For the month of April, we did a theme challenge to take a short break from the advanced techniques. I asked members to create a soap that represents the place where they live or have lived in the past that is special to them. The only perimeters were that the final soap should be made in a log or slab mold. Small embellishments were allowed that were not made of cold process soap, including but not limited to, melt & pour or hot processed embeds, etc. As you can imagine, the creativity has shown up in spades with this challenge, and I’m so grateful to our sponsor TKB Trading for their generous prizes and support!

The well-deserved grand prize goes to Debi Olsen in Fort Collin, Colorado! Debi has been participating diligently in the Challenge Club since last September and took 3rd place in the Circling Taiwan Swirl challenge. This month she created a beautiful scenic landscape soap to reflect the majestic state of Colorado where she was born and raised and still lives to this day:

Curious about how she made it? I know I was! Visit her new blog and read all about her process by clicking on the photo. Congratulations, Debi, on your $100 gift certificate from TKB!

Coming in a strong second place is Lisa Maw of Lisa’s Natural Herbal Creations in Ogden, Utah. While Lisa has been participating in the challenges for just a few months now, her artistry is evident in all of her soaps! Here is her Arches Soap, an amazing tribute to the great state of Utah where she was born and raised:

Lisa molded the arches in the soap by hand! Click on the photo to found out how! Lisa wins a $75 gift certificate from TKB – congratulations!!

Third place for the second month in a row goes to Brittany Warwick of Baabbly Soap in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As Brittany explained in her blog post, Wisconsin is known for cows, cheese, beer, and snow, so she decided to “create a soap that was a landscape of a farm with a cute little cow in the forefront of the soap.” It certainly is cute!

Congratulations, Brittany! You’ve won a $50 gift certificate from TKB! Yes, you can also click on the photo of her soap to see her process which includes several advanced embeds!

The Sponsor’s Choice prize goes to Tatsiana Serko of Creative Soap by Steso, who is originally from Belarus and created a beautiful soap to reflect her heritage. Kaila Westerman, owner of TKB Trading, explained her choice this way: “I had the following criteria: Color Harmony. As a colorist, how a product looks at first glance, and how the colors speak to me is an immediate ‘first pass’.” She also took into consideration the level of difficulty, quality of execution and creative thinking with regard to addressing the theme. Tatsiana’s soap, From Belarus with love, certainly fits within all of these criteria:

Tatsiana wins a $25 gift certificate from TKB – congratulations!!

Curious about the rest of the entries? Find them all HERE.

Next month we will be doing the Teardrop Technique! Here is a soap from my practice batch that I’m hoping to duplicate for the tutorial:

It’s made with almost all Mad Oils micas – our main sponsor for the challenge! I love how the colors turned out! Lovin Soap Studio will be contributing a free ebook to all the winners as well.

Registration for the May challenge will open this Monday, April 25! Are you signed up for the Challenge Club notifications?