Happy Holidaze the twoth!

Wow, I am absolutely blown away by the response to yesterday's post! You guys really like this nail art thing, don't you? Since you don't seem to mind me doing a single nail along with a demonstration of how it's done, I may try and see if I can do more nail art, even when I'm showcasing new polishes or whatever. I think that could be doable... what do you think? Worth the effort? :D

Today's holiday nail art is something for Hannukah. I have so many Jewish friends, and I absolutely love how blue and silver look together. That made today's nail art almost do itself!

As always, you can click the picture to make it bigger, if you'd like to see more detail. One thing I've found myself worrying about while doing nail art is the need to make things perfect. But if you look closely, you'll see that this is far from perfect- the dots aren't all perfectly round (I still don't have a dotting tool- shhh!), my stripes are irregular and sometimes overlap. But it's still pretty, and the whole look works well together as a whole.

So don't be afraid to try something like this. It really is a lot easier than you would think. Be patient, don't try to go too fast, and remember to brace your hand with your little finger while you paint. That step alone can make painting so much easier!

Also, like yesterday, I have an animated gif to help you visualize the steps of putting a look like this together. I'm trying something a bit new with it- I've labeled the steps to help you see what's going on, because there really is no good way to paint glitter. :D

To recreate today's nail, you'll need a few supplies:

• base coat
• a blue polish of your choice
• white and silver stripers OR
• white and silver polish & a skinny brush
• clear polish to adhere glitter pieces & rhinestone
• dotting tool
• a manicure stick (for placing glitter & rhinestone)
• silver glitter
• a rhinestone
• top coat

1. Base coat. Always do a base coat.
2. 2 coats of your background color- blue, in this case. For this nail, I used Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser, but feel free to use any deep blue you like.
3. Once your background is dry, paint white four slashes across the nail starting from the bottom corner. They fan out like a flower, almost. I used my Art Deco Illustration Nails paint in white.
4. Use your dotting tool to paint white dots between the slashes. Do as many as you like. At the outer edges, I only had room for 2-3, but I did 5 on the inner sections.
5. I decided the design needed a bit more punch, so I added silver stripes along the bottoms of the white stripes. Just use your striper (or your striper brush and your silver polish) to paint slashes along the bottoms of the white ones. I used my Art Deco Illustration Nails paint in silver.
6. Once the white and silver are dry, sprinkle a tiny bit of glitter onto some paper. Paint a small amount of clear polish onto the first silver stripe, then place single glitter pieces in a line along the edge. Use the manicure stick to pick up and place the glitter pieces one by one. Repeat along all the silver stripes.
7. Use a bit more clear polish at the base where all the stripes begin. Place a single rhinestone on top, covering the junction and dressing up the look.
8. Let everything dry a bit, then coat with your favorite top coat. I used 2 coats of Seche Vite.

Repeat this for as many or as few nails as you like. It's a bit tedious, but it really isn't difficult. The main thing to remember is that you can do it if you practice! And even if it doesn't work out (believe me, not all of mine are keepers!), it's just nail polish!

You could customize this in several ways. First, you could change any of the colors and still have it look gorgeous. I can see this being downright amazing with black, silver, and red! You could also skip the careful application of glitter pieces and instead use a glitter striper. Instead of the rhinestone, you could put a big dot of glitter, or a nail decal. Nail art is endlessly customizable, and you should never be afraid to change things up.

I hope everyone has had a great week, and that you're heading into an even better weekend. Give someone something to smile about today! ♥

Happy Holidaze the first!

 Hello, my name is Laynie and I'm a nailartaholic.

Knowing the holidays were swiftly approaching, I sat down over the weekend to make a few nail art designs on nail tips. I figured I would do 3 or 4, maybe 5 max, so that I would be a bit ahead for the blog. Then I got carried away.

I was having fun. I was absolutely bursting with ideas, more than I could keep up with, truthfully. I jotted down some ideas on paper, so I could get to them before I forgot them. Then, I started to work.

By the time I had finished, I had 30 different looks. Like I said... I got a bit carried away. There's everything from subtle to in-your-face bling. So keep an eye out, we'll be doing lots of holiday nail art!

First up is a look I think is appropriate for everyone, no matter what winter holiday you celebrate. This nail art takes the lights from your tree, your house, or your decorations and puts them on your nails!

It's silly, it's fun, and I can't look at this one without smiling. I showed it to a friend of mine who immediately thought it was complex, so I decided to do an animated image to show you the process. It's time-consuming, but not complex at all.

You'll need to gather your supplies together before you start, so you don't wind up digging for bits halfway through with wet nails. You'll need:

• base coat
• the background polish color
• a black nail art pen (or whatever color you want the cord to be)
• striper polishes, nail art pens, or an art brush and various polish colors for the lights
• top coat to protect your art

First, put your base coat on. This is standard no matter what you do.

Next, use a nail art pen (I used my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black) to draw a meandering line across my nail. I then drew shorter wiggly lines to fill in the blank spaces. These black lines will be the cord of the lights. I made sure to leave room for the various lights.

Then, use various striper polishes to paint lights around the nail, making sure the fat end of the light was against the "cord." I used red, blue, green, pink, yellow and silver. You can use whatever colors you want, as many or as few as you want.

Finally, add a coat of top coat to protect the art you just made. It really is that simple!

If you want to jazz it up, you could use individual nail art gems for the lights, or you could use various colors of glitter polish to add some sparkle to the lights. You could also do this on a different colored background- sponged greens to resemble a Christmas tree, black to resemble lights at night, or white to look like lights against snow! You could use a single meandering line that makes its way across all of your nails, or do a single nail for accent. You could even do the black line across the tip of your nail and make a french tip of lights! You're the artist, you can do whatever you like!

Happy Hannukah for those of you who celebrate, and happy Thursday for the rest of you!

EDIT: I worked up a few examples of variations in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy!

 

Some polishes were provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

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