Because stamps are for nails too

So I've never been very good at using stamping plates, but I watched a tutorial on how to use them and realized I hadn't been scraping the plate correctly. I was holding the scraper at a 90 degree angle, when it turns out you're supposed to hold the scraper at a 45 degree angle! It's crazy how much of a difference that makes when scraping off the excess polish before pressing the stamper onto the plate. I still have trouble getting the entire image on the stamper sometimes, but it's definitely a lot easier than before. Anyways, I've been really into stamping, and I did a recent manicure with a stamping plate I bought from Nailz Craze on Etsy. I used Lime Crime's Parfait Day as the base coat, and OPI's DS Radiance for the designs.

I also used my macro lens to zoom in on the designs, they don't show up that well from far away because they're silver, but I really like it! 

Newsprint nails

So I'm "watching" the Superbowl- not really, more like sitting in front of the TV and browsing social media while occasionally glancing up for interesting commercials - and I decided to use this time to write a blog post.

I recently had the opportunity to exhibit some pictures of my nail art in a local library. Every month, they have a different artist fill the walls of their community room with pictures or paintings. Last month, I got to showcase my nail art by printing 108 pictures of my designs and hanging them in this room. I'll post some pictures of my exhibit below.

Anyways, after I displayed my art, I was contacted by a librarian to paint the nails of the staff; they wanted to do a type of advertising through nail art. I absolutely love this idea, and of course I agreed. There were two events they wanted to advertise- a mystery book swap, and a red cross blood drive. My idea was to do newsprint nails, as they are librarians, and they wanted to advertise a book event. I had only done newsprint nails once before, so I did a few trial runs on my own nails the day before. If you've never heard of this technique, it's fairly simple. Paint your nails a base color, preferably light, and cut out some newsprint. You can also print something out via your computer, but this method didn't transfer as well on my nails. Pour some rubbing alcohol into a small dish, and dip your nail in the rubbing alcohol for 5-10 seconds. Then, place the print face down on your nail, and hold it firmly for 5-10 seconds. Lift the paper up, and the words should now be transferred onto your nail; it's basically like a temporary tattoo. Just a heads up - the print will be backwards/reversed on your nail, so you won't be able to read it. This is where the printer method comes in handy, because you can print the words in reverse and then when you transfer them onto your nail it will be legible. However, as I stated earlier, this didn't really work for me. For some reason, the ink didn't cling to my nail as well as it did with newspaper. Anyways, here is a picture of my newspaper nails! The print doesn't always come out perfectly, but I think that makes it look more antique. When I did the librarians' nails, I added hearts in the gaps between the words. I really like how unique this design is, it's definitely attention grabbing!