Second Thursday Tutorial: Too cold for step outs

I was hoping to have a tutorial today because I had one I want to make.  However, I can't find one of the key components (required product) that I want to use, so I either used it all, or lost it in the basement flood last year.

Instead, I am making a few backgrounds made with shaving cream.  I didn't take any step out photos, but I have a few old ones I can share, even though they were taken with my old worthless camera.

Here are the supplies I used before.  From left:
Cookie sheet designated for crafts ONLY, knitting needle, pick, reinkers (distress reinkers were not used in this tutorial), shaving cream (not gel), various papers, photos.
Not shown: credit card

Shake the 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 an old credit card or old hotel key 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.   After all, as the Queen of FREE, I hate waste of any kind.

As an alternative, gently lay another sheet of blank 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.  Only NOW should you remove any excess shaving cream from your two pages.  I used a dry cloth to remove the excess shaving cream.  You may need more than one cloth in the event the cloth begins to smear and no longer takes the excess shaving cream.

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.

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 project.  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.

Here are a few of the pages I made this time in the warmth of my office.    I kept the ones out that are mainly pastel because I'm trying to wish for spring.

I realize this was not much of a Second Thursday Tutorial, so I also created a tag that will go well with three challenges this fortnight.

This tag is for Tag Tuesday, whose theme is Have a Heart, Moo-Mania and More, whose theme is Love (or Valentine's Day), and Try it on Tuesday, whose theme is Love is in the Air.

A few step out photos show shiny hearts,

two foamy hearts topped with a sticker, and rounded corners on the top paper.

I included the hand written words "Be Mine" to show this could be thought of as a Valentine.

I was going for lots of layers by using and coloring corrugated cardboard.

I love how the reds matched so well.  That was quite serendipitous, because reds seldom match this well.

I cut the tag by hand from some corrugated cardboard I colored using a red bingo dabber.  For the second layer, I colored the background with red pigment ink and allowed it to dry before adding the second layer of cardboard.  For the top layer, which is actually pink but doesn't look so in this late afternoon photo, I cut it to size, used a punch to round the corners, and added many shiny hearts.  For the focal hearts, I used foam and cut the foam to size.  I added the sticker to the top of the two foam hearts.   Finally I added the words using my red gel pen.

Thanks for joining me today for my Second Thursday tutorial, and thanks for staying to see the tag I made for Tag Tuesday, Moo-Mania and More, and Try it on Tuesday.  Perhaps I'll see you at one of these places, too!