Sweet Pea is 45 months old.
From: Long ago I saw this beautiful art project on Blissful Moments (a blog which is now private) and I fell in love with the results.
Material:
- Jelly roll pan or disposable baking tray.
- Another jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
- Shaving cream.
- 3-4 different colors of liquid water color or food coloring.
- A paintbrush, un-sharpened pencil or something similar to swirl the colors.
- Watercolor paper, card stock or other very heavy paper.
- Pancake turner or cardboard to scrape away the shaving cream.
- A towel to clean up messes.
- A smock or bib for your tot.
Procedure:
- Fill the tray with shaving cream.
- Sprinkle the shaving cream with drops of liquid water color.
- Let your tot use the end of the paintbrush to swirl the colors together.
- Lay a piece of heavy paper over the swirled colors and press it down so that the underside is completely coated.
- Remove the paper from the tray and lay it colored side up on jelly roll pan.
- Allow your tot to use the pancake turner to scrape away the shaving cream.
- Finish scraping off any shaving cream that your tot missed and allow the paper to dry.
Observations: This activity was one of the biggest hits we have had in a while. Sweet Pea loved it. I loved it and the marbled paper turned out gorgeous.
The only problem was when we ran out of watercolor paper and I told Sweet Pea that we were done. She was extremely unhappy and for the rest of the day kept asking, “When can we do the shaving cream again?”
This activity requires quite a bit of parental involvement, but is lots of fun and produces a very nice result. It is highly recommend for anyone who enjoys art projects.
Notes from the Trenches: This project is messy, but the liquid water colors (which are labeled as “washable”) came off our hands fairly easily. I doubt food coloring would be so easy to clean up.
The paper needs to be very heavy. I used regular paper for our first sheet and it ripped when we tried to scrap away the shaving cream.
Also, we never started over with fresh shaving cream. We just kept adding more liquid watercolors to the top of what was already in the tray. The background color on our sheets eventually became a dark purple, but it didn’t hurt the final product; However, I think it helped that I made sure that all our colors were near each other on the color wheel. If we had used 4 random colors, I think our background might have ended up a ugly brown instead of a rich purple.
Rating: 2 Stars * (Fun, Frugal)
I’ve seen this project on a number of sites and most of them let the shaving cream dry on the paper THEN scrape it off. I’m guessing this would solve the paper ripping problem. 🙂
Ahh! Good idea, although I don’t know if I could have convinced Sweet Pea to wait!
This has been on my to do list forever!!! Yours turned out beautiful!
YEAH! Glad to here this one was a hit! May have to give it a try. Looks like we have a few more snow days coming. Kerri
It’s A great job! I´ll try it with my 27 months old daughter
Thoroughly enjoyed exploring your blog! I am going to be a regular here soon….for Summer break ideas.
Loved the shaving aerosol (foam) marble effect concept! We’ll be trying this right away.
Will share pictures of our work with shaving gel foam soon…quite painless with a restless 30mth old.
I do this with my kindergarten class and use a squeegy to wipe off the shaving cream. I use construction paper and have never had a torn paper.
The squeegy is a great idea!
I love these type of projects. Have you ever tried the colored bubble paper? I put food coloring or just a touch of craft paint in bubbles mix completely then blow the bubbles. You “catch” the bubbles on the paper. This produces very similar effects but more subtle.
No, but what an awesome idea! I know Sweet Pea would love that. We’ll give it a try when it warms up around here. 🙂
Well this just brings a tear to my eye. I used to do all kinds of “projects” like this with my twin girls. They now have a company based in Hawaii where they make mermaid tails. You are instilling great things in your child! They remember the memories, but more importantly they learn so much about what it is to be creative and successful in life.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Can you use tempera paint?
I really don’t think it would work correctly. If you try it, let me know how it goes.
Have you tried this with a canvas?
I haven’t, but that sounds like a good idea to try. 🙂
In my experience the marbling comes out cleaner if you scrape off the shaving cream wet. The trick is usually to use a very smooth but heavier paper. I would recommend card stock (reasonably priced and very smooth). Another you could use would be coverstock but it may be too thin. A friend even got a piece of poster board and cut it down. I hope this helps with the tearing.
Thanks for the tip!
[…] Watercolor and Shaving Cream Marbling – Tot School. This watercolor painting idea is awesome. Stirring gently is key! […]
[…] Watercolor and Shaving Cream Marbling – Tot School. This watercolor painting idea is awesome. Stirring gently is key! […]