Hearts

   Happy super super late Valentine's Day! Ha!

   When I was in high school, I was in color guard (marching band). I like to think that I had the best guard instructor. He was an excellent teacher, wrote excellent routines, squeezed in an occasional life lesson, and secretly liked us all, not matter how crazy we got. He also designed all of our show flags. And they were all so beautiful! (You can see some of them in an old DeviantArt post here.) This design was inspired by one of them (that took a while to get to the point!).

   This isn't the best picture, but you get the idea.

   I think Girly Bits Cosmetics January Morning is my new favorite base... It goes with everything, and it is subtly sparkly. To make the heart, I started by making a basic heart shape with red acrylic paint, and then refining it to the shape I wanted. Then I added the gold accent with gold acrylic paint. The outline and scroll work were made with black acrylic paint.

   I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Butterfly Wings

   I am in love with this set!

   I've never painted butterfly wings before, but I have always wanted to try. A friend at school and I have been trying to get her nails painted for months, and we finally fit it in on her last day.

   Isn't it so pretty and sparkly?! I used all holos for this design. We couldn't resist their shiny-ness! And they were all Girly Bits Cosmetics polishes... I guess she could be a walking ad for them. :)
   I used Downtown Funk for the wings. January Morning is the pretty white holo behind the half butterfly. Well Isn't That Special is the purple in the wings of the half butterfly.
   For the outlines and dots I used black and white acrylic paints and my favorite super tin brush.

   I just can't stop looking at this one! Partly because I like how the design turned out, but also because of the sparkle....

   Anyway, I sculpted these out (they are acrylic nails, which I don't think I mentioned). Looking at the pictures, I'd love to go back and reshape a couple; some of them look a little fatter than the others. But it's not too bad. Picky Sarah strikes again!


   Well, that was a super distracted post. If you can get past all the "I love holos" it might be an intelligible post!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

3D Acrylic Flowers

   My friend at school wanted me to give her some pretty nails before I left, so I gave her some 3D acrylic nails.

   We found a pretty picture on Instagram that she wanted on her nails. (I won't show you the original, mine looks nothing like it!)
   I'd love to explain the process to you, but it would probably take too long, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to!

   I started with a base of black polish, and then put the acrylic flowers on top of the polish. I used blue and white premixed acrylics. I've mixed my own, but it's a lot of work to get the color just right!


   Have a fantastic week!

Gold Glitter Acrylics

   I'm slowly getting better with my acrylics. They don't ever look bad, but perfectionist Sarah likes them to look just so! Last week I put some acrylics on a fellow student and painted them up pretty for her.

  I sculpted them out, because I need the practice. (For those of you that don't know the lingo, sculpting is applying acrylic over a disposable form. You can also apply nail tips and put the acrylic over the tips instead. For me, sculpts are quicker, but tips are easier. So I need the practice!)

 

   On her nails, I used Cover Girl Boundless Color Plum Pudding and Essie Summit of Style.

   By the way, I'm almost done with nail school! I won't be licensed until I take my state test in January, but I graduate Tuesday!!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Halloween Part II

   To continue with my belated Halloween designs... (Eventually I will post them on Halloween if not before!)

   Here are a few designs I created at school on fellow students and clients.

   First up: Saw-themed nails. This student was dressing up as Jigsaw for Halloween, complete with the tricycle. I've never seen any of the Saw movies (I like to sleep at night), so I had to do a little research for this one.
  For the accent nails, I used Revlon Colortsay Sure Thing as my base, and red acrylic paint for the hand print and swirl. The other nails were painted with OPI Midnight in Moscow, a neat seemingly black base with a red shimmer when it's in the light.

   Sugar skulls and spider webs! This girl was dressing in a skeleton/sugar skull/Day of the Dead themed costume. To make this set, I started with a white base for the sugar skulls. Then I used a combination of red and black acrylic paint, as well as a green nail art pen. The webs were made with OPI Midnight in Moscow and white acrylic paint. The set was topped off with a matte topcoat.

   I'm a little bit proud of this one... I've always loved calligraphy, so it was really fun to combine my love of letters and my love of polish for this design! I'm not sure what the costume idea was for this one, but I'm just happy I got to paint pretty letters.
   I started with a black base, and then used acrylic paint for the letters. It was topped off with a matte topcoat as well. She had broken a couple of nails, so I sculpted those out. All in all, I think it took about 3 hours, including a quick smoke break for her and a wiggle break for me. :)

   I have one more installment and then I'm done with Halloween and back to trying to catch up.. I think I'm only 1 week behind. Surely I can catch up from that! :D

   Have a fantastic week!

