Making Marbled Paper

Making beautiful marbled paper is messy business, but there's nothing quite like having paper you designed yourself to use for crafting. This paper can be used in just about any paper craft you can think of -- card making, scrap booking, a background for a drawing or college, or it can be unique stationery for a note to Grandma.

Here is what you need to make your own marbled paper:

• sturdy paper, such as card stock or thick drawing paper
• food coloring in a variety of colors
• shaving cream foam (not gel)
• waxed paper 
• an old gift card or other object with a smooth, flat edge
• a toothpick or skinny paintbrush

1. To begin, spread out newspaper over a large working area. Cut several sheets of waxed paper and arrange them on your working surface so that you have a working space a few inches wider and longer than the paper you will be working with. 

2. Put a generous blob of shaving cream in the center of the waxed paper.

3. Using the gift card, spread the shaving cream evenly over the waxed paper, so that the area is slightly larger than the paper.

4. Drop a few drops of food coloring, in contrasting colors, onto the shaving cream in a random pattern.

 5. Using a toothpick or the wrong end of a skinny paintbrush, swirl the food coloring around until it looks marbled. It is similar to making a marbled cake.

 6. It should look something like this:

Don't worry if yours turns out looking messier. It will still
look interesting when finished!

 7. Set the paper directly onto the shaving cream and press gently and evenly to ensure all of the paper is coated.

 8. Remove the paper slowly. It will be covered in a thick coating of colorful shaving cream.

 9. Use the wide edge of the gift card to scrape the foam off of the paper, and wipe the colorful foaminess back onto the waxed paper to be used again.*

 10. And now you have a beautiful sheet of marbled paper. Leave it to dry overnight!

*You can use the same batch of shaving cream twice. Follow these steps again with the shaving cream that you scraped off the paper. Try not to mix it up too much when you spread it out over the waxed paper, and don't add any more food coloring. The paper will not have the same swirly pattern, but it will still be interesting.