Making Soap With Ivory Soap Dough

Making Soap Dough is such a fun activity to make and to give out as gifts. Soap Dough is an exciting craft and a fun way to make bath time fun.

Soup Dough Recipe

Are you looking for more bathtime ideas? Try some of my other posts on bathtime fun, like:

• Bath Bombs
• Bath Salts
• Pool Noodle Boats 

I discovered it when I was teaching a unit on Colonial America, and wanted to have a hands-on lesson making soap. The kids loved it, and my kids still can’t get enough of it. Over the past year, I’ve discovered some techniques that make it easier for little fingers.

Are you ready to have some fun with soap dough? Let’s make sure you have all of the ingredients…

• Ivory Soap Bars – Ivory is a soft soap and it’s pure white which is great for adding color to
• *If you can find a soft bar of soap that is tear-free, then that would be even better. It just needs to be a soft soap like Ivory
• Food Processor
• Food coloring – gel is preferred
• Cookie cutters
• Wax paper
• Other equipment:
• Straws
• rolling pin
• sharpened pencil

This is how I make my “soap dough” –

An adult will have to prepare the soup dough. *The kids can have fun shaping and decorating

• cut bars so they will fit into your food processor
• *I have found that if you cut the bar, while it’s still in the wrapper – it’s easier to get out of the wrapper

• If you have it – use the cheese grater blade
• *I just add the Ivory Soap Bars directly into the Cuisinart and shred it like cheese

• Now, add a couple of Tbsp. of water. – Only enough to make it doughy (like pie crust)- not watered down

• Then, I add color – Ateco is my favorite color company – It makes the best soap colors

Decorating: Now the kids can have fun…

*If you couldn’t find tear-free soap bars – Be careful not to rub the soap in your eyes

• Now, to have some fun with soap

• Use wax paper as a table mat – The soap lifts right off of it

*This is a great tip – it makes rolling the dough a lot easier

• Lay your soap dough between 2 sheets of wax paper – roll it out

• Then, press your cookie cutter into the soap

• Lift the cookie cutter up, and the soap pushes right out

More Decorating Fun:

Tools you’ll need –

• Different sizes of straws
• A sharpened pencil – or – small tipped tool similar to a pencil

Once you have your shape out of the cookie-cutter, and onto a clean piece of wax paper, find a place that you want to put round shapes, like eyes or buttons:

Using Eyes as an example:

Using the size straw you like – push the straw into the soap – the soap will be extracted into the straw!

• Push the soap out of the straw, onto the wax paper, and put your straw over the spot for the second eye & repeat!
• Using the other end of the straw – and the SAME technique – Extract the black soap for the eyes

• Squeeze the soap out of the straw, by pushing it up and out – like an “Ice Pop”! – Use this to put into your eye socket

• Use this same technique to make different size holes for different shapes on your soap.
• Use the pencil to add different details, like the lightning bolt on the skull.

 

   

• The pre-school class I teach  In Sunday School made fish soaps, and we made the Solo cups into a fish tank with fun “ocean” stickers!

Drying the Soap

Great idea for drying soap, and keeping counters clean – Solo Cups