september 2001 idea of the month with close to my heart rubber stamps and scrapbook supplies, shaving cream backgrounds

Idea of the Month

Shaving Cream Backgrounds

Yep, you read that correctly- shaving cream. What'll they think of next? There's been so much talk about this technique lately that I thought I'd share the instructions and a fun project idea. So, dig out that shaving cream and let's get started!

Supplies Needed:

Shaving cream

Cake pan or cookie sheet

Plastic spatula

Fork or knife

1-4 bottles of Exclusive Inks TM Re-inkers in coordinating colors

Paper towels

Glossy white cardstock cut into 1/4 sheets (non-glossy will work, too, but I don't think it looks as pretty)

Step 1: Prepare the Shaving Cream

Squirt shaving cream into bottom of pan to cover an area at least a bit larger than your cardstock pieces. Squirt drops of Exclusive Inks TM re-inker randomly over shaving cream. I used 4 colors here, and about 6-10 drops of each color. Make sure your colors coordinate (I used the Exclusive Inks TM colors from our Summer Season: Holiday Red, Sunny Yellow, Kentucky Green and Bubblegum Exclusive Inks TM Reinkers ).

Use a fork or knife to gently swirl the colors around, just a bit. Too much swirling will mix them together and make them look like mud!

Now you are ready to create!

Step 2: "Dip" the Cardstock

Gently press a piece of cardstock face-down into the shaving cream. Press gently, but firmly enough so that the whole piece is in contact with the cream. Then grab a corner and gently pull the cardstock out of the pan, as shown. Yep, it's messy! If you missed an area, just press it down again into the pan.

Step 3: Scrape and Dry

Use the spatula to scrape the shaving cream from the cardstock. You won't be able to get every last bit, but don't worry. Set the cardstock aside to dry.

Repeat this process as desired until the colors are too muddy looking. You can easily get 6-8 backgrounds or more out of each prepared pan of shaving cream.

Once dry (in about 30-45 minutes), use a paper towel to "buff" the cardstock and remove all remaining shaving cream. This shines up the remaining white areas very nicely.

Step 4: Create!

The photo at left shows the kinds of backgrounds you'll get. No two will be alike.

Now, what do you actually DO with them? Well, I like to stamp an image on vellum and layer it over the swirled background, and then mount the whole thing onto matching cardstock. Check out this cool gift tag:

Click here to return to the Past Ideas page