Review: Striping Tape Dispenser

   So this review has been a long time coming. I've used this striping tape dispenser many times since I received it, but I just never reviewed it...

   This is a nice little product. I know there are lots of DIY versions out there, using a normal tape dispenser or something similar. Which would be nice because you could have multiple tapes out at once. I would think that the tapes would move around and maybe become entangled that way though. With this dispenser, the tape won't move around. The dispenser is also small, so it easily fits with your nail art supplies without taking up too much space, even if you have several.

   My biggest beef is that it doesn't have a serrated edge like normal tape dispensers. This being the case, you have to use scissors or clippers to cut your tape. Which isn't really a big deal.

So...
Pros: It's small. It's easy to take apart to replace the tape inside. It's easy to use.
Cons: It doesn't have a serrated edge.
Overall: I really like it and think it's worth the money.


   Most recently, I used it in making my Christmas Day design.

   I used the striping tape to make my Christmas tree. I don't have a picture of the process, but I cut off two pieces to make a triangle shape. Then I filled in the triangle with green and glitter polishes. When it was halfway dry, I pulled off the tape and added the gold stud.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!


   You can use code AIBW10 to get 10% off on your order from Born Pretty!

Snowmen

   This week I have some cute snowmen with crazy hats for you all!

   I love the accent. And the base color of the tiny snowmen. And the tiny snowmen. It's just so cute!
   For the accent snowman, I started with a white base, and then added one layer of Girly Bits January Morning to give it a bit of snow shimmer. I used my dotter for the eyes, mouth, and carrot nose. His hat was made with my green nail art pen (which somehow turned teal-ish), and two shades of grey for the fur.

   To make the tiny snowmen, I started with a base of January Morning (two coats to leave it sheer). Then I placed some really pretty iridescent glitter on top. I used my dotter to make the snowmen, and my tiny brish to make their hats and arms.

   I finished them all off with a matte top coat.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Merry Christmas!

   Merry Christmas Eve!

   This year, as usual, I couldn't pick just one thing to paint. So I made a Christmas collage, Cotton Coney style.

   I started with a base of Girly Bits Cosmetics January Morning. Then I added on stockings, candy canes, presents, and a tree.

   To make the tree, I used some striping tape to mark off the space for the tree. (I used a great tape dispenser that I'll have to tell you all about soon...) The green I used was Finger Paints Sketch N Etch, and I added a very thin layer of Zoya Pixie Dust Vega over top to give it some sparkle. I topped the tree off (literally, ha!) with a tiny gold stud.

   The candy canes, stockings, and presents were all made with either my red striper or Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir. The white stripes and stocking tops were made with my white striper, and the gold ribbon on the presents was some polish I got as a gift (Love brand, with no color name).
   I also added some tiny iridescent hexagon glitters in the empty spaces ...so it didn't look so empty. And to make it glittery.  (Man, I am excelling at writing today....) Then I topped it off with a matte coat!

   I hope you all have a good time this Christmas, but I know it's not always as fun for some as it is for others. :/

   Merry Christmas!

Sugar Plum Fairy

   A few weeks ago (1? 2? I don't know...) I bought some awesome new polish from Noodles Nails. It's a pretty cream crelly with purple and pink glitters, called Berries and Cream.

   I love the color combinations and I think it will be a perfect winter polish. Getting somewhat ahead of the seasons, I made a (sort of) Nutcracker-themed design. Since there are some purple glitters in the polish, I thought I'd try and paint the Sugar Plum Fairy.

   I loosely based my design off of some images of the ballet costume, and added some fairy-wings on the other two nails. I had high hopes for this design, but I think it needs a bit of tweaking before Christmastime comes around...

I used mainly pinks and purples for the design. For the wings, I started by painting the basic shape with white paint. I went over the white with thinned out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Don't Be Leotardy on the wing ends, fading into Nina Ultra Pro Plum of the Earth. The dark purple stripes were made with OPI Vant to Bite My Neck.

   The ballerina was made by (again) painting the basic shape with acrylic paint. I used Don't Be Leotardy and Plum of the Earth again for the Sugar Plum Fairy's leotard and tutu. Her skin color was made with an extremely thinned out L'Oreal Doutzen's Nude, and her hair with a thinned out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Glitter and Rudolph

   Like I said in my last post, despite not posting much recently, I have been busy painting! I have two new sets to show you guys.
   Back before I left for home, I painted my roommate's nails with a cute Rudolph design.