Roses, Owls, Forests

   One of the things I've learned it that I really, really like sculpting with acrylics. It is just so fun to make 3D things that I could never do with polish. Granted, I could never wear the sculpts because I'd catch it on things and pick at it, but they sure do look cool!
   A fellow student had a wedding this weekend, so she commissioned me to make her some roses for the occasion. I've really been wanting to learn how to make the roses that are really 3D and just pop out of the nail. They look really pretty. I haven't quite perfected the method to make them quite how I want, but we were both satisfied for the moment!

   For me, it worked easiest to make a few individual petals at a time (starting from the inside), attach them, then make a few more, attach them, and so forth until I had the look and size I wanted. I still haven't figured out how to curl the edges, but I'll get there....

   The one on the left was my first one. It was huge! Way to big for a nail. We were joking saying that she could make it into an earring. And then I got to thinking that maybe I needed some new products in my shop.....


   Last week, the same girl had me paint this cute fall mani on her nails. She fell in love this neat forest design by narmai on Instagram. She also wanted an owl accent, and to make it not so spooky and halloween-ish, we left out the eyes and made the sky more normal.

   To make the sky, I used the same ombre method as The Nailasaurus. I made the trees with my black striper. To make the owls, I started with a base of China Glaze Oxygen. Then using a dark brown, Saslly Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out, I painted two half moon shapes and filled in the space between them. A small one on the cuticle end of the nail, and a more dramatically curved one on the other end. I used OPI ??? to make the belly feathers and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed for the beak. The eyes were made with black and white paint, applied with a dotter.

  Have a great week!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not....

   Did any of you ever grab a flower and pull off the petals to see if someone liked you or not? You would alternate petals with 'he loves me' and 'he loves me not,' and whichever one you ended with would give you the answer. I'm not sure about you, but I'm pretty sure I cheated many a time with that game to get the answer I wanted!

   Last week on one of my fellow classmates I painted a cute design based off that game, inspired by this cute design by ann_li on Instagram. And I painted words! I'd never done that before and had them look decent. So of course I was super proud of them.

   I started with a gel base, a brown Gelish. I don't know the name, sorry! Then with my white striper I made the flowers and the floating petals. The black outlines were made with my black striper, and the yellow flower centers were made with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.

   To make the words, I used my smallest, thinnest brush and some white acrylic paint. I find that I can control acrylic paint better for fine detailing like this. It took a long time! I was so worried I would mess it up.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Easter Nails

   I'm so excited to show you guys my Easter nails! I recently discovered a fabulous Etsy store that sells pysanka - Ukranian Easter eggs. I fell in love with them on the spot. I really wanted to buy one (I still do!) but I don't have the money for that sort of thing right now. If you don't know what they are, here are some pictures of some that I drew inspiration from.

   Aren't they all so pretty?! They make these by drawing the design with wax, and then dying the egg. It's more complicated than that, but that's the best way I can describe it. You'll have to look it up, it's pretty fascinating. I have a ton more on one of my Pinterest boards, if you want to check it out.
   For my nails, I couldn't choose just one egg to draw inspiration from. So I did the obvious thing and chose a different egg for each nail! It makes for a bit of a hodge podge, but I think they go together fairly well.

   This is by far the most detailed design I've done in a long time, maybe ever. I really like it! It took a really long time to do - it took me around 4 hours for both hands, I think; as usual, I didn't really time it.

   To make these designs I used acrylic paints and nail polishes. I tried out my new nail polish thinner and it makes it so much easier to make detailed designs! I had never thought about using a thinner, but when I was reading Will Paint Nails For Food's blog, she mentioned that she uses it for her more detailed designs, so I decided to try it out!
  I used mainly red, brown, and light blue acrylic paints, CoverGirl Outlast Out of the Blue, Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold, and my white and black Stripe Rite stripers.

   I think my favorites of the many designs are pointer finger on my left hand, and my pointer and middle finger on my right hand. If I ever get around to it (haha!) I think I'll make both my pointer fingers into their own full sets.

   I'm all out of updates until probably next week. I work a lot this week, so I have no idea when I'll be painting my nails again. I'm back on my Etsy-to-Fingers Project after this week's Easter nails. Have  a wonderful week!

New Listings Part II

   Yesterday I started showing you guys some of my new listings. I have a ton, so I split it up in to accents and full sets. I did the accents yesterday, so today I'm going to show you all the full sets!

