Cherry Nails

I found a picture of this design on Google and I loved it so I tried it out for myself.



I cheated a little with the french tips by sticking tape on my nails to make the curve as it gives a much neater line especially when you're doing stripes.

The little leaves and white bits of shine on the cherries make it look so cute :)

Butterfly-flame Nails

I found this design on Youtube by a very talented French nail artist, the link to her video is at the bottom. I was looking for a special and fancy look to wear to the results event for my Art foundation course and this look fit the bill.

My nails are quite a bit shorter than in the video so the design covers a bit too much of the nail (the flames are too short :P), but the colours go really well together and when they grow a bit longer I'll definitely wear it again.

I used nail art brushes to draw the black lines and it's inspired me to try more intricate and detailed designs :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaH6eo4OVQQ&feature=BFa&list=PLDAD6A0900A169A9B

Something Non-Nail Related :P

My friend found a video on YouTube on how to customise an old pair of jeans into shorts so we tried it out. I bought a pair 3/4 lengths from a charity shop.



I cut them into what is apparently known as a 'dolphin' cut, where the sides curve up. Then I soaked them in a bucket of bleach and water overnight to whiten them. That didn't work so well so I scrubbed them with neat bleach and an old toothbrush all over to get them as white as possible. A tip is to buy jeans or shorts that aren't the stretchy or dyed kind of jeans; the ones that are 100% cotton and haven't been dyed a 'jean' colour bleach much better.

 At first I dyed them a pale shade of pink with Dylon hand dye but the colour didn't take much, so I got Dylon Flamingo Pink machine dye and the result was amazing. Using the dye has really made me think twice about chucking an item of clothing away; a change of colour or cutting it into another style could be all it needs to revive it.

I bought some applique Monarch butterflies from eBay seller Adornorama who I reccommend and would definitely buy from again. 5 small ones and a large one came to just £5 including P+P. Bargain!

I positioned 2 small ones on the front near each pocket, the large one on a bum pocket and the remaining 3 clustered together on the other.

I probably could have bought a pair new for the price they costed to make, but if you use an old pair you have lying around rather than going to a charity shop like me (I didn't have a pair I didn't mind cutting up) then you'll definitely save money and this way you can make them look exactly how you want :)

Piano Nails :)

Last year I bought the new Bundle Monster Plate collection. You get 25 metal plates with all sorts of designs etched onto them, just like Konad plates, only cheaper :) I haven't used them much recently so I picked a simple and easy design to try out.

This piano design was on plate bm207. I would have done black keys on white nails but I only have Konad special polish in white and it's not cheap so black polish will have to wait a while.

Konad special polishes can be tricky; because they have to be thicker than normal polishes to work with the plates they tend to smudge when you apply a top coat over them. I evaded this by running them under cold water and waiting 15 minutes before putting a thick clear coat on, being careful not to let the bristles touch the deisgn.

Despite the colours being inverted the overall look is very jazzy :) I may do a review and post some pictures of the plates at some point.

Dry Marbling Nails

I've tried water marbling before but it takes so long and is really messy so I tried dry marbling.

To get this look you need to apply a thick coat of your base colour and while it's still wet, drop some other colours onto it. Then use a pin, needle etc to swirl the colours around and allow it to dry. I will say it does take some time to completely dry so be sure to blow on them and run them under cold water :P

You could use reds, oranges and yellows on the tips to make it look like flames, or shades of blue near the cuticle to give the impression of waves :)

Black French Tips with a Twist

I did these french tips to go with a black dress I wore to a party a while ago. I was browsing the internet for something different from usual white french tips and found this.

It's so easy to get this look and I think it's quite classy, if I do say so myself :)