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.

I think I found it...more Stamping

In the last three days, I've painted my nails 4 times, and done at least a dozen different stamping experiments, trying to come up with something for the auction I am going to this weekend.  (A reminder of the mask and shoes I will be wearing, and want to at least coordinate with.)

I had been doing pink nails, with white and black accents, and decided to go with white nails, with black and pink. I chose a sort of wavy line stamp that I thought would look cool. It did, just wasn't feelin it. On the thumb and ring finger, I painted silver glitter over the white & under the lines. Looked cool, just wasn't what I was wanting.

Finally, I tried a pewter glitter polish as my base, with flowers stamped in pink, then again in white.
The pewter glitter is by Milani called Silver Dazzle, and is a SUPER concentrated glitter! I used two coats for completely covered nails, but could have gotten away with one coat, since I was stamping over it.

You can see the end product, and I really like them! I think this is what I was looking for. So now, hopefully I don't muck them up before Saturday night!

Stamp Plate Experiments

A while ago, I was given a set of stamp plates.
I've had mixed success with them, but haven't made too many attempts at using them.
This weekend I have a charity auction to go to, and decided to use stamped designs for the event.
It is a Masquerade Ball themed event, and I made a mask and decorated some heels to match

So, I need some nails to complement the overall look. 

I started with light pink nails, hot pink fishnet print, with black swirly tips. Then I covered it in iridescent glitter. Because really, doesn't glitter make everything better? 

I wasn't in love with the look, so decided to try hot pink nails as the base.
I stamped on black chevrons, and layered a white floral swirly over it. Then reversed it, and stamped white chevrons with a black floral swirly.
I still wasn't in love with it, so stamped my thumb with white swirlies, and black swirlies.

 I still hadn't found anything that wowed me, so on my left hand I did a different design on each nail.

None of the above are speaking to me, so I'm going to try again!