Gradient and Stars

My sister-in-law is currently going to a cosmetology college so she will often come over and let me do her nails. She likes to show them off to the other students who are always amazed at her manicures because they have never seen nail art like this. I don't know why, but I find that interesting.

Anyways, I recently tried gradient on my own nails and my SIL let me try again on her nails. She loved how the gradient turned out. But I wasn't done! I need more practice stamping so she picked out these stars to add to it.

Base color is a light lilac color by Cosmetic Arts. Then I did a gradient with the Cosmetic Arts, Pure Ice - New Lilac and Milani - Deep Thoughts. I stamped the stars using Cheeky CH26 with the Milani - Deep Thoughts polish.

The lighting in these pictures are a bit harsh and doesn't show the colors very well. Hopefully my pictures will be more consistent in the future.

Take care and have a beautiful day!!

Summer Challenge Day 7 - Sunshine

So I had something else planned for this challenge but my son came up with this idea to represent sunshine. He suggested to have my thumb as the sun and the rays going across my other nails. I love it!

 

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Why does the camera always pick up things I don't notice? I'm getting a little better at my clean up but missed a spot on my thumb. Grrr...

Summer Challenge - Days 4, 5 and 6

About a month ago, I joined a Facebook group called Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge.  They are doing nail art challenges all summer long. And since I don't really have plans for a vacation this summer, I thought I'd play along. I missed the first three days of the challenge, which I might back track to later. But here are the most recent three that I did.

Day 4 - Orange Freestyle Day

This day was actually for my orange tattoo nails. You can find the original post here.

Day 5 - Your Favorite Summer Color

I recently bought Milani 3D Holographic Hi-Res polish and I absolutely LOVE the color. It reminded me of wild flowers and lilac bushes that grow in our area, so this color was chosen for Day 5. I did a gradient first and then lightly topped it with Hi-Res, but you can barely notice the gradient because of it. I still love how it turned out though.

Day 6 - Summer Sunrise

For this day I was inspired by how beautiful our sunrises in Texas can be with the bright oranges and pinks on the horizon. So my sun is in the center along with some morning birdies.

So this is just the beginning with lots more to come. Yay

Tattooed nails

I recently found out that I had 14 infected files on my computer. It has taken me all week to back up my pictures and videos before doing a full restore on my computer and then setting the computer back up. What a hassle!

Anyways, I've been wanting to try the tatoo nails that I've seen on cutepolish's channel on YouTube. You can see her video here:



I finally found a dollar store that carried temporary tattoos that were decorative and not too childish. I had a bit off trouble after soaking the backing of the tattoo. I'm not sure if it's because of the glitter that was imbedded in it or the tattoo itself. After I peeled the backing away, it left some paper behind which I just lightly scraped off, but in some areas it took the tattoo with it.

I'm still very excited about the end results. Next time I'd like to try a gradient underneath the tattoo.

Go, Spurs, Go!

I am not much of a sports fanatic, but I recently received a request to do some basketball themed nails for a San Antonio Spurs fan. I was excited about the challenge and told her I'd get back to her with some samples. Here's what I came up with:

I thought these turned out pretty cool. Maybe I should start watching some of the games so I can sport some basketball themed nails. lol

Twinkle, Twinkle

Glitter polishes are very trendy right now. The great thing about them is that you can apply them on top of any color in thick or thin coats to create different looks. If you smudged your base color before you put your top coat on, just add glitter to cover it up. It's so versatile...and pretty.

For this manicure, I started with a base coat of Pure Ice Kiss Me Here which is a gray color. Then I added a coat of LA Colors BCC 582 which is a blue and purple glitter. Now my plain gray base color looks more like a bluish-gray or lavender.

From there, I added a top coat and stamped on some stars using Cheeky CH5 plate. Then added another top coat to protect the stamps. And there it is - a quick and easy manicure =)

Metallic Gradient

There are different techniques to getting a gradient look on your nails. I think the most common method is probably sponging with small pieces of a cosmetic sponge or a more porous sponge. You can then either dip the sponge in the nail polish and dab it onto your nail or you can paint it directly on the sponge and then dab. I haven't tried sponging yet, so I'll have to add that to my to do list.

About a week ago I was scouting out the L.A. Colors nail polishes at the Dollar Tree and noticed this shimmering loose eyeshadow with brush. I thought maybe I could create a gradient look with powder instead of sponging.

This is what the brush looked like when I opened the bottle. Not the best but, hey, it was only a dollar. :)

Here is my finished look. It worked! Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of each of the steps but I applied two coats of the silver metallic polish by L.A. Colors. While the second coat was still wet, I dusted the bottom half of the nails with the shimmering shadow by tapping on the brush. Next, I tapped my fingers on a piece of paper on the table to get rid of any excess shadow and applied a top coat to seal it together before stamping.

Although I was happy with how the gradient turned out, I was not so pleased with the stamping. Perfectionists are hardly ever satisfied, right? ;)

Base Color: L.A. Colors BCC 571

Gradient Color: L.A. Colors shimmering loose eyeshadow - Sunshine

Stamping Color: NYC Skin Tight Denim

Blessings,

- Shayleen

Nails...It all started when...

I finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy earlier this year and soon found out that China Glaze was coming out with a collection of nail polish based on each of the districts within the book. I have never owned a China Glaze polish, but I was anxiously waiting for this collection so that I could wear District 12's Smoke and Ashes to the movie premiere. Before that, I never really wore nail polish because it would chip so easily on my flimsy nails.

Then one night I was watching Who Do You Think You Are? with Reba McIntire and I noticed her nails were painted black. This sparked an interest and grabbed some old black nail polish and started painting my nails as I finished watching the show. The next day I played around some more and added a sheer and glittery polish to it which made it look like a metallic gray and I realized you can achieve different looks by layering different polishes. So cool! Taking it one step further, I added some stripes and dots and created this look:

It was fun for my first try and I got a few compliments, but it wasn't perfect. I used a pencil eraser to dot the polish which left bits of the eraser on my nail. I've since learned that you can create your own dotting tool by pushing a sewing pin into the tip of a pencil eraser which creates a prettier dot.

So this was my first manicure in my nail art adventure.

First blog, first post...

Welcome!

I've finally decided to start a blog to document my adventures in nail art, stamping, and other crafts. I just picked up on nail art over a month ago, but I also love to crochet, knit, sew, scrapbook, jewelry making, etc. - although I never have time to do everything.  lol

Short and sweet

Blessings,
- Shayleen

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:14