GEEKSOAP Sends a Geeky Message of Love

Posted in Featured, Soapmaking , on April 28, 2010

geek loveWho knew gaming could be so romantic? This story and custom order truly melted my heart. So geeky. So romantic. With the customer’s permission, I just had to share.

I enjoy doing gift sets and custom requests for orders, especially when the end result is being shipped to a friend or loved one. I take great pride in knowing that someone feels my handcrafted soap is worthy of a special gift for a special someone in their life. I really enjoy adding little handwritten personalized notes from the customer to gift orders and imagining the look on the recipient’s face when they open the box and see my soap. This week, I received an interesting custom order inquiry that would put a bar of my geeky soap in the middle of a budding romance between customer, Chris, and his girlfriend, Jordan.

Chris writes,
“I recently asked a girl out by inviting her over to play Bomberman 64 (she accepted!  that’s a keeper), and I think it would be funny to gift her with a bar of soap bearing that label.”

Super squee, right?! I found Chris’ request for a special bar of soap to represent how he asked his girlfriend out as a token of love hopelessly and completely romantic. How could I *not* complete this amazing request? (And seriously? Bomberman64? Awesome.) But that wasn’t all… Chris had a side-quest for me; he also wanted a sweet little personalization carved into the top of the cartridge to send a note to Jordan. (à la carving your name into a cartridge so you knew who it belonged to.) And a <3 heart emoticon soap to complete the package.

This was such a fun order of truly epic proportions, and it gives me warm fuzzies to know that my soap is going to be used to express some geeky love. I know that handmade gifts like this are the best kind of gift, and as a gamer girl, I would melt into a puddle at someone’s feet if were to receive such an epic gift to commemorate how my significant other asked me out. (Pssst, Jordan… this one’s a keeper!)

I only wish I could witness the look on Jordan’s face when she opens the package and receives her sentimental soap inside, complete with a notecard bearing a custom message from Chris. It makes me sigh one of those big happy lovey-dovey sighs just thinking about it!

Way to be awesome, Chris, and thank you for letting me play a small part in creating a romantic gifting opportunity for your girlfriend. Best wishes to you both! <3

A word about GEEKSOAP gift orders: Doing gift orders really makes me happy. Do let me know if your GEEKSOAP order is for a gift in the notes to seller upon checkout; I’d be happy to write a personalized message on a notecard to be inlcuded with the order absolutely free of charge. If there is anything I can do to help make your geeky handmade soap gift that much more special for your special someone, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’d love to help create a perfect geeky gifting experience for you! GEEKSOAP makes great birthday, wedding, or “just because” gifts for the geek(s) in your life. Let me help! – order your geeky soap at http://www.geeksoap.net :)


In Which We Celebrate 2 Months

Posted in Contests, Shows, Soapmaking , on April 24, 2010

Only two months?! Yesterday, April 23, was the 2-months-in-business anniversary for GEEKSOAP; it’s hard to believe with as much growth and business as we’ve had that it’s only been two short months since the very first bar of GEEKSOAP was sold. (It was one of the Cthulhu soaps, the first design version, by the way, over on Etsy.) GEEKSOAP exploded, thanks to fans like YOU, in such a small amount of time, and we are loving it!

Some of the newer readers may not know it, but The Pink Toque has been around since October 30, 2006 selling hand sewn bags (at first) and knit and crochet items (later), and also giving away freebie digital scrapbooking designs along the way. I’ve come a long way. It was late May/early June 2009 when I made my very first geeky soap – a Batman design to give as a gift to my friend Michelle for her birthday. At the time it was just a one-off and not something I was going to continue with, but about 8 months later I was crocheting yet another of my Cthulhu toques and suddenly had the idea to make Cthulhu soap… and so I put together what I learned about making that Batman soap and started creating Cthulhu soap. And then suddenly the flood gates opened and it seemed like the sky was the limit. The rest is history; in a short month or so there were over a dozen GEEKSOAP designs with more on the horizon, and then I released the biggies: the D20 Soap on a Rope (March 29) which was even mentioned & linked on the Wizards of the Coast website (THE DnD site, for those not in the know) and the Game Cartridge soaps. (April 16). You know the rest!

