Granny's Wallpaper Nails

I've been told that I have an old lady's taste sometimes. And this is possibly one of those times. 

Today I decided to do what I refer to as Old Lady Wallpaper nails. They remind me of Victorian style wallpaper, or curtains maybe. 

I've done these in yellow and purple before, and loved the result. I thought blue and yellow made a nice sunny summery combination. 

These are actually pretty simple to do. If you can draw an imperfect line and squiggles, you can do this manicure. 

I started off by painting my nails the solid colors I picked out. I went with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry in Lightening Yellow, and Wet & Wild's Megalast in I Need a Refresh-Mint (though I think it looks much more Robin's egg blue than it does Minty)

Since these are quick dry polishes, I didn't need to wait long to continue the process.
I used Stripping paints for the rest of the manicure. You can use a small thin paint brush and regular polish, and I have before. I just wanted to be lazy this time and not look for my brushes (I still haven't found them since I moved last month... I KNOW they're here SOMEWHERE...)
So this is what the brush in the stripping paint looks like. It is long and thin, and very flexible.

With it, I created 3 or 4 stripes down each nail. Don't worry about being perfectly straight, or even in size.
Mine are all a little wobbly and no two nails match. It is OK... this is hand painted, custom wallpaper here... without the "human element" it just looks mass produced :)

Now, I've always heard from people "I can do stripes, but those flowers are so hard!"
Nonsense! I've drawn on paper exactly how you make these flowers, so you can see how easy it is before attempting with paint.
With the first color, make a few squiggly lines in a roughly circular shape. The ends shouldn't meet, and they shouldn't be perfectly straight.

With the second color, create squiggly lines in between and wrapping around the first set of lines.

Here is the first set of squiggles using paint.
I usually use the darker color for this step, I like the dimensional element it gives the finished flowers, but you could easily start with the lighter color. Whichever color you use second will be your dominant color.
If you look closely, you can see some of my squiggly lines are actually little dots that are places really close together. I have found that this is an EXCELLENT way to make a jaggedy squiggly line without smearing paint where you don't want it. (The middle finger shows this very well)

And here's the second step in paint.
My lines in the second step are usually thicker, and bolder, and actually often go over the top of the first set of lines. This is OK also. You're building a flower, not a bridge. Mother nature is wild, you can be too.

For the final step, use green paint to add in leaves. It is amazing how this one little step transforms it from a wriggly pink blob into a flower. (I can't decide if these are Cabbage Roses, or Peonies... I think it depends on the nail).
The easiest way to make little leaf shapes is to place the tip of your brush where you want the leaf to end, and quickly and lightly press the side of the brush onto the nail. Then angle your brush away just a bit and repeat, so you make a smudged > shape. Sometimes I will go back with a darker green to add a little excitement, but again, too lazy to look for my regular brushes today, and I don't have a dark green stripping paint.

From a distance, these look even MORE like actually intentionally created flowers. Not just Brain blobs.

So there you have it, an easy and simple manicure that looks like you're a nail genius. 

Yes, that is my nail polish stash in the back ground. And yes, it is in an extra large fishing tackle box.