All right True Believers, it’s time for the first official Crafty Nerdess blog. As I mentioned in my welcome post, I will be doing a weekly blog with nerdtastic craft projects and ideas. This month all my projects will be centered on Lego Batman. This is for two reasons:
1 Lego Batman is poorly represented in the marketplace. Yes, they sell the Legos all over, but the party supplies are scarce if not non-existent. You can find butt-loads of Lego Star Wars, Lego City, or Lego Harry Potter for gosh sakes! Alas, there is pretty much jack-diddly squat out there for Lego Batman fans.
2 Perhaps the more pertinent reason for my Lego Batman idea extravaganza is that my son turns 5 in September, and surprise, surprise, this kid wants a Lego Batman party.
I have been wracking my brain for ideas for the best Lego Batman party ever. From party favors to decorations, this will be one epic craft adventure. I wanted to tackle the party favors first. I thought it would be absolutely adorable to have Batman and Lego shaped stuff throughout the party. To start things off I decided to make soap. Not just any soap, but Lego Batman shaped soap.
After hours of research, I just decided to go to my local crafts store and check out their “create your own soap” area. They didn’t have much in the way of variety in the soap base area, but they had a pretty decent selection of scents and dyes. Every store is different of course, but I found the soap making stuff by the modeling clay. Once I had purchased a brick of soap base, my scent preference, and the dye that best fit my project, I was on my way to making soap!
To start you need:
1 Soap base – I used Life of the Party Essentials White Glycerin Soap
1 Soap Scent – I used Art Minds soap fragrance in Lavender
1 Soap Dye – I used Art Minds soap colorant in blue, because they didn’t have black at my craft store
1 Pack of cellophane gift bags
1 Roll of ribbon of your choice
1 Lego Mini-Figure Shaped Mold – I found mine on Amazon
1 Logo block mold - optional
1 Microwave safe bowl
1 Cookie sheet or the like
1 Small paperclip
2 Black or blue washcloths
The first thing you are going to want to do is melt your soap base. You don’t need a lot of soap to start, but I used two vertical sections of my soap block. I followed the directions on the packaging. Mine said to melt the soap in the microwave on high for 40 seconds, then 10-second intervals until the soap is completely melted. I did 40 seconds and it was only about half melted. Now being the impatient little monkey I am, I decided to pop the soap back in there for another full 40 seconds. At this point it was mostly melted, so I just tossed it in for another 20 seconds to finish the job.
While the soap is still hot and melty, you will want to add your colorant (AKA dye). The colorant suggests one drop at a time until color is achieved. This is all well and good if you have all day to stir this stuff, but your cooling time is limited. I wanted a dark blue, but since the soap is white already, I would have to use all the colorant to achieve that. I settled for a lighter blue. I started with 2 drops at a time and then increased to about five by the time I settled on the color. Total I think I added 10-12 drops. The scent suggests 5 drops per 1 oz. of base. I say drop those suckers in and stir until it is to your liking. These are fairly strong scents, so be careful not to go crazy with your oil pipette. Once the scent and color are to your liking, you may want to pop the soap in the microwave for about an additional 10 seconds, so we know the base is still good and melty for pouring.
Now that everything is mixed, it’s pouring time! Get out your molds, place them on your cookie sheet, and pour away. Try to be careful pouring, since the Lego shapes are small, it’s super easy to pour over. As you can see in the photo, I got a little over-zealous in a few areas. You may also notice that I have the Lego brick mold as well. I figured each kid could get a Batman and a Lego brick to stack him on top of. Lucky for me, Amazon has the mini-figure mold and the brick mold bundled together from one seller.
Once your molds are filled, you can either leave them out to set or put them in the freezer to set. If you leave them out, they may take 20-40 minutes to set. If you put them in the freezer, you can cut that time in half. One of the downsides to using the freezer is that they develop condensation all over, which makes them quite sticky and hard to work with. The other downside is that they are harder overall, so you have to let them thaw a bit in order to carve them in the next step. I think it’s better to just wait the 20-40 minutes, but do what works for you. After they set, pop them out of their molds. If you went a little pour crazy, that’s okay, because we can just cut the excess soap from around our figures with either our paperclip or your own fingernails.
Now we get to be really creative. It’s BAT EAR TIME! Depending on your preference of size, we need to sculpt the bat ears out of the top of our mini-figures’ head. We want to do this without making the head look freakishly small, but also make the ears tall and pointy enough so he doesn’t look like Catman. Start out by cutting off the little nub, or stud, on top of the mini-figure’s noggin. Now push the paperclip down slowly into the middle of Batman’s head, starting at the top, don’t go down too far. Now gradually shave away the middle without cutting into the ears on either side. It may be more comfortable for you if you sketch the shape you want slightly into the head with your paperclip, then proceed to shave the soap away. Whichever way you do it, just go slowly to avoid any major nerfs to the ears.
When our ears are in place, we will need to decide about the cape. The cape will be made out of washcloth material. You will need to buy a cheap pack of washcloths; your local dollar store is the best place to start. The quantity of washcloths will be based on the size of the cape and how many partygoers you have. Each mold makes 8 mini-figures, so I got 2 washcloths. I cut each washcloth into quarters. You can make your capes as big or as small as you want them.
Next, you will want to make a template to follow for the edge of the cape. I just cut a piece of printer paper in a pattern to match ol’ Bats’ cape in his Lego form. Once you have the template you can cut the edge of your capes. Place the pattern on top of your quarter of washcloth and pin it in place. Align the template so that the top of the cape is surrounded by finished edges, the edges that are sewn. To avoid fraying, you can either run a thin layer of clear nail polish over the rough edges or sew a quick whipstitch/ blanket stitch.
Now we want to wet the capes, and then fold them so they can fit into our party bags (See image above). Make sure they are thoroughly wrung-out before you fold them, then push out any extra water you can once they are in their folded form. The top of your washcloth-roll should be the top of the cape. Glue this piece of the cape to the mini-figure. The mini-figure and the washcloth must be completely dry for the gluing process. It may help the drying process of the washcloth if you place something heavy on top of the folded cape. I used a little bit of gel super glue across the back of our hero’s neck, then I lined the washcloth up to our little B-man and stuck it on. Now our Bat-soap tops off the favor perfectly.
At this point, you can call it a day or you can add facial features/Bat logo to your soap with your trusty paperclip. Now put your little Lego friends into their party bags, tie them up with a ribbon, and viola! Now we have the perfect party favor for our favorite Lego Batman fanatics. You may want to clearly mark that this item is not edible, unless you want some guests burping bubbles at your party. It could make for some interesting entertainment, but it’s not advisable.
I hope you all enjoyed this project. All crafts from my blog are available in my store, in case you don’t have the time for one of these DIY projects. Check back next week to see how to make Lego Batman party bags! Same Nerdess-time, same Nerdess-blog!
Signing Off,
The Crafty Nerdess
Note: The Bat-Soaps are not available in my store during the summer months, due to possible melting in transit.
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