   I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. Which still isn't pink. Ha. I painted the dots using Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet and Studio M On the Field. To make Rudolph, I started with his head an ears, using Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu. To make the nose I used Red Carpet again,  and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out for the antlers. The eyes were made with white and black.


   This next set I think I painted around Christmas. Maybe as an interim between whatever I had before and the design I painted for Christmas? Who knows, it's been too long!

   The red glitter is one of my favorite glitters! It's so pretty and perfect for Christmas! It's Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home. I love it! The gold is pretty too, I'm just a little besotted with No Place Like Home. The gold is Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Christmas Lights

   Merry Christmas! A little early, I know, but what's a few hours?

   Today I have another Etsy "re-paint" - I have a bunch of Christmas/winter designs that I've made throughout the year, so I figure now it the perfect time to paint them!

   This design uses real thread! I found the idea at least a year ago on Pinterest. The trick is to get good, tightly wound (?) thread that doesn't have many (if any) little fibers sticking out. If you look at the next picture and make it larger, you'll see what I mean. The thread I used the first time was not great.

bad thread

good thread

   I started by cutting off a longish length of thread. I used Nina Ultra Pro French White as my base. When my second coat was about halfway dry (still a little sticky) I put on the thread, carefully pushing it into the white polish with my nail (or something thin). Be careful not to press your finger into the paint, I had several partial finger prints on a couple nails!

   For the lights, I used Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and Studio M On the Field, and a small brush.
   I've found that it sometimes helps to paint a top coat layer before painting the lights to help keep the thread in place. It just kind of depends on how dry/moist the white polish was at the time of applying the thread, as well as how curved the nail is. You'll know if you need it, the ends of the thread will start lifting up.

   You can find the set in Etsy here.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Candy Canes and Snowflakes

   I know I've been a bit quiet the past few days. I've still been painting, but I've had no time to blog! My mom had some surgery last Wednesday and I've been busy running around caring for her. She's doing pretty good now and can do a lot of basic stuff on her own now, so I've got more time to myself now.
   Last week I painted another Christmas set from my Etsy store - candy canes!

   This one is super easy to make! I used Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet for my red nails and Nina Ultra Pro French White as the base for my candy cane accent. To make the stripes I used a red striper and a silver striper. Then I just topped it off with my base coat. Super easy!

   Forgive the terrible picture quality... The lighting was terrible the day I took this and then the polish started chipping before I had a chance to take another picture.
   I picked up a gorgeous new red glitter polish at Meijer a few days ago and I just had to try it out - Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home. It's so pretty, and very festive. I think it's a limited edition polish, unfortunately. I told my mom that I need to go and buy another bottle so I have it when mine runs out!
   I think I'm going to offer this glitter as another option for the candy cane set. I think it looks fantastic!


   In other polish news, I finally painted my toes again! It's been forever, I know. I've really been slacking with them. But I guess it doesn't matter since it's cold and no one sees my toes this time of year anyway.

   I of course had to use No Place Like Home again. I think it's officially my new favorite glitter polish! I also used Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon for the gold glitter accents. For the snowflakes I just used my white striper.

   I have a bunch of new updates for this week, so stay tuned!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Christmas Sweater

   Several months ago I painted this Christmas sweater set for my Etsy store, along with some other winter designs. Now that it's officially winter, it's time to paint them on my own fingers!

   I absolutely love sweaters, they're so warm and comfy! For this design I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. The red I used was Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, and the green was Studio M On the Field.

   To make the stars/flowers, I started with making the middle dot. Then I painted each diamond, going all the way around the circle, one at a time. I tried making the diamonds first when I first created the design, but making the dot first is a whole lot easier for me. It really helped me keep things evened out.

   For the other nails, I started with a wide red line. Next I added the small squares to make the red strip have an uneven line. I painted the green line with a thin brush. To make the green squares, I started by drafting it first in white so that the green pops against the red. Then I just painted over the white in green, fixing any mistakes with a red striper and a short brush (I can't control the long ones very well).

   As I mentioned, I do have this set in my shop if any of you are interested in it! You can find it here.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Christmas Plaid and Nail Stud Review

   Expect to see a lot of winter/Christmas designs this month, I'm still super excited!
   I also have a new bag of goodies from Born Pretty! This week I have a review on some triangle nail studs. I'm really into plaids at the moment, so I paired the studs with a cute Christmas-colored plaid!

