Geeky GEEKSOAP News & Updates!

Oh man, it’s been a busy busy week around here! This past week was my Spring Break and with the Bloomington Handmade Market coming up, I spent most of the week slaving away over making as much fun, fantastic geeky soap as I could to be ready in time for the show. The good news is that the BHM was a HUGE success and Lucas and I sold loads of soap and met lots of great people :) The bad news is… well there was no bad news! :D

Around Wednesday of last week my D20 Soap On A Rope was featured on CRAFTzine and the orders started pouring in. Then it was featured on GEEKOLOGIE. Then it was even featured on the Wizards of the Coast website… THE official DnD website! As you can imagine, orders started increasing exponentially. It’s  full of so much awesome and win! I’m finally caught up, got a system down, and we’re making D20 Soap On A Rope like crazy around here and loving every minute of it. Lots of other GEEKSOAP began getting featured around the Interwebs after that, and needless to say, we’re busy. It’s great! Welcome to all of the new fans and customers. We’re looking forward to providing you with fabulous geeky soap :)

With the huge increase in orders it occurred to me that Etsy just isn’t going to work anymore. The fees are getting out of control with fees every time I list any quantity of GEEKSOAP products, plus the fees taken out from each sale… I needed a better solution. My good geeky soapmaking girlie friend, @KyleeLane, suggested BigCartel as a better site, as did several others. (P.S. KyleeLane is AMAZING, by the way… go check her out NAO!) GEEKSOAP is in the process of getting all set up over there and within the week I’ll make the switch entirely. Never fear, though… as long as you’re using http://www.geeksoap.net as your go-to address for all things GEEKSOAP, you’ll be redirected automatically to the new storefront without skipping a beat. I’ll continue to keep my pinktoque Etsy store open for my knit & crochet accessories and patterns… and to send people the message about where to find their beloved geeky soap. So just remember… geeksoap.net will get you there! I’ll be updating links and widgets here on The Pink Toque to help. Thankfully all of the features either sent people here to my portfolio or used geeksoap.net so I think it’s all good :) I believe that BigCartel will be a much better solution in the long run for the volume we’re working with here.

Ooooh, and there’s some new soap coming soon plus a new “flavor” of the Binary Bar coming out, too. I’m going to hold on and wait to release those after the site has moved to the new storefront, so look for the new stuff coming soon! Plus in celebration of GEEKSOAP’s success and new Facebook Fans and customers (and all of the new products coming out), I’ll be doing a special promo code for FB fans to say thank you :) THANK YOU! <3 Not a fan yet? Head on over and become a fan of The Pink Toque and GEEKSOAP on Facebook!

You also may have noticed that the front page now has two new widgets – one that showcases upcoming events where you can find GEEKSOAP in person, and one that allows you to sign up for the mailing list. I promise your email address is safe with me and won’t be used for anything but to send out occasional messages to let you know about new geeky soap products and other fun things like sales or promos that you can only get by signing up. When you sign up, you’ll get a confirmation email to opt in, and you’ll be able to remove yourself completely at any time :) No pressure!  Just good, clean geeky updates.

Upcoming events for GEEKSOAP include the Handmade Promenade on April 17 in downtown Indy, and … GenCon Indy in August! More details on GenCon as the date get closer, but you won’t want to miss it! The Handmade Promenade will be loads of fun and is being held at Luna Music Midtown for their anniversary. There will be lots of live music and food, plus Upland Brewery will be there. And of course… several fantastic local artists and vendors like GEEKSOAP :) Come on down and check us out on April 17!

Whew! That’s all for now… back soon to show off the new storefront, new products, and loads of other goodies… stay tuned! <3 Remember… geeksoap.net!

