Go Nude for New Years...

...of course by nude I mean your nail polish.

New Years is always a time to start fresh, & sometimes that means keeping it basic. Now most of the time when I think of New Years I think of sparkles, sequins & shiny confetti, however this year I wanted keep it sleek & simple; nude polish was the answer. 

Now I realize I have been MIA for the past two months, but I'm going to make it up to you by giving you three ways to go nude this New Years. 

The first look is a spin on the Half Moon nail look.

What you need:

Urban Outfitters Nude 5 w Funky Fingers Star-Studded w Reinforcement Labels w Base Coat w Quick Dry Top Coat

Start with a base coat to protect your nails from the glitter polish

 & then add 1-2 coats of Funky Fingers Star-Studded.

When the glitter dries place the Reinforcement Labels at the base of your nails. Then paint over the remaining part of your nail with Urban Outfitters Nude 5. Remove the reinforcers after painting and allow nails to dry. Then add your favorite top coat. 

voilà!

The next two looks are going to use sand tropez by Essie.

 This is a great color on it's own even without any New Years glitz.  

When your sipping on your champagne this New Years it's always good to remember to use proper etiquette. When in doubt, pinky out. 

What you need:

Essie sand tropez w  Essie as gold as it gets w Quick Dry Top Coat

Start with 1-2 coats of sand tropez. 

Then add 1-2 coats of as gold as it gets to your pinky finger to give this look a subtle glitz.

Finally this last look will dress up your nails with an frosty white ombre.

What you need:

Essie sand tropes w Essie east hampton cottage w Make-up Sponge w Quick Dry Top Coat

Start with 1-2 coats of sand tropez. Then using a make-up sponge apply a thin layer of east hampton cottage to the edge of the sponge.

Then beginning half down your nail, gently dab the end of the sponge on to your nail. Let it dry. Then moving about a centimeter up your nail repeat this process. I did this about 4-5 times. These layers will dry quickly & will not consume as much drying time as traditional coats. 

Then add some top coat & you will have frosty tips to ring in the New Year. 

On Pinterest? Repin here!

Pumpkin Perfect

I don't know what it is about Halloween that makes me so giddy. I think it has to do with all the extra decorations & preparations that go into it all, it's basically like the Christmas of weird, & my favorite decoration of them all is the pumpkin. While I've done my fair share of carving, this year I wanted to try something new & as luck may have it one of my good friends shared a link with me that spawned my inspiration... GLITTER PUMPKINS. It was a sign, a big shiny, sparkly sign. 

What you need:

Pumpkins, Elmer's Glue, Paint Brush, Glitter, Shoe box, Hot Glue & Hot Glue Gun & Rhinestones

Start by taking a clean pumpkin & place it inside of your shoe box. Using the brush, paint on some glue to a section of the pumpkin, then sprinkle glitter over that section. 

Repeat this same process around the pumpkin until it is covered in glitter. 

 As a glitter rule of thumb, it is best to lay something down under your working space to catch the extra glitter bits that fall around your project. Then when you are done with that color, you can pick up the extra glitter and funnel it back into your container to reuse at a later time. 

So I did two small pumpkins with this process, one in an all orange glitter and the second in a gold and orange glitter.

Then for my big pumpkin I wanted to do something a little bit more creative. So with a pencil I drew a spider & then using my hot glue gun and rhinestones I glued on a sparkly spider.

Then using the glue bottle, I drew a few lines down the pumpkins natural curves, & connected them like a spiders web.

Then using a silver glitter, I covered those lines. I also covered the stem in green glitter.

Then I took some of those silly spider rings and glued them around the pumpkin.

& finally I put them outside on the front step for the trick-or-treaters to enjoy!

On Pinterest? Repin Here or Here!

Singin' in the Rain...

First of let me start by saying Happy October! I know I have been on a two month hiatus but as we roll into my favorite month of them all, my most creative self is about to emerge & it is only fair that I share my crafty creations with all of you! 

So today I was greeted with some cold October rain & it gave me the inspiration to finish a project that I have had in mind for a while. 

I have done my fair share of crayon melts in the past. Many were gifts, some were just for the sake of art therapy. I think tye-dye is the only other craft that I have done that I have done in the past that has given me the carefree / instant-reward feeling that comes along with crayon melts. 

So sometime this summer I found myself in one of those pinterest hypnosis spells where I spent entirely too much time following pins and getting lost on the web.... but I did stumble upon these cute crayon melts of people holding umbrellas under a downpour of blue wax. This method used a hot glue gun as a way of melting the crayons; very inventive, but the fear of it messing up my beloved glue gun kept me away. 

Click here, to see the full blog!

So I sat on this idea for awhile thinking of how I could interpret all this rainy goodness & put my own spin on it. Then one day I was in the mood for some old Hollywood glits & glam & turned to my favorite musical, Singin' in the Rain. & then the little light bulb in my head turned on...

