More Sketchbook Goodness

My first two coptic stitched books!

I have yet another new addiction. I've admired handmade books for years, knowing that eventually I would get into it. Apparently, it's finally time and I have been overwhelmed with the need to make books!

I started with a simple book bound with duct tape, then made a larger art journal and a smaller one bound only by glue and paper. I wanted to move on to larger, more complex and beautiful bindings. I did some googling, spent a few hours on YouTube, and finally came up with a plan.

I called it Another Test because I wanted
to see how it holds up to every day use.

I started out with rather common supplies- white printer paper, glue sticks and cereal boxes. I used heavy thread to bind it, then realized I didn't like that and ripped it out to start over. Eventually I used rich brown embroidery thread to bind it, and liked the results (finally, after 3 tries!). I colored the covers with sharpie markers and called it done.

I'm really happy with this one. It opens flat so I can get all the way to the edges of the paper, which makes me very happy! I glued two sheets of cereal box together for each cover, then wrapped those in regular printer paper. They're nice and strong, and make fantastic drawing surfaces.

Overall, this is a fantastic travel journal! It's 4.25" x 5.5" and fits perfectly into my purse. It opens well, stays closed when I want it to, and is wonderful for jotting down things I need to buy, or ideas I want to try, or quick sketches. I'll definitely be making more of these!

So far I've used it lots for sketching. I've been trying to learn how to draw better hair. I want to be able to draw more varieties of hair, rather than just straight or wavy blowing-in-the-breeze. To help with this, I've found several artists that inspire me and have been copying their style. Once I'm comfortable with it, I'll work on incorporating it into my own drawings!

This book will be filled with things that make me happy!

This next book was a total spur-of-the-moment thing, although I absolutely love it! We were walking through the Dollar Tree (yes, the same trip where I bought the nail goodies!) when I found a pack of brightly-colored index cards! I've been seriously obsessed with bright colors for ages now, so when I saw those I knew they needed to become a tiny book!

This book is seriously small: it's 2.5" x 3". I've been adding lots of media to the pages- some have been painted, some have colored pencils as a base. Some have napkin scrapbook paper covering the whole page! So, I'm doodling my way through this one.

I did do a quick sketch in this one, experimenting with drawing curly hair my way. It's... somewhat less than successful, but I won't complain too much. :D

Overall, I'm having a wonderful time exploring this new hobby! But don't worry, I've got a new set of nail art experiments to share with you as soon as I can get them photographed!

Til next time!

There's something zen-like about stitching a book binding.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Happy Holidaze the Sixteenth- Holy crap, there's a lot of these! I mean, let's trim the tree!

I have a confession to make. Because of circumstances this year, I haven't decorated my home for the holidays at all. I haven't even put up a Christmas tree, which part of me misses but the most of me thinks, "Meh, it's more work using energy I just don't have. Save that energy for something I care about." So this tree is the only one I'm doing this year... good thing it's a cute one!

Woo! A Christmas tree, complete with entirely too many ornaments.
I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but hey... it's a tree, right? :D

I have to share a bit of the process with you as well. This thing was time consuming! I think it'd go faster if I had some appropriate nail stickers, perhaps some sparkly thread to replace the sequins I used to make garlands. But if you're not a fiddly person, this won't be the nail design for you. What's worse, I knew this would be a design I wanted to make an animation for to illustrate the process. But this thing was complex. I sat down and counted (thanks to the counting tool in Photoshop) and there are 82 layers in all, and the animation has even more frames* than that!

So, how do you make this monstrosity of a nail? Well, first you get a chicken...

I kid.

You will need some supplies if you're going to do a nail like this one. Keep in mind, you can substitute all sorts of things, and you don't actually need any of the extra stuff I used. I just used them because I thought they'd be fun. So... what all did I use?

You'll need:

• base coat
• a background color (I used a beige and a glitter topcoat)
• at least three greens (I mixed greens using my base green and other polishes to darken & lighten them)
• a gold polish for the star
• a flat star cutout sequin thing
• flat gold sequins or glitter for the garland
• nail gems for the ornaments
• quick-dry topcoat (a must for this sort of design!)