Some GEEKSOAP Re-designs

Whew! It’s been busy around here at The Pink Toque. Firstly, I’m on Spring Break! In case you didn’t realize, teachers get just as excited about breaks as their students do. I’m really enjoying the time off because it means I can focus on getting ready for the Bloomington Handmade Market coming up a week from today. One full week to prep soap and all of the accessories and extras I need to have at the table setup. Like a sign, which I plan to hand paint this weekend. And more business cards. And more soap wrapper tags…

You’d think that I’d be most busy preparing stock for the show instead of re-designing some of the old soap styles, but nooooo…. I’ve been too busy re-doing some of the previous designs AND adding a bit to them to round out the GEEKSOAP geeky soap line. Most notably adding an Alliance version to the Warcraft GEEKSOAP series. And let me tell you… making the Alliance geek soap was a pain in the you-know-what… just like the Alliance are in-game. Heh heh heh :) (I crack myself up.) So feast your eyes upon the re-designs here… instead of colored soap with a black silhouette I’ve reoworked them to be clear like the majority of the GEEKSOAP line with colored, hand carved and cut images inside. I like it better this way and am really happy with how the re-designs turned out. And ooooooh that Cthulhu re-design was my absolute favorite! Cthulhu, as some of you remember, was the first GEEKSOAP in the series that inspired more… and the old design was great, but with the new “angrier eyebrows”, the NEW design is even better – don’t you think?

As always, all of my geeky soaps are available in my Etsy Shop! http://www.geeksoap.net !

Besides getting ready for the BHM next week, I’m also prepping for the Handmade Promenade on April 17, (Check out Handmade Promenade’s GEEKSOAP feature!!) and GenCon Indy from August 5 – 8. WOW! More about those upcoming shows in a later post. And before I go… quick shout out to some other geeky crafty soapmaking ladies I’ve met this past week… GeekyClean and KyleeLane! xoxo

Congratulations, GEEKSOAP Contest Winners!

Special congratulations today to the two winners of free GEEKSOAP geek soap! As described in the previous post, we here at GEEKSOAP were giving away some free bars of our geeky soap to two lucky winners: one at random chosen from both the ContestMachine entry form and the Twitter entries.

And the winners are……

Entry Form: Susan Francis
Twitter: Mathew_Ladd

Congratulations to both winners! Confirmation emails (and tweets) were sent out to both parties requesting their mailing information and which bar of geeky soap they would like from any of my designs. Please check the Portfolio for the complete list, or my shop at http://www.geeksoap.net. If the bar you chose isn’t clear, you can also select a custom soap color to use. Please email your address and GEEKSOAP choice to Lesley (at) ThePinkToque (dot) com ASAP! Free bars of geek soap will go out no later than Monday, March 29 (assuming both parties have replied by then.) If one or both do not respond, I’ll pick new winners after Monday.

Thanks for your participation – your entires provided some valuable insight on my stock and have given me some ideas for new GEEKSOAP designs to play with in the future. If you didn’t win this time don’t fret! I’ll have more free geek soap giveaways later :)

Stay tuned… after these messages I have an update on the latest geeky soap designs unveiled this past week and new venues where you can find GEEKSOAP locally in the upcoming months.

Contest: Free GEEKSOAP Giveaway!

Woohoo, a contest! There’s been lots of new, big changes to celebrate here at The Pink Toque lately. In celebration of the new Binary 3D GEEKSOAP Massage Soap, GEEKSOAP’s recent switch to the new mold designs (bigger and better!) and the blog’s move over to the new domain here at THEpinktoque.com, I’m giving away some FREE GEEKSOAP! Two winners will be chosen at random, and winners will receive their choice of one free bar from my GEEKSOAP line. Completely 100% free – no shipping, no charges, no nothing… just FREE geeky soap showing up in your mailbox! There’s two ways to enter, so be sure to up your chances to win by entering both ways :)

How To Enter:
1. Complete the official contest entry form:

All you have to do is tell me your favorite GEEKSOAP design AND/OR suggest a NEW GEEKSOAP design you’d like to see in the future along with your name and email. Never fear – email addresses are required for winner notification purposes only; your privacy is safe by entering!

2. Twitter. All you have to do is tweet this message: RT @geeksoap I am entering to #win a #FREE bar of GEEKSOAP http://www.geeksoap.net #geek #soap #contest #handmade #etsy. You can tweet this message once per day every day of the contest to up your chances of winning!

I will be choosing two winners at random from all entries next Thursday, March 25, after 12pm/noon EST. One winner will be chosen at random from the entries via the contest entry form, and one entry will be chosen at random from all of the tweeted entries. Each person will be notified ASAP Thursday, March 25 after 12pm/noon EST and be given the opportunity to pick one GEEKSOAP design for free as their prize! The free GEEKSOAP will be shipped to the winners no later than Monday, March 29. Contest is open to residents of the US and Canada only, sorry!

