Shaving Cream Paper Marbling
This is guaranteed to be the cleanest, best smelling art project you’ll ever do – shaving cream paper marbling! Print pretty swirly patterns on paper to give as gifts, use as wrapping paper, or on gift tags. Trim and frame the prints as a single piece of art or arrange in a series of prints. It’s a crazy fun mess, but the clean up is a breeze!
You Need:
•? Shaving cream
•? A large tray or baking sheet to hold the shaving cream
•? Liquid Watercolors, food coloring mixed with water, or thinned acrylic paints (acrylics not recommended for children they stain clothing)
•? Eye droppers or spoons to place the paint on the shaving cream
•? Popsicle sticks, paintbrush handles or similar “devices” to stir the foam to create the swirls
•? Large squeegee or other scraper
•? Watercolor or drawing paper, or blank greeting cards, etc. -whatever type of paper you’d like to transfer the design onto
How to Do It:
1. Squirt a lemon meringue pie size amount of shaving cream in the center of the tray
2. Using the eye droppers or spoons, squirt or drop several colors of liquid watercolor or food coloring on the shaving cream. It is recommended not to put the colors right on top of each other – leave a little bit of room in between the colors.
3. Gently stir the foam with a popsicle stick. Caution – do not over-stir as it will make brown! Make pretty swirl patterns or circles with the stick. The more you stir the smaller the lines in the swirls will be when it is printed on the paper, so we recommend only stirring 3-4 big circles and swirls so that the colors are gently swirled but not too mixed together. What you see in the shaving cream at this point is what will be printed on the paper.
4. Place a small sheet of watercolor or other heavyweight paper on the shaving cream and let it sit for 5 seconds to soak up the paint, and then gently rub the paper with your fingertips, applying a very light pressure. You do not want to press too hard and squeeze all of the shaving cream out from under the paper or squish the foam around underneath. A little experimentation may be needed to achieve the right amount of pressure.
5. Take a corner of the paper and lift it out of the shaving cream to reveal a pretty pile of shaving cream stuck to the other side of the paper!
6. Use a squeegee or plastic scraper to apply firm pressure on a flat surface, start at one end of the paper and scrape all of the shaving cream off of the paper. Use one fluid movement from one end of the paper to the other – any stops and starts will cause the paint to transfer to the paper in lines. Get creative to find the perfect “squeegee” for this part – our favorite device is a plastic wall paper smoother – two work well together because you can use one to scrape off the other. We’ve also used pastry cutters (with a long flat surface), long spatulas, stiff cardboard, or any handy hunk of solid plastic (like a clipboard!). You want to apply pressure on a flat surface as you are scraping the foam off the paper to ensure that it is all removed. Scrape off the shaving cream from the squeegee into a nearby garbage can.
7. Voila! Revealed under the shaving cream will be a beautiful swirled pattern on the paper! Let the paper dry thoroughly before trimming.
small hands big art is an art studio in South Charlotte that offers classes, camps, & parties for children & young adults.
8025 Ardrey Kell Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28277
704.246.8271
www.smallhandsbigart.com
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