Look what I did!

Hi Everyone!  Happy hump day!  We are almost to St Patrick's Day woot!!! My family is celebrating it on Saturday instead of Sunday because we want me niece to be able to enjoy some corned beef and games before heading back to college.  I've been cooking a corned beef dinner for my family for a few years now.  Usually my parents were gone in Florida so they would miss out.  Last year they didn't go for their 3 month jaunt to the sunny shores and instead stayed home.  I couldn't be more glad.  Some of you know my dad passed away this summer from complications of chemotherapy.  Last March was the first time he was ever able to enjoy my corned beef dinner and he told me it was the best corned beef he'd ever had.  I'll think of him this year and wish he had the chance to have so many more of these dinners with us.

Last year my first ever successful water marble was a 4 leaf clover design I kid you not.  I followed Colette's tutorial for it on YouTube.  You can find it HERE.  I was stunned it actually turned out.  I wanted to do another one this year and I didn't have as much success--where I wanted to have a four leaf clover design instead I got a lot of regular 3 leaf shamrocks BUT it really did turn out well!

To make a shamrock design is much the same as a regular flower design, you just draw less into your water design

I'm honestly not kidding when I say it's really not very difficult

Look how great Thumbie turned out??? He's my fave of all of them!

I used a lot of Sinfuls to do this because A they don't cost a lot and B I usually waste a bunch of polish when I marble because I suck at it

The stars of the show are Sinful Colors Last Chance, Innocent, Happy Ending and Snow Me White, as you can see not all the colors made it onto each nail, but that's just the way it goes lol!

Here's my whole hand, it's pretty orangey looking but I took pics late at night

Some of my friends and my Adventures In Stamping group asked me to do a tutorial but truth be told I'm not that "big" so I don't do video lol.  I did take some pics of how the marble looks before you dunk your finger in.  

Here are some step by steps.  But first of all you should watch Colette's tutorial, it's what inspired me last year.  I do things a lot differently than Colette.  First of all I use a votive candle holder and not a cup.  I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER gotten polish to spread out completely in a cup.  In a votive glass it happens every time.  If you don't have a votive candle holder use a shot glass.  Second of all I use distilled water.  I have never had good results ever with filtered water, but distilled water works for me.  I also tend to have my water on the colder side.  Room temperature in Wisconsin is not warm let me just tell you that right now lol!

Okay here we go:
First build your bullseye, you don't need a lot of rings for this marble

When I did mine I did random rings each time doing them in different order for each nail

Once you have your bullseye done you want to start in the middle of your design.  Start from the right outside middle and draw into the center, use a light touch and wipe your stick off.  Do the same from the left out middle drawing into the center and wipe off your stick

This is how it should look.  Notice I have what looks like 3 petals in the middle--I have no idea how it happened, when you marble you just go with the flow.

Next you do the same but this time going from top and bottom.  From the top middle draw into the center and wipe your stick.  Repeat from the bottom middle drawing up to the center and wipe your stick.

 This is how it should look.  You now have 4 petals for your clover.  BUT it's WAY too big for your finger most likely.  What you have to do is shrink your design.  

You do this by taking your orange wood stick and taking the point down into the center where the petals touch in the middle.  You'll have to repeat this process a couple of times to shrink your design.  Remember to wipe your stick off each time you dunk in to shrink your petals

This is how it should look when you start out

Dip into the center and wipe, repeat a few times.  It will start to "draw" the image into the center making it smaller

Stop dipping in the center when you have an image that you desire

As you can see I went from having 4 petals to really only having three.

The more you dip in the more of the polish from the center you lose

I believe the more rings you have the better luck you'll have with this design, but it's not always easy to get a million rings . . . unless you're Colette LOL!

I did manage to get 4 leaves on my right thumbie when I was doing this tutorial

You just have to mess around until you get what you want.

I hope this has helped everyone.  I really think you should give it a try.  It really is a lot easier than it might seem.

I've entered my water marble contest in my first ever non stamping contest over at Set In Lacquer.  She's having a great contest that's non stamping so please CHECK IT OUT and enter!!!   If you follow her on FB you will have already seen my entry lol!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!  I appreciate all your comments and hope you all have a great day!

OH! I almost forgot!  This is what last year's looked like--I like this year's better what about you?