Multiple entries are allowed on the ContestMachine entry form if you have multiple suggestions for new GEEKSOAP ideas, or just can’t pick one favorite. Multiple entries via Twitter are allowed as long as you limit yourself to one RT per day. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Having issues with the contest entry form widget above? Click HERE to go to the official contest page on ContestMachine to enter instead.

Need more details about GEEKSOAP? It’s vegan friendly and lovingly handmade by yours truly. You can find the ingredients listing on any of the bars on display in the soap Portfolio. GEEKSOAP comes shrink wrapped to protect and seal in the freshness. It makes a lovely gift and/or novelty item for decorating your bathroom or other space, but works equally well for its original intended purpose: washing! Creates fantastic bubbly suds but rinses completely free of residue for an awesome geeky clean you can’t get anywhere else. Leaves your skin feeling soft :) Winners can choose your free GEEKSOAP bar from any of the designs posted in my soap Portfolio or on Etsy. If applicable to the bar you’ve chosen, you may also specify a custom soap color. Your chances of winning depend on the number of entries per method of entry (two separate methods of entry – the entry form and Twitter).

GOOD LUCK and happy washing :)

GEEKSOAP Just Got Bigger and Better…

GEEKSOAP just got bigger AND better? You heard right! As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I had been toying with the idea of upgrading my soap molds to produce bigger and better GEEKSOAP bars for a bit.  After a little work, I found that the new molds produce more ounces of pure geeky goodness per bar and I’m really happy with the results of this weekend’s experimentation. So much so, that GEEKSOAP has officially had a facelift! While the old bars were fantastic at 3 oz each, the NEW bars are even better at a whopping 5 oz each, and depending on shape, some are even as big as 6.5 oz each! That’s more than double the weight of the old bars!

So this weekend I was hard at work remaking all the major soaps in the GEEKSOAP line using the new molds. Never fear, though, the geeky designs inside have NOT changed except to be a little bigger so as to fit better in their new dimensions. The results were pure perfection, as you can see in the photo. I photographed all of the new bars and updated my Etsy Shop listings to reflect the changes. Now what do you suppose I should do with any of the old bar style stock I have lying around my house? HAVE A SALE, OF COURSE! Hurry on over to the On Sale section of my Etsy Shop to see all of the smaller bars of GEEKSOAP that I have on sale to help clear space for new bars, while supplies last! I can’t promise they’ll last long, though… four bars have sold today already!

GEEKSOAP is not the only thing around here that got a facelift this weekend, though. You may also have noticed that the craft blog has been moved to be housed here on the portfolio site domain, www.THEpinktoque.com.  This will be the craft blog’s new home, and while we are working to have redirects set up to send those who have the old craft blog links to us over here, I will not continue to update over on the old domain so be sure to update your bookmarks if you haven’t noticed the change! Moving the craft blog over to THEpinktoque.com has allowed me to consolidate all of my crafty goodness in one place.

To celebrate GEEKSOAP’s facelift and the blog move to the new domain, I’ll be putting together a contest to give away some free GEEKSOAP later this week. I hope to time it with a new design I’ve been hard at work trying to create and cannot wait to release! I think you’ll love what’s in store for TPT and GEEKSOAP!

Thank you to all of those who have purchased GEEKSOAP and my other handmade wares on Etsy so far – I truly appreciate your business and hope that the consolidation of my crafty work and blog in one place will make it easier for me to concentrate on continuing to create the very best in handmade goods for you.

Stay tuned for contest details and a new GEEKSOAP design later this week! Until then…

The Pink Toque & GEEKSOAP Featured!

Happy Friday! Just popping in to give a shout out to some websites that have featured The Pink Toque and/or GEEKSOAP specifically this week.

Firstly, I was interviewed in preparation for the Bloomington Handmade Market coming up on April 3. The BHM blog has been featuring one artist/vendor a day, and I was featured on Sunday, March 7. Be sure to check back often; they will be interviewing all 42 vendors to showcase the talent that they will have at the show. I’m totally excited!

