Total Time Needed: Afternoon Or Evening
This soapy salute to summer days ahead is a top gift pick for your child's best buds. It's also a lot easier than it looks. But because hot soap and a knife are involved, even big elves should be monitored.
Materials
- Knife
- Five 16-ounce Styrofoam cups
- Five 9-ounce clear plastic cups (with a shape similar to that of the Styrofoam cups)
- Petroleum jelly
- 5 pipe cleaners
- 5 colored straws
- One 2-pound package of colored meltable craft soap, such as Soap Creations by Delta
- One 2-pound package of clear meltable craft soap, such as Life of the Party
- Microwave-safe measuring cup
- Craft sticks
- Spray bottle containing rubbing alcohol
Instructions
- Help your child prepare a soap mold by first trimming a Styrofoam cup to the height of a plastic cup, then coating the inside of the foam cup with petroleum jelly. Wrap a pipe cleaner once around a straw, stand the straw in the center of the foam cup, and bend the ends of the pipe cleaner over the sides of the cup to hold it in place.
- For each drink (our recipe makes five), help your crafter cut six 1-inch cubes from the colored soap and two 1/2-inch cubes from the clear soap, setting these aside to be used as ice cubes. Place the colored cubes in the measuring cup and microwave them for 40 seconds. Heat for 5-second intervals thereafter, until the soap is liquified, using a pot holder to remove the cup from the microwave. Once a film begins to form on the surface of the soap, push it aside with a craft stick and pour 1/4 to
- Return the measuring cup to the microwave and reheat the soap for 5-second intervals until it's remelted. Repeat the previous procedure until the drink is about 1 1/2 inches deep, adding the remaining ice cube. Let the soap cool for 2 hours, then remove it from the foam cup and place it in a clear plastic cup.
