Tuesday Technique - Monoprint Shaving Foam Backgrounds

I learned this technique whilst watching Sue Wilson on Create and Craft earlier this year and thought I'd do a step by step tutorial. Apparently, it's been around for a few years but I'd never come across it before and it's fun!

 

 

I used a cheap washing-up bowl from the poundshop that I keep just for this (99p) and the cheapest shaving foam I could find (26p from Sainsburys!).

1.Squirt a layer of cheap shaving foam into a clean washing up bowl, just enough to cover the base of the bowl.

 

2. Drip or spray ink onto the layer of foam. You can use any water-based ink. I found the concentrated Dylusions spray inks to be ideal.

  

N.B. You get different effects depending on which inks you use and how much you swirl. The rest of the pictures show you the results using just one colour...

 

 

3. Use a stick to swirl patterns into the ink. You can add more ink and swirl again if you need to. Try to get rid of any white patches, but don't overmix or you'll lose the patterns. What you see is pretty much what you'll get when you take the print

4. Take a sheet of cheap white card and press it onto the foam.

5. Remove the card from the foam and place face-up on a non-stick mat. At this point it looks a mess!

6. Use a plastic ruler to swipe the foam off the top of the card (I haven't got three hands, I asked Tom to take the photo :-)).

 7. And this is the end result! It dries very quickly and is ready for overstamping in a few minutes.
N.B. you can add more ink to the shaving foam left in the bowl and keep repeating as long as you want. It's great with different colours added on subsequent visits to get more depth in the backgrounds.

The "Coincidences" card uses this simple one ink technique to make the background, which is overstamped in archival ink and coloured with distress markers. The shaving foam background leaves a fabulous coating on the card over which distress inks blend beautifully!

Here's a card that uses the two colours I started the tutorial with, which are Dylusions spray inks:

Have a great day everyone! Maddy x