There’s a chance that you’ve seen shaving cream & paint used to create marbled paper – I am certainly not the one who invented it. Shout out to that genius person who did. Instead, I’m here giving you a a slight variation of shaving cream marbling and adding a little letterpress love. I’ll let you know straight up – this is not the neatest and cleanest project. You’ll have messy fingers in the end, but everything is washable and the finished product is totally worth it
{1} Spray shaving cream onto a piece of wax paper (this cuts down on mess and makes for easy disposal)
{2} Use a palette knife to spread out the shaving cream and create a smooth layer
{3} Place small drops of pigment ink in a random pattern on the shaving cream
{4} Drag the wooden skewer through the ink drops to create a marbled pattern
{5}Place letterpress cardstock onto shaving cream and press down gently
{6} Peel the paper up from the shaving cream then use a craft squeegee to remove the excess shaving cream. The resulting pattern will be crisp with a white background, however, some ink may smear and this is okay.
{7} Use the wet wipes to gently blend the color. Because pigment ink is slow to dry, this is easy to do and will give you a slightly blended marbled look with a pastel, rather than white, background.
{8} Trim the cardstock to the shape of a tag and letterpress with the Twigs & Sprigs Letterpress Plate Set and Letterpress Starter Kit
Letterpress Paper | Twigs & Sprigs Letterpress Plate Set | Letterpress Starter Kit | Gold Letterpress Ink | Pigment Ink Refills | shaving cream | wet wipes
Love this! These tags are beautiful. Pinned and can’t wait to try. Thanks for the share!
These are great!! I love all the DIY things you show on your blog and the great videos. You’re my go-to-girl when it comes to gifts and learning new things!!!
These are striking! I want to try this technique. Thanks for the tutorial.
WOW so gorgeous…sadly I don’t have a letterpress or the paper….
What makes the paper special..what does it look like with other papers…watercolor paper?
Do you think you can also emboss the tags with embossing powder after step 7?
Hi Holly! Letterpress paper is thick and allows for a nice deep impression. For this particular project, I would avoid watercolor paper because when you wipe it with the wet wipe, you will lose a lot of the marbled pattern. This is because watercolor paper is intended to allow for blending colors. The letter press paper keeps the pattern nicely, while the pigment ink gives you some time to blend with a wet wipe. I hope this makes sense!
I have some (okay, a ton of) the Fresh Ink refills. AND a can of Barbasol is also sitting on my craft cart. I think I’m off to Mike’s or HobLob to buy some letterpress paper and try this! I love!!!
I can’t wait to try this. though I will try embossing and plan old stamping the sentiments. You mention a “craft squeegee.” Can you tell us what that is? Would anything else we might have on hand work as well? Thanks for all the inspiration, I always look forward to your lovely ideas.
Hi Susan! The craft squeegee is a tool by Martha Stewart. I believe it it used for stenciling but it works great for this. You could use the edge of a ruler to scrape off the excess shaving cream and I think that would work great. I like the bend of the squeegee but that is just a personal preference. Hope this helps!
beautiful presentation!
Wow those are beautiful! Great job!
Amber these are beautiful tags but HOW in the world did you think of SHAVING CREAM? Never in a million years………
Beautiful! Thanks so much Amber-most-awesome!
Another amazing project, Amber! I have seen tis technique used before but your instructions are so easy to follow, with stunning results (although I can’t see the impressions) – Definitely going to try this – would it work with dye ink refills? (I don’t have any pigment ones).
Thank you 😀
Can you do letter press with a Cuttlebug? What makes the letter press dies different than the dies I use with the Cuttlebug? Love this project!
Hi Amber! I’ve tried this method before and it was really pretty! But how do you get the smell of the shaving cream to go away? I never sent the card I made to anyone because it smelled so much like shaving cream. Are there unscented creams? Thanks!
Who knew shaving cream could be so elegant? Very pretty tags you have created!
I simply love this idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is a neat idea. Thanks for sharing it. Also, your creativity is simply amazing. Go girl!