Memorial Day

   I'm going to go a tiny bit out of order this week, so that Memorial Day's design is still somewhat close to Memorial Day. I know I've been quiet recently; I've been moving out of my apartment, unpacking, working, making a quick weekend trip to see family... Hopefully things will quiet down after this week!

   Anyway, I didn't plan on having a Memorial Day design, it just happened that what I painted ended up looking patriotic!

   I was really struggling this weekend with making a design work. I was in one of those fidgety moods where nothing turns out right.

   Using one of my favorite bases, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude, I painted some stripes with varying widths using OPI Aloha From Hawaii and Orly Teal Unreal. After staring at it and thinking it looked a little plain, I added some white dots to the widest of the stripes.

   There was no way I was going to attempt this on my right hand, so I used Aloha as my base and used my dotter to add on some white dots down one side of each nail.

   I hope you all have a great week!

Review: Nail Art Pen

   I've been super slow about reviewing lately... I get too distracted!
   This week I'm reviewing the last product in my most recent goody bag from Born Pretty. (You can see all my past reviews here.) This last review is on a very neat little nail art pen.

   I've been a beach kick recently, what with my starfish and flamingo nails these past weeks. And I'm still on it! Can you tell I'm ready to go to the beach this summer? :)

   This week I drew a coral pattern on my nails with the nail art pen. The pen is fantastic! It is super easy to use and the polish flows out of it very evenly and easily. It creates very smooth lines and is very similar to using a real pen or pencil (which works great for me, since I started my drawing career with pencils instead of brushes; it was quite the transition for me!).

    In my design, I dotted the lines instead of making one smooth motion, to give the coral more of the correct texture. Don't let that deceive you though, the pen is very capable of pretty, smooth lines.

(Sorry this picture is so dark, Blogger kept darkening my image! Hopefully I can fix it later.)

   Overall, I love it! I will definitely be using it in future designs, and maybe even getting some more colors. I love how thin a line it makes!

   For my design, I started with a base of OPI That's Hula-rious. It's part of their new Hawai'i collection. ...Which I might or might not be in love with; the colors are so pretty! I hardly ever buy OPI because I'm a poor college kid, but I've already bought two from that collection...
   Anyway, after applying my base, I used the nail art pen to draw on the coral. As I mentioned earlier, I dotted the lines to give it a more coral-like texture. Then I added on a few gold caviar beads.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Starfish

   This weekend I painted the cutest little flamingos on my fingers. This weekend was also my brother's graduation from Auburn (which is about 8 hours away from where I live). This week is finals week, so I had to rush down Friday and come back home right after the ceremony on Sunday (who has graduation on a Sunday?) so I could make it to my final on Monday. Talk about a crazy weekend!
   After I had taken off the flamingos and started painting this week's design, I realized... I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE FLAMINGOS!!! I was so mad, I was really looking forward to showing them to you guys!  :(

   So you get to look at a modification of last week's design instead. After I painted and blogged about the starfish, I decided to paint the rest of my fingers with starfish.

   Here's a close up:

   I'm so mad about those flamingos.... I'll just have to paint them again sometime soon!

   I hope you all have a great week!

Starfish

   This week is inspired by Lilly Pulitzer! My roommate recently got me hooked on her. I could never afford anything, but the patterns sure are pretty!

   I thought this print was so cute!

   To make the "ocean waves" background, I started with a white base. I used Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. Next, thin out a sea green and a blue; I used Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice and L.A. Colors In A Flash. You can also add a little shimmer too. I added a tiny bit of Pure Ice Splash to give it a subtle light blue shimmer.

   Here's a close up of it. You want it to be really thin, like you're using watercolors.
   To make the starfish, I started by painting the basic shape with white acrylic paint. Next, I thinned out some of OPI Aloha from OPI and painted it over the white. I used Revlon Colorstay Buttercup for yellow inside the starfish, and then painted the dots with Aloha.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Marbled

   This is an extension of sorts of the pysanka design I posted earlier this week. I didn't dare attempt to paint the deer on my right hand, but I knew I didn't want it to be just a plain solid color.

   I started with a base of Orly Teal Unreal. To give the marbled effect, I thinned out some of Studio M Blue Ming. Then I dabbed it on with a smallish brush, making sure it wasn't too thick in some places. Once I was satisfied with the pattern, I sealed it with a matte top coat.

   This is super easy to make and looks really neat!

   You can find it here in my Etsy shop. I plan on adding some other colors too!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Pysanka Deer

   I know I'm a little irregular again. Finals are approaching, so all my professors are assigning last-minute projects and papers!
   This week I was trying out my fancy new striping brush. I received it in my latest package from Born Pretty. Let me just say, I love it! It isn't crazy long like most striping brushes, so it's a lot easier for me to use for things other than a straight line.

   On to the design! Remember last Easter when I made a design based off of Pysanky (Ukranian Eggs)? Well I found another egg that I absolutely fell in love with!

   I absolutely love the style of it, it's so pretty. And the deer has leafy antlers!

   I started with a base of Orly Teal Unreal. To give it the "marbled" look, I thinned out some of Studio M Blue Ming and sort of globbed it on, making sure it wasn't too heavy in spots and spread out.

   I started by drawing out the basic shapes of everything with white acrylic paint. I used thinned out OPI A-Piers to Be Tan for the deer, and L'Oreal Walk On the Beach for his spots.

   For his antlers and the other vines, I started by using L'Oreal New Money for the leaves and then going over it lightly with a thinned out Studio M On the Field. Next I used Revlon Colorstay Buttercup for the stem. Buttercup was also used for the dots around the vines. Then I topped it off with a matte topcoat.

   What do you all think?

  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!