Chicks

So its been a while since the next few posts are all from a while ago and I just never put them up. So what was originally for Easter: Baby chicks!!! Super cute and really really easy :)

I chose to do my ring finger as an accent nail, but other than that the same thing was done for all fingers. I started by painting a solid yellow coat. I would suggest waiting for the coat to fully dry, however you shouldn't have too many problems if its still a little tacky. For then next step I used my nail art pens, however with a thin brush, steady hand or pin I feel confident that the shapes can be achieved. Simply takes an orange triangle in the center. After that, I used a pin head to make the whites of the eyes. While the white was still a little wet I took a pin and dipped in in black, so that a drop would fall off. Then dipped it onto my white eyes, giving a small black pupil. 

Lastly I did the feet. In my opinion they look cuter with the feet, however if it doesn't work out they certainly aren't necessary. To do them I used a nail art pen, though I believe that a pin could work as well. All it took was three lines coming out from two points on the bottom of the nail. It worked better for me when I started at the base and then drew the lines upwards, as it gave a thicker part of the line where they came together and then a thinner tapered end. 

For my accent nail, I started by cutting zigzags on a piece of tape. Then I put the tape on my nail so that the top half of my nail was covered by it, leaving the bottom free. Be very sure to push the tape all the way down, especially on the side edges of the nail. Then I painted the nail white, and left the tape on until the white was mostly dry. Once the white was most of the way dry I took of the tape, pulling towards the white and then straight up once I hit the end of the tape. I then painted on the yellow by putting a thick line of it along the edge of the nail and using a pin to push the paint towards the white. When I did it my white section was significantly thicker than where there was no polish (there was not a gradual change in thickness it was sudden because of the tape) so when pushing the nail the white stopped the yellow from going to far. After that I simply did the beak and eyes as stated above.

Have fun! 

Puzzles

So for this week we have something which looks really cool and complected but in fact is very easy. Its rather fun but still looks somewhat adult. We have puzzle pieces!

So a general note about choosing colors for this. Of course any colors can be used however both must be able to show up on top of the other. What this means is: if you use a really dark color and a lighter color, the light polish you use but be easily seen if painted on over a dried dark coat. If you want to do black and a color which does not show up on it, I would recommend using white instead of the color (Like mine) and then simply painting the color over once you are done.

So for starters I used my lighter color (white) as a base coat. You have to be sure that you let this coat dry completely because you will be putting tape on it. If it is not drying fast enough I suggest dipping your hand in an ice bath or cold water, or spraying it will a cooking spray.

Next I cut out strips of post-it notes about a 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch in size. Of course any kind of tape or sticky thing can be used, I just like the nice clean edges of post-it notes, and that they are colored and easy to see. I then placed them so that one quarter of the nail was covered by each, making sure that their corners only just touched. Be really sure that you push the tape/post-it all the way down to the nail everywhere it touches it. Otherwise you will be left with places for the polish to spill through and go underneath.

Now will all the post-its in place I simply painted over with my black. It tends to work best if you pull your brush away from the post-its so as to prevent any