   This is an older design. It was one of the first I made after I started becoming a little more consistent with nail art. I've always really liked it. It's kind of simple, but it looks nice.

   I didn't really have the yellow I wanted (I wanted something a little paler and a little less lemon-y), but the one  I have works fine. I painted the base with CoverGirl Outlast Lemon Drop, and painted one layer of white (Finger Paints Paper Mache) over the yellow. I only did one layer so that a little of the yellow would come through. Then I painted the bow with my black Stripe Rite striper.
   I go the idea for this design from a tutorial I found on Pinterest. It's a really easy design to make, especially if you have a smaller brush to use for the bow. I don't know about you, but I can't manage small/tight curves with the long bristled brushes. I just make a huge mess!
   You can find the listing here. You can also look at some more pictures of the original design if you want.


   This is another old-ish design, but I have blogged about it. This design was originally painted on my toes. It was inspired by a pretty pair of heels (which I could never wear, I'd fall on my face with heels that tall and skinny!).

   Pardon the state of my toes. I never put lotion or anything on them enough, so they often get pretty dry in the summer and winter.
   I've been wanting to transfer this to fingers design for a while, I just never got around to it. I like the full-scaled nail, but I think the one line of scales is my favorite. I think it looks really nice!

   To make this design I needed a lot of patience. The scales took forever! What I did to make them was to start off with painting a wide white arch, which I repeated as many times as necessary to make the basic scales. Then I started with the red (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red) and outlined the bottom of each scale. Then I went on up the line with yellow (CoverGirl Outlast Lemon Drop) and then orange(Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed). To finish it off I got out my white Stripe Rite striper and outlined the top of the scales in a thin white line to help define them. For the base I used Flower Good Bud-dy.
   You can find the listing here in my shop.


   This next design is pretty recent. I painted it back in February.

   It was inspired by a sweater.

   I used Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice as the base, and then various acrylic paints for the chevron stripes. I've found that it's much easier to do a lot of detail work with acrylic paints. It's not always the best, but it generally works a lot better than polish for me. I did get some nail polish thinner last week though, and that makes the polish a thousand times easier to work with.
   You can find this set here in my shop.

   That's all of my new listings for now! I do have some other older designs that are waiting to be made into full sets, but who knows when I'll get around to them.
   I've still got my Easter nails to show you guys too! I'll probably post about them tonight or tomorrow.

   I hope you all have a great Easter and a great week!

New Listings!

   I have a ton of new listings to show you guys. I have 8 new listings - 5 accents and 3 full sets. It sounds like I've been really busy, but most of these came from doing some cleaning out. I keep all of the nails that I experiment on, so it makes a huge pile! I was going through them to see if found anything to recreate and I found several that I wanted to do more with. I made accent sets out of 5 of them and kept some others out to make into full sets. The only things I actually painted were the 3 new full sets.

Accents first!

   This first design started with a beautiful dress. As you might know, I have a ridiculous amount of clothing pinned on my Pinterest. I was looking for some nail-spiration quite a while ago (a year? more?) and I came across this lovely thing in my boards:

   Isn't it gorgeous?! I could never wear such a thing (I like to feel more clothed than I would feel in that), but it's just so pretty.

   I'm not sure what colors I used then, but if I made it now I would use Finger Paints Sketchy Character as the brown base and my creamy striper for the detail. Here's the listing.

   I'm pretty sure this one was inspired by a dress too - I kind of think somewhere around 1850-69, but I could be wrong. In my quick look I didn't find the dress. Whenever I have more time (and if I think of it) I will do a more thorough search.

   I have a little more of an idea of what I used for this one. I know the base was Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Vanilla over white. I don't have that color anymore though, so if I made it now I would use Revlon Colorstay Pale Cashmere, which is a very similar color. For the 'spears' I would use Finger Paints Sketchy Character and Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu, with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch, probably. You can find this set here in my store.

   This is a somewhat more recent design - recent enough to be in this blog. It was part of my Doll Challenge, where I painted designs based off of the clothing of my American Girl Girls of Many Lands dolls.
   It was based off of this doll from Tudor England.

   They are such pretty dolls. Very detailed and pretty darn accurate, from what I know of fashions.

   For this design, I used CoverGirl Boundless Color Plum Pudding for the detail and on my other nails. For the base of the accent, I used my cream striper. That proved to be super time consuming and annoying (it took forever to cover my nail, forever to dry...), so I think I'll use Revlon Colorstay Pale Cashmere. It's a really close match to this as well. Here's the link to the listing.

