Marbling Technique

First, I must tell you that I am doing this tutorial purely on memory.  There may be a better way to do this technique, but this is the best I can recall.

It is called "marbling" because you actually use marbles to do the technique.  Well, you're supposed to, anyway.  I searched through my kids' drawers, jewelry boxes, knick-knack boxes, etc. this morning, and I found everything under the sun except marbles!  (Funny - I never have any trouble finding them with my feet when I'm walking across a room in the dark!)  Anyway, I did find some ball bearings.  Where my girls got these, I have no idea (and perhaps that's a good thing).  OK, on with the tutorial.

First you will need to get a plastic stamp box (the ones your SU! stamp sets come in). 

Then place a few drops of the desired color of reinker in the bottom of the box.

Next, place the marbles in the box, close the lid tightly and shake the box back and forth.  Here's what it will look like:

Next, use the temporary DOTTO adhesive to adhere your pre-cut piece of cardstock to the top of the stamp box (obviously, your cardstock needs to be no larger than the inside of the stamp box you're using).  This will keep your cardstock from getting all inky on the backside.  Now turn the box over, so the marbles are on top, and again shake the box vigorously back and forth.  Continue to shake until you have the look you desire.

A note here:  I learned the part about adhering the cardstock to the lid after I did mine (thanks for the e-mail, Ruth), which is why some of my pieces have "blotches" of ink on them.    I had a bit of trouble with the marbles coming over to the top of the cardstock, and the cardstock laying flat on the bottom of the box, right in the reinker puddles.  Of course, that's kind of a neat look, too, as you can see on some of the next pictures...  You can get several pieces of marbled cardstock from that first application of reinkers.  I did four pieces, and then I changed the color to green to do a second marbling.  Here are three of the marbled pieces, and the fourth one is on the finished card.  Cool, huh?

I used one of the new Jumbo eyelets and the new wide grosgrain ribbon in red.  I just love that wide grosgrain.  Enjoy.

Try using different colors of reinker to get another color, such as red and yellow to get orange (thanks again to Ruth (my sister and upline) for that idea).