A video tutorial on doing a sponged gradient nail!

I got such a great response to the sponged gradient tutorial I did. Unfortunately, quite a few people posted that they didn't quite follow my steps, so I decided the best thing to do was to do a video tutorial! That way, it's clear what I'm doing and when.

Recording the video didn't take all that long, but holy cow did editing it take a long time! Thankfully it didn't make me want to scream or cry this time. I just need more experience editing, which is a good thing. That means you'll get lots more videos to come!



I'm also working on the followup to this video, where I'll show you how to add the zebra stripes. That's actually a pretty doable process, if I can get the energy and the time to shoot it!

Since I'm doing more videos now, why not leave me a comment to let me know what sort of tutorials you'd like to see? I have several planned, but I'm always looking for more ideas.

Thanks for watching, and if you liked this video why not thumb it up and subscribe? It would totally make my day!

Wheee, I'm finally enjoying making videos!.

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Tutorial- How to make custom sponge tools

Whew, it's been a busy few days! But I'm finally back with the tutorial I referred to a few days back. I'm going to show you how to make your own sponge tools for fun and interesting nail art!

Before you start, you need to gather your supplies so you won't have to stop halfway through and bug your family about helping you find the glue stick, the way I might have done here.

The list is simple enough. Basically, you can use whatever you have on hand!

Supplies for sponge tools:

• Sponges
• Don't feel like you have to use what I used! Use whatever you have around the house...
• Kitchen sponges, makeup sponges, whatever sponges you
• Scissors
• Sticks of some kind. I used coffee stirrers and bamboo skewers.
• Some sort of adhesive. (Not pictured)

After that, it's really simple- cut the sponges and stick them on the end of the sticks! However, I went to a bit more trouble and showed different options you have.

To start with, I used the sponge from an old set of sponge rollers I have on hand. This particular roller had broken, so I decided to recycle the sponge into a tool for sponging.

I decided to cut it into different shapes to see what sort of effects I could create. I cut off small round sections from the end of the sponge, then cut them into half-circles and quarter-circle wedges.

I also cut the sticks into small segments that would be easier to control. I eventually cut the ends of the sticks into points, but I don't have pictures of that. I kind of forgot...  oops!

Then, I decided to cut a small opening into the sponge so that the stick would go inside of it. That would make it a bit more stable when stamping, I think.

This was so awkward to photograph, since I needed two hands to actually work the scissors and hold the sponge! So, pretend this photo is of me snipping into the bottom of the sponge segment.

You can also use your sticks to just sort of tear into the bottom, if you like. It all depends on what shape the bottoms of your sticks are. If you're using a bamboo skewer, you can just sort of shove it into the end of the sponge.

At this point, you would put glue on the end of your stick and shove it into the little hole you'd made in the base of the sponge. Unfortunately, I'd lost the glue stick I'd gotten out to do this tutorial with as soon as I started photographing, so after looking for a good 45 minutes, I decided glue wasn't important and I made do with what I had.

Instead, I painted the stick with a glob of nail polish and shoved it in. Surprisingly enough, this worked really well! I did find the glue stick after I'd finished this tutorial (of course!), and used it on later sponge tools... but the ones with nail polish held up just as well!



Who knew?

And now comes the fun part... seeing the different patterns and stamp styles you can get with the different tools! Believe it or not, they really do look different...

No matter how I tweaked this, it was hard to make it understandable. The colors basically match up the sponge shapes
to their patterns when stamped onto paper.

Stamp pattern of the center of the flat side of the half-circle section.

Stamp pattern of the edge of the quarter-circle wedge.

Stamp pattern of the flat edge of the quarter-circle wedge.

Stamp pattern of the side of the round.

Stamp pattern of the flat portion of the round, by the hole.

Stamp pattern of the flat portion of the round, by the hole.

Stamp pattern of the scratchy side of a kitchen sponge.

That last photo shows what the scratchy side of a kitchen sponge looks like when you stamp with it! I actually think it's pretty... very interesting, almost like when you splatter nail polish from a straw!