Secondly, GeekCrafts.com featured GEEKSOAP earlier this week on March 9. GeekCrafts showcases geeky crafts from all over the world, and I feel honored to have been noticed and written about. The particular GEEKSOAP they chose to show off was the Operating System soap – Windows, Ubuntu (Linux), and Mac. Cool, huh? I’ve been trying to focus more on promoting GEEKSOAP, and this is one step in the right direction.

Speaking of GEEKSOAP (when am I NOT dreaming or thinking about GEEKSOAP lately?) there are some big changes coming soon. I’m currently experimenting with larger molds, which would produce bigger, more solid bars of soap that nearly double (and in some cases more than double) the weight in ounces of the current molds. Of course, the price would have to increase to accomodate this change, but some early experimentation has produced some really pleasing results. When I finish ironing out the details I may switch over completely. I’d like to wait until I “replace” all of the current soaps with the new models before I do the switch over on Etsy and change the prices so people can really see the difference, but I am looking forward to it and hope to get moving on that ASAP.  The designs inside the soaps will not change except to become a bit larger to fit better in their newer, larger soaps.

And there’s even more about GEEKSOAP that I’m looking forward to – some new designs coming soon… shhh! I’ll hopefully unveil them in the middle of next week, so stay tuned!

Latest Designs in Geeky Crafting…

Happy weekend, readers! I’ve got so much to update about!

First and most exciting is that both Christine and I’s applications for booth space at the Bloomington Handmade Market in April were approved, and we’ll be sharing a table together! Yippee! I am so incredibly excited and am really looking forward to it. I also just realized that this means I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me since the show is now less than a month away! I’ve got quite a bit of soap made sitting around the house, but usually only one or two of a particular kind. I’d like to focus on a few of the more popular GEEKSOAP™ designs to stock up on. If you’d like to check it out, the Bloomington Handmade Market takes place on Saturday, April 3, 2010 from 10am – 4pm at KRC Banquets, located across from the Bloomington Convention Center on 3rd and College. Of course you can order online anytime at my Etsy Shop, too!

Speaking of GEEKSOAP (When am I not these days? I swear I dream about soap at this point) I’ve got a few new designs for you since my last post. One of the more fun designs I dreamed up and brought to life in soap is Mustache GEEKSOAP. Because what could be cooler or geekier than mustache soap? That’s right… I knew you couldn’t think of anything. The answer is that not much is cooler or geekier than mustache soap, so be sure to check it out! There are four mustache designs (so far) in this series – natural, classic, handlebar, and bushy. Aren’t they fantastic?!

Another new design is the LOL GEEKSOAP. While personal hygiene is no laughing matter, there’s no reason why you can’t have a good laugh or two while in the shower with some lolsoap. LOLSOAP! I crack myself up.

Since I’m also always thinking geeky around here, I thought you’d enjoy another design of mine: the less-than-three heart emoticon GEEKSOAP! Now you can show your love for cleanliness or express your devotion to that special someone in your life by letting the soap do the talking for you. Sure to get a reaction and bound to make an excellent gift. I heart GEEKSOAP!

Ok so my final two new designs are my most recent, and ones I adore dearly… Facebook and Twitter GEEKSOAP! They just turned out so awesome, amirite? Now you can take Facebook or Twitter with you everywhere… even in the bath or shower! You’ll never miss a beat, and this fun soap is sure to put a smile on the faces of the social networking savvy everywhere. Note: FarmVille not included with Facebook soap. (Thank goodness.) Do you love them or what?

Of course I’ve got all of my GEEKSOAP designs listed on Etsy in The Pink Toque Etsy Shop ready for you to snap up as quickly as I can make them. You can also see ALL of the soaps in my GEEKSOAP line and keep track of new designs as they are added (as I feverishly try to keep up with all of the ideas in my head) by watching the soap category of my portfolio over on thepinktoque.com

I also should mention that I’m very lucky to have a husband that hasn’t minded one bit yet that my soap making has mostly taken over our kitchen. Not that it is a very big kitchen to begin with, but, I admire and appreciate his patience as I turn into the mad soap making scientist on a regular basis. Not to mention how he puts up with my crazy new GEEKSOAP ideas and helps me flesh out the design details when I start babbling in soap lingo. I told you I dream about soap these days… it’s true. This afternoon I must’ve been daydreaming when I came up with yet another three new ideas that I have yet to complete… stay tuned because I can’t wait to show you! (If they turn out, haha) :)

Oh, and I’m thinking of having a contest soon to give away some free GEEKSOAP – I’ll work out the details and get it going ASAP. Hope to see you in April at the Bloomington Handmade Market! Have a wonderful weekend.