I started by tracing this iconic image on Gene Kelly swinging from a lamp post embracing the rain. I used the DVD cover as my backdrop. Then once it looked about right, I cut the silhouette out to make a tracer.

Once I had my tracer, I got some black card-stock & traced it with a silver sharpie & proceeded to cut the new silhouette out.  

Next thing was to collect several different shades of blue (& few grey) crayons. You are also going to need a some white wrapped canvas & a hot glue gun with plenty of glue sticks. Then once I had enough crayons to make it across one side of my canvas, I laid the crayons out next to the canvas in the color pattern I wanted. I tried to mix up the darker blues with the lighter ones.

Then I glued the silhouette to one end of the canvas, then the crayons to the opposite end.

 For space sake, I only glued the crayons half way on. You can glue 1 of 2 ways. Applying the glue directly to the crayon, or place a glue strip on the canvas & press the crayon down. 

Then you are going to want to either go outside or paper everywhere around the canvas. (Trust me you will be scraping up wax bits for days if you don't)

Finally I plugged my blow dryer in and gave it a go.

Holding your blow drying a few inches away from the crayons you will notice that after a few minutes, the paper around the crayons will begin to sweat. The paper will become darker & the crayons will begin to look glassy as the wax heats up. This is how you know it is just about ready to drip.

Then the crayons will begin to drip down. You can control the length of the drips and the direction by simply pulling the heat off of the canvas, it will cool and freeze almost instantly. 

 & that's it! My ode to Singin' in the Rain. :)

On Pinterest? Repin Here! or Here!

Purple Polka-Dot Perfection

I'm Back! Forgive my brief absence from the blogosphere, my summer has been quite busy filled with road trips, music festival adventures, & well work... but I all that aside I still had my blog on my mind. I'm still debating doing a post about my adventures at Electric Forest, but I'm thinking I should just leave it a mystery & force you curious cats to venture out there next summer to join me! (If you really wanna know what went down, gimme a call and we can chat!) All you need to know is that it was worth it. 

 Ok back to business...

What you need:

 Essie play date w Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos w Sally Hansen Diamond Flash w Funky Fingers Paparazzi w Essie no more film w Bobby pins

So I started with a mixed accent on each hand. On my left hand I have play date as the accent color & on my right I have no more film as the accent color.

Then using the bobby pin dotting tool technique, found here, I dotted my accent nails. I paired play date with  Sand & Stilettos  & no more film with Paparazzi. 

 For the pairings, I found that Paparazzi & no more film both had indigo & blue undertones while play date & Sand & Stilettos both carried a pink shade. 

You are going to to want to use one side of the bobby pin for each nail. The lacquer will eat away at the plastic part of the bobby pin after awhile, so in order to keep your dots nice & round & avoid asymmetrical shapes I would alternate bobby pin ends for each nail.

Then the glitter got the best of me (which it always does) & I put a coat on each nail using the same pairings. 

Then I topped it off with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat. For the dotted nails you will probably want to do a double layer of top coat to avoid any weird textures... eek.

On Pinterest? Repin here!

Save Bottle, Rock an Ombre

Ok up-cycle lovers I'm giving the 'ok' to embrace your inner hoarder (well not really, but...)

If you hate throwing old nail polish bottles away I have a solution that may ease your inner turmoil. 

Save them, clean them out & then fill them back up with new custom colors! Hooray!

So one of my old roommates from college got married recently & for her wedding I decided to wear a slate grey tiered pleated dress, & I wanted my nails to compliment the look. I decided on the ever so popular ombré look.  

I used two different colors to achieve this look & then added some glitter polish for my lack of wedding ring bling ;)

What you need:

Essie Power Clutch w MILANI one coat glitter Silver Dazzle w Sally Hansen xtreme wear Wet Cement w Old Top Coat Bottle (empty & clean) 

First thing I did was the mixing of my colors.

I used an empty bottle of top coat to mix my first color (which for blogging purposes we will call 'Power Cement'). For this color I mixed equal parts Power Clutch & Wet Cement. I probably used 4 -6 drops of each. The reason I did this is because I wanted a lot of polish leftover to mix for the next color. 

Power Clutch w 'Power Cement' w Wet Cement 

Then I used this random piece of left over plastic packaging to mix the next color in the ombré. I mixed equal parts 'Power Cement' & Wet Cement to make the fourth & final color: 'Wet Clutch'.

Now because this color wasn't mixed in a bottle it requires that you apply it right away. (which I did,  straight on to my ring fingers) I covered it up with some cling wrap in-between coats to prevent it from drying up.

The Break Down:

Nail 1: Power Clutch

Nail 2: Wet Cement

Nail 3: 'Power Cement' (1+2)

Nail 4: 'Wet Clutch' (3+2)

Nail 5: Power Clutch & Silver Dazzle 

:)

(Disclaimer: If you are someone with a texture issue when it comes to glitter polish, be prepared to use about 2-3 coats of top coat over any MILANI one coat glitter polish. Looks great but feels like sandpaper.)

On Pinterest? Repin Here!