We LOVE shaving cream marbling. Love it. We love any marbling, really, but shaving cream marbling is especially fun (it involves shaving cream, after all) and beautiful liquid watercolors (the colors are just so vibrant)!
We’ve done shaving cream marbling so many times over the years, both on our own and with friends, for no special reason and to make handmade gifts. We’ve even done it with a variety of paints.
A couple weeks ago, when Maia was sick and sleeping away most of the day, she even requested a shaving cream marbling session during a brief awake and not-too-feverish period.
When I looked back at my old posts on shaving cream marbling, though, I realized that they were way overdue for an update.
MY LATEST VIDEOSSo here you go.
Shaving Cream Marbling with Liquid Watercolors
With better photos, added tips for success, and years of experience under our belt…
MATERIALS
- Shaving cream*
- Shallow container, such as a pie pan
- Liquid Watercolor Paint
*
- Plastic droppers
- Something to use as a scraper*
- Watercolor paper
INSTRUCTIONS
If you’re wondering about the art trays in the photos, they are wonderful for containing art messes and we use them all the time! And those little paint cups in a base
are great for holding liquid watercolors. You can read more about both in my tools for success post, but neither are necessary for this project.
Step #1. Spray shaving cream
Spray shaving cream into your dish (if your kids are anything like mine, they’ll love doing this step on their own) then smooth the surface a bit with a spatula (or spoon, hands, etc).
Step #2. Drop paint on shaving cream
Use the dropper to transfer the liquid watercolor paint
to the surface of the shaving cream.
Step #3. Swirl the colors
You can use a craft stick or wood dowel (shown here) to swirl the colors together to create a marbled effect. Or use the tip of your dropper (as we usually do).
Step #4. Press paper on shaving cream
Lay a piece of paper on the surface of the painted shaving cream.
Step #5. Lift paper
Gently lift the paper off of the shaving cream.
Step #6. Scrape shaving cream
Scrape off the shaving cream with a craft stick or a piece of cardboard.
Step #7. Dry
Set paper aside to dry and repeat with more prints!
You can make several prints each time you add paint to the shaving cream. And you can add more color to existing colored shaving cream. When you’re ready for a clean slate, you can either add a new layer of shaving cream to the top (as shown) or scoop the colored shaving cream out with a spatula and start fresh.
If your kids are anything like my kids (heck, like almost any child who has been to our house), this will be the highlight of the shaving cream marbling experience—shaving cream as a sensory experience.
*5 Tips for Success
- When you buy shaving cream, make sure it’s the foamy stuff. NOT gel. I’ve made that mistake more than once. We’ve had more success with the traditional men’s shaving creams, such as Barbasol and Gillette, plus they can be cheaper. Whenever there is a sensitive skin option, I usually get it.
- You can do shaving cream marbling with just about any paints, not just liquid watercolors. We’ve done this with tempera paints, BioColors, food coloring, and acrylics. BioColors
and liquid watercolors
- Scraping the shaving cream off the paper right away is important. You don’t want to let the shaving cream soak into the paper. It’ll get gunky and stain the paper. For scraping, use something with a wide, straight edge. We’ve used everything from a piece of cardboard to the side of the table. This time we used a large wood craft stick, but I wouldn’t say it was ideal. A ruler would also work well.
- Keep a wet washcloth and/or bowl of water handy for washing shaving cream-covered hands.
- To make clean up easier, spray off all the dishes and art trays outside with a hose. Or use a rubber spatula and scrape it all into the trash first, then rinse off.
What to do with your beautiful new shaving cream marbling paper?
- Glue to the front of a blank card and send a note to someone
- Cut into shapes and make a seasonal or holiday garland
- Frame your marbled paper and display it on the wall
- Use the marbled paper as a creative drawing prompt (what do the colors and shapes remind you of?)
Have you done shaving cream marbling with your kids yet? If not, it’s a must-try art project!
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The swirling colors are beautiful – and your tips are great! Thanks.
Thanks! :)
Thank you for this post. We tried this once and the kids loved it and have been asking to do it again, this helps!
You’re welcome, Jennifer! Glad it helps!
I have taught this as an Arts Day activity at my kids school and it’s one of my all time favourite activities. I made marbling combs by gluing toothpicks to a piece of foam core at regular intervals and I instructed the students to use as much pressure as the would to pet a cat. Not one was broken after hundreds of kids and the foam core has now worn out and I will need to make new ones for the next session. As well, to scrape the shaving cream and paint off the paper, I use a piece of a garage sale sign made out of Coreplast (it’s like corrugated cardboard, but made of plastic) that I picked up the dollar store and had cut into a 3″ wide strips. Cut it will the grain or else you will get uneven stripes. It is such a fun project!
Thanks :) this looks great, just bought marbles to do Activity 43 in your wonderful book & now we can do this aswell.
Keep up the “good tips”, us mums depend on them x
Lovely effects! Will be trying out! Especially like the tips on how to use the pretty artworks thereafter!
Hi.
I am 23 years old and i want to be a ceative Painting Teacher for a fetr celebration .(it is a last day of ramadon,and muslms celebrate and saing prayers ……)and we will have a big surprise for children who are Irresponsible orDerelict
and i want to use your Painting Techniques in it.
THANK you….:)
Thank you for this, we had lots fun at our group today, here are a few of the kids results…
http://delcef.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/super-messy-day/ :)
I just had a quick question… when you scrape off the shaving cream, do you make firm contact between the ruler and the paper almost like a squeegee on a window? Or is it a gentler action? Thanks! Cant wait to try this with our Preschool Picssso class at the Y!
Great tutorial Jean, Thanks for taking the time to write it – I’m sure many will benefit from your shared knowledge! FYI, I used it as a reference on a recent paper marbling tutorial I did myself a week or two ago, I hope you don’t mind…? http://www.ibookbinding.com/blog/marbled-paper-bookbinding-tutorial-and-photo-gallery/
Keep up the good work and again, many thanks!
~ Paul
So many great prompts and projects! Thanks from vt!
You’re welcome, Sarah!
I’m fascinated with this technique and am going to try it over our next vacation. I think the shaving cream idea will be the perfect “lure” for our two boys. Great post.
Loved this. Have used it in a group of (elderly) mentally handicapped people. With the beautiful papers we have made flowers. Cut out shapes, used a q-tip through the center and inserted it into a bendable straw. Such a fantastic result. Would like to show pictures but don’t know how to add to this post.
will this work on canvas as opposed to paper ?
It should, Tammie! I haven’t tried this marbling technique on canvas but we’ve used liquid watercolors on canvas and they work well.
I’ve done it, but I didn’t srap the shaving cream off because when I did it the paint didn’t look nice, now is dry and it looks great, but is falling off!!! what can I do???
Love this! I’m a Speech and Language Therapist and work with children with Autism. I’m always excited to find new things to do with shaving foam/paint/food colouring and almost any other material that is engaging! I will try this is an attention focusing activity and let you know how it goes :-) thanks
Can you use paint instead of Liquid Watercolor Paint*
Hey, I just tried this project. Ur why is it that my marbled effect tends to get smudged when I run through the squeege to clear of the foam?
This looks amazing! Thank you!
I have done this using computer photo paper, which takes the color very well and doesnt smear. ????
Great idea, Kim! I’ll have to give that a try!
Typically what kind of paper do you use? Is it heavier than printer paper?
Going out right now to get some shaving cream! Cant wait to try it with my granddaughter!
Yay! It’s a fun project! I hope you and your granddaughter enjoy it!
Has anyone ever tried this with cardboard ? The children at church are supposed to decorate the cover of their cardboard journals.