Computer Geek Soap

Happy Friday (TGIF!) I have been busy slaving away over soap, soap, and more soap – working on turning the ideas rolling around in my head into new designs every evening this week, and I finally think I’m ready to start promoting my Etsy shop more.  I’m focusing the most on ”manufacturing” (aka producing in large quantities in my kitchen) and selling my own designs mostly, though the examples of FANSOAP™ I’ve made are good to show what I can do in case other companies or small businesses are interested.

So what are the newest designs of mine in the GEEKSOAP™ line? Computer geek soap! Inspired by the geekiness in our household, I’ve created soap that features the universal power (on or off) button, USB icon, RSS feed, and the @ symbol. Perfect for the geek in your life (or yourself), these are a symbol of true computer nerdiness that you can be proud to wash yourself with.

I’ve also got a hilarious series of GEEKSOAP™ coming out later this weekend or early next week - I’m waiting for my new order of soap supplies to arrive. But trust me, you’ll love it :)

Today is the deadline for applying for space at the Bloomington Handmade Market in April. I’m nervous and excited because I can’t wait to hear whether or not I’ve been accepted so I can share a table with my cousin’s girlfriend Christine. I’ll keep you posted!

GEEKSOAP: Cthulhu, Star Wars, & Batman Soap!

It has been a busy crafting weekend!

First of all, I’m excited to report that I’ve applied to be considered for space at a booth at the Bloomington Handmade Market coming up in early April. The deadline to enter is Friday the 26th, and then I’ll find out whether or not I’ve been accepted and have a table by March 5. I’m totally excited – if accepted, I’ll be sharing a table with my cousin’s girlfriend, Christine, and we’ll be selling our wares to the public in just over a month from now. Not a lot of time, but I’m determined to be ready! So what am I going to sell?

I’ve decided that this is the perfect opportunity to start an idea of mine I’ve been wanting to put together for awhile. Well, since at least last May. GEEKSOAP™! I’ve finally figured it all out and this weekend I slaved over soapmaking supplies and cranked out two dozen bars of a couple different geeky soap varieties that have been floating around in my head. Introducing my GEEKSOAP™ line, which so far includes

- Cthulhu (these are my faves, and so cute! They fit with my Cthulhu toques and Sock-thulhu plushies so well)
- World of Warcraft
- Star Wars
- Star Trek
- Batman
- Indiana University (appealing to the IU crowd at the craft show)

and has plans to include PacMan, Thundercats, and a few other geeky and awesome ideas still rolling around in my brain faster than I can make the soap. Check out the entire GEEKSOAP™ line over on my portfolio, which will be updated as new designs are created. All of my GEEKSOAP™ varieties will be available on Etsy as well. I’m currently making soap to have as stock to sell at the craft show in April, but I can easily sell it and/or make more for Etsy sales, too.  It’ll help me see what is popular and what I need to make plenty of in time for the show.

Batman GEEKSOAP™

Along with the soap I plan to knit up some simple cotton washcloths to have available for purchase. The application for the Bloomington Handmade Market requires either a business website or five photos of your work to help them consider you for space, and so it was another good opportunity to get my craft portfolio site up and running smoothly (something I’ve been meaning to do for months now) to showcase all of the crafty things I do. Most notably are the Cthulhu toques, Sock-thulhus, and my GEEKSOAP™ line. Thanks to my fantastically amazing husband, the portfolio site is up and running and I sent the link along with my application.

Introducing… ThePinkToque.com!  The Pink Toque is my online portfolio to show off knitting, crochet, plush, and soap creations I’ve made over the years. Along with being a portfolio, the site then directs people here to the craft blog and to my Etsy shop for more Pink Toque goodness. Let me know what you think! Even if for some reason I’m not accepted for space at the Bloomington Handmade Market, it was at the very least a good way to get me and my handmade business whipped into shape a little bit, don’t you think?

