I didn’t intend to post this but there is a great deal on Ivory soap right now and I thought it was worth mentioning.
I know some of you are absolutely not crafters. If that is you, well I have a little project you can make with the little ones and it will literally take you 90 seconds to do.
You are looking at an extra 15 seconds for clean up- so let’s round this project up to 2 minutes total and your children will be delighted! (My husband thought I was pretty cool when he saw this for the first time too.)
Now this requires a leap of faith because it is going to seem crazy.
All you need to do this little project is a plain bar of Ivory soap and a microwave.
Just go ahead and unwrap that Ivory soap and place it on a nice big piece of wax paper. If you don’t have wax paper you can use parchment or saran wrap or a great big plate because this expands like crazy.
Put it right in the microwave and turn the micro on for a few minutes. I usually go about 50-60 seconds but you can play with the times and see what you get.
(This is not meant as an advertisement for Ivory but that seems to be the only soap that works for these magic little clouds.)
And viola! the Ivory soap will fluff up into a big cloud! Sometimes these are huge and sometimes not so huge so the results will keep life exciting.
The cloud is a soft texture and it sort of crumbles apart when you squoosh it. It still lathers just like soap and it can break apart into smaller clouds.
This won’t ruin your microwave or explode or make everything taste soapy after you do it. You will get a pop of soap smell right when you open the door but don’t panic because that goes away quickly.
Now the little clouds are sort of warm- I handle them right away but for little fingers I would give it a few minutes to cool off.
Then it is time to play!
I make these for bath time but if you have outdoor kiddie pools, sprinklers, water tables etc… this would be fun. In the tub this will still lather and eventually it disintegrates. Usually I have a few clumps of Ivory to clean up after the bath but really that is it.
My girls just light up when I make these so give it a shot!
This smart idea came from Chemistry.com
See lots more ideas for fun things to do with the kiddos by scrolling down here.
Hi, this is amazing! I had no idea this would happen. I don’t have any kids but I think I will try it for myself. :-)!!!!
Hi Charlene,
Thanks for sharing! This looks like fun. Is it best to use these at once or have you tried storing them?
Thanks!
Emily
Emily, They do tend to crumble and I would guess they would defluff but I have not tried storing them. I just use it all at once. The 3pks of Ivory are $1.25 so it is a super cheap little treat for the kids. You could cut the soap before you micro it if you don’t want a big cloud.
It is amazing Kristina :). I want to meet the guy that decided to microwave his/her soap and see what would happen…. who would have thought ;).
I saw this on Pinterest the other day and did it with my kids and they loved it!
Once we made our clouds, the girls got to crumble it up into the food processor (they pretended it was “snow”), I added a little olive oil (or you can use water), and food coloring and pulsed it until it just came together. Then they pressed it into smaller cookie cutters. I let them sit for maybe 5 minutes and then pushed them out and put the new soaps onto a cooling rack to dry.
Now they have cute, fun-colored soaps to use. It was a little messy, letting them crumble it up, but I just brushed most of it off the counter before I wiped them down and it wasn’t bad. The food coloring doesn’t come off on the bath tub and they have fun scrubbing!
Michelle,
I have experimented with a few bathtub crayons and the ones with Ivory soap were the ones I liked least. I think just because they didn’t look as nice. I didn’t see that recipe on pinterest but I made some awhile back in little heart molds we have using Ivory. The process sounds similar except I used a cheese grater. The kids liked them though and it was simple to do.
I have another means of making the crayons that is really easy that I need to get posted here sometime soon.
Charlene –
The girls don’t use them as crayons, they just use them for soap. They like that they are “pretty!” 🙂
I found this on pinterest last week. I have no kiddos yet, am 26 and it entertained me and my 33 year old husband for a good five minutes! 🙂
we did this for bathtime last night and my twins loved it!
Oh gotcha! I really need to cut back on the drinking. 😛 Yeah I get it. Mine love the bath gels for the bright colors. You can use the Ivory soap ones as crayons too. I think the recipe I had was just Ivory, water and food coloring.
Cool, im going to try this at the weekend with my 2 year old!!! Thamsk for sharing, im really enjoying these crafty tips you share 🙂