Polka Dot

I started with a silver base, and put some green and white polka dots in rows on each nail! I think they are super cute :)

Kiss Nail Dress Shrug

I decided to use the nail dress stickers in a different way just covering the top half of my nails.  The base coat is opi 'I vant to be a-lone star', a pretty silvery blue shade and the sticker is 'shrug' nail dress by kiss, a giraffe type silver and black print.  

Not Nails

So besides doing my own nail designs and constantly painting my nails, I also love making paper jewelry, and origami.  
Here are some of my favorites! enjoy. More of these designs are available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/papervieve 

opi texas lil shooters

I love the mini opi sets because you get to test out some colors before actually committing to a full size bottle.  These are selections from the texas collection. It came with 'austin-tatious turquoise', 'I vant to be a-lone star', and 'do you think I'm tex-y', along with a rapid dry top coat.  I really like the colors but it seriously took 3 - 4 coats to get a solid covering.   

green polka dots

I decided to use a bunch of green colors in honor of spring and St. Patrick's Day.  

green green green

Who feels like spring!? I do. Therefore I give you green nails! The first layer is OPI Stranger Tides, followed by a nice Love and Beauty color, and Nicole by OPI Green up Your Act.  The super shiny top coat is Orly Sec 'N Dry, it dries relatively quickly and is super shiny but not as fast as I thought it would be. 

 

blu ombre nails

Gradient like nails seem to be really popular lately so I decided to try it out with this beautiful new blue I just got. It is a Sally Hansen Hi-Def color 'BLU'.  Since the color went on pretty thin, I started with a base coat of white and put a different number of coats on each nail.  

fruit slice nail art!

I was browsing on ebay for cheap nail art supplies and came across these adorable little slices of fruit that you can stick on your nails.   So for $1 free shipping and about 20-30 days of waiting my little envelope arrived from china containing a baggy of 250 slices of fruit! 

Since it's been feeling like spring lately, I finally decided to try them out!

black cherry chutney (opi)

This is the color that came along with the 'manicurist of seville'. It is a deep purply red.  I added the overlapping gold ring designs for what I think are some chic and fancy nails!

  

manicurist of seville (opi)

Sometimes I will get lucky and find sets of Opi polishes in tjmaxx for an amazing price.  This color is a beautiful sangria red! so I just added a small gold heart.  

Kiss Nail Dress

So I  got these nail stickers, they are about $6.99 a pack and if you cut them before putting them on you can get way more than one use out of the pack.  They are pretty easy to apply also and supposedly last up to 10 days.

This one is called 'Gown' it is very sparkly, bubbly, and colorful.   

green gold

how to use tape in nail painting

Make sure the the tape is pressed flat against your nail surface to ensure a clean line. 

Allow each layer to dry fully to allow the tape to peel off without ruining what you have painted. 

I suggest using a fast drying top coat in between layers, a la 'seche vite'.  

Checkerboard Nails

funky french

I started with a white nail and taped off the tip.  Then I covered the bottom half in silver and made the lines in a light blue then a dark blue polish.  I finished it off with a blue line across the top of the lines and a coat of clear :)

how to marble your nails

Water marbling your nails can be beautiful, but it is somewhat tricky.
After a few successful attempts I have put together the following diagram: 

materials: cup of water, toothpick, q-tip, Vaseline, 3(more or less) nail polishes, paper towels   

Put some Vaseline around one of your nails and on the finger up to the 2nd joint, but make sure that none gets on your nail or the polish will not stick to it.

Drip polish quickly onto the water alternating colors until there is a good amount floating on the surface.

Using the toothpick, quickly drag through the polish until desired design occurs.

Take the Vaseline finger with the nail pointed parallel to the polish surface dip it straight down onto an area you like.  

Keep your finger in the water and under the polish surface.

Take the toothpick and clean the excess polish off the surface of the water. You may need to wait a moment for it to dry before it pulls easily off of the water.

Take your finger out and carefully clean polish off of the area surrounding the nail.  The polish should slide right off if there was enough Vaseline covering your skin.
Repeat.

A photo of my nails.  I used a white base coat, baby blue, navy blue, and silvery purple for the marbling, and added some sparkles with a toothpick.

easy and elegant

base coat baby blue, swipe of silver, swipe of white, dot a rhinestone, top coat, done :)

how to quickly pick a color

It used to take me a long time to figure out which color I wanted to paint my nails, as I would just dig through the box pulling out bottles, putting them back trying to find the perfect shade.  But then I ordered these nail tester wheels really cheaply from China and it has made my selection process a lot faster.  I can also use them to test out patterns and combinations. I wrote the names of the colors on the back of the wheels.

The following images are not great but you get the idea, a great way to quickly go through your colors before painting.  

Crackle Polish

Crackle polishes have become so popular lately, so I decided to experiment with Sally Hansen crackle in 'Ink Splatter'.  It was really cool to watch the polish crack as it was drying, but you do have to make sure that you put an even consistency and amount on each nail so that the crackling is all the same size. A thinner layer makes smaller cracks, and a thicker layer makes larger cracks.


I decided to put the black over a variety of different colors and was really happy with the results :)

I have also found that OPI 'White Shatter' is really pretty also and looks wintry when you put it over silvers, reds and greens.  

Here it is over a red polish for a peppermint effect. 

how to paint your nails