I love the traditional art of marbling.

When I first think of marbeling, I think about the inside covers of old victorian books. They are sooooo beautiful with the colors swirling around and intermingleing with each other.

There are so many different ways/techiques to marble. There is traditional marbeling on a thix (Thick geletinish water solution), water marbeling (nail polish on water), shaving cream marbeling (fun to do with little kiddos) and Marbeling on liquid starch, just to name a few.

My latest marbeling love though, is marbeling directly onto fingernails. Give me a box full of nailpolish and some toothpicks and stand back to watch the magic happen! The possabilities are endless.

Helpful Hints and Tricks Of The Trade

• Avoid the mess! It's fun, but can be VERY messy. Do yourself a favor and mask your fingers. You can tape up the skin around your nails for water marbeling, but I found a great trick. Use your lip balm and 'paint' it on your skin around your nails. When polish is dry, just wipe it off with a tissue. Another trick if you have the time is to use a brush and 'paint' your skin around your nails with Elmers glue. Let it dry and do your marbeling. when polish is dry, then peel off the dry glue. (That one is more fun than the lip balm. lol) Have a polish remover correction pen handy to catch stray polish dots or cuticle spots.

• Have your work space set up. Have caps loosened before you start. Put colors you will use in order of use. Have a paper towel ready to wipe off excess from toothpic or pin.

• You will work nail by nail. One nail at a time. Practice on fake press on nails first if you want to get a feel for what you are doing. Otherwise have at it with the following steps.
• You will choose to do dots or stripes. If stripes, horizontal or verticle. You must work quickly. If you don't like it, you can take it off and do it again. Beauty!

1. Paint the whole nail with a thick coat of white or black. I suggest starting with white and use black when you are practiced.
2. While the base coat of polish is still wet, paint/drop/dob lines of color bottom to top or side to side.
3. Take a dotting tool or toothpick and drag through the polish, from bottom to top or side to side. 
4. Once dry, apply a clear topcoat.