Great Cakes Soapworks

New Business Cards

Amy Warden — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:10:32 +0000

I’m on a roll with the marketing tools lately! First, a new soap stamp, and now business cards! I finally ran out of the 5000 cards I ordered several years ago when the colors I used for my business were purple and white. Now that my website and blog are more pink and brown, I wanted the business cards to match. I have a friend who does design work, and she helped me out with the formatting.

She also recommended ordering the cards from Sharpdots.com. A box of 5000 glossy, two-sided, four-color, beautiful business cards was just $54 (plus shipping). I received a “courtesy email” the day after I placed my order from a customer representative saying “Just extending a courtesy follow up to your current order. Should you have any questions or comments regarding this order, please feel free to contact me.” That was impressive. Then I received my order exactly eight days after placing it and I was even more impressed. Needless to say, I give them the two thumbs up, five star rating!

Business Card - Front Side

Business Card - Back Side

Soap Stamp

Amy Warden — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:53:53 +0000

After the wonderful experience I had getting the “Peanut Butter Hamster” soap stamp, I finally ordered a “Great Cakes Soapworks” stamp. Both came from my soaping friend Anhoki of Anhoki’s Place. Her husband John makes all the soap stamps (in his spare time!). You can order pre-made stamps, or get them custom made like mine. I thought the prices were very reasonable, and Anhoki is does an excellent job of communicating.

Fortunately, I had some Clarifying Facial soaps that are just finishing up their cure time, so they will be the first batch to have the imprint. No more plain, boring soap!

Stamped Soap

Homemade Dishwasher Soap, part 2

Amy Warden — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:10:56 +0000

Rather than try to update yesterday’s post on how to make dishwasher soap, I decided to create another one based on the comments I’ve received so far.

1. My dishes came out clean and sparkly last night – yea!!

2. If you have tried the powder recipe and you had trouble with cloudy residue, there are three things to try:
* Try adding a few drops of regular liquid dish soap to the powder compartment when you add the powder.
* You could also try cutting back on the amount of soap used (if you’re using 2 TBS, try cutting it back to 1 – 1 1/2 TBS).
* Make sure to use vinegar in the rinse cycle

3. If you need a liquid dishwasher soap, I discovered that you can just dissolve the borax and baking soda in water, and then use a bit more:

1 part baking soda
1 part borax
1 part water
1 drop lemon or orange essential oil per cup of detergent (I’m sure this is optional)

* Mix the ingredients thoroughly and store in a sealable jug.
* Use 2 to 3 TBS per load.

All of this information came from Tipnut.com

Please be sure to share your experience!

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

Amy Warden — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:38:03 +0000

After visiting Sam’s Club and discovering that they no longer carry the Member’s Mark brand of dishwasher detergent, I decided to make my own. I had heard of people doing this – especially other soapmakers. I googled a few recipes, and decided to use this one, since I already had all the ingredients:

2 cups borax (20 Mule Team)
2 cups baking soda
4 tablespoons citric acid (or you can use 2 packets of sugar free KoolAid lemonade)

Mix and use 2 tablespoons in each load – one in the open box, and one in the closed box. Use white vinegar instead of rinse aid.

I had about half a cup of store bought dishwasher detergent left in the bottom of the box, so I just mixed it in. While I was in Walmart this afternoon, I browsed the plastic food storage containers, and found the perfect one:

16-cup capacity with pour spout, by Mainstays

I read about some people having problems with white residue, so I’ll be anxious to see how it works for us. It sounded like the people who had the most problems had hard water. We have a water softener, so I’m not anticipating any issues. I just ran the first load this evening after dinner, so I guess I’ll find out! My main motivation for trying this is the money I’ll save. It won’t hurt that it’s a “green” choice as well. I’ll probably be kicking myself for not trying this sooner – it was SO easy to make!

Update: For more information, see Part 2

Good, Clean Fun!

Amy Warden — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:06:08 +0000

Our family had some “Good, Clean Fun” today at Jerry’s Bait Shop in downtown Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The girls put their Alice in Wonderland and Padme costumes on for the parade that started at 10:00, got some candy along the way, and ended up at Jerry’s for the Peanut Butter Hamster performance at 11:00.

