Sonnee posted about this fabulous looking soap on The Dish Forum. Inspiration for “Zebra on the Beach” came from her swimsuit! Just goes to show you that inspiration truly is all around us. Sonnee tells us how she made it using real silk cocoons on her blog: Duffin’s Soap Bakery

If you’re new to preservatives or changing your formula – Southern Soapers has a wealth of info to download from their web site. Preservative topics include an Overview, Why You Should Use Preservatives and specific info on the popular preservatives used today.

This info was gathered in one of the Southern Soapers classes. To join the classroom, click here. To see info from past classes, click here.

Big Batch Soap Making

Takeout Box Template

This is fabulous! The Senri International School website that has over 35 packaging templates available for free to download and print on your own card stock. Some of the designs are a tad on the small size but can easily be enlarged using a photocopier. The folks at your nearest Kinkos or print shop can show you how.

Table Top Christmas Tree Tutorial

Bleu Arts has posted a tutorial on how to make these fun trees to use in your home or market display. They’re easy to make and would add a great deal of character to your table.

Loofah Soap on a Rope

If you’re looking for a new project or something to add to your holiday line, Anne-Marie from the Soap Queen has posted and excellent tutorial on how to make Loofah Soaps on a Rope. They are adorable and look like they would be fun to make. How cute they would be hanging from a Christmas Tree in your display!

I wanted to share my thoughts about the course I recently took at SparkplugU. I completed the Diversify Your Income Workshop last week and I’m still processing the info and creating a plan to utilize all that I’ve learned. And I’ve learned a lot. Much more than I thought possible in three short weeks.

The course I took, as suggested in the title, was about diversifying my income streams so as to not make a past mistake of putting all my eggs into one basket. I learned about normal income streams and how to create passive income streams. I learned that I will need to work harder but more importantly, I will need to work smarter.

I highly recommend the course to anyone that has an online business. It doesn’t matter whether your business is product based or service based, the information is well worth the low fees SparkplugU charges for it. Wendy Piersall and Marla Tabaka were casual and upbeat but very devoted to delivering information that they gained the hard way – by experience. They were also very real and didn’t sell us a line about how easy any of it would be. If you are looking for courses that will help you get rich quick, then SparkplugU courses are probably not for you.

To register for the Diversify Your Income Workshop that starts again in September or see the other courses being offered, visit the SparkplugU web site. I’m taking three courses in September: Introduction to Starting a Blog Network, Podcasting Bootcamp and Write Press Releases to Grow Your Business. Maybe I’ll see some of you there!

What does this have to do with soap? Heh – nothing. But -time saved in front of the computer means more time for projects – right? (How’s that for a rationalization?) The following video from Common Craft gives a brief explanation of how RSS works and how to setup and use it. Once you’re setup and ready to go – come back and SUBSCRIBE!

I ran across this tutorial for making your own wine charms and realized that with some creativity, they would make great promotional items such as bottle charms for your B&B bottles, fun and reusable hang tags and custom candle charms too! You can purchase Ink Jet Shrink Film at many stores near you, including Joann’s Fabric Stores and Hobby Lobby. Just print the image you want to use for your charm, cut it out and shrink in the oven. Use this tutorial created by Crafty Daisies to do the rest.