Our favorite DIY marbled paper technique for all ages is shaving cream marbling. In this post I show how to marble paper with shaving cream and watercolor paint (and include a video showing it in action). This is one of our all-time favorite art activities for all ages!
The best, easiest, and cheapest DIY marbled paper is done with shaving cream marbling.
Hands down.
This marbling technique is one of our all-time favorite art activities. Like raised salt painting and splatter painting—the other faves I mentioned the other day—it’s one that that the kids never tire of and that we’ve returned to again and again over the years.
Today, I’ll share the step-by-step instructions for doing the shaving cream marbling, then tomorrow or the next day, I’ll share how we used the beautiful marbled paper to make our own valentine cards, notebooks, and garlands.
First, here’s video I made showing the shaving cream marbling in progress.
DIY Marbled Paper the Easy Way
(And here are the step-by-step instructions and photos…)
MATERIALS
- Shaving FOAM*
- Shallow baking dish, such as a pie plate
- Liquid watercolor paint (or watered-down food coloring)
- Droppers
- Stir stick, such as a chopstick or the bottom of a paint brush
- Card stock (or poster board cut into smaller pieces)**
- A scraper, such as a square piece of cardboard
*I say “shaving cream” marbling, but you’ll want to buy shaving FOAM, not cream. I like to use a low-smell, sensitive skin variety such as those made by Gillette or Barbasol.
**While you’d think watercolor paper would be best for this since it involves watercolor paint, you’ll actually get better results with a very smooth surface rather than the toothed surface that watercolor papers have. Use card stock if you have it or buy a sheet of white poster board and cut it down into small pieces as I did.
DIY Marbled Paper Step-by-Step Instructions
First, spray a layer of shaving cream to cover the bottom of your baking dish.
Then, use a dropper to add drops of liquid watercolor paint on top of the shaving cream.
Note :: If you don’t have liquid watercolors, you can use watered-down food coloring. You can even do this project with other paints, such as tempera or liquid/craft acrylics, although the results will look a bit different.
Add more colors…
Next, use a stick (a chopstick, the end of a paint brush, or even the dropper) to swirl the paint around for a marbled effect.
Press a piece of card stock into the paint covered shaving cream.
Lift up the card stock…
…then use a piece of cardboard to scrape off the shaving cream.
This reveals your beautiful new marbled paper!
Note :: We like to keep a bowl in the center of the table while we’re working. The shaving cream we scrape off of the newly marbled paper, gets re-scraped into the bowl. And later, when we’re finished with the activity, we use a rubber spatula to scrape the paint-y shaving cream into the trash before washing out the bowls and dishes.
You’ll get a couple of good marbled papers from the paint, then want to add more drops of liquid watercolor…
…and swirl it around…
…to make another couple of marbled papers.
Let them all dry. (Yes, this is a shoe rack. It works great for drying art!)
We’ve been punching out 2 inch paper hearts from our marbled paper with a heart punch like this one.
You can see all the different things we’ve been making with our new DIY marbled paper in this post of 10 Valentine Craft Ideas to Make from Kids Process Art. (These ideas work well for repurposing any process-oriented art into crafts, decorations, and gifts.)
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Love this!!! Then again, I haven’t seen an art post on your site that I didn’t just LOVE! I have a question: What is the container you’re using that holds the 6 liquid watercolors at once? Would love to find something like that for our liquid watercolors.
THANK YOU, JEAN! Just what kids need -this combine their desire for creative exploration, discovery and their
love of MESSES! LOL!
Thanks! Beautiful photos of the working process and the finished product!
Greetings,
Do you use a baking dish because of the weight? Our would a pie tin work just as well? Thanks! We are excited to try this out!
Cheers!
Shelly
I pie tin would work just as well, Shelly!
Hope you enjoy it, Shelly!
This is fantastic! I can’t wait to do this with my kids!
I never thought of using shaving cream before what a great idea :)
Yay! Have fun with it! :)
Please add me to your mailing lists. Thank you.
Our art guild did this as a community service project at our Senior Center . We then pasted the strips to decorative paper and laminated it, added a ribbon and voila- a bookmark! So much fun.
Love this project, but I live overseas and haven’t found liquid watercolors available. Can you guide me as far as watering down the food coloring? Thanks for sharing your creativity. I’m always inspired by your posts.
Hi Dev. I just wing it when I water down food coloring. Perhaps mix a bit of water into the food coloring in a small dish and then paint with it on paper to test the color intensity. Then add more water if you like. Good luck!
And thank you for your kind words!
Hi, just wondering if you have tried this on any other surfaces than paper and if it had the same effect?
Thanks,
Chantal
Hi Chantal – We’ve done marbling on wood and paper and I think that’s about it. I know that you can marble on other surfaces but you’ll want to use paints/inks/dyes that are appropriate for whatever surface you’re doing it on. For example, the liquid watercolors we use work great on wood and paper, but wouldn’t stick to ceramic, glass, or fabric.
This is such a great activity! I’m an OT in an elementary school, and I was talking with my colleagues last week, saying how I would love for my students to make marbled paper for a Mother’s Day craft, but couldn’t as it requires oil based paint. Then I spotted your page when searching for ideas. It was a hit with all of the kids! Thank you!
So glad! Isn’t it a fun activity? :)
Would it work for canvas boards?
I think so, Connie!
Could I use a canvas or normal paper with this? Sorry my name is weird XD I’m just goofing around but the question is real :)
We had fun making this today. Thank you for sharing wonderful ideas!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you had fun with the marbled paper!
Hi~ I would like to sign up for your mailing list. [email protected]
Thanks,
Brenda
Love it! Do you have any advice for how this could be done on plastic…my daughter is decorating her soccer bucket?
Hmm… You’d probably have to use a permanent paint such as acrylic paint. Or look up nail polish marbling… Good luck!
did you just one bottle of the shave foam for all of the stuff you made on the drying rack? I’m trying to make 1-2 each of the small squares for a group of 12-14
I tend to have a bottle of shaving foam available for every 1-2 kids working, Peyton (and then if we have extra, we just save it for the next project). But, if you’re only making 1-2 small squares of marbled paper each, then you might be good with 2-3 bottles. Have fun!
Hello from Belgium ;)
I love your ideas!
One question here – how did you sew the coloured paper to the white one when making the card? At least it looks sewed to me, not glued??
Thanks again for this web, very inspiring!!
Sarka
thanks for sharing
what keeps the shaving cream from drying out…evaporating? can it be sprayed with something to keep it from rubbing off… Have not tried any shaving cream crap yet.
The shaving cream is just a medium or support for the paint, Beverly. Once you make the marbled print, you scrape off any extra shaving cream anyway. So it’s not an issue. Give it a try! It’s fun. :)
Have you ever tried this with fabric? I’m trying to come up with ideas for my high school class…
I haven’t, Bitsy, but if you do, let me know how it goes! The watercolor paint will wash out, so if you’re doing it on a fabric that would be washed, you’d probably want to use a fabric paint or permanent dye. Good luck!
I have done quite a bit of traditional marbling, some with kindergarten students. So much easier than making carrageenan bath and pre treating paper. Your process makes it accessible to all. Thanks for that. Bitsy, use acrylic paints for fabric. You can water them down to use.