Photos by Karin Elton Emma Keller, a fifth-grader at Yellow Medicine East in Granite Falls, dots some food coloring onto a spread of shaving cream. She will place a piece of photo paper on it to make a uniquely-designed paper to make a bookmark or note paper.

MARSHALL — “This might be your messiest class today,” said art teacher Kelly Pochardt. Words to gladden any young artists’ heart.

Third- through fifth-graders attended Pochardt’s “Photo Paper Marbling” class Tuesday as part of the 26th annual Young Artists Conference at Southwest Minnesota State University. The conference, sponsored by Southwest West Central Service Cooperative, was open to students in grades K-8.

After a presentation by James Wedgwood, a comedian and ventriloquist from northern Minnesota, the students attended three hands-on art sessions from pottery to cartooning.

Shaving cream, food coloring and photo paper were the key ingredients to Pochardt’s class.

In the beginning of the class, she asked if anyone had ever painted with shaving cream. A smattering of hands were raised.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Pochardt listed the ingredients for the art project: shaving cream, food color, some liquid paint, photo paper — “it does work with regular paper, too,” she said.

“Roll up your sleeves,” Pochardt advised, since the food coloring would eventually wash away on the hands, but not so much on clothes.

The students had a Styrofoam tray in front of them. They shook a can of shaving cream as instructed and sprayed the creamy white foam onto the tray.

“Frost it like you would a cake,” Pochardt said.

With a squeegee, they smoothed out the fragrant lather. They then drizzled some food color or watercolor paint onto the foam.

Not too much, their instructor had said, as a little of the color goes a long way.

“Drop it on like confetti,” she said.

With a skewer, they connected the “confetti” throughout the shaving cream base, creating a marbling effect. When the swirls were to their liking, they placed a paper square onto the surface of the colored shaving cream and gently patted it to fix the colors onto the paper. The students then lifted the paper which was printed with their design and brought it over to a plastic-covered table.

The marbled paper dries quickly, Pochardt said. If the paper curls, the students can place it in a large book and it will flatten out.

The students got to create four or five different creations.

Emma Keller and Bree Schueler, fifth-graders at Yellow Medicine East in Granite Falls, said they were going to bring their artworks to school and tape them on notebooks.

“I’m also going to make small bookmarks out of them,” said Keller.