to be able to loosen it around the edges of the pops, push from the bottom, and they will slid right out.  YEAH RIGHT!  No, it took me an hour, and this nail file along the edges to loosen it enough to then take it to a sharp counter corner, and press hard enough on the bottom, and one slice in my thumb, sweat, tears, and 16 therapy sessions later, I slipped them all out.  The plus is, now I know what can be done, I know to expect it, and can ask for a small dose of tranquilizers next time to keep me sane, but it's something I needed to mention.  You can see in the picture below how it looks when it's 'loosened' to the right of the nail file, it will all need to be this frosted shade to slip out.  The nail file didn't cause too much damage (I was expecting FAR worse, and it  could be easily smoothed out (since it's soap). 
 
 I then used a punch and stamps to make 'flavor' tags, and I'm happy with the end product. I'd do this again, despite the last little step, just not until my thumb heels!