Stay tuned for more photos and more GEEKSOAP™ – have a great week! :)

Craftster Feature and New Scrapbook Pages

You & Me Together by Shallya Kitby, using the kit Cherish for Love by Fanette

I am most honored to be notified that my DIY Batman Soap Tutorial was a Craftster-wide feature recently, AND was also chosen as a featured project for Quarter 2 of 2009 in the Bath & Beauty section.  WOW! I really appreciate all of the “this rocks!” votes I received on the tutorial and am glad it’s gone over so well :) Thanks everyone!

This weekend I got around to some much neglected digital scrapbooking. It feels like it’s been forever! Several months ago when I was doing more digi scrapping I had started stockpiling various quick pages that I’d found on DigiFree as I came across them daily.  I was just saving them for a rainy day I guess! The weather has definitely been rainy here in Calgary lately, and so on Sunday I went back through the folder and turned around 33 of those quick pages into new pages of my digital scrapbook.

Kissletoe by Cinnamon Designs

Firstly, I went back through photos I had on my hard drive, which took me all the way back to November. There were a couple of events in the fall and winter that needed to be scrapped, such as Lucas’ birthday party, outings with friends, and Christmas. I also realized that the more digital pages I had in a single scrapbook in My Memories Suite, the slower/longer it took for the program to load the scrapbook when I wanted to work on it. This makes sense since it had to render all of those thumbnail previews along the bottom, and the more elements and extras on a page to render, the longer that would take. Multiply that times 40 odd pages or so, and you can see where I’m coming from. To help with the clutter, I decided to sum up the end of 2008 by adding a few more pages to finish off the year, and then start a whole new, separate album for 2009. So now I have a Family Life 2008 album and I’ve started a Family Life 2009 album that will be ongoing for the rest of 2009.

Green Lagoon by Miss Vivi

Family Life 2009 was a fun one to start on and where I had the most catch up to do, because we’re already just over halfway into the year and so much has happened in the first part of 2009! Really the pages just started flowing once I went back through the photos I had stored away in my Pictures directory. I had some great new photos of Oliver and Winston in their Flames gear to scrap and some Calgary Flames quick pages I had created myself last year to use with them. I had quite a few newer photos of Lucas and I together that were begging to be scrapped, and of course a LOT of photos from our recent anniversary trip to Nova Scotia. It was hard to narrow down all of the fantastic photos we’d taken to just a few digital scrapbook pages, but I managed!

An Apple Day by MimiLou

Then I scrapped our recent family outdoor activity of choice: rollerblading! Lucas and I have been rollerblading fairly regularly for almost a year now, but just recently (like 2 weeks ago) we decided to start trying to rollerblade with Oliver and Winston, too. This has been ridiculously hilarious and A LOT of fun, and a great form of exercise for the whole family. Oliver could stand to lose a few pounds, tbh. But shhh, we don’t tell him he’s fat. (Ok we do, but it’s mostly hair, right?)

County Fair by GWTW

Then of course most recently, as in this past weekend, Lucas and I attended our first Calgary Stampede ever!  As I mentioned in my previous post, the Calgary Stampede comes to town for 10 days every July and turns the entire town into a rodeo.  Suddenly everyone here thinks they are a cowboy. To be honest, the Stampede was very much like the Indiana State Fair, just with a rodeo attached. It was great fun though, because it’s been years since I’ve been to a state fair of course.

All of this work to catch up my digital scrapbooks inspired me to create something of my own to share, and I played around with some new background papers and a couple of matchy-matchy elements to go with them. Nothing fancy, but I plan to give those away later this week, along with a quick page I made to go along with them. How exciting! Although knitting has dominated my crafting time for the most part the past several months, I don’t plan on letting my digital scrapbook get that far behind again, so hopefully that means more scrapping and more freebie goodies for you, too :)

In creating a 2009 album and leaving it open-ended to add on as life happens, I’ve started fast-forwarding in my mind to imagine what other upcoming pages I’ll need to scrap about. Most exciting is the next chapter in Lucas and I’s lives where we move back to Indiana and roadtrip with Oliver and Winston to get there, along with the birth of my first nephew coming up in October. The 2009 Family Life album sure will be a monumental one!