Marbleizing paper with shaving cream

There are a few ways to marbleize paper. But an MMO! favorite is definately with shaving cream. I get a request to do this method pretty often. Just the mere mention of the beloved word...shaving cream....fills the air with giggles galore! I give each child a sheet of cardstock or tagboard. The heavier the weight usually works best although I have done it with construction paper as well. After squirting a generous mound of shaving cream onto the paper each child picks their favorite color to add right on top of the shaving cream. Usually I use water colors because a little goes a long way. And I add the colors one at a time. If you add all the colors first, and then start to mix, it usually ends up green or brown. Here is a group two different days that are using water colors with shaving cream.

In these other pictures below, we are using tempera paint instead of the water colors. After the kids have had enough mixing I set their papers aside for a bit. Usually about 10 minutes because I cant wait any longer than that to see what they look like! That's when I wipe all the shaving cream off, usually with my hand at first and then I use a wipe. I hang them up to dry and it's as easy as that! It is one of the messiest, but it's easier than it looks to clean up. If you want to try it at home you can just have them do it on a tray or in a cookie sheet to control the mess.

I love the finished product! A dab of water spilled onto the lower right of the sheet and still made it look so cool. And the neat thing about the shaving cream technique is that your art work smells great too!