My girls - Alice and Padme

The band played their original Peanut Butter Hamster songs, as well as a fun adaptation of “I Love Rock N Roll” – called “I Love Rocky Road” – dedicated to loving ice cream. Very fun! They also played some Beatles, and a few other classics. Now that we’re home, the girls are playing their Peanut Butter Hamster CD! (Which sadly, are all sold out at the moment. They plan to have their full-length CD out before Christmas – I’ll be sure to let you know!)

Peanut Butter Hamster

Great Cakes Soapworks is an official sponsor of the Peanut Butter Hamster band, so I was able to set up a table to sell the Original Peanut Butter soap made just for Peanut Butter Hamster, as well as my other soaps, lotions, shea butters, lip butters, etc. I also handed out samples of the Peanut Butter with Chocolate Swirl soap which will be available on November 12th.

Me and Alice behind the soap table

Now you can buy the Original Peanut Butter soap at Greatcakessoapworks.com. Peanut Butter with Chocolate Swirl as well as Peanut Butter & Jelly soaps will be available on November 12th. These are all peanut free soaps!

Original Peanut Butter Soap

Girls Weekend in Nashville

Amy Warden — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:07:18 +0000

I had such a great time in Nashville with my girlfriends last weekend! Summer and I try to plan a weekend to get together every year since she and her family moved away three years ago. They just moved again – this time to Alabama, so we decided to meet in Nashville and stay with Summer’s in-law’s. I could tell you lots of interesting stories about midnight runs to Walmart and Kroger from the weekend, but I’ll try to stick to the highlights.

First of all, I really should have missed my flight to Nashville. By the time we got to the airport, I had already decided that I would just get on the next one. Took my bags to the counter, told the lady I had just missed my flight, and asked if there was room on the next one. To my surprise, she said my flight was delayed and I could still make it!! And I did – in plenty of time. Whew!

After landing in Nashville, I found Summer and we headed to the baggage claim area. I saw a news anchor and his camera man, and made some comment about wondering if someone famous was in the airport, when they started walking over to ME! News Channel 5 was doing a story on holiday travel, so they asked Summer & me whether we thought prices were high this year, and if we had ever been anywhere tropical during the holidays, etc. Well, I had gone on a business trip with my husband to Cancun during the second week in December about five years ago, so the quote they pulled from the entire interview was about that. Want to see me on TV? I’m so informative. You’ll just be blown away by my eloquence and advice.

Friday night we started our shopping at Opry Mills. You’ll notice a trend of shopping throughout the weekend.

Saturday morning we had breakfast/lunch at the Pancake Pantry – really it was lunch since we finally ate around noon. Summer and I waited in line outside in the cold for at least thirty minutes just to get in. It was so good though! Summer ordered her favorite Sugar & Spice pancakes with sides of scrambled eggs, bacon and grits. I had never tried grits before. I decided they taste about how they look – not bad actually. I had Sweet Potato pancakes with a side of fried eggs and ham. YUM!

Pancake Pantry

After lunch, we took a home tour of ten houses in Hillsboro. It’s an old, established neighborhood on the West End of Nashville, and the houses we saw had been refurbished, and some had been added onto. I don’t have any pictures, but it was very neat! Later that afternoon we got some great deals at Macy’s One Day Sale. We grabbed dinner to go at SATCO (San Antonio Taco Company) where you create your own tacos with all kinds of different toppings to choose from. I highly recommend the chicken fajita taco!

We ventured back downtown on Saturday night to the Wildhorse Saloon for some line dancing. Stony Run was the band playing that night – great music! Summer said they used to show live video stream of this place on CMT. I’m not really a country music fan, and I hadn’t been line dancing since the first time I went in college. Fortunately, they had a couple of gals leading and teaching some of the moves. Great fun! Trying to talk my husband into taking lessons with me sometime…

While we were downtown, and it was dark outside, Summer wanted to show me a great place to see the moon over Nashville. She led me into a courtyard at a memorial building where there is a very large statue. Naked. Backside. You get the picture.

