By 
Bar soap is inexpensive, comes in lots of great scents, and is good for the environment. The tricky thing is that you need to make sure it can drip and dry between uses. A dish like this helps your soap last longer—and it’s cute!
This project would be a fun way to add something handmade to a purchased bar of soap as a gift, or to go along with some homemade soap. You can make the soap dish exactly the size you need.
what you need:
- Perler Beads
- Large Perler Peg Board
- Iron
- Ironing Paper (from the Perler Beads)
- Clear Craft Glue
how-to:
Step 1
Make a solid rectangle of Perler beads that measures 24 x 15 beads. This will be the bottom of the soap dish. You can use any colors you want or even make a design. For the sample we used two similar colors and placed them randomly.
If you have a favorite type of soap bar or are giving this as a gift with a bar of soap, check to make sure the dish will be big enough. Carefully set the bar on the beads and make sure you can see at least 2-1/2 beads all around. (In this photo it looks like only two beads show, but you could actually see more!)
Adjust the size of the base if you need to.
Place the ironing paper over the beads, then fuse the beads with a hot iron. Carefully move the iron around to evenly press the Perler beads. Fuse them until the holes are starting to close up, but they shouldn’t be solid.
Let the fused piece cool under something flat.
Step 2
To make the next layer of the dish, make a 24 x 15 rectangle of beads that is two beads wide all around. Make two rows of beads in the middle that are each 3 beads wide.
You can make this in another set of colors or the same as the base!
Fuse these together just like the base layer.
Step 3
For the next layer, make a 24 x 15 rectangle of beads that is two beads wide all around. Leave the middle totally empty.
Fuse these together.
Step 4
For the last layer, make it just like the one in step 3, but in another color.
Step 5
Glue the four layers together to form the soap dish. We made ours with the fused side up, but you could flip these if you want.
After the glue is dry you can add your bar of soap to keep your hands clean and your soap from getting slimy!
The holes in the Perler beads let water drip through and air move around the soap. This way the soap bar can dry between hand washings, which means it will last longer. Yay!
Good hand washing is always important, and so is using less plastic. Which is why bars of soap are good because you don’t use all those plastic bottles of hand soap. A handmade soap dish is fun to make, and good for your hands, health, and the environment too!
Happy crafting!