Marbling is a really fun and easy activity to enjoy with your little ones, or even as an adult for those who feel like getting #crafty. You can use marbling to decorate all sorts of surfaces - card, wood, eggs, there is no need to stick to paper, although paper is great for making cards, wrapping paper, and #scrapbook backgrounds! So if your looking for artistic activities to enjoy through the holidays, why not give marbling a go. Just follow our simple guide below.
What you'll need:
Vegetable Oil (or baby oil, you can probably use any cooking oil you have but vegetable is what I've used)
Liquid Food Colouring
Water colour paper or card
Baking tray
Assortment of small bowls
Straw for blowing patterns.
1. Mix the oil and the colour.
Pour a small amount of oil into a bowl and add some of the food colour. Mix it with a fork to break up the big oil bubbles and turn them into little ones! Using oil to marble with is great because the colours won't stick where the oil has touched the paper, leaving bubbles of the paper showing through. Repeat this process in seperate bowls for however many colours you are using.
2. Add the colour mixture to water.
Fill the baking tray with about an inch of water, and add the colour mixture. You can add just the one colour or as many as you like. Some people like to use a straw now to lightly blow on the surface of the water to move the colours around and create a pattern you are happy with.
3. Marble the paper.
Gently place a sheet of paper or card on the surface of the water. Then lift to reveal your marbled paper.
If you want to add more colours to the water mixture, you can also do so now and repeat the paper dunking to pick up the new colours.
4. Lay the paper out to dry.
Lay your paper out flat so that it can dry. It will be very oily at first so make sure it isn't going to drip onto anything. As the artwork dries, the oil is absorbed into the paper and no longer feels oily to touch. Yay!
Once dried you can use the marbled paper for all sorts of other arts and crafts! As well as wrapping paper and card making, why not make some bunting or a collage from your beautifully decorated paper? And if you create a big enough piece of marbled art, you could create art works to use as the end pages in a scrapbook or album to add a really personal touch.
Hopefully, this summer boredom buster will help you entertain the little ones, and even yourselves for a little while! As you get more practised you can experiment with patterns and materials. Why not show us what you have created by tagging us at www.facebook.com/andothermemories on Facebook or Instagram?