Shaving Cream and Nuance

Yes, you read that right!  Using shaving cream, combined with various coloring mediums, to create colorful paper has been around for a long time.  I recently saw a video post on a friend’s Facebook page that reminded me of this fun technique (that I had never tried.)  My first thought was that this would be fun to do with my grandchildren and my second thought was “I wonder if this will work with Nuance.” 

So, the next time the grandkids were at the house we tried our hand at making background papers.  You will need a can of shaving cream (I used Barbasol; it needs to be cream, not any kind of jell foam), watercolor paper, Nuance, a cookie sheet or large cake pan, a craft mat or other surface to dry your paper, and a squeegee or other tool to remove the shaving cream from the paper. 

I squirted the shaving cream on the cookie sheet in a rectangular shape a little larger than the pieces of paper you will be using.  I used some 8½’x11” paper as well as some A2 size papers.  I also tried both cardstock and watercolor paper and the watercolor paper worked much better for this technique.

Sprinkle Nuance liberally over the shaving cream, using as many colors as you like.  You will want to be sure that the colors will blend well together and avoid using colors that will turn brown when mixed together (like red and green.)  Let the colors sit for about 3-5 minutes – you will see them start to dissolve into the cream. 

Using a knife or the handle of a paint brush or other tool, swirl it back and forth through the shaving cream to blend the colors.

Lay the piece of watercolor paper onto the shaving cream and push it down gently so that the shaving cream touches the paper. 

Lift the paper out of the shaving cream and set it on the craft mat.  Let sit for 3-5 minutes to let the colors blend into the paper. 

Use the squeegee to remove the shaving cream.  You can put the shaving cream back on the cookie sheet and use it again.  When you reuse the shaving cream you can also blend in other colors - the possibilities are endless! 

For this card I used Nuance colors Turquoise, Jade, Violet and Royal Blue.  After it was dry, I cut it down to A-2 card size, and mounted on a white A2 card.  I die cut Memory Box Floating Butterfly Frame (#99138) out of blue vellum and attached it to the front of the card and then added a few sequins.

These last few pictures are a few different papers from our experiment.  You can vary the intensity of the color by the amount of time you leave the shaving cream on the paper and the amount of color you use.  You can also try spreading the cream directly onto the paper with a spatula and swirling in in different directions.  Other color mediums such as food coloring and acrylic paints can be used for this technique.  I think Distress re-inkers would work well. 

This project was a lot of fun and the grandkids loved it.  I hope you will give it a try.