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!

I Now Have A Sister!!

   So as you might know, last week was all about getting ready for my brother's wedding. I talked about it a little in this post and the one before it. The wedding was Saturday and everything went really well! No major mishaps, and no crazy brides/moms/grooms/anyone. And now I have a sister! Finally! :)

here's a wonderfully grainy picture I stole from facebook of the newlyweds :)

   Anyways, I don't really have any new nail designs for you guys yet (I've still got what remains of my bridesmaids nail design on), but I do have some nail-related stuff to show you all. Just because I can, I thought I'd show you guys how I packaged the other bridesmaids' fake nails. I'm a little proud of the packaging. Just a little. :)
   I conveniently had two of the small boxes I use for my Etsy store at home, so I spruced them up a little.

 
   I wish I could do this for my Etsy orders, but I think the flowers would come off or get ruined or something. To make the flowers, I cut of a length of a paper streamer, rolled it, then glued it (I used regular old Elmer's glue). Then I kind of did the same thing to make the leaves, except I left a corner un-rolled. I used water colors to make it green, but I'm sure just a green streamer would work too (I only had white). Then I used my trusty old Elmer's glue to glue everything to the box!
   Then, as a nice touch (I do include this in my Etsy orders), I wrote on some paper!

 
   Usually my Etsy orders say something boring like 'Thanks for the order!' But now I might do something more like this instead.... I used some sort of fancy border/hole punch I bought at Micheal's and then wrote on them with my colorful inks! (I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I love calligraphy/illuminations and inks and older looking calligraphy pens!)
    Then, underneath it all are the nails. They don't always get to the final location looking this neat, but I do try to keep them in order! 

   And that's about it! I don't usually use red boxes, because on my Etsy orders I use a ribbon that is a pretty teal-ish color that looks awful with the red. But red was what Hobby Lobby had, so red was what I got! And it looks fine with white flowers, so that worked out great. :)

   Well, that's about it for now. I should have another nail design sometime this week. I'm going to the aquarium with my cousin, so I think I'm going to make some fishy nails! I've made some Finding Nemo nails for my Etsy store, so I might do those since I haven't painted that on my actual nails yet. Or I might do something different, we'll see!

   Have a lovely day/night guys!

Wedding Nails Part 2

   Surprise, surprise, I finished the first set of bridesmaids' nails! I'm really happy with them. Here are some pictures:

   My sister in law wanted something simple and refined, so this is what we came up with. For the basic french manicure, I used Essie Sugar Daddy and Covergirl Outlast Snowstorm. The flowers were also made with Snowstorm, as well as Maybelline Color Show Go Go Green and Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine Dream.
   These are also available on my Etsy shop here, if any of you are interested.

   Hope you guys like it!

   Here's a preview for tomorrow's 4th of July design:

Wedding Nails Part 1

   Hooray for weddings! My brother is getting married in a little over  a week and I am super excited! His fiance wants me to do her nails and the bridesmaids nails, so I am super pumped about that too. Right now, though, all I have to show you guys is my toe nail design for the wedding; I'm still working on the finger nails, but they should be done, well, they have to be done by next week, so I'll *hopefully* be able to show them to you guys sometime next week.
   My sister-in-law's favorite flower is a sunflower, so that's going to be one of her flowers, as well as goldenrods and daisies. While I didn't technically use any of those except the sunflower, I thought the little white flowers I painted were close enough to both goldenrods and daisies. :)

   I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Vanilla for the background (I used Covergirl Outlast Snowstorm as my base coat so that the Sheer Vanilla would show up), Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Butterscotch for the sunflowers, Finger Paints Sketchy Character for the middle of the sunflower, and Maybelline Color Show Go Go Green for the sunflower leaves. For the 'diasies' I used Covergirl Outlast snowstorm and Finger Paints Etch n Sketch for the leaves. Over it all I started out with my usual top coat (Revlon Multi-Care Base+Top Coat), but them later decided I like it better matte, so I used Essie Matte About You.

Hope you guys like it!

Wedding!!

   No nails today, just fun and exciting wedding stuff!!

   Here are some of the pictures I promised from the wedding last week! I think I should warn you - there are going to be a billion pictures in this post!
   As I mentioned about a week and a half ago in this post, this is from one of my best friend's wedding! The venue was absolutely gorgeous! It was in the backyard of one of the ladies from our church. Her yard and house are absolutely beautiful!

   Isn't that wonderful?! I would absolutely love to have a yard like that!
 
   Her decor was beautiful too! She didn't have much in the backyard (who needs to add anything to that?), but the reception was up the hill and her decorations were amazing! Here are a few of the pictures I took:

 

Lavender was her flower for her bouquet and everything else.

  

  These had wedding pictures from the older generations.

  This is a few of her table decorations! They were all so pretty!

Isn't this cool? She had a magnifying glass on one of the tables and I just had to take this picture!

Her cake platter! It's an old drawer - isn't that neat?!

Her guest book was one of my favorite things! She used a tall cage thing and had people sign in on tags and tie them to the cage! 

   Here are two of my favorite pictures of their rings! Her ring boxes were full of moss and were so pretty!

 
   And last but not least, here are some pictures of the lovely bride (and groom)!

Some pictures from before the ceremony

This is one of the first look pictures we took

Another from before the ceremony. Aren't they cute?!

The first kiss!! 

 Just after they were officially married!

   Hope you guys like it! It was a fun experience for me even though it was extremely nerve wracking!