Shaving Cream Swirl Paper

Bring it on shaving cream!  Bring back the memories of shaving cream fights and pretend shaving with my dad.  There’s a very nostalgic feeling to the smell of Barbasol.  Good thing The Babe loves shaving cream activities.  She pretty much asks to do something with it every day.  Good thing a can lasts a long time, too.  Unless, of course, you are playing the Empty the Shaving Cream Can game.

We were crazy behind on our thank you note list and I was all out of cute cards, so I decided to whip up some new paper.  It’s a pretty fun process and makes for interestingly textured paper.  It probably doesn’t last super well, but it’s good for a quick note.

What you need:

• paper (cardstock works best)
• shaving cream
• paint
• tray that fits your paper with a little extra room around it
• a big brush or sponge
• large popsicle sticks (uncolored works best)
• newspaper or other surface protecting sheets

Here are the steps:

1. Spread the shaving cream out in your tray making sure you have a nice even, relatively thin layer.
2. Put a few blobs of paint and swirl with a pospicle stick until you get to the desired color pattern.  The more you swirl, the muddier the color gets, so use some restraint.
3. Place paper in tray and gently press down.
4. Carefully remove paper from tray and scrape excess shaving cream off with the side of a popsicle stick.  Be sure to use plain sticks, not the colored ones or you will leave a streak of the stick color on your paper.  (No picture of this step since I had to do the scraping instead of The Babe, but I’m guessing you get the gist of it.)
5. Let paper dry on newspaper for a few hours or overnight before cutting and writing on the flip side.

Final step?  Go bananas with the remaining shaving cream / paint mixture!!

I’d love to hear about your experiences making shaving cream paper.  Leave me a note in the comments…