Any Way You Slice It... Soap on the Go!

Your local market or beauty boutiques around town may carry handmade soaps, I love the rusticity of these sliced-off slabs of soap! (This is the ginormous selection they have at Central Market) I thought it would be fun to create a soap holder from a tin to store your favorite body bar when you're out or travelling. Usually they have a huge slab or brick with pieces pre-sliced and wrapped in plastic, but sometimes you can cut your own to the size you want.* Some are super fun with the colored shapes inside, really festive! :) Either way, just bring your tin with you to check the fit! (You could use other bar soap, too, it just needs to be slim enough to fit in the tin.)

The waterproof labels are the perfect solution to decorate a bathroom or kitchen tin. (Be careful though, they are WATERproof but NOT OIL proof, so don't be getting them gunky with other oily, sticky bathroom products!) I stamped my border in Silver Encore Ink to match my tin on my waterproof label, I think these delicate "metal" lines adds such a an elegant, custom look! I used the "Botanical Dream" set again to match my bathroom, I love this sketchy sprig image, it can look like dried or fresh herbs, or a delicate bunch of flowers! One of my favorite herbal combos is Rosemary and Mint, relaxing and refreshing, so I stamped it in the corner in Mellow Moss, stamped off, and then stamped it again in black and colored in the leaves with my matching moss marker. I added "Dream" with Palette Noir (remember it doesn't matter what ink you use on these, it'll still be waterproof! amazing!!) Next I wanted to make the background match the tile that surrounds my tub, so I sponged over my image with River Rock, Mellow Moss, and Going Gray filling it out , trying to create both some light and dark areas, as well as letting some white show through, and going back in with my SU! Itty Bitty Background speckle stamp in Black and the Mellow Moss(you could also use an air gun), looks a lot like stone in the end and very simple to do! Last, trim, peel and stick!
Inside I added my soap rosemary mint soap and there was still room for clippers.
When you present your gift, a crimped cardstock wrap in Kraft or Confetti or other recycled handmade paper with some raffia would be a beautiful complement to the handmade soap. Think about other toiletries you could add: a nail file, some dried herbs, a bath sachet, tea bag etc. :)

EDITED TO ADD: you can order your tins here, only $1.50 each at Gina K Designs! :)

hee hee, I just noticed if you enlarge the pic you can see a reflection on the faucet of me sitting in the bathtub with my camera !

*if you enlarge the top photo and can read the price on the closest one of over $50 don't let that scare you!! that's for the WHOLE slab, little slices are very affordable, a couple dollars each! :)