But seriously, I need to thank the fans and customers; I’d not be here if it weren’t for you! In celebration, please use the discount code 2MONTHS for 10% off of every single item in the store at http://www.geeksoap.net for the next week! Early customers with the original designs in the 3oz bars will be happy to see that in the short 2 months we’ve been around that GEEKSOAP has grown not only as a business, but the soaps have grown, too. New designs, bigger bars (without a bigger price!) and all kinds of upgrades to GEEKSOAP in general because we learned from early business. A very special thank you to the earliest customers who bought the old school designs from what now seems like a tiny brand-spankin’-new, inexperienced business that had a lot to learn. We never dreamed we’d be as big as we are now and the demand helped us grow as a company to better serve YOU. Because at the end of the day, it really is all about the customer. Your happiness is the most important aspect of what I do; I want you to love GEEKSOAP as much as I do!  Thank you all so very much <3

So what’s next? Well GEEKSOAP will be at Gen Con Indy this summer, from August 5 – 8. When we signed up, we were only about two weeks old as a company, and we chose an Art Show booth to be safe, as we had no idea how huge we would get so quickly.  The Art Show booths aren’t very big, but we truly feel like we’ve got something unique that the masses are going to love and we’re going to bring plenty of stock; we don’t need a ton of space to sell it. Had we known how big GEEKSOAP would become in such a short time, perhaps we would’ve gone as exhibitors instead. *shrug* I don’t mind; next year we’ll look into exhibitor booths, but this year with GEEKSOAP being a brand new infant of a company, I’m just excited to be participating at all.  I know our sales will be awesome and I am really looking forward to meeting and chatting with fellow gamer geeks. Please be sure to stop by and say hi in the Art Show Hall! Free hugs and super amazingly geeky soap to be had by all!

I mentioned the Game Cartridge soaps earlier in this post, but I have yet to formally “announce” them here on the blog. In case you missed them, check out my Game Cartridge GEEKSOAPs over on my portfolio; I created molds of classic, retro gaming cartridges that just about anyone can easily recognize. So far, they come in 8-bit, 16-bit, and 64-bit varieties, with other varieties coming soon. As a natural companion to the bigger cartridge bars, I also have created an 8-bit Handheld Game Cartridge Guest Soap variety that looks like little Gameboy cartridges. They’re perfect for travel or sitting on the sink in your guest bathroom. I’m currently working on a large set of the Handhelds as wedding favors for an engaged pair of GEEKSOAP fans out there – so exciting! In the past 24 hours, my Game Cartridge soaps have been featured on over 10 different websites, so welcome to all of the new fans who are dropping in for the first time! <3 Want to win some Game Cartridge soap? Stop by and see my friends at Nerd Approved & enter their contest to win a large cartridge of your choice, which comes with a free Handheld version, too! :D

Oh, and don’t forget to fan us on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @geeksoap, and let me know if you have any questions – I’d love to accommodate geeky special requests for you. <3 Have a great weekend!


Handmade Promenade

Posted in Shows, Soapmaking , on April 19, 2010

What a great weekend! Yesterday was the very first Handmade Promenade, organized by Sunday Afternoon Housewife, Martha Latta, who is AWESOME! The Handmade Promenade was set up outside of Luna Music Midtown in Broad Ripple, and coincided with Luna’s Record Store Day celebration. There was free food and free live music all day, and the weather was fantastic. A little windy at times, but nothing *too* serious. Lucas and I set up GEEKSOAP along with five other local artists on the sidewalk and we had a blast. It was great being neighbors with My Wire Empire’s Melissa Bryant, and we made a lot of new friends and met tons of people stopping by to check out the festivities. What a great day all around!

