Marble Painting Backgrounds

Welcome. 

I’m not sure if I’ve ever shared this or not, but I used to be a preschool teacher back in the day. I had a class of fourteen four year olds and one of my favorite things to do with them is to marble paint. I thought I would bring back that technique and create some marble painting backgrounds for a few cards…

These cards were really quick and easy. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry. In case you’ve never done marble painting before, here’s how I created these cards:

1. Gather your supplies. I used three different sized marbles, a small cardboard box, acrylic paint, a plastic spoon, a paper plate and some cardstock cut to size.
2. Squeeze out your colors of acrylic paint onto the paper plate. I used Laguna from Apple Barrel, Beach Glass from Martha Stewart, and Chicken Feed from Jenni Bowlin. 
3. Drop a marble into each color of paint and roll it around with a spoon to coat the entire surface.
4. Lay your cardstock into the bottom of the box.
5. With your spoon, pick up each marble and drop it onto the cardstock in the box and begin to tilt the box to one side and then the other to get the ball rolling and make “tracks” on the paper. (I did mine one at a time but you could do them all together if you want.)
6. Continue the process with all the colors you want and then let it air dry. 

You will get different looks depending on how much paint is on the marble. I used a little less paint on the first one…

 …than on the second. This background had more paint for a “thicker” look…

I LOVE the texture it gives! I also love that no two backgrounds were alike. Each one was their own work of art. It was so fun and a great project to do with your kids! Let them create the background panels and you turn them into cards! 

To finish the card, I cut out THIS die and trimmed the end off to get a unique die-cut. A perfect home for the Hero Arts sentiments. To “anchor” the die-cut, I adhered a small strip of orange cardstock. I mounted each background on a Hero Arts Notecard

I hope you give this technique a try. Have a great weekend! 

3 Comments

  1. Kailash
    July 28, 2014

    Wow, this is such an artsy technique, love that look, really pretty marbled effect!!

    Reply
  2. Barb Ghig
    July 19, 2014

    Such a cool idea, and I love how each card is so unique! Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

    Reply
  3. Leslie Hanna
    July 18, 2014

    This is so cool! I've not seen it done with paint, just ink. I'll have to try this with my collection of acrylic paints. 🙂

    Reply

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