Soap Carving/teddy Bear/Store Bought Soaps to Gift

Do you only have cheap 10 for $2 soap packets lying around in your house and yet you still want to give some pretty cool Christmas gifts. Well, if you put on your artistic shoes and spare a bit of your time, you can! Depending on who you intending your gift to, this idea can be presented to almost anyone!

I was just sitting around in my house and thought of this idea and wanted to carve some soap, but looking at the result I thought it should be gifted to someone. Well, only to my mum anyways.... Nevertheless instead of spending my fortune on expensive gift shop shtuffs, I managed to make something cute at home and with a bit of improvement I should be able to open my own store!!!! Jks...

I will show how to make some packaging for the soap in the end as well, hope you all enjoy this instructable. Have a Merry Christmas everybody!!!!

Step 1: Ingredients

- 1 soap bar of your choice

- carving tool

- needle tool or regular sewing needle

- scissors

- carbon paper lunch bag

- 1 coloured A4 piece of paper

- gluestick

- template of teddy bear

- paper towel (to hold the soap shavings)

- ribbon

- tissue paper (the wrapping one)

- one old pair of earrings (preferably small round ones that would make eyes on a teddy bear)

- coloured twine (optional)

Step 2: Shaving the Soap

Use the carving tool to flatten and smooth your soap into a 1.5 cm medium thick slice.

Step 3: Templating

Cut out the teddy bear template and place the template on top of the soap bar and using the needle tool trace around the template to make an impression onto the soap.

Step 4: Teddy Bear Shape

Cut the excess soap around the teddy trace impression to get the teddy bear shape, make sure that there are no excess bits on the sides. Just smooth the soap with the side of the carving tool as you go.

Step 5: Nose

Place the template over the soap again and prick holes along the outline of the nose on the template, and make sure there is an impression on the soap.

Remove the template, and using the needle trace along the dots and shave the rest of the soap 1 mm to make the nose look projected from the rest of the body.

Safety: Make sure you are very careful while using the carving and needle tool, especially if its your first time using it, or you'll have to wear a band-aid like me.

Tip: If you feel tired during the process, do drink a cup of coffee.

Step 6: Body

Mark a line along the neck using the needle and make it 2 mm deep using the needle tool.

Then mark a round in the body and shave the two hands and legs 2 mm to make the stomach projected from the rest of the body.

Step 7: Face

Shave a 1 mm from both ears to make the face look projected from the rest of the head.

At this stage make sure that the teddy bear is smooth and that there are no extra bits around the shape. Now draw a hook shape pointing both sides on the nose to make a teddy bear nose. Insert the needle above the nose 1 cm apart for the eyes.

Place the two earrings into the needle holes to make the eyes and tie a ribbon around the teddy bear's neck to finish off the teddy bear.

Step 8: Packaging

I made two kinds of bags, one with the carbon paper lunch bag and the other with the coloured paper. Now you can do one of the two.

First fold the paper with one side long and the other a 3 cm shorter than the other side.

Fold the 3 cm piece and the short side in towards the main piece. Cut 1.5 cm off the bottom of the 3 cm side and the short side.

Now apply glue on to the extra piece on the bottom of the main piece and the inside of the 3 cm piece. Now close the short side over the main piece and paste the 3 cm piece onto the short side, followed by the bottom piece.

Now fold corners on both sides and stick it to the bottom of the bag.

Now fold the two lines along the side of the bag to make it resemble a shopping bag. The bag is done!