You’ll need a plastic container or aluminum (disposable) pan that is larger than your card stock and has at least 1″ tall sides. I cut my card stock to 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and 6″ square and 5 x 7″. I would suggest using 65 pound card stock as it doesn’t need to be watercolor paper and heavy weight card stock would be expensive, and you might discard some of your results, so the cheaper the paper, the better.
I also used an old hotel key card, you can use an old credit card, or a gift card that has no balance left. I also used a hair pick, but a comb works well too. You can use a skewer too.

1. Men’s shaving cream from the Dollar Tree and food coloring. Take your shave cream and cover the bottom of the container you are using and using food coloring, place drops of different colors into the shave cream. Using your comb, spread the food coloring around in the shave cream. Once you like the pattern you’ve created, place your card stock face down into the shave cream, pressing it in until the face is covered. Gently lift it up and if you have areas that aren’t covered, push it back into the shave cream. Once all of the card stock is covered with shave cream, lay it on a craft mat or old newspaper or kid’s drawing pad (that’s what I used), and take your credit card (gift card, key card) and scrape the shaving cream off of the card stock and wipe the excess onto the side of the pan you are using for shave cream. Once you’ve scraped all of the foam off, set the card stock aside to dry. You’ll need to keep adding food coloring as your backgrounds will get lighter with each round of use. You’ll also need to change out your shaving cream with multiple uses, as it will start to blend the colors to a ugly brown. Clean your pan once done with soapy water.
2. Kit from Dollar Tree called “Marbling Kit” found in kid’s toy department. Fill your pan with about 1/2″ of water, and drop a lot of your colors into it from the kit. These colors will really dull, so use more than you think you will need. You’ll need to add more colors with each use. Drop your card stock into the pan face down and make sure the face is completely submerged in the water. Pick it out of the water and let it dry.
3. Marbling Kit from Michaels…I don’t recommend this kit as it was really expensive on clearance and the container included is really low grade. I used the magic powder that was included and then added the colors, then dipped my card stock into it. You might want to try a pack of gelatin to make the water thicker, and the magic powder did seem to make the water thicker like gelatin would. It did say you should use only 8 oz of water in the pan. Pour the colors into the water and use more than you will think you need and move the colors around with a comb or skewer and then place card stock face down then remove and let dry.
4. Nail Polish. Definitely use a container that you can discard, as the nail polish sticks to the container. Add about 1/4-1/2″ water to the bottom of your container then pour some different colors of nail polish into it. Add your card stock and lift gently. The nail polish will pool so you have to be careful to avoid big globs of polish on your card stock. Move the nail polish around with a skewer or tooth pick. It smells, so you should open a window when you are doing this one. Put the card stock face down in the container. and gently pick it back up.
5. Alcohol Inks in water–fill your container with 1/4″ water and put drops of alcohol inks into water in a variety of colors. It is pale, so I put drops of alcohol ink right onto our card stock to make droplets.
6. Marbles in a closed container. Use an old Stampin’ Up stamp box or a Rubbermaid plastic container…Put a small amount of tape runner on the back of your card stock. Place the card stock inside the lid of a plastic container with 5-6 marbles. Put a few drops of re inker in the bottom of the box, close it and tilt the box back and forth to cover the marbles, then flip it over so the marbles make contact with the card stock. You can use any reinkers or using your small ink pads, press them into the bottom and try that as well. Anything that allows the marbles to color the paper, would work.

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