   You might already know, but I'm not a big 3D nail art wearer. I like how it looks, but the 3D-ness of it kills me! I'm always knocking or catching them on something and they rarely last for more than a a couple days.
   These studs though are something I can get along with! They're a whole lot flatter so they don't get in the way and they don't catch on things near as much. I do have to put on two layers of my top coat so that the corners are fully covered and smoothed over (so they don't catch on things), but that's no big deal! They were pretty easy to apply too, so that's always great.
   Overall, I really liked them! They look nice and are a great way to spice up your nails.

   To make the plaid, I started with a red base, Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet. Next I used my white striper to lay down a lighter base for my green stripes (to help the color pop). The green I used was a mix of Studio M On the Field and a little bit of Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir. Next I used my black striper to add double lines over top the green, then I added some gold glitter lines with Finger Paints Wrapped In Ribbon.

   I have some new sets in my shop! I've put this design up, as well as my brown plaid design from a couple weeks ago. I'll probably add some color options for it eventually.
   You can find them here:
          Brown Plaid
          Christmas Plaid

   I have finals Wednesday and Thursday next week, so I might or might not get another design painted before then. I have a bunch of orders to paint too, so we'll see...

   I hope you all have a great weekend!

   You can use coupon code AIBW10 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty!

Pine, Birch, and Holly

   Have I mentioned yet that I'm super excited for Christmas this year? Cuz I kinda am. Just a little. I really love all  the pine cone decorations people come up with for winter! I helped my friend make a pine cone wreath last year and I really want to make one for my own door this year! The only problem, is I have no pine cones laying around the yard, and I'm cheap and a little broke...
   Anyways, as you might have guessed, this week's design is inspired by trees (and bushes). Pine/fir trees and birch trees are my favorite trees! I love the bark on birch trees, and I just have so many fun memories of pines and firs, from climbing and hiding under them, to cutting one down for Christmas, they are by far my favorite tree. They just make me smile!

   To make the birch and holly nails, I started with a white base, Nina Ultra Pro French White. Then I slashed on some brown lines using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out and then added some light sponging with a mix of L'Oreal Walk on the Beach and a tiny bit of Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu. Next I painted some green holly leaves using Studio M On the Field mixed with a tiny bit of Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss to make it a little darker. I painted the berries with Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet.

   For the pine cone nails I started with a base of L'Oreal Walk on the Beach. Using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out, I painted some thin brown lines (for branches) and some pine cone shaped blobs. Next I painted the needles with the same green mixture used for the holly leaves (Spanish Moss and On the Field), adding in a few needles in Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir for shadowing. To finish out the pine cones, I painted on some tiny dots in Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu on to the brown pine cone blobs.

   I attempted to add some snow to the scene by adding in some white on the pine cones and on the holly. I also added some glitter, Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat, for effect. Maybe not particularly snow-like, but I liked it!
   You can watch a tutorial on the pine cones here, this is a much better explanation!

   This might be it for nails this week, finals start next week so I might be busy with them. Although mine aren't until Wednesday and Thursday, so we'll see....

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Candy Canes and Skeletons

   I've been busy this past week. Aside from normal school busy-ness, I've also been busy making more Etsy sets! I thought I'd be super on top of things and make two new Christmas set, as well as try and get a new Halloween design out in time. (I've also made 4 others, but for your sake, I'll split them up into two posts so you aren't drowned in nails.)

   As the closest holiday, the Halloween set is up first. I found this one on Pinterest a couple years ago but never painted it (skeletons aren't really my thing). This year though, it hit me, people will bu this for Halloween! I felt kind of dumb for not having thought of it before. In case you can't figure it out (the picture is a little confusing) this design is made so that one hand has the heads and the other hand has the bodies, so that when you put your fingers together the whole skeleton lines up. You can see the original pin here, that would probably help more than my crappy explanation.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   And for Christmas I'm ahead of the game! For now. I thought this one was super cute and Christmas-y without being elaborate. And it's easy to make, so if you like painting your nails instead of buying them, you can easily recreate this! To make the stripes I started with a white base and then used a red striper. Then I used a small brush to make the silver stripe.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   My second Christmas set is a cute simplified sweater design. To make this one I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. For the red I used Revlon Colorstay Velvet Rope and the green is Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   More sets to come! I'm also super excited to show you all my nails. I've painted a cute Fall design....!

Purple Stripes, Purple Dots

   I made two different designs this week - one on my left on on my right. I started out with a tape block on my right hand. ...But it was late. And I was getting tired. So I painted some dots on my left hand to make it quick and easy.

