A new to me technique

This is a very long post, so I hope some of you find it useful.


Before I begin, I wanted to show a bit of unexpected serendipity. I laid a couple of wet fabric scraps on top of some dry paper towels I used to sop up the excess dye ink I used last week. You can see, the paper towels bled onto the fabric. The darker areas are rust, the lighter ones are from the paper towels, which lost some of their color, especially on the left.


On Monday, I showed a sneak peek of some white scrapbook pages I made using dye inks. After seeing how the dye ink dyed the sheet I laid the paper on, I said I had an idea for a really cool project. Actually, I have two projects I want to work on. Here are the supplies for both minus


the distress inks I forgot to include in the first photo. I have to crop these photos because I also have another project I'm working on sitting on my desk that I don't want seen. In the back, with Wendy lounging over it, is a pan that I'm going to put the shaving cream in, then add distress ink to. I've never used distress ink for shaving cream papers before, so I hoped this would turn out well. This is NOT the same pan I used the first time. This time I used a lot more shaving cream, filling it nearly full. I should have used a thinner pan.

For those of you who have never made shaving cream papers, I have a tutorial, but it is hard to follow because I was never able to get the images lined up properly with the instructions. So, I will re-post the tutorial below, because the other one is extremely old. If you know how to make shaving cream papers, please scroll down to the last four images of this post for the "new to me" technique.


From left: Cookie sheet, pick, knitting needle, reinkers (distress reinkers were not used in this tutorial), shaving cream (not gel), various papers, photos. Not shown: credit card


Shake shaving cream, then squirt it onto your cookie sheet or baking pan. Be sure the pan is larger than the paper you will be using.


Spread shaving cream with a credit card.


Continue spreading until the shaving cream covers an area larger than your largest sheet of paper.


Make sure the shaving cream is relatively level.


Place a few drops of one reinker color randomly on the shaving cream.


Add a second color, and a third if you wish.


Don't use more than three colors at a time or your shaving cream will get muddy.


Drag your favorite tool (I used the hair pick), through the shaving cream and reinkers. Don't press too deeply, just skim the surface.


Continue doing this until you have a pattern you are happy with.


Lay a sheet of paper over the shaving cream and GENTLY press into the mixture.


Carefully lift the paper from the shaving cream. Most instructions tell you to scrape the excess shaving cream away from the page, but I'm going to offer an alternative suggestion.


As an alternative, gently lay another sheet of paper on top of the first sheet.


Press the top paper gently into the bottom sheet, being careful to not rotate or move the bottom paper.


You now have a mirror image bonus page.

At some point you're going to have to add more ink to the shaving cream. This is the time to change colors if you wish. You will not have to add any more shaving cream, especially if you used as much as I did for this latest batch.

Clean up is easy: just use warm water to remove any excess shaving cream, then follow with soap and hot water.

I like how my studio smelled so clean and fresh after I finished the paper. The shaving cream has a definite appealing scent, unless you are allergic to, or affected by, any scent. I also like how soft and pliable the paper is when finished. Since the shaving cream has very little liquid and no water, the pages don't curl or warp like they do with many other background techniques.

These are some of the papers from this very first batch, including some made from brown craft paper.

So what is the technique that is "new to me?"

First, I only used blue and red distress reinkers. Now I know all you TH fans know the names of the ink, but it is something like brick red and blue jean blue or some such. However, the papers are NOT a surprise.


It's the fabric I dyed (using that sheet I tried to color mist last week) using the same shaving cream mixture. Follow all the steps as above to get a similar look, with the following exception. At first I thought I would have to tear strips that were quiltlet size,


then realized fabric is not the same as paper. Unlike paper, it can be folded. So, I tore some fabric that can be used for visual journal covers.


And although I preferred the other one (see photo above this one) because it didn't have as much color misted colors on it, this is the one that was in focal view of my camera.

So now I can add another way to dye fabric. I'm really enjoying dyeing fabric. The appeal is in finding ways anyone can dye fabric, rather than having to invest in lots of chemicals, steamers, and dye bath times. You will be able to find this on my tutorials page, so you can find it easily when you decide to use this technique for dyeing fabric.