Halloween Nails!

It's been quite a while since I've done a nail art tutorial, so I thought with Halloween just around the corner, today would be a great time for one.

How about some Halloween nails?  :)

These are super easy (although you may need help for your "wrong hand"). 

All you'll need is a base/top coat, some orange nail polish, a black nail art pen, and white nail art pen.

Start by applying your base coat, and follow it by painting your nails orange.

Next, use the white nail art pen to create a little ghost on your thumb.  Do this by creating a little circle, add a body with a little tail, and add arms.

Outline the ghost with the black nail art pen, add eyes and a mouth, and add the word "BOO!" if you like.

Add a spider web on your ring finger.  Do this by drawing several intersecting straight lines. Then, starting at the center, connect the lines in a spiral with short, slightly curved lines.

Let the paint from the nail art pens dry completely.  Then, finish off with your top coat.

There!  Now you have festive Halloween nails!

Hope you like them!

Independence Day Nail Art

I don't know about you guys, but I really love the 4th of July.  You're about to find out just how much I love it in the next couple of days... lots of 4th of July stuff! :)

Today I thought I'd share some nail art.  Usually, I just paint my big toe as a flag.  This year, however, I decided I really wanted to switch it up a little, so here's what I came up with.

If you like it and want to give it a try, it's super simple!

Here's what you'll need...

A clear coat for your base coat/top coat, blue polish, red polish, white polish, and a white nail art pen.

Start by applying the base coat.  When it's dry, paint your big toes blue.

Follow that by painting every other toe red and the rest white.

Make sure the blue is super duper dry, and then draw little stars on tip with the white nail art pen. (You may have to go over them more than once for the white to be nice and bright.)

Don't worry about it being perfect... No one needs to be that close to your feet.  If they start inspecting, just kick them. ;)

 

Let the white stars get good and dry, then add your top coat.

Next step, enjoy your patriotic nails!

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Zebra Print Nails

It's been a little while since I've shared any nail art, so I thought today was a good day to do it.  Today, I'll show you how to do zebra print.  :)  There's really nothing to it. 

You only need clear coat, one color, and a nail art pen for this.

Start with a base coat, and then coat your nails with the color of your choice.

The next thing you'll need is your nail art pen so you can draw on the zebra design.

I don't know about you, but I needed something to go by since I don't stare at zebras all day long.  To remedy this, I just did a Google image search of zebra print and got all kinds of results.  When I found something I liked, I sort of followed it to make it look right.

 

 I pulled it up on my phone since it was right beside me...

Then just continue doing the design on every nail.

Keep in mind that zebra print is irregular.  It's not simply stripes, and it's not a repetitive pattern.  Just study a photo for a few minutes, and you'll soon see how it works.  (You may think it looks funny when you've only finished on nail, but don't worry.  The design looks much better when it's on all the nails.)

Let the black dry completely, and then finish with a clear coat.

Viola!  You have zebra print nails!

Enjoy, and hope you have a great weekend!

Terrific Tie Dye

Even though I loved my sunset toes, I thought it was time for a change.  I have this tie dye looking bathing suit that I really love, and when I pulled it out the other day, I had a sort of "Aha!" moment.  I thought it would be pretty cool if I could figure out how to "tie dye" my toes!  So that's what I did. 

 

I thought it would be a super fun and funky look to wear for a couple days.  :)

Here's what you do if you want to give it a try.  It's way easier than it looks.

You'll need an assortment of colors for the tie dye part, white polish, a base/top coat, a cotton ball/square, and a straight pin.

Start by doing an all over base coat, followed by a coat of white polish to act as the background.

Let the white coat dry.

When it's all dry, get all your colors in order and have the tops unscrewed.  (You have to work fairly quickly on this step, or the blending won't be right.)

One nail at a time, put a little stripe of each color, in order.  You can start at the corner, the bottom, the side, the top, wherever you want.  Just make sure that the stripe contains a fair amount of polish.  You don't want it too thin, or it won't blend well.  (Work on one nail at a time, painting on each color and doing the next step before moving to the next nail.)

When you have each color on the nail, take your straight pin and drag from the center color outward.  Be sure to use your cotton square between each swipe, or your outside color will muddy up the center color.

When you have dragged the pin through several times, it will look something like this.

It's okay if it's not perfect.  Tie dyed fabrics aren't perfect.  Also, don't worry if the swiped areas from the pin look like cuts or dents, the top coat will help to seal and smooth everything.

Finish each nail, and let the colors dry.

Complete with a top coat, and you have tie dyed nails!

They are a little crazy, but I think that can be fun sometimes.  :)  Let me know if you decide to give them a try!

Just a Little Tropical Sunset

One evening a few days ago, I was cruising around my neighborhood on my bike taking Duke on his nightly jog and pondering what I was going to do on my nails next.  When I rounded the corner on one of the streets in my neighborhood that overlooks the water, I was blessed to see a gorgeous tropical sunset. 

It was very similar to this one from a few months ago, and it was truly lovely.

I suddenly had my inspiration.  Just the other week, I met a new friend from out of town who noticed my hibiscus nails and told me that she used to like doing sunsets on hers.  I thought it was a cool idea and tucked it into my mental file for later, but seeing that gorgeous sunset brought it back to the forefront.  I decided to do a tropical sunset with a palm tree silhouette.

If you ever want to try it, here's what you do.

You'll need red, orange, yellow, white, and black polish, a scrap of paper, a fan brush, and a very fine tipped brush (or nail art pen)

Start with a base coat, and then paint your little toes solid orange and your big toes white.