  I also got some new supplies last week! I ordered some brushes, dotters, and tape from Wistonia. I really love them!

   The new things are the 3 brushes on the far left (with the interesting handles), the colorful dotters (they're double ended), and the tape farthest on the left. If you care to see more of them, you can find the brushes and dotters here, and the tape here.

  The taped color block was inspiration from a pin that I found a while ago. I absolutely loved it, but I just never had the right supplies to make it happen. The tape that I got in the mail was the perfect color - holographic silver, so I was finally able to paint it! 

   The original pin used these pretty shades of teal. I really like purple though (it's tied with green for my favorite color). It was a little obnoxious getting the tape onto my nails. I ended up up wasting a lot of tape. :(   I really like the end result though! I hope to put up a set in my Etsy eventually, in at least purple, but I was thinking maybe blue and pink too. Maybe. We'll see! My to do list for Etsy is sooo long and is always growing!

   This is my left hand! It's getting almost common - two posts in two weeks! As I mentioned earlier, this was an unplanned design. I was looking for something easy late at night, and this is what came up with! I wanted to use my new dotters, so what better to do than make dots!

   I also have a really old design (well, not super old, it's only from Christmas) to show you guys too. I painted a sweater design on my friends nails a week or so after Christmas.

   I painted a similar design two years ago on my toes for Christmas. It was a lot more difficult on finger nails instead of toe nails.  I think it turned out pretty well!

   That's about all the news for now! I'm only just now watching the new season of Sherlock, so I'm kind of distracted! :)

   I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

**UPDATE**

   So I was obviously severely distracted by Sherlock last night... (It was a fantastic episode!!) I should've just waited to type this until today! Blogging in the middle of Sherlock was obviously not one of my best ideas. This ended up being a super brief post! I went back through the post this morning and fixed all of my typos. Sorry guys! :)

   The one tidbit of opinion I left out that I really wanted to put in was about the tape. It looks fantastic, but if you knock your nails around a lot don't expect it to stay on for more that 3-4 days. It started peeling off my nails around day two and half or so. I'm really bad about knocking my nails around a lot at work, so it probably would have lasted a lot longer otherwise. Other than that and the application (which I'm pretty sure was at least partly due to my being impatient and not letting the polish dry quite long enough), the tape is really great!

Have a good rest of the week!

Dots, Leaves, and News

   I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year! I really enjoyed my time with the family!
   A few days after Christmas I had the wonderful opportunity to do and art trade with the lovely Anjuli over at Digital Designs on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/digitaldesignss). It was tons of fun! I made her some red snowflake nails and she made me this awesome 'R' that has the names of my relatives on the Roberts side of my family.

   She does fantastic work, so if you're into this sort of thing you should definitely go check her out!

   I also got to paint several people's nails over the past few weeks. While this isn't something I normally do - I don't know much about anything except painting; I don't do any of the prep work you get at a salon (mostly I'm just not to that point yet and don't want to get into that to often. Yet.) - I really enjoyed doing it!

   Top left: Some cute little wintery penguins with bows on their heads
   Top right: Christmas minions
   Bottom left: Snowman, glitter, and snowflakes
   Bottom middle: Santa's belt
   Bottom right: Santa's face

   I hadn't done anything on my own nails until this week! Partially because of the gel polish that stayed for two weeks, but mostly because I was busy running back and forth between work and visiting with family. This Christmas was so much busier than the last (for me, at least), but it was still just as great. I was going to do the winter birds like I had originally planned, but lack of time and design distractions made me paint something else! I found this cool design when I was looking through some business card templates at moo.com.

   I fell in love with it! So I painted my own version of it on my nails a few days ago. I knew I only wanted it as an accent nail, but I didn't want to leave the other nails completely plain. I couldn't really think of anything great, so I slapped some dots on there!

 

   I also had this glitter that I was dying to use, so I put some of it on my left hand.

   I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects Butterscotch and Revlon Colorstay Jungle for the base coats. For the leaves I used Loreal New Money and Tea and Crumpets, then Revlon Colorstay Jungle for the stem. For the dots I used the same as for the leaves, plus the Butterscotch. On my left hand the glitter was an Orly  Mini Glitter. I've yet to find a name on the bottle, but the number is 0125112.

   That's it for now. I have a ton more to show you (I've made up some new sets for my Etsy!), but I don't want to make this post ridiculously long. Hope you all have an wonderful day!

