Art Activity: Paper Marbling, Three Ways

Materials

• Vegetable Oil
• Food coloring (or liquid watercolors, or heavily diluted acrylic paint)
• Watercolor paper or heavy paper, such as cardstock or tagboard. Printer paper will curl up, but you could always flatten it under a stack of books once dry.
• Droppers, or spoons if you don’t have droppers
• Small bowls to mix oil and coloring in 
• Forks (to mix color with)
• Baking dish (aluminum pans work great because they’re deep enough to avoid most messes)
• A laundry rack makes a great drying rack if you have one!
   

Instructions

1. Mix oil and color: pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a dish and add food coloring. Stir well so that the color mixes with the oil. 
    
2. Pour 1-2 inches of water in a shallow pie pan or baking dish. 
    
3. Use a dropper or spoon to transfer the oil-color mixture to the dish of water. Use one color or multiples. 
    
4. Lay your paper on top of the mixture for about three seconds. Don’t submerge the sheet of paper; you really just want the top to touch the water. 
    
5. Carefully pull your paper off and dry flat. Your paper will be very oily at first, but the oil absorbs into the paper when fully dry. 

Materials

• Nail polish (new works best, but you can add a few drops of polish remover to the polish to loosen its consistency)
• Baking pan
• Water
• Bamboo skewer or toothpick
• Watercolor paper or heavy paper, such as cardstock or tagboard. Printer paper will curl up, but you could always flatten it under a stack of books once dry. This project can also be applied to other materials such as wood and ceramics. 
• Acetone polish remover for cleanup
   

Instructions

1. Pour 1-2 inches of water in a shallow pie pan or baking dish.
    
2. Begin dropping your nail polish into the pan.
    
3. Using a bamboo skewer or toothpick, swirl the color.
    
4. Carefully lay your paper on top of the pan, but don’t submerge fully.
    
5. Peel paper back and dry flat.

Materials

• Shaving cream 
• Liquid food coloring (or liquid watercolor or heavily diluted acrylic paint)
• Ruler, butter knife, or spatula
• Baking pan
• Toothpicks, skewers, or spoons 
• Paper (thick paper works best, but printer paper is also fine)

Instructions

1. Spray shaving cream into a pan.
    
2. Level out shaving cream with a spatula or spoon.
    
3. Squirt food coloring onto the shaving cream.
    
4. Swirl the color with a toothpick, straw, bamboo skewer, spoon, or other thin utensil.
    
5. Lay paper down and pat gently so that entire sheet is touching the shaving cream. 
    
6. Carefully peel the paper off to reveal your design.
    
7. Scrape off excess cream with butter knife, ruler, or spatula and allow to dry.