Summer & I - Under the Statue

Sunday morning we went to church at Christ Church in Brentwood. Their choir was amazing. So were the testimonies from the missionaries. We browsed their bookstore after church as well. More shopping Sunday afternoon and evening at Opry Mills and Kohl’s…

On Monday morning, I said goodbye to Summer, and my neighbor from Knoxville met us in Nashville. We lived next door to Byron and Amy in 2000-2001. Our older daughter was born there and is highly loyal to Tennessee. Amy and I hadn’t seen each other for five years, but she’s one of those friends you can pick up with wherever you left off. We had lunch at Bandywood Food Co. – very delicious, very quaint, very pricey! Then pedicures at the Venetian Nail Spa across from Green Hills Mall. Neither one of us has had a pedicure in the last year, so it was a great treat.

Amy & I - Getting Our Pedicures

After that we did some (more) shopping at Opry Mills (ran into Summer since she apparently wasn’t ready to drive home yet) and it was time to go. Missing my sweet friends already! Can’t wait to plan the next trip…

Peppermint Soap Now Available!

Amy Warden — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:28:59 +0000

It’s finally ready! Cool, smooth peppermint for your bathing pleasure. A real wake-up scent in a moisturizing, super-lathering soap. Want a deal for buying 4 or more? Check out the Handmade Soap Combo Deal and save nearly $4.00!

Peppermint Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks

Buy Peppermint Soap.

We Have a Winner!

Amy Warden — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:03:18 +0000

Jessica D. of The Dietzel Family is the winner of the Peanut Butter Hamster CD and Peanut Butter soap. Congratulations!!

random winner picked

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! It sounded like most of you were impressed with their music. I’m sure you will be hearing more about Peanut Butter Hamster in the future.

I am heading out of town this afternoon to have my girls weekend, so I’ll catch ya’ll next week when the Peppermint Soap becomes available! (I have to practice my Southern accent so I can fit back in with these gals. Planning to go line dancing!!!)

On the Curing Rack: PBJ

Amy Warden — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:52:44 +0000

PBJ = Peanut Butter & Jelly. The grape jelly is sandwiched between two layers of peanut butter. YUMMY! This will be one of the Peanut Butter Hamster soaps. After it cures, I can add the official Peanut Butter Hamster stamp, but for now Sir Hamalot is hanging out in the background. The peanut butter layers look a bit yellowish in this lighting, but they will turn “peanut butter brown” as this soap cures over the next several weeks. The grape jelly layer could have been darker and a bit more red, but it looks so much better than the botched batch I posted yesterday!!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Soap

If you haven’t entered the giveaway for the Peanut Butter Hamster CD and (peanut-free) Peanut Butter soap, there isn’t much time! Official entry is here. There aren’t very many entries so far, and it’s not difficult to enter, which means: you have an excellent chance of winning!

Dealing With Disappointment

Amy Warden — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:55:48 +0000

Yesterday was one of those days that I wished I could just do over. I mentioned that I was making the peanut butter & jelly soap. Well, the jelly layer that I worked so hard to perfect before attempting it in a large batch did NOT turn out. Part of the problem was my stick blender. I noticed the last time I made soap that it seemed to be sucking a little bit of air, causing some tiny air bubbles in the soap. Not a huge deal. But of course it didn’t heal itself, it just got worse. So as I was making the grape jelly layer of the soap, it was making lots of air bubbles. And, the ultramarine colors were NOT dispersing. And I didn’t follow the amount of colorant that I had written down because it “just seemed like too much.” The result? More grey soap!! Very disappointing:

Botched Peanut Butter & Jelly Soap

However, I am dealing with the disappointment rather well since I also received TWO fun packages in the mail yesterday. One is from the Little Bitty Soap Co. in British Columbia. I won a bar of their designer soap on the Bonnie Bath Co. Pro blog – my choice was the Green Tea. Mmmmm. Feeling better already.

I also received a generous 2 oz. solid perfume from Natural Grace. It’s a new product that I helped name via their Facebook fan page. My suggestion was Touch of Elegance…she calls it Elegant Touch. I think it’s a great adaptation! The packaging really makes it look like something special, and it is. The scent is a combination of ylang ylang, patchouli, sweet orange, lavender, sandalwood, and jasmine essential oils – in other words, exotic! Yep, I’m feeling much better.

My prizes!

Oh, and last night I bought myself a new stick blender and today I’ve already made another batch of peanut butter & jelly soap. I can already tell that the grape part is going to turn out just right. Whew.