Retro Ornaments

   I was really torn this week on what design to paint for Christmas. I have seen some really cute Christmas/wintery bird fabrics, cards, and the like. But then I found some old ornaments that I really liked too! I got a free gel manicure a few days ago so I really wanted to choose something I really liked since it would last a lot longer than my own manicures do. I finally decided on the ornaments because I really really liked them and I could always paint the birds later as just a winter design instead of a Christmas one. So you'll probably see some birds in a few weeks!

    I really liked the shapes and potentially detailed designs I found in a lot of the 60's ornaments. I was inspired by this pin and this one, as well as somewhat by this fabric.

   I used a lot of acrylic paints this time. I bought a bunch of new paints and I wanted to see how much easier it would be than regular polish. And let me tell you, for the most part, it is infinitely easier! It doesn't dry up half so quickly as it set on my paint plate. It's not half so gloppy either. I'm not sure how often I'll use the acrylic paints, but they are nice and easy when I do use them!
   I have mostly Apple Barrel acrylic paints pretty much because they're the cheapest at JoAnn Fabric. There's nothing like convenience to get you to by one product over another! The colors I used were Regency Blue and Cardinal Crimson in the Apple Barrel brand and Rose Layette and Blanc d'Osier in the Folk Art brand. My base color was an OPI gel; maybe Did You 'ear About Van Gogh? I'm not 100% sure what color I picked... I also used my white Stripe Rite striper as well as Loreal New Money, Royally Reinvented, and Club Prive.

   I hope you all have an awesome Christmas!

Candy Cane

   I had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, so for once I'm blogging on time! On Sunday I had a large order in my Etsy that was needed by Christmas. Since I was getting my wisdom teeth out I needed to have them dome Monday night so they could get shipped Tuesday before my mom and I left. I didn't think I would have time to paint my own nails, but I somehow managed to snatch the time to! It's a really simple design and it's not done the way I usually would go about it, but it works!

   I made some candy cane striped nails this week. No one is really going to see them, since I'll be home pretty much all week, but who cares!

   I just used a striper (Stripe Rite Red) this time since I was in a hurry. The lines are a little wonky, but not too bad for trying to multi-task on my nails and a fake set! My base coat was Finger Paints Paper Maiche.

   Usually when I paint stripes I use tape. But I was in a hurry and didn't have time to let the white dry long enough. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I have to let my base coat dry for a long time (I usually wait about a day just to be safe) before I use tape, other wise the polish peels off with the paint!

In other news, I've finally started up a Facebook page for my blog/Etsy! I'm having trouble getting the icon onto my blog page where my other links are, but it should be up soon since I have so much time at home now! Here's the link for now: www.facebook.com/OnceUponNails

Have a great week! If I don't blog before Christmas, have a wonderful Christmas guys!

A Long Overdue Update...

   I've made some more designs the past few weeks. I've had a fair amount of orders through my Etsy, so that combined with work and Christmas present wrapping has left me little time for blogging! :(
   I've finally painted the long-awaited (at least to me) Thanksgiving owls! I was super excited to finally get to paint them on my nails.

   How do you all like them? It was a lot harder to paint them on my nails. I have tiny fingers so it's sometimes difficult to paint a design on my own small nails when I've first painted them on larger fake nails! The Etsy set is available here, if you care to look, although it is a bit late in the season for Thanksgiving nails....

   And of course I had to paint my snowflake design on my nails. That design has become one of my favorites! If you care to look, they're in my Etsy here. I offer it in both red and blue.

   I was trying to think up a new Christmas design the other day and I came up with this idea:

   It's a Charlie Brown Christmas design! It didn't turn out quite like I hoped, but I'm still happy with it. I've got the pitiful tree, the other outrageously colored trees, Snoopy's decorated dog house, and Charlie Brown's shirt.

   For other news, I made a new Christmas card a few weeks back! I have to show it off, you know.

   It was inspired by some fabric I found at work. I'd been dying to do something with it, whether it be a card design or a nail design. I'll probably still do a nail design if I can manage it. We'll see....

   Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, once again I haven't been overly chatty. And I'm trying to muti-task, so that doesn't help!
   That's all the fun updates I have for now! Hopefully I'll be back with another post next week. Maybe. I'm supposed to be getting my wisdom teeth taken out next week so we'll see how much gets done; I might be too loopy to do much!

   Have a great week guys! Merry Christmas if I don't post again before then!