I love thinking up crafts to do with photos and sharing them with you!
This craft is super easy, a bit messy but also so deliciously squishy! And, at the end you’ll have some unusual photo artwork to dot around your home!
marbled monochrome prints: a fun photo craft
What you need for the photo craft
Baking tray or large dish (big enough to place an A4 piece of paper flat)
Spatula
Chopsticks
Shaving foam
Food colouring
Card stock paper (A4)
A black and white image
Printer (or get it printed on card stock at a local printing store before starting the craft)
The process to make marble monochrome prints
Cover the baking tray with shaving foam.
Drop spots of food colouring around the shaving foam.
Use chopsticks to swirl the colours around.
Place the print facedown into the colourful shaving foam and pat the back to ensure each part of the paper is making contact with the foam.
Peel the paper back and place down (shaving foam side up) onto a clean surface.
Using the spatula, scrape off the shaving foam and leave the print somewhere to dry.
Add more food colouring, swirl again and repeat the process with multiple prints or blank card stock.
When it comes time to clean up, ensure you squelch the shaving foam between your hands and fingers multiple times!
Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!
Take a look at this video which shows the process (music curtesy of Canva).
Some tips to perfect the printing and marbling process
The colour changes
The colour becomes more intense with each round you do, so have duplicates of the prints (if you print beforehand) so you have a couple of options to choose from.
The image below shows the first (top), second (middle) and fifth (bottom) try at marbling. The bottom print was printed onto the marbling effect, while the top two were already printed before doing the marbling.
Print after the marbling process to enhance the print contrast
If you have a printer, print onto the marbled paper as the ink will sit on top of the food colouring helping the image to pop a bit more. However, this can leave colour residue on your printer so just sus up if this is worth the risk to your printer.
You can also marble onto the print (as seen in the video) so don't worry if you can't do this option.
In the image below: The left image was printed over the marbling effect, the right image was marbled onto the print.
Choose your image wisely
Don’t use a very busy print as the marbling and the textures in the print will be competing. Portraits (like the ones used above) are probably the best suited. Alternatively, landscape scenes with large light negative space (like the sky) and contrasting dark area (like the land). If there is not enough contrast, the image will become lost in the marbling.
In the image below, the top image has less contrast and I feel the image becomes lost in the colours. The darkened image at the bottom allows the effect to pop more on the water and sky while the land remains a nice dark contrast.
Display your creations
These fun prints are great for children's bedrooms and playrooms (or if you really love them they can make a bold statement anywhere in your home!)
I used magnetic poster frames from H&M home. Super quick and easy to use (and change frequently!)
In fact, place two prints back to back and just flip the frame every now and then to change things up daily!
Of course you can also use these creations to create beautiful cards and other gifts. But note, because of the rustic nature of these prints, they won’t last forever and the colour may come off on surfaces they touch. So gift with caution!
Enjoy!
xoxo
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