Marble Skulls

As some of you  already know, on Mondays  the Facebook group "Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge" (run by Debbie "The Crumpet")  does "Monkey See, Monkey Do" challenges where members create nail art inspired by other bloggers, or try to recreate something they have admired on another blog.

This past week I experimented with something I have seen on many blogs, but have never done. I stamped over a marbled manicure.  I'm  also now doing my marbles a bit differently than I previously  described here: http://macabremanicures.blogspot.com/2012/04/marbling-without-water.html. 

What changes have I made? Well, first of all I found out that this technique doesn't have to be done on Ziploc freezers bags. It can also be done using freezer paper as a canvas. Freezer paper is white paper with a plastic coating on one side, and comes on a roll  just like aluminum foil, wax paper and plastic wrap. It is sold in the same aisle of the supermarket where you would get the other products I mentioned.  The paper tends to curl, so I taped it to a piece of thin cardboard to keep it flat, while I was working on it, and until it was completely dry.  I recycle whatever cardboard we have in the house, usually empty boxes from cases of beer or soda, but any smooth clean cardboard you have is fine. 

The second change is that instead of using a dotting tool to swirl my design, I am using a  very thin paint brush,  the kind sold  to do nail art stripes.  With it I am able the better blend the colors, and do some other interesting effects. 

Unfortunately when I get in the mood to do something like this, I just grab a ton of different bottles of polish  to use and I don't  usually write down the names. I also  frequently use franken polishes, that I created myself, and therefore they don't have names.

So let's start with what I will call my "Siberian Iris" inspired skull manicure.  The base  color is a franken polish in a violet, that I was trying to match to a Siberian Iris I have in my garden. Sadly the flower was gone before I could take a picture of my nails with  it. 

The marbling was done with  the same violet, along with black, and some purple. 

The skull is stamped in Konad white with Holiday Design plate K, and finished with Konad top coat.

I'd also like to share another variation of stamping over marble. Yesterday the challenge in the Facebook group "Adventures In Stamping" was to create nail art in honor of  our leader's 9 year old daughters birthday. I tried to use some of her favorite colors, and do something cute and girly. Her mom said  goth and/or skulls were fine for me to do, so I tried to make a mani that was as little girlish as possible, while still staying true to myself by incorporating a skull. This time the marbling is in pink and purple, with the same skull I did before, but adding a bow and rhinestones. I only wore this long enough to take a picture. The bow, and the pink in the marbling are not "me".

I have one more marble mani to show you today. I wore  this one a couple of weeks ago, but  I didn't get a chance to write it up. Same techniques as above, just using black and white creme type of polishes. Nothing fancy, I think I used up  some  cheap Wet 'N Wild on this one. In fact I highly recommend that you do this technique with cheap polishes, as it uses a lot of polish, and you need to practice a bit before you get results you like. I suggest you stick to brands in the $1-$2  a bottle price range.