Marbling with ink tutorial

The shaving foam technique has been around a while and is an easy, if a little messy, way of creating marbled effect patterns for both backgrounds and toppers for your cards.

Spray some shaving foam onto a tray or container and use a palette knife to smooth the surface. You need to create an area of foam which is bigger than the card piece you wish to marble. Next add drops of different coloured inks to the surface. Any type of bottled ink will work such as Distress Re-inkers or Dylusions Ink sprays. I have used Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks for these projects.

Now mix the inks over the surface of the foam in a swirling motion. Don’t over mix the inks as they may start to muddy and you will lose the pattern and contrast of the colours and the white areas.

When you are happy with the pattern lay a piece of cardstock onto the shaving foam. Press the card smoothly and quite firmly onto the foam to make sure the card is completely covered, then lift the card from the foam. Remove the excess foam with a palette knife and wipe over the card with a paper towel to reveal the marbled pattern.

The card just needs to be put aside for a couple of minutes to dry. You can place another piece of card onto the foam to get a different pattern and paler colours of ink on the card. By doing this you are not wasting any ink and you will have some different shades of coordinating pieces of marbled card to use on your projects. You can now use the marbled pieces to create backgrounds and die-cut toppers for your cards.

As this technique can get a little messy, I would recommend marbling several pieces of card at one time and keeping them to use on your projects. When finished simply wash the leftover foam away in the sink.

Each piece you create will be unique and some of the most beautiful patterns often happen by accident. Have fun!

Spray shaving foam larger than your cardstock onto a tray, smoothing the surface as shown

Add drops of different coloured inks onto the shaving foam

Mix the inks by dragging a skewer over the foam in a swirling motion – but don’t mix them too much

Press the cardstock into the shaving foam firmly into the foam so it is completely covered

Pull the card back and scrape off most of the foam with a palette knife, then wipe the card with paper towel

Die-cut several large and small leaves from the marbled pieces of card and attach to the card with 3D foam pads.