As you know, I'm approaching my 100th blog post. And a little while ago I asked for you to vote on what you wanted to see for that milestone. You had four choices: Stamping, Smoosh, Water Marble, and Something New.
Drumroll.....
Second place, goes to: Something New! And that's exactly what I have for you today for post No. 99!
I can't wait to hear your reactions for this one!!
 |
| Summertime colors dribbled all over my nails! |
There is one special lady to thank for these incredibly fun-to-make and fun-to-wear nails -- Tracie!! A.K.A., MentalMoma to those on social media ;)
Want to know more about this new kind of nail art design? Keep on reading....
Yes, it also happens to be Tracie's Birthday today. And, she asked for lots of cake. I just might make a chocolate zucchini one later...yummm....
Where was I.
Oh, yeah.
Nails.
Tracie is a huge inspiration to us. Not only does she post amazingly gorgeous designs, but they all come from her own spark of artistry. She is good at anything she does; techniques such as stamping, smooshing, dotting - and especially water spotting. And, recently she developed a new technique that she calls the dribble mani.
I love the fun that Tracie has and shares with us when "she sits down for a play with nails". She uses all the colors, and we share a fondness for orange nail polishes. When I was invited to participate in her surprise Birthday collaboration, I had such a hard time picking which design to re-create. I almost did one of her water spotting nails as each one is incredibly awe-mazing!
Check out the fun collage of Tracie fans that Bex (@bexdennis23 on Instagram) collected for her party:
 |
Tracie - we all hope you have a great day today!!
I really wish I hadn't had to take an antihistamine last night - my head is still in a fog. Hopefully I get the most important points across today:
- Tracie is a really fun, creative, loving person. And, she has a very sweet dog named Coco. (Yeah that wasn't super relevant, but still...) She's on Instagram as @mentalmoma.
- Dribble nail art is the bomb!!
- I'm so lucky to have you all to share my love for nail art with!!
Design Details
So, what tools do you need for creating a dribble mani? None! How cool is that? |
| These remind me of a beach towel... |
This art is made with just the brushes that come inside the polish bottle. To create them, I just slowly dribbled the polish in shaky "lines" across my nail in random order of the colors. You want a decent amount of polish on the brush so that you don't have to touch the nail surface with it, but not as much as when dropping into a water marble. Also, I found it helps to wait until the previous dribbled color dries before slightly overlapping the next one.
Here is a collage of Tracie's posts of these fun dribbles (along with mine in the bottom left corner - because I was spatially challenged today and couldn't get hers to fit just right). As always, you can click on any photo in my blog to see it bigger...
 |
| Aren't her dribble designs fabulous!! I went with the colors from her very first one (bottom right). |
You can see that it is a technique that can support lots of color themes!! You know I'll be returning to this one. Someday, I might stamp over one like she did as well.
All I found needed for these was some patience. You'll see below, that dribbling polish onto your nails gets a little messy around edges. I did use a latex peel-off barrier, but I also found that using your finger or sponge to "mop up" the extra polish will help it to dry faster. (Thank you Robin Moses for teaching us this trick!)
 |
| The polish flows across the nail and settles in the sides/cuticle. I've already cleaned up my index nail for comparison. |
Polish Palette
I created this art right on top of my bare nail (well, I had applied some base coat first). Here's the products I used (clockwise from top left in photo above):- Bliss Kiss ~ Simply Peel Latex Barrier
- Polish My Life ~ 1950's Mint Fridge (green)
- OPI ~ I Just Can't Cope-acabana (yellow)
- Orly ~ Snowcone (blue)
- KIKO ~ #822 (orange)
- Polish My Life ~ Watermelon Waves (medium pink)
- Polish My Life ~ Birthday Suit (off-white)
- Revlon ~ Enamor (baby pink)
- Jolie Polish ~ blue clean-up brush
- Fab Ur Nails ~ Angular Kolinsky clean-up brush
 |
| Up-close-and-personail of my ring finger |
I think these came out OK considering it was my first go of it, The orange I chose wasn't quite opaque enough next to some of the darker colors, but that's minor. The bubbles I got were brought out when I used top coat. I think if I had waited longer I wouldn't have had the issue. You couldn't see either of these issues with "normal" vision in real life though.
 |
| My favorite nail was the index finger. I think it almost looks like a sunset. |
If you do have the time, I found doing one or two nails at a time works best. This way you can monitor the flow of the polish easier (without tipping your nails while doing the others). Also, if you're using a latex product like I did, they don't peel off as well when too much time goes by, so by not doing all five nails at once it decreases the time between applying and peeling.
 |
| I was pleasantly surprised to find my dribble lines matched up pretty well from nail to nail. Mr. Kimett thought I did it on purpose - of course I did! ;) |
I'm a little bummed that I have only this one flower shot to share today. Tracie really likes flowers too. But nature is even more fickle than nail polish.
 |
| Black-eyed Susans are an August favorite of mine |
How about a this for a little fun for the day:
 |
| Take a walk in the shade with me... |
And, last but not least, is my photo from the collage:
 |
| Classic Tracie photo pose |
Well, here we are at the end of the post. Did you make it all the way - or did you leave me and go start your own dribble mani? LOL
I'm curious - what do you think of the dribble nail art style? I love the randomness and the abstract designs you can create with it. What colors do you think I should use next time?
==================================
Thanks so much to everyone who visits, stalks, shares, comments -- it all keeps me going! I love this creative outlet even more because of you!!
Till Next Time (The 100th Time!!),
Kimett