Valentine's Day

   Valentine's Day almost snuck up on me this year! I had been thinking about designs, but I thought I had plenty of time to finalize and paint. Well, yesterday I realized that it was already Valentine's week! I've been a little off schedule lately... I painted yesterday before work, so I can have them on for at least a few days before!

   I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do this year. I had already painted a bunch of designs for Etsy and I didn't really want to paint them again. Not yet, anyway! After scrounging around on Pinterest for inspiration, I found this design and fell in love! I combined it with this design from my Etsy sets and ended up with this:

   I think this has become one of my favorite designs! I feel like I've said that a lot lately, but it's true! I really like the last few designs I've made.
   To make this design I used Finger Paints Paper Mache as the base, and Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice as the base for my ring finger. I used Entice for the dashed diagonals as well. (I used a tiny brush to make them.) For the hearts I used Finger Paints Paint Me Happy, with a small dotter and the same small brush. To make the lace heart on my ring finger I painted the half heart shape with white acrylic paint. Then I painted over it (leaving a small outline) with Finger Paints Paint Me Happy. After that I painted on white dots with the dotter, then painted on green dots with Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice.

   That's all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Birds and Stripes

   It's been a while since my last update. I kept my last design on so much longer than usual because I had quite a few orders, and they were all on different days, so I couldn't do it all at once like I usually do! But I eventually got around to it.
   After a very long break, I finally got around to painting my toenails again. I think the last time I painted them was back in October, or something ridiculous like that. Back at Christmastime I painted the ornaments on my fingers. I had been debating back and forth between two designs before I painted them - ornaments and birds. I had kind of forgotten about the birds until earlier this week.

   I got my inspiration from a few different pins, all with the same basic idea, birds in a winter scene of some sort. I used Pure Ice Bikini as the base, and then a mix of acrylic paints and polishes for the birds and evergreen branches. I think it was brown and green acrylic paints for the branches, and Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine, black, grey, and white paints for the bird. White acrylic paint for the snowflakes.

  On my fingers I painted some chevron stripes. I got my inspiration from a knit sweater I saw online.

   I really liked how it turned out! I used acrylic paints instead of polish, so it was a little easier to paint thin lines (in my opinion, anyway). The base was a new polish I got a few days ago, Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice. I got it thinking it would be a close match to a polish that I ran out of (it's no longer made), but it turned out not being as close as I had thought. Oh well, it's still a pretty color! I used one of my new Wistonia brushes to make the stripes.

   That's pretty much all the news I have. I thought I would have some new sets for Etsy to show you guys, but I was majorly distracted this week by some fun new projects. You'll probably hear something about them later, once they're complete.

   I hope you all have a great week! Stay warm, to those of you who are like me and stuck in this freezing snowy weather!

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!

Galaxy

   I've finally joined the galaxy nail trend! I had been wanting to make some for a while, I just didn't know how, and didn't want to spend the time messing around with it and looking up different tutorials. Because, you know, that just takes so long... But I finally got around to it yesterday. I'm pretty satisfied with the result so far! They turned out a lot better than I thought they might. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't have high hopes for this design. It's not even that hard! But that's me for ya!

  I also am going to show you both hands for once! This is a rare thing, because I usually paint a dumbed down design on my right hand so my left hand can manage it. But sponging is kind of hard to mess up. Don't get me wrong, you can definitely mess it up (I've done it before!), but it's harder to make a mess of.

   To make my galaxy nails I started out with a dark base coat. I didn't want to use solid black, so I used a really really dark purple that had a bit of a glimmer to it - Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Spark. I have no idea if you can still buy this polish though, it's pretty old.
Then I sponged on some white in some random 'nebula' shapes. Then I layered on (sponging still) some reds, oranges, greens, some more white, etc until I got something that looked sort of space-ish.
After that I painted on some small glitter (I used a small bottle of some Orly glitter that has no name....) to act as distant stars. I just painted it in the dark purple spots. I tried it on the entire nail, but I didn't like the effect.
Then I added some small white dots for close stars with a small paint brush.
I topped it all off with a matte coat. I used to use Essie's Matte About You, but I ran out and for some reason bought a different brand this time... It's Revlon's Matte Topcoat. It's alright. Essie's is definitely worth the money if you want to spend it! Revlon's isn't bad though, it's just not as good....  (It's a little streaky and you have to put on a couple of coats before everything is matte-ed).

(At some point I really need to start doing picture tutorials instead of word ones... Pictures are so much more helpful!)

  I also got all of my Valentine's set finished up! I put up one more full set:

   You can find this on here in my Etsy.

   And I put up the other two accent sets I showed you all the other day:

   You can find the balloon set here, and the heart flower set here. I just love that last set! It's so cute!

