Adventures in LalaLand: 31 Day Challenge: Day 20 Water Marbling

Monday, May 21, 2012

31 Day Challenge: Day 20 Water Marbling

I've seen tons of stuff about how to do water marbling. And it terrifies me. It just looks like so very many things can - and knowing me, will - go wrong. In honor of my terror, I'm going to blog as I go. Hopefully reading all of the terrible mistakes I make along the way will help you (and me) see that the world will not end when my nails (fingers, hands, arms, face) are covered in an unimaginable whirl of puke-toned polish. Fingers crossed, here we go...

I have decided that I need some ruinable clothes for this occasion. Since I attended the University of Texas at Austin, I am fully-stocked with approximately 34590 free burnt orange t-shirts that I care nothing about.

I need to protect my floors. And furniture. I've already spilled on my coffee table, counter, carpet, and bed in the past. This spill could be the spill to end all spills - better find some newspaper and my dedicated nail polish towel.

These defenses do not seem equipped to handle the wrath of my potential spillage. Time to move outside to the balcony.

Ok... I need to pick some colors. This is more difficult than it sounds. I have many many colors, and I want to use all of them each time I look at them. Selecting just a few is like murdering my own children - if I had any.

Going with a yellow/green, blue, and pink. Spingy!

Ok, down to business. I painted my nails with a white base coat. This is supposed to make the paint show up brighter. Next I taped off the rest of my finger, covering up as much as I could so I wouldn't have to remove it all later. I got a plastic cup and filled it with room temperature water. The temperature has a lot to do with how quickly the paint spreads out and dries up. The first batch was way too cold and the paint just sank to the bottom. Adding a drop of each color until I think it looks good... Making pretty designs with a toothpick... I heard you're supposed to try and stick your nail into the water perpendicular to the paint.

Fail. It's hard to tell, but the lines are really blurry in between the colors. And there's bubbles? I didn't even know that was possible.

*234234 attempts later*

I got one good nail. One. So I'm making it an accent nail and calling it a day. I probably shouldn't have been so overzealous and used 3 colors. 2 next time for sure...