How to make felted SOAP with this weeks wool giveaway!

Felted soap a great way to use your natural soap. It feels great on your skin since it's like having a nice wool wash cloth. It also saves the soap once it's so small it usually gets lost down the drain, and this wool can be used again if t hasn't felted to tightly you may be able to cut it open and place more soap inside! Children like it because they can color their own soap! This is a fun and easy activity to try with children. Once you get the hang of this you will be wet felting over all sorts of things! To start all you will need is:

Bar of soap for this felted bar I have used one of my peppermint bars ( I use the all natural soap I make here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/purabella) but any natural soap will do.

Wool roving or batting enough to cover a soap bar. I purchased my beautiful wool from inspiration fibers here:http://www.etsy.com/shop/inspirationfibers?ga_search_query=inspiration+fibers&ga_search_type=seller_usernames  She is this weeks featured seller and you could win some wool to make your felted projects! You only need enough to cover the soap completely. I used maybe only a 16th of an ounce here (by weight) So you can make lots of these with an ounce of wool!
A large bowl filled with hot water (as hot as everyone hands can withstand of course don't burn yourself!)

  First I bevel the edges of my soap so the corners are not so square.

 Then I take some wool and start wrapping it tightly around the soap making sure to cover it all and evenly. it will look puffy but it will shrink down once it felts. The more you add the more you will be felting it, the more time it takes and the thicker it will be. Babies like to help out in this step since the wool is soooo soft!

 Get some hot water in your bowl and start to wet your felted soap with the hot water. Start to rub your soap all over in gentle rubbing becuase at this point the felt is just wet and not tightening up. I squeeze the bar and then place in the water again. Then rub and rinse with cold water (this is best to do in a sink area or a place you don't mind getting all wet. If the water is cooling or too bubbly replace it with new hot water. Keep rubbing and felting, you will notice the fibers getting tighter and shrinking to the soap bar.

Once you feel like the wool has felted enough around the soap. Give it a good cold rinse to get out most bubbles (don't worry if the wool is still soapy a little. Squeeze the soap and then wrap in a towel to wick out the rest of the moisture. Let this dry completely and you will notice it is tighter as it is drying. Have FUN! and enjoy your colorful soap! If you would like to purchase the felted bar of soap in these pictures it is listed in my shop here for $4: http://www.etsy.com/listing/68321073/felted-peppermint-hot-process-soap

here are other things you can do if you have felting needles you can first felt a picture say for instance a heart onto the wool you will be puting over the soap just make sure the placement of the needle felting is where you want it on the wool to be wet felted. I hope I explained this well enough, there are many fun things to make with wool. Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any! Have FUN!