This DIY marble art tutorial has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CraftedExperience #CollectiveBias
Recently, I was looking for a way to spruce up the empty wall above the toilet in the bathroom. I knew I wanted to hang some art but didn’t have much money to spend. Okay, I had about $10 to spend. Out of sheer desperation and an almost empty wallet, this marble art project was born.
As I have mentioned before (repeatedly), I am not a very crafty DIY person. This means that if I create anything myself, it needs to be easy or have detailed step by step instructions. So when I say that this project is easy, you can be sure that it is!
How to make DIY marble art using nail polish
Supplies needed:
- Disposable tray (I used lasagna ones) or an old dish you do not care about ruining.
- Water
- Nail polish (you can use up old ones, or buy cheap new ones like I did)
- Printer paper
- Scissors
- Tape
- Frames with mats (here are some cheap but nice ones)
- Old towels to work on top of if you are inside
Directions:
Step 1: Add about 1 inch of water in your disposable tray.
Step 2: Slowly add nail polish to the water. You can either use one color or a mixture of colors. Depending on the nail polish, it may sink to the bottom or lay on the top of the water. The slower you add it, the more likely it will float on the top.
Play around with spreading the polish out and shaking the tray to move it around. However, do not wait too long before adding paper or the polish may dry.
Step 3: Place the paper on top of the water and press down slightly. If possible, try to get just the one side of the paper wet. Pull the paper out of the water and lay flat (or hang) to dry.
You can either place the whole piece of paper in the water as shown, or press a section down and then move it and press again. If you do this, it will create a variation in the color for a different effect.
Step 4: Once the paper is dry, choose which ones to frame and what sections to frame. Below are the ones that turned out the way I wanted them to. There were MANY ones that did not look good (I’ll show you them later). Like I said, play around with the nail polish and the way you put the paper in the water.
Step 5: Frame and hang. I chose cheap 8″x10″ frames with a built-in white mat creating a 5″x7″ opening. This allowed me to pick what part of the paper I wanted to include. I placed the mat on the paper and moved it around until I liked what I saw. I cut it down to fit and taped it to the back of the mat.
I placed one on the back of the toilet in the bathroom to see if I liked the way it looked with the paint and decided I liked it!
After hanging all 3 frames, I knew I needed to do something about the extra toilet paper on the back of the toilet. It just doesn’t look nice! I hunted around and found that a bread basket fits 3 rolls nicely and is the perfect shape and size for the back of a toilet.
I promised to show you some of my “mistake” marbled art. Take a look at the ones below. Now you know that you really need to play around with the nail polish and paper.
After these attempts, I decided to use the blue for my art and realized that I had to swish around the tray to move the nail polish around. Don’t get frustrated; you’ll figure it out after a few mistakes too.
Project cost breakdown:
Frames: $1.88 each
Disposable tray: $0.88
Nail polish: $2.00
I already had everything else around the house
Total cost for this project? $8.52
In what room would you like to use this easy DIY nail polish marble art?
Kristen Wilson says
What a neat idea… and I bet after the color dries, maybe throwing in more color. Neat though. BTW, some of your pics didn’t load for me. 😉
Jessica says
I love this idea! I never thought of using nail polish. We have a bunch and just get tired of the color so we buy new bottles, but this would be fun to do as a project with my daughter and her friends.
Sarah B says
Wow! These are really beautiful! they look like something you’d spend a lot of money on in a store! Great work! I’m definitely going to try this!! #client