I know, it looks silly at this point, but it will look pretty awesome in no time at all.

The white is simply there to act as a base for the next part.

For the next step, get your scrap of paper, the fan brush, and the yellow,orange, and red polish.

Put fairly large dots of each color in that order on the scrap of paper, making sure they are close enough that they touch.   (I learned through trial and error that it's best to have a little more orange than red because the red is a bit overpowering.)

Then, use the fan brush to pull through the colors.

You'll have to do this part quickly.  Sometimes the paint can dry really quickly or get sticky, and at that point it won't create a smooth coat.  As soon as you have mixed the paint,  drag the brush across your nail from side to side, making sure that the red is at the top (closest to you) and the yellow is at the bottom (the tip of your toe).

(Don't worry about it being messy.  I had polish all over the skin surrounding my nail after this step.  Just take a Q-tip dipped in polish remover to clean it up.)

After this step, it will look something like this.

Give this time to dry before the next step, especially if you use a nail art tool.

The final step is to add the palm tree. 

Once again, use your scrap of paper.  Add a drop of black polish, and use a VERY fine tipped brush to add the tree trunk first.  Follow that by the palm frond stems, and then add the tiny, individual "leaves" of each frond.  Finally, you may want to add a little piece of "beach" underneath the tree trunk.

I was working quickly, so I didn't get a photo after each little element, but this is what it ended up looking like.

(One more little hint:  Make sure you don't make the top of the palm too big.  I goofed on my first try and I looked like I had hairy spiders sitting on my toes.  I found that the key to this design looking like a palm was to have a thin trunk and a small top on the palm.)

As always, let your little design dry completely, and finish everything with a top coat like this.

Then you'll have a little tropical sunset to take with you everywhere you go!

What do you think?  Think you might try it sometime? :)

P.S.  Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter for the free soft pastel pet portrait!  Don't miss it!

Two Tone Hibiscus Nails

I've got a new nail design for you!  :)  (Just in case you are stopping by for the first time, I always do nail art on my toes... For one, I live in Hawaii and wear flip flops constantly, and two, I'm always doing projects or creating artwork , so nothing EVER sticks on my fingernails.)

In my last nail art post with blue nails and a simple white flower, I promised to show you how to create a two-toned hibiscus. 

This is what I came up with...

I started by choosing my colors.

1.  Dark "pink" color for the center of my flower.

2.  Pale pink for the all over background color.

3. Bright pink for the blending color in the flower.

4.  Yellow for the main part of the flower petals.

5.  Green for leaves and embellishments.

**Not pictured is my clear Base/Top Coat 

I painted my base coat and all over color.

Then I gathered my nail art tools and petal colors.

You can use nail art tools like these to make dots, or you can do what my friend Cat from No Wooden Spoons suggested and use the ball on the end of a sewing pin and keep it nice and safe by sticking the sharp point into a pencil eraser. 

It also helps to put a drop of polish on a scrap of paper and dip into the dot.  It's way less messy.

I created five fairly large yellow dots as petals.

This was followed by five small bright pink dots just inside each yellow one.

 

While all the dots were still wet, I used a toothpick to drag the colors to the middle.

At this point, I didn't think there was enough contrast in my flower, so I sort of turned it into a three toned flower by adding one darker dot in the center and using the toothpick to sort of blend the color outward just a wee little bit...

Don't worry if it looks a little lumpy in some places at this point... The top coat will help everything look much nicer and more smooth.

I wanted to add a few teeny tiny yellow dots in the center to represent the hibiscus center.  (You don't have to if you don't want to... It's whatever you think looks best.)  You could use the tip of a toothpick or a small tipped nail art tool like I have.

Finally, I used my small tipped nail art tool to create "leaves" on each side of the flower, and a series of tiny green dots as embellishments.

I let my design DRY, and then I added the top coat to smooth everything out and protect my work.

Then I had island hibiscus toes!

Don't worry if they aren't absolutely perfect!  No one needs to be that close to your toes anyway... if they are, you can just kick them!  ;)

Hope you like them and give them a try sometime!

A Blue Background and a Little White Hibiscus

I've got some new nail art for you! :)

After my pink leopard print, I wanted to do something completely different... but I keep with fun spring colors. 

I looked out my window and saw the beautiful Hawaiian hibiscus flowers in bloom and had my inspiration, and this is what I came up with.

These are actually quite easy!

I used blue and white polish for these nails.

You can use white nail polish in a bottle or from a nail art pen, but for this, I used the bottle.

I also used these nail art tools that I ordered off of eBay for about 99 cents.  They are perfect for creating dots.

If you don't have anything like this, you can use a small brush.

You'll also need a toothpick.

First paint your nails with a base coat and the color of your choice.  I chose blue.

Next make five fairly big white dots. (You don't want them too close together or it will ruin the next step.)

Use the toothpick to drag the edges of the dots toward the center.

It will look something like this.

It's okay if you see some of the colored polish from underneath.  In fact, you should see it.  It helps create the hibiscus design.  

Finally, I embellished the flower design with a series of shrinking dots along the bottom edge of my nail, like this.

When your flowers are super duper dry, seal them with a top coat like this one.

It's a simple but fun design.  Give it a try sometime!

I'll try to make another post soon to show how to create a two-toned hibiscus flower design.  :)

Stay tuned!

P.S.  If you're not an "official" follower yet, click "Follow" to the right so you'll be sure not to miss new posts!  :)  Plus, I just really really love to know who stops by!