How to Marble with Shaving Cream and Ink!

Hi, friends! Today I’m here to teach you how to marble with shaving cream. If you’ve done any type or marbling with water and nail polish, you know how incredibly fast it dries and how difficult it is to get a desired result. It’s super fast-paced, almost to the point of being a little stressful. Haha! So when I heard about marbling with shaving cream, I was instantly intrigued because I was hoping there would be a little more wiggle room in the timeframe and control over the finished design.

I’ve seen it done with food coloring, but was curious how it would work with ink instead. I wanted something a little more permanent so I could possibly use it on other surfaces besides paper in the future.

Step 1. Supplies needed:
-shaving cream
-inks (I used re-inkers from Studio Calico, but any type of bottled ink will work)
-a toothpick
-a flat tool like a spatula
-some plain white card stock
-rubber gloves are optional but recommended (I completed this project with some ink stained hands that lasted for 24 hours—oops!)

Step 2. Use a large plate or small baking dish to spray shaving cream on, creating a surface of shaving cream bigger than your paper.

Step 3. Use a spatula to shape the shaving cream a bit, creating a semi-flat surface.

Step 4. Pour drops of ink all over the shaving cream. Use as many colors as you like!

Step 5. Use a toothpick to marble the ink by simply drawing random designs all over the shaving cream and ink.

Step 6-8. Press the paper down onto the shaving cream. Don’t be shy, really press it down in there!

Step 9. Remove the paper. It should look like this. Time to scrape off the shaving cream. Find a sink or trash can and a spatula!

Step 10. Scrape off the shaving cream to reveal these beautiful patterns! Don’t run water over the paper, it will lighten the ink more than you want. Just scrape the shaving cream off and let it dry!

That was super fun! I made my marbled papers into 3×3″ cards. I really love the finished result! It’s pretty cool that they can be made in any color. I’m thinking this would be an awesome method for customizing the edge of a plain white business card!

I dare you to try this! You’re going to have so much fun. xx. Elsie

Credits// Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess Actions.