As I sat looking at all of the little bottles of nail polish leftover from my daughter’s baby shower party favors, the idea for this project came to me.
Just by combining water and nail polish, you can make these easy DIY tile magnets marbled in any choice of colors.
It all starts by purchasing a few sheets of wall or floor tiles in smaller sizes at your local home improvement or flooring store. I purchased these from Floor and Décor to make Christmas ornaments about two years ago.
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This post is part of the Creative Craft Blog Hop hosted Each Month by Sara from Birdz of a Feather.
If you are visiting from Jenna’s site, The Painted Apron then welcome! I know you will enjoy her Spring Bunny and Carrot Ribbon project this month. At the very bottom of this post, I will direct you to the next stop on this blog hop venture, but I can assure you that you don’t want to miss any of the other talented bloggers participating this month.
This project was so amazingly simple and easy I don’t know why I haven’t tried it sooner?
Below is the list of what you will need for this project:
- Nail polish in any choice of colors
- Small pieces of tile usually found in the flooring department and sold in sheets.
- Disposable gloves
- Plastic container for the water. Preferably one you don’t plan to use again. I just used deli meat containers that were headed to the recycling center either way.
- Toothpicks
- Cotton Swabs
- Wax paper or paper plates
- E6000 glue
- Round craft magnets
- Metallic Acrylic paints
- Lukewarm water
To start, remove the individual tiles from the mesh backing. Since you will be gluing the magnets to the back of the tile pieces, you don’t need the mesh backing.
Fill the container you are using with enough lukewarm water to be able to dip and submerge the tile pieces.
Slowly pour small amounts of nail polish on top of the water. Add in too much at one time and it will be heavy and sink to the bottom of the container. Add in each other color you want for your design to the mix.
Swirl the colors together using a toothpick.
Put on the rubber gloves and quickly dip the tile pieces in the water and nail polish mixture one by one using a cotton swab to wipe off the edges if needed. I didn’t do this and some of my tiles have the nail polish mixture on the back as well. Not as pretty on the back.
Was this blue nail polish mix a shock to you too after the pink mix prep photos?
Evidently I didn’t remember to take photos of the first batch of tiles I dipped in the pink nail polish solution I just shared above. I didn’t realize it until I was editing the photos and then it was like – BAM – blue mix next in line! The third batch in peach and orange colors were not photographed either for some reason. But you get the main idea of the process.
Just seeing if you were paying attention.
You will need to work quickly at this point because the nail polish has already started to thicken even in the water.
After dipping the tile in the mixture, place it on either wax paper or a paper plate to dry for a few hours.
For mine, I let them dry overnight since I still needed to go to the store to get the magnets and the E6000 glue. But in reality it should only take a couple of hours to fully dry the polish and the water on the tiles.
If you don’t like how one of them came out, nail polish remover will remove the polish from the tile so you can try it again. And it works just as well on the back of the tiles to remove the excess.
Once the tiles were dry, I added some extra veining and details to the nail polish marbled pattern using a gold metallic acrylic paint. Allow that paint to dry as well.
The next step is not required or listed above, but at the last minute, I decided spray each tile with Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Glaze. Because to me, marble always has a nice shiny surface. Since this project is using nail polish that pretty much seals and hardens on it’s own, adding in a top glaze is not necessary if you don’t have the top glaze spray available.
And of course to be able to display these one of a kind designs, you need to attach the magnets to the back of each tile using the E6000 glue. I have found that hot glue doesn’t hold up very long with the weight of these tile pieces.
During my craft room cleanout, I also pulled out the box with the Fujifilm Instax Mini Instant Camera and film leftover from my daughter’s wedding and decided to make a fun little photo gallery of my daily companions – our four dogs – to display on the refrigerator with these tile magnets.
Pin For Later
Please take some time and visit the other amazing and talented bloggers who participated in the blog hop this month, starting with Sara and her tutorial on How to Remove Rust From Metal.
2 Cute DIY Planters for St. Patrick’s Day
Mini Mushroom Garden Sign Makeover
Flower Leaf Cord Wrapped Basket
Easter Photo Frame Craft with Bunnies
Tile Marbled Magnets using Nail Polish
Spring Bunny Mantel Decoration
Enjoy,
Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
These are so pretty, I love the nail polish marble technique, it’s so much fun – like magic! I especially love the extra metallic touches that you added.
Thanks Julie
What a fun way to use up the leftover nail polish!
Thanks Alexandra. I will be donating the rest of the bottles to an assisted living home where one of my friend’s mother is at. They have a “spa” day for the ladies and can use them.
Very pretty magnets ~ love the swirls the polish makes and the gold addition adds a nice pop!
Thanks Allyson.
These are so cute! I love the addition of the gold metallic paint. It makes them look even more fabulous! My son is dying to hydro-dip his PlayStation 5 case. I have been putting it off because I wasn’t sure how much it would entail. He wants to use spray paint. Your tutorial makes is look so easy. Pinned!
Thanks Niki!
Donna, what an original project. I don’t have nail polish, but I think I could make these with ceramic paint. What do you think? Love the colors you chose.
It is definitely worth trying out. Let me know how it works for you.
Hi Donna: These are really pretty. I love the technique, I bet it would be nice on coffee coasters as well.
Thank Leanna. I agree. But I didn’t have larger sizes in my stash (at least right now) so I went with what I had and needed to purge.
These turned out so pretty Donna! Such a clever idea to use mini tiles! My grandson recently had a lot of fun doing a similar dip method, called Hydro Dipping. He used spray paint on the water surface and dipped metal water bottles, phone cases. This is such a cool technique, just love it! I love the colors you used and adding gold paint really makes them pop!
Thanks. I hadn’t seen anything with using spray paint. Interesting!
Donna, these are so creative and clever! Love the colors you used, too–pinned! Blessings, Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction
Thanks Cecilia.
Your share couldn’t come any sooner. I have just talked to some friends that love to use their refrigerators to display their grandbabies photos and crafts they made at school. They were needing something to use to support them on their refrigerators. You just gave us some inspiration. Will share your tutorial! Thanks!!!
Thanks Terri. Good luck with your own version.
What a fun way to use up nail polish, Donna! I always love the look of anything marbled and your magnets are quite adorable! They look fabulous holding your photos!
Thanks Gail.
These turned out amazing and what fun to play with all those colour combinations! I had no idea you had 4 dogs; they’re all so cute.
Thanks Sara. Yes, four fur babies make for a house full of furry toddlers most days. The old guy and the younger German Shepherd are competing lately for alpha so to keep the chaos down we have to separate them all day. I spend a lot of time moving them around the house.