If you have a special event coming up like a wedding, a shower, anniversary party or whatever and want eco, guest and pocketbook friendly favors these are great for all three.
These bars were around 2-3oz each and cost me around 50¢ a bar to make. I make my soap from scratch and if you want to try making from scratch http://www.millersoap.com/ is a great site for into. You can also do melt & pour which is super easy. If you live near a Michaels they normally do 40% or 50% off coupons in the sunday paper you can use to buy the melt & pour base to make it more cost effective. I did green on half (my wedding color). I didn't think about it until about halfway through through. I just added a green oxide color additive like you can buy from http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/, and you can do that for any color. You can also use just normal food coloring. Here's a picture of the soap bars.
Then I put the bars in these little organza bagsthe bars were 2"x3" and the bags were 3"x4" so they worked perfect. I bought these off ebay from http://stores.ebay.com/favorpro priced 100 for just under $10 after shipping. I believe this seller is located in California so this was also a transaction that supported a business in my country. These were just under 10¢ a bag. 
Then I put one these magnets (that I designed) in the bags with the bars, facing up like a label since it's visable through the quaze. These I purchased through http://www.vistaprint.com/. Probably the least green of the items but as you know I'm on a budget and this was the cheapest option for the magnets. They do a promotion 25 free for these magnets often, just pay shipping. Since I also ordered (through the same sort of promotion) many other printed products for my wedding that made these even cheaper then if I'de orded just them. So I can't give you what you would pay, and can only give you a round about estimate of what I paid based on a rough break down of shipping prices since there were so many items sharing the same shipping. A rough estimate is that I paid just under 10¢ a magnet.
Here was the finished product, not a great pic, but you can get the idea. The finished product cost me out of pocket around 70¢ each. Which is very cost effective for personalized eco and guest friendly favors when compared to premade retail favors.
There were none left over, everyone loved this as a favor! I was warned whatever we made there would be tons left over, but not so with these bars.
reason for editing- added info about coloring soap
Edited by kaymmiv - Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:17:21 UTC
