Stencils and Shaving Cream?

Today's post features some super simple cards that I created with a fun technique that I was playing with using Dreamweaver Stencils and the new Color Solutions alcohol inks. These new inks are highly saturated in color which leaves you the opportunity to have your color as in-you-face or subtle as you would like, depending on much you thin it out using the Color Solutions' Thinner/Cleaner. In the case of this technique, I used none of the thinner as the ink diluted slightly with the process. Have you ever done the "Shaving Cream Technique"? This creates a marbled effect on glossy cardstock (actually, any cardstock). I started by piling up shaving cream foam into a shallow pan (use the cheap stuff without moisturizers, and not gel...I usually buy the Barbisol brand). Place a few drops of the Color Solution inks over the foam, and use a chopstick or similar item to gently stir the color slightly, not necessarily blending. You want a pattern of colors in the foam. Now, normally, this is where you would place your cardstock down onto the foam, pull it away, and use a piece of cardboard, or an expired credit card, to scrape the excess off the card, leaving the color behind. This is where I tried something different. I used the foam as I would the Dreamweaver Stencils' embossing paste. I taped the Antler Snowflake* stencil to the cardstock using removable tape all around. Then I spread the foam across the stencil* with a palette knife, removing the excess, and removed the stencil*. I set aside the stenciled card to dry. When dry, I buffed off the film left behind, which left just the stenciled image with the swirls of color. The colors that I used for this process were the Iceberg Blue, Blue Velvet, and Citron. Since I had done some panels of cardstock with the swirl as well, I cut these into strips for borders on my cards, added a punched border, a machine-embossed Antler Snowflake* square, a Class A' Peel sentiment, and a few rhinestones for bling.

*For the set of cards, I also used the Gothic Snowflake, the Crystal Snowflake, and the Southwest Snowflake.