Bee and I did it – after years of eyeing a variety of DIY tutorials for marbling paper with shaving cream, we made 100+ holiday cards marbled in mostly reds and greens or blues and yellows. The anticipation of how the swirled color will reveal itself on the paper is the best part. Swirl a lot or a little. Time lapse at the end.

Supplies

• Cheap shaving cream, white foam only, no gel
• Sheet pan
• Paper (blank cards, sheets etc)
• Food coloring
• Bowls, Droppers or oral syringes
• Mat or surface to scrape off the foam
• Spatula or knife to smooth
• Something to scrape with
• Damp rag for wiping hands, tools and work space

Instructions

1. Spray foam into sheet pan and spread to fill and smooth (like frosting). Somewhere from 1/2 to 1 inch in depth is plenty, especially if you want to change up colors etc.
2. Prep bowls of color/dye. I added a little water to thin it out just a little (not a lot as it will warp paper).
3. Add colors using droppers, oral syringes, straw, pipette or how ever!
4. Swirl the colors in – chopsticks worked great.
5. Put paper done firmly onto foam but do not submerge. Then peel/pull off swiftly and get ready to remove foam. you could put a few down at a time in the pan but be quick.
6. Scrape off the foam and reveal the design. I did the scraping on a silicone mat but a counter or cutting board etc will work, just watch the dye.
7. Let it dry.
8. Options for next step: Repeat step 5 OR smooth the top of the foam in the pan and repeat step 5 OR go back to step 3 and add more color or scrap out the foam and start again at step 1. You could also spray some extra foam on top of the foam you just used to get a clean layer and go from there.
9. Show off your designs.

Some tips

• Remember that a lot of colors mixed together make grey/brownish
• Thin layer of shaving cream foam in a jelly roll or quarter sheet pan is perfect. You do not need inches of this stuff
• Pastry tools like the frosting spatula and dough scrape are very helpful
• Have a discard bowl for used foam after scraping off paper
• Do not let the foam sit on paper very long to avoid it being too wet
• You can re-smooth foam in the pan after transferring color and add more, just remember that the colors will start to mix.
• Work quickly to avoid colors mixing *unless you want that effect.
• Try to buy unscented shaving cream