   Speaking of accent nails, I almost forgot to show you guys a set! I also made some galaxy accent nails. I plan on making them into a full set too, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

   (The nail on the right is where I tried to put glitter over the entire nail. I thought it was too shimmery.)
   You can find them here in my store.

   That's about all for now! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Etsy Valentine's

   I've been working to get Valentine's sets up on my Etsy in time for people to look at them and want to buy them. It's been lots of fun, although I'm almost stressing about it. I'm not sure why, because I only have a few more to make and it's not even February yet...
   I've put up two new sets so far, with plans for 1-2 more.

   I really like this one! The heart is so cute with the lace (I think, anyway)! I'm not a huge fan of the glitter gradient. I've never really done one before, so it was an experiment! I don't think it's quite thick enough on the bottom, but that's easily fixed so I'm not worried. You can find it here in my shop.

   I think this one is so cute and whimsical! I got the cloud effect from sponging on some white polish (specifically, Finger Paints Paper Mache). I used a dotter to get the tops of the hearts, then went back with a small brush to finish them up. You can find them here.

   I've also started a new "line" of nails - individually sold accent nails (a set of 2) and solid nail sets, to either be paired with the accent nails or worn separately. As of right now I only have up (and am working on) Valentine's accent nails. I have all the solids up for now; more will be added as I get new polishes! So far I have 3 accent nail sets available, and have plans for making 3-4 more. I'm really excited! I've had this idea since November, but I just never got around to making it happen until now.

  I am not a huge fan of this one. I'm sure some people will love it, it's just not really my style. It was inspired by and Pinterest pin, which might or might not look better than my creation.... The set is available here.

   This one is my mom's favorite. I really like it too, but my favorite is yet to come. Literally. I haven't quite painted the set yet... I've painted it on my nails, but not the set for Etsy. At any rate, you can find this set here.

   This one didn't turn out as originally planned. It was supposed to be the cursive love design that you always see. Instead it ended up being a more 'modern' (ha!) typography-ed love. You can find it here.

   These are two that I have yet to offically make. The one on the left is my favorite so far! It is so cute! I think I'm going to make it into a full set as well as the accent set. The one on the right you've already seen. I figure that someone might like it batter as an accent than as a whole set. Maybe. Who knows!

That's about it for now! I'll have more updates later, probably next week or so. I hope you all have a wonderful 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!

A Few More Designs

   I didn't want to make my last post super long, so here are a few more designs I made. One design is actually fairly recent! We'll see how long that lasts...
 
   I did actually have something on my nails each week, they were just all quickie things that I slapped on so my nails weren't bare. One of them I ended up really liking!

   I had this glitter that I bought super cheap that I hadn't really found a good use for yet. I really like it paired with this China Glaze Recycle. (The glitter is China Glaze Scattered and Tattered. I'm not sure you can buy it any more though, because I bought it clearanced.) The only problem was that the glitter never came off! Whenever I was ready to take it off, everything came off but the glitter! It was crazy! I have no idea why... I even tried soaking it in the nail polish remover and it wouldn't come off. But it does look pretty!

   More recently, I recreated a design I have in my Etsy store. My goal is to paint all of the designs I have in my Esty on my nails so that there is a picture of the nails they will receive, what the design will look like on nails/hands, and then the sizing chart. My progress is super slow though. I keep getting distracted by other cool designs I see/think up!

   I really like my recreation. It's not a lot different (you can see the original here in my store). I really do try to keep it the same as the original listing for obvious reasons, but sometimes I just can't resist a small improvement. In this case, the improvement was on my thumb. I really liked the addition of the thinner lines and smaller dots. If I had thought of it sooner, I would have incorporated into at least two more of my nails. 

   I drew my inspiration somewhat from Mondrian. Ok, it was very inspired by him; somewhat reluctantly, but definitely based off his artwork. I'm not a huge fan of modern art. I think it's a little silly... Sorry if you love it, but I just can't! I really have to work at not being bitter towards modern artists because they make so much money off of a line on a canvas or dots on a canvas or streaks that are supposedly a woman or some emotion; all because they have the right connections and come up with some explanation that doesn't make sense at all. Then I'm over here making art that actually makes sense, whether it's my photography, nail art, even some of my scribbles and no one knows or cares beyond myself and my family/friends. I know that's not an entirely true statement, but it's how I feel sometimes. Not that I want to be rich and famous, but it would be nice if us artists that actually make something recognizable get a little attention. </rant>
    Now I know, my rant is not completely accurate, but sometimes modern art just makes me mad and brings me down....

   ANYWAYS... I obviously liked Mondrian enough to make a nail design that I actually really really like.  And I'll leave it at that. :)

   I hope you all have a fantastic week and to my US readers, have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm sure I won't be back in the blogging world before then...