Your kids are going to love making this DIY marbled paper from shaving cream. You know what? It doesn’t even have to be an activity for your kids. This marbled paper would be fun for personal stationary too. We love working with shaving cream as you can see in our shaving cream impressionism paintings, shaving cream bath paints and our homemade shaving cream puffy paints. This is simply one more idea inspired by shaving cream.
This marbled paper craft is one I learned was when I was taking my art education class back in college. I have a binder full of ideas, and this is one I pulled out a while ago when we were making our marbled Valentine hearts with shaving cream. The kids had a blast the first time we did it, and I wanted to make the cover for our kids art and activities binder for this school year. You can click back to see how I store my kids’ artwork and schoolwork or scroll down to the bottom for more links. This marbled paper will be a great decorative cover for the binder we are making for this year.
Materials Needed to Make Marbled Paper
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- Shaving Cream
- Food Coloring
- Water
- Heavier Weight White Paper
- Straight Edge
- Paint Brush
- Muffin Tin
- Medicine Dropper
- Spatula
- Tooth Picks or Spoon for Stirring Food Coloring
- How you cover your table is up to you. I used a jelly roll pan lined with foil to house the shaving cream. I used a brown paper bag to lay the paper on afterward and scrape the shaving cream off. I also covered my table in a disposable plastic table cover that I use over and over again for art projects.
How to Make Marbled Paper with Shaving Cream
1. Choose the colors of food coloring you want to use. I have a variety of gel colors because of my cake decorating, but you can use liquid food coloring as well. I used a muffin tin to sort the colors. I put a bit of color in each one, added water to water it down a bit (about half way full in the tins) and then mixed it with a tooth pick.
2. I lined foil on a jelly roll pan for easy clean up. Let kids squirt out shaving cream onto the foil. Spread it out using a spatula. Make the layer about 1/2 inch thick and make it slightly larger than the size of your paper.
3. Using a medicine dropper, make drops of food coloring all over your shaving cream. Have a glass of water next to you, so the kids can clean out the dropper after each color use.
4. Using a paint brush, kids can start twirling paint until desired swirl pattern. You want to encourage them not to over-mix, which will blend all the colors rather than having a nice swirl pattern.
5. Lay the paper down on the swirled shaving cream. Lightly press onto the shaving cream, making sure all the edges and corners are being exposed to the color. Do not shift the paper, simple press straight down lightly.
6. It is time for the magical moment. You will carefully lift the paper up. Don’t be disappointed. It looks like a mess of colorful shaving cream initially. Using a straight edge (We used a dish scraper), scrape of the shaving cream. Revealed underneath will be gorgeous marbled paper. Allow to dry.
Our marbled paper is beautiful and perfect for our art and schoolwork binders. I will add their initials or names with letter stickers. I will add the year as well.
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Great Resources for other Activities for Kids
I, of course, would love for you to check out my craft or activities tab for more great ideas. I also have some wonderful blogging friends who have put together some e-books and printed books that can be another great resource to inspire creative activities with your kids.
- Weekly Activity Plans by Hands on As We Grow – There are four eBooks of 5 weekly plans of activities each that are perfect for ages one through preschoolers. Fun ways to get the kids moving, work on fine motor, do arts and craft projects and have fun as a family! Each weekly plan includes a handy supply list and activities broken down to know exactly what to do in a simple sentence or two. Get your weekly activity plans here.
- 101 Activites tant are the Bestest, Funnest Ever by Holly Homer- Whether your kid is 3, 5 or 12 years old, there are hundreds of fun, educational and engaging things to do in this book. When they ask to watch television, you’ll have the perfect solution.
- 150+ Screen Free Activities for Kids by Asia Citro – With the one-of-a-kind projects in 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids, your family will rediscover the spirit of imaginative play! These fun activities help develop your child’s creativity and skills–all without a screen in sight.
How We Store Our Artwork and Schoolwork
If you are curious how we store our artwork and schoolwork and other ways to decorate the front of your art binders, I encourage you to click back on the following posts to see my methods.
Cupcake Liner Art Storage Binders
What a cool idea. Could you use metallic paints in the shaving cream as an accent to give your paper a bit of a shimmer? Also, I see the result looks very matte on regular paper. Can you do anything to give it a shine? Maybe a light spray varnish? I have older kids that want to try this, so I’m not worried about them mishandling the ingredients. Thanks!
Ooo – Never tried the metallic paints, but I think it would work fabulous. You are right that there is a more matte finish to the product. I’d love to hear if the metallic paints help that. I do imagine a spray varnish might help give it shine, but I’ve never tried. If you do experiment, will you let us all know what worked. Have a blast!
I did this with my kids (they HATE being stuck inside because of covid, what can I say, they are New Yorkers) and they loved it! Especially my 8 year old, Jasmine. Thank you so much!
So glad you had fun with this. It remains one of my favorite crafts too!