So, the idea here is simple: don't feel like you always need to spend money on expensive nail art tools. Sometimes you can do cool things with stuff you already have around the house!

Til next time!

My mind never stops with the ideas...

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An Easy Floral Nail Art Design

I hate to admit this, but I'm not sure if I posted this nail or not yet. If I have, then I apologize for the repost. If I haven't? Wheee, fun nail art!

I was going through nails I'd painted before I got so sick, and found this one.  I really do like this, it's fun and would be easy to adapt with different colors. If it weren't for that pesky bubble, I'd love it!

It's a very simple technique, although as always, I'd be glad to post a tutorial if you'd like to see one. I simply painted a few 5-stroke flowers, added a yellow/orange dot for the center, then put a yellow rhinestone from my Born Pretty rhinestone wheel for the center of the main flower. I then filled in the empty spaces with varying-sized yellow dots.

I'm pretty sure that yellow is Hard Candy Splendid, although I have no idea on the other colors. My memory is not so great these days. I should start keeping a nail art journal with samples and a description of the colors I used. Add that to the list of things to do... :D

This could be fun in lots of color combinations... I can imagine lots of variations, but you won't have to! I mocked up 5 different varieties quickly, as an idea of just how different you can make this design look by using different colors.

 

As I hope you can see, even changing the color of the flowers and their centers can make a huge difference, even on the same background color! You can change it up using holos, duochromes, glitters... it's all up to you!

Also, if you haven't already, why not stop by my giveaway and enter! I'm adding fun things to it, just to make it more fun for the winners!

Til next time!

Some polishes may have been provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

More Valentine's Nail Designs

Hi again! This is a quick update without much to say, but I wanted to share some more Valentine's Day nail designs with you! These would be good for an accent nail or for all your nails...

So what do you think? I'm really digging the black set at the bottom...

Some polishes were provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Seeing Spots- some nail doodling to tide us over...

Hi y'all! I'm still coughing my fool head off and feeling gross, so I dipped into my photo archives to share something I did not too long ago while I was doodling. Sometimes I enjoy just putting various polishes together to see what I can come up with.

I'd love to tell you what polishes I used for this design, but I can't. Most of those colors I mixed myself from various polishes in my collection, and I honestly don't remember how I achieved them. However, this is a very simple look to achieve.

First, I imagined a V going down the center of my nail. I painted the three base colors, one in each triangle. After that dried, I began adding dots with whatever color I thought would mesh well with the backgrounds. I started with the large silver center dots on the turquoise bit, then added smaller pink dots on top of the silver ones. Finally I filled in the blank spaces with the sparkly blue dots. The side triangles are more simple. Finally I added black stripes to better separate the three sections. A quick coat of topcoat finished things off!

Hopefully I'll be feeling enough better to get a post up soon. If not, I'll dig into the archives again! Til next time!

The robots are coming to take me away!! :D

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Happy Holidaze the Thirteenth- *koffkoff* *sniffle* I hab a code. Nail art today will be simple. :*D

Hey y'all, sorry for the pause in posting but I seem to have contracted the holiday funk. I've been all achy and sniffly and sleeping copious amounts. Writing simply wasn't on the list, and while I seem to be feeling a touch better, I'm still not 100%, so let's look at something a bit more simple today.

I know I've been writing about fairly complex nail art looks, ones that are fun and funky and eye-catching. But let's not forget that sometimes a simple look can be just as much fun as a more elaborate one. A simple glitter topcoat can change a manicure from simple and nice to simply gorgeous! For example...

The glitter topcoat on both of these polishes add a touch of sparkle, and can be a lot of fun for people who don't necessarily like drawing pictures on their nails. Or, you can try something a bit different, but just as elegant. Try adding a thin line of glitter at the very tip of the nail, while using a nice neutral warm-toned polish.

It's subtle, yet it still sparkles. I think even people who don't wear nail art often could wear any of these looks for an evening out and feel both normal and a bit sexy. There's nothing like a bit of sparkle to brighten your day (or evening)!

With that, I'm back off to bed. I've got a date with my pillow, and we're going to share a wonderful vintage of cold medicine together. Ahh, romance...