   This is another older creation. I think it was inspired by a nail pin. I don't know which one, but if you ever look through my Pinterest boards you'll probably find it.

   For this one I originally used a white base (which would currently be Finger Paints Paper Mache). For the vine stem and flower petals I used a pink acrlylic paint. The leaves were made with a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (Mint Sorbet?). I don't have that color anymore, so I'd use Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice. You can find the set here in my shop.

   This one is a super recent design. I made it a few weeks ago for a customer to choose from in a custom order. She chose a different design, so I decided to go ahead an put up this design. (If I want to put a custom design up in my shop permanently, I like to wait a while before I do that since they have to pay so much extra for a custom set. It seems a little fairer that way to me.)

   I got this idea from some pins we both collected for design possibilities. ...Which I conveniently can't find to show you guys. I think I searched "triangle nails" or "geometric nails," I don't remember which.
   I used L'Oreal Walk on the Beach as the base. For the triangles I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red, China Glaze Recycle, China Glaze Pelican Grey, and Pure Ice Bikini. Then I outlined the triangles with my white striper (Stripe Rite). Here's the link to the listing.


   For the sake of space, I think I will quit here for now. This is all of the new accent sets. I'll blog about the new full sets tomorrow. I also have a fun new Easter design to show you guys too! I'm super excited about it and can't wait to blog about it.

   I hope you all have a fantastic Easter!

Tribal Toes

    Here's another of the designs I told you about yesterday! I finally painted my toes again. I had broken one about halfway down at a diagonal. :(  After a wait that seemed like forever it finally grew out enough that I felt like I could paint it and it not look terrible.

   For this design I was inspired by a pin, like I often am. I found this one on Pinterest a few weeks ago.

    I really liked that she not only had your typical triangle like you often see, but that it had the smaller design inside it. And it isn't your usual design either.

   I mainly just copied the triangle, as you can see. I couldn't decide what color to use as my base, so in the end I just grabbed something. I ended up using Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice as the base. Then I used my white striper (Stripe Rite) to make the triangle, and my black striper to outline and create the inner design. As a last minute detail, I added Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold as an outline for the two larger triangles. I wan't quite satisfied with no outline, but again, I didn't have any great ideas for the color, nor was I sure I would have the space.

    Here's a close up if you want to see. I normally don't do this because feet always seem so private to many people, but this is such a detailed design I thought you all would forgive me. :) You can still see a little where my nail had broken. It's not completely grown back out, but it looks a ton better than it did!

   That's all for now. I'll have more news for you Tuesday or Wednesday, I think. I have a some commissions to do that should be finished by then!

   Have a great week!

New Listings!

   Hey guys! I've been busy this week creating new listings and working on orders, so I've got lots to show you all. Hopefully I'll get a true day off on Saturday to do other stuff. I don't know what I'll do yet, but it won't be nails or JoAnn's! Don't get me wrong, I love nail art, but everyone needs a break! I feel like I've been working on orders non stop lately! Which is good really, since it give me some money. :) 
   Speaking of orders, I'VE HIT 100 SALES!!!! It's so exciting! I think I've had about 56 actual orders, but I've sold 109 individual sets.

  I've added two new sets and have started changing my listing pictures, so my shop is starting to look a little different. It's exciting! Just because I can, here are some screen shots:

   I'm about halfway through painting all my sets! Hopefully by summer (or at least the end of it) I can start painting other stuff on my own nails again.
   This was my project this morning, getting all the solids photographed.

   I've finally gotten around to putting up a polka dot set! It's been on my to-do list for ages, I just never got around to it, like usual.

   I have several different color options:

   Wouldn't want to give you too many choices... :)  You can find the listing here.
   The colors I used are:
         Pure Ice Bikini
         Orly Teal Unreal
         Loreal New Money
         Loreal Royally Reinvented
         OPI Vant To Bite My Neck
         Finger Paints Paint Me Happy
         Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red
         Finger Paints Paper Mache
         Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

   I also listed a version of my Valentine's nails. I made all the nails the same checked design instead of having the lace heart accent.

   I absolutely love this design! I think it's so cute. You can find the listing here.
   To make this design I used Finger Paints Paper Mache as my base. Then with a small brush I painted on the green 'stitching' with Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice. After that I used my dotter to start the hearts and a brush to finish them. Then I covered it all with my top coat - Revlon Multi Care Base+Top Coat.

   That's about all my news for now. I still have earrings to blog about, but I have to take pictures of them first... Maybe I can do that Thursday or Saturday. We'll see how that goes...

   I hope you all have a fantastic week that isn't too crazy!