Okay…I love giveaways, but it is going to be nice to get back to some regular posting. What about you? As you know, I have a love for all things MONOGRAMMED! I have been wanting to make some monogrammed soap for quite a while now, but have been unsure about how to go about it. So the other day, I just thought I would do a test run and see what happened.
Overall, I am happy with the turnout. I practiced on one bar of soap first to get my preferred carving technique down. I highly recommend a practice run before making an attempt if you would like to try to make some for yourself.
Then I let my 3 year old carve my practice soap while I worked on one of “the real things”. I actually really enjoyed working with the soap. Here is what I did:
Supplies:
Lever Soap 2000 (I liked how soft and easy this soap was to carve and work with)
glue dots
length of ribbon
scrapbook paper
vegetable peeler
standard screwdriver (smaller the better)
Q-tips
monogram pattern
non-permanent marker
straightened paper clip
First I started with the vegetable grater and gently shaved off the Lever 2000 logo that was imprinted in the soap. I did this by laying the vegetable peeler flat and gently curling the soap off layer by layer. This will take a little practice to get it smooth and flat. I made sure to catch all my soap shavings in a container and saved them to reuse.
As soon as the logo is almost completely gone you can finish and just smooth any uneven areas. You can do this on both sides of the soap if you would like.
Then I took my circled monogram and printed it out. The circle measured 1.5 inches square. The font I used was Times New Roman in bold and just stretched it in my photo program till I was happy with how it filled up the circle. Then I printed it out and cut out the circle.
Center your monogram in place and hold it with your finger while you take a pencil lead or straightened paper clip (which I used) to mark around the edge of the circle. Then I dug the circle out so that there was a nice deep groove.
Now cut out the letter of your monogram but be sure to leave all of the white area. Take a fine tip marker and trace the letter.
This will let you know where to stop when you begin to dig out the excess soap.
Now, take your screwdriver and gently and carefully scrap out the soap on the inside of the circle. You will want to keep the letter raised and untouched. You will need to be really careful around the edges of the letter and the circle so that you don’t accidently scrape into an area you don’t want touched.
When you scrape the bottom, be sure to pull the screwdriver so that is lays flat against the soap. This will give you a nice smooth layer. When you are happy with the monogram and have scraped out enough soap, you can take a Q-tip and smooth out areas that may be a bit rough. Simply dip the Q-tip into hot water and gently rub on the rough surface. The hot water will melt the soap and smooth any edges. Do this very carefully and be sure your Q-tip is not dripping wet. You can also gently remove the marker with the wet Q-tip.
And that is it! Done with the soap carving. You can see my practice soap in the picture below (before it was carved up). The practice soap is on the right hand side next to one of my better attempts. I learned how to be extra careful around the letter to make sure it held it’s shape nicely.
Now, you want to prettify your soap packaging. I simply cut off the ends of the soap box leaving just an open rectangle. Then I simply glued some cute scrapbook paper around the box.
Then taking a long strip of ribbon, I forgot to measure it…Just wrap it around and eyeball it. I fastened one end of the ribbon on the top of the box in the middle under the monogram (see top picture). Then using another glue dot, I attached the monogram to the other end of the ribbon. Then simply used a glue dot to place the two ends of the ribbon on top of one another.
Print out another monogrammed circle on white cardstock and use that as the decorative top. To open you will simply lift up the monogram and the soap will just slide out one end.
I thought these would be fun to have in your guest bathroom for special guests. Or they would be fun to give as a small little gift for a friend or a newlywed couple. Or…carve up your mom’s favorite soap with her initial. Monogrammed soaps are just a fun little gift idea that can help make someone feel a little extra special!
And just in case you LOVE monogrammed items as much as I do, I pulled together a list of some of my past monogram projects:
Linking up here:
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Vanilla Bean Crafts says
No way!!! This is a great idea for my mother in law for mothers day!!! She’d go nuts for it!
Amy says
Thanks for your comment. I should make my MIL one too…good thing I already have some that start with an H :)
Love it! Thanks for the fabulous tutorial.
that’s such a good idea!! and very easy.
Love it! I’m going to work on this tonight!!
Very cool! Thanks for the great tut!
Great idea. This would make a cute wedding gift along with other monogrammed things.
I thought it would be a fun wedding gift too. A group of monogrammed items would have been fun to get along with your new name togehter. Good idea.
Wow! I have a new appreciation for both monograms and soap.
ha! Maybe due to monogram overload from The Idea Room?? ha
Wow, that looks incredible! I definitely want to give this a try. Thanks for the instructions!
Great idea Amy and thanks for the wonderfully detailed instructions!!!
i love this!
These are so cute! I need to make some for our guest bathroom
That is where I have put mine. I like to try and give them a FRESH bar of soap…now it can be cute too.
I love this idea! I’ll have to practice with my son when her decides to carve soap again. Did yo ever get my emails with a link to those jewelry shops?
I absolutely LOVE this idea Amy! It looks so simple! I used to make my own soap but that took to long (or maybe I was just impatient?) so I stopped. Gonna have to try this one! Thanks!
Wow! I have always wanted to make my own soap but have never dared. Carving soap is the closet I have come…:)
Oh, how cool is THAT? What a neat idea!
Stinkin love this idea! It came out wonderfully cute too! I’m filing it away in my gifts idea folder and will definitely be trying it in the future so thanks!
Wow, what a lovely personal gift! I love it!!
Oh, this is SO cool!!!
Amy, this is really a brilliant project. I love it!
These soaps are SO pretty! I especially love the black and white covered soap box! This looks like an expensive boutique gift, and it is really a very inexpensive project!
I shared your tutorial on my Friday Favorites post today and linked back to your blog. Thank you for sharing such a great idea with us! I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks for linking up Amy! I featured you post in my wrap up! http://tidymom.net/2011/im-lovin-it-wrap-up-happy-mothers-day/
Happy Mother’s Day
These are totally adorable, love the idea, i will definitely give this a try!
Thank you for sharing. I found you via Tidy Mom.
oh wow! thats really creative
this project was very helpful. the idea is cute and the instructions were wonderful! i plan on starting to make my own soap, but first have got to try this!!! thanks for the idea!
Thanks for a very good tutorial. I think it will be a great way to spend an afternoon with my granddaughters who always come to my house for a fun craft!
My first Canadian present is a hand made soap, I loved it.
Thanks for sharing your idea, I think it’s great for those who want to start their own craft business. They could start by selling the soap bars with local businesses’ logos on them.
It could be a good fit for hostels, boutique hotels, or bed and breakfast homes.
What an awesome idea. I have a very basic kids soap carving idea on my site, but I think I’m going to link to this tutorial for people who want something a little more sophisticated.:) Thanks so much.:)
An amazing idea! Wow, to be a guest in your house!!! Thanks so much for the detailed tutorial!
I just wanted to let you know I included this in my 2011 Ultimate DIY Gift Guide (101 tutorials/recipes)! :) http://danimariedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/10/2011-ultimate-diy-gift-guide.html
excellent ! I was looking for ideas for soap packaging , I put a link to this tuto on my blog.
Thanks for this great idea!!! Goes directly to my board @Pinterest!!!
Thanks for this great idea!!! Goes directly to my board @Pinterest!!
I have a rather silly question…
For the life of me, I cannot seem to get my monogram to turn out. It’s like I have completely forgotten how to use Photoshop! Maybe it’s just too late in the evening for my brain to be functioning, but would you please tell me how you made your monogram? What program you used…maybe you have a downloadable file you could share? wow I sound lame…hahaha
I should KNOW this!
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article.
I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information.
Thanks for the post. I will definitely comeback.
Thanks for the great tip!