I uploaded some photos we took on the Handmade Promenade Facebook Fan Page as well as to Lucas and I’s family Flickr account. Below are photos of the other fantastic local artists that GEEKSOAP shared a sidewalk with – you simply MUST check out their handmade work. From beautiful prints to creative creatures, crayons, jewelry, and gorgeous sewn accessories… Handmade Promenade ROCKED the handmade goods, and these ladies are AMAZING.

My Wire Empire – Melissa Bryant

Bebito

EleanorMac – Jen Wyrick

Sunday Afternoon Housewife – Martha Latta

Mother Tucker Sews – Ariane N. Tucker

And me… GEEKSOAP – Lesley Karpiuk

What a fun event – thanks for the free food, free music, and fun for Records Store Day, and thanks to all of you that came out. It was great meeting all of you! <3


New GEEKSOAP Storefront & lots more NEW stuff!

Posted in Soapmaking , on April 6, 2010

The new storefront is live! For most of you that use the address http://www.geeksoap.net to satisfy your geeky soap cravings, you’ll experience a nice smooth transition over to the new storefront at BigCartel.com now. While I like Etsy, the fees were honestly just getting too out of control, and I think BigCartel will meet a lot of my needs better with the volume of soap we’re selling as of late. If you’re using the Etsy address to find GEEKSOAP, all you have to do now is remember a nice and simple address instead: geeksoap.net! I currently have some GEEKSOAP up on Etsy and won’t be taking it down until it sells out or expires over there, but I will be promoting the new storefront instead and hope you will, too :) Really and truly not much has changed since I’ve been using geeksoap.net to direct to Etsy and it’s been the address I’ve been giving out all along. Head on over and check out the new layout!

Speaking of NEW – there’s NEW geeky soap up, too! Lock up your kitties because GEEKSOAP has unleashed… DOMO KUN! Isn’t he seriously cute? These bars are featured in a 6.5oz weight and smell like honey almond and awesome. For real.

Also NEW is that the D20 Soap On A Rope now comes in a new color – solid black. Which, honestly looks incredibly amazing if you ask me. Super sweet! So in addition to all of the previous colors and oatmeal formula, you have a new color option. Of course you could always just live on the edge and select a random color at checkout and let me surprise you with a D20 soap of my color fancy. That’s always fun! Pictured is a solid black D20 Soap On A Rope and an oatmeal formula.

Want more NEW?! Of course you do. There’s also a NEW “flavor” of binary bar now available — Lemon Poppyseed! These were a huge hit at the Bloomington Handmade Market and I think you’ll also love how lemony delicious this unique massaging bar with raised 1s and 0s is. This refreshing lemon scented bar is heavenly. It features real poppyseeds throughout, which adds a gentle scrubbing property to this soothing bar. A great exfoliant! Grab one now over at geeksoap.net! You’ll only see one listing for the Binary Bar now – but that one listing provides a drop down menu that will let you select which formula you wish to purchase: solid color/fresh linen, oatmeal and honey, oatmeal and coffee scrub, or lemon poppyseed scrub. Enjoy!

Bloomington Handmade Market goers that grabbed a business card and are looking to buy more geeky soap, the promo code on the back of your card has been implemented at the new storefront… which means if you enter it during the checkout process now it will automatically deduct the discount for you. This is a huge improvement over the long round-about way that I’d provide discounts via Etsy. No need for special listings or anything – just enter the code when checking out and score! <3

I know there was a lot of NEW stuff to cover in this email but it gets even better… stay tuned at the end of this week/early next week when GEEKSOAP unveils a new geeky soap in the works! I can’t wait :)


Geeky GEEKSOAP News & Updates!

Posted in Shows, Soapmaking , on April 5, 2010

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

Posted in Soapmaking , on March 27, 2010

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!

Posted in Contests, Soapmaking , on March 25, 2010

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!

Posted in Contests, Soapmaking , on March 18, 2010

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…

Posted in Soapmaking , on March 15, 2010

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!

Posted in Featured, Soapmaking , on March 12, 2010

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!