 
Christmas Tree Nail Art Process:

1. Apply base coat.
2. Apply your background polish. 2 coats is usually enough, but use your best judgment.
3. Optional: Apply a layer of glitter topcoat over the background color.
4. Paint the basic shape of the tree using your medium green polish.
5. Using your darker green, paint in some shadow lines on the tree shape.
6. Using the lighter green, paint in some highlights on the tree shape.
1. These shadows and highlights are just to add some texture to the background tree. They won't be terribly noticeable, but they still add a bit of interest to the background so it isn't so flat.
7. Using a small detail brush, paint a gold star with your gold polish. You can stop here if you like, or continue on.
8. Optional: Place a star cutout on top of the gold painted star to add dimension.
9. Add the garland.
1. Paint a strip of clear nail polish where the first string of garland will go. Use a dampened manicure stick (or whatever tool you prefer for applying stones and glitter) and apply individual glitter pieces along the garland line. Apply them one by one for the jeweled look I achieved.
2. You could use a striper polish instead and sprinkle microglitter over the wet stripe of polish for a fuzzier garland look.
10. Add your rhinestone ornaments.
1. Dab a spot of clear nail polish where you want the rhinestone to go.
2. Pick up the rhinestone with your tool of choice, then press it into the clear polish. Press slightly firmly so that the polish slightly indents and rises up around the sides of the stone, so that it will stay in place better.
3. Repeat with more stones til you've got the look you want.
4. Optional- you can leave off the rhinestones and simply use a dotting tool to add ornaments to your tree. Glitter polishes (or even sprinkled glitter) would look fantastic!
11. Seal the embellishments and nail art in with a quick-drying top coat such as Seche Vite or China Glaze Fast Forward.
    

Seems so simple on paper, doesn't it? Actually, it is simple, as long as you break it down into tiny steps. If you can glue on a rhinestone or paint a stripe, you can probably do this. You may want to leave out the hand-painted star, though... *grin* The rest is just figuring out where to put stuff.

Remember, if you try this, leave me a note, because I'd love to see it! Morgan from Pass the Polish Please did an absolutely adorable version of my Santa nails, and it totally made my day to see it! So definitely link me if you try one of my designs!

Now, I'm off to have a cup of hot cocoa and snuggle with the husband for the evening. Hope y'all have a great night!

*Not that this has any importance at all. I love doing the blog and making animations, and frankly I've had bigger, more complex files than this. I just find it amusing that this particular file took me so much time. Do people really read these footnotes? If you did, that means you're super awesome and I love you to bits! You should respond with a comment saying something silly, like maybe, "Wow, that's cool, but it'd be even more awesome with a squid ornament!" You know, something weird like that!

Nail gems, sequins, and star were provided by Viva la Nails for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

OMG! I found Sally Hansen Nail Prisms for $0.50!

Do you ever have one of those days that just feels providential? This was definitely one of those days! My husband and I were going to go for a walk, and I decided to go to the Dollar Tree just to see what was there.

I went wandering through the crafty section while my husband went to toys. Then I decided to check out the cosmetics section, and I am so glad I did!! There, hanging amidst the LA Colors topcoat and the nail files were these neon orange Sally Hansen polishes packaged two for a dollar. And in these packages just happened to be three colors of the hard to find Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, including one of the prettiest purple holos I've seen!

That's right- I picked up this amazing purple holo (that absolutely REFUSED to play nicely with my camera. Stupid night shots!) for a grand total of fifty cents. Umm... really? I'm absolutely in shock.

I embarrassed myself when I found them. I was casually browsing until I read "Nail Prisms," at which point I actually squealed loud enough for my husband to hear me all the way on the other side and end of the store. He came running, worried that I'd hurt myself, only to find me giggling like a lunatic and pulling polish from the racks. I know... what can I say, I'm a freak?

Now, they weren't packaged consistently. There was one Nail Prisms polish and one Sally Hansen Salon (the old square bottles), but the colors were rather random. I dug around to make sure I didn't get any duplicates, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. 

I've been plotting holiday nail art and have gotten a perfect Christmas green, but I didn't have a good Christmas red, so I'm REALLY happy with Reddy to Mingle- it's such a gorgeous red with just a tiny hint of shimmer.

You can see the color breakdown on the left here, and that photo does get bigger if you click it. Again, stupid night photos, the colors are as true as i can get them. Purple Diamond is as amazing a purple holo as I've ever seen. Golden Cinnabar is a strange color, sometimes looking rosy, sometimes golden, sometimes greenish. I'm not sure, but I think I might like it. Diamond is a straight silver holo, from what I can tell... it's absolutely gorgeous. Mist You was the big surprise out of the bunch- it's very similar to the CND special effects polishes- very sheer with a super lavender kick. Rose to the Occasion is an almost-creme pink that's fairly opaque. Reddy to Mingle is a crazy-beautiful red jelly that has a bit of almost-hidden shimmer (from what I could tell).

Clearly I need to take better photos, but you can see a hint of the shimmer in this shot. In RL it is an intense lavender, absolutely breathtaking. I think I'm in LOVE!!

So you may want to go hit up your local Dollar Trees. You never know just what goodies you'll find! There were also a lot of really pretty false nail kits, some nail gem kits, nail glue packs 2 for a dollar... so much fun stuff! I also picked up a quick dry top coat to try, simply because I need to see if I can spend less than $10 a bottle for top coat. :D

Happy Friday! ♥

Dollar Store Haul - Awesome Finds!

Yesterday was awful. (Note the lack of blog post yesterday... I just couldn't write. Blah!) It was one of those days where everything I touched went wrong, everything I said was misunderstood, and ended up with me sitting in the car with my husband, crying like an idiot because things were just so horrible. The tears didn't last long, and my husband is an amazing guy who managed to cheer me up immensely. Still, it was a very unpleasant day.

He decided a trip to the Dollar Tree was in order. We were right across the street filling my monthly meds anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to hop on over. He even acted as my hands while I used my crutches to hobble around the store. (It's kind of hard to shop when you can't carry a basket or push a cart!)

I ended up finding lots of goodies! Normally my local Dollar Tree doesn't have that great a selection because it's so small, but yesterday was definitely the exception to the rule! There was the usual selection of LA Colors Art Deco stripers, of which I only own a few. I picked up blue and silver glitters, because everyone needs glitter stripers, yes? But tucked away in a little hidey-hole were these four Maybelline Express Finish polishes!

Now, ages ago (before I started this blog!) I'd seen a post by Colette about her massive Dollar Tree haul, and I saw some polishes that I absolutely NEEDED. The aluminum line seemed so interesting to me, but I knew there was no way I'd find them at my tiny little store. But there they were- two aluminums, a matte gold, and a water polish! Can you believe it??

The water polish is downright bizarre to me. It's so thin and pale and runny, I don't quite get the point. Is it just supposed to make your nails look bruised and discolored? Do you wear it over something else? Do you layer it til it's... I don't even know. But one blah polish out of 6 isn't bad at all!

The glitter stripers are cute. They're good for nail art, and they're also good for frankening. I cannot get over how gorgeous that blue is... I picked up two other glitter polishes that color yesterday and put them back, so I'm glad to have gotten this one! It's just vivid sapphire blue glitter in a clear base, but I absolutely adore it!

The silver glitter is your typical, run-of-the-mill silver glitter in a clear base, but I didn't realize I didn't have one until the other day when I reached to grab one and then saw I didn't have it! That was an interesting moment! So when I saw this at the Dollar Tree, I grabbed it!

Then there are the other items I got. I needed some basics, since my lace nails destroyed my large emery board and my 4-sided buffer block. That was a LOT of buffing, let me tell you! So I bought a 4-pack of emery boards and a 8 sided buffer. I thought that was going to be that, and it was more than enough, but once we got to Walgreens to pick up my meds, I saw the most perfect set of nail decals EVER.

That pack of nail decals? OH. MY. DOG!!! There are cupcakes n crossbones, little skulls in bows and skulls in top hats, devil kitties and bats and... it's SO ADORABLE I could DIE!!! I mean it... I saw these and squealed so loudly that my husband heard me all the way across the store. It was worth it, too! Just look!

So, that was my haul. Other than a quick 1 coat swatch on all of them, I haven't done my nails in 3 days. It's been really, really grumpy in Laynieland. I'm hoping to change that soon! To help that, tell me about your latest purchases- have you found something amazing and vintage? A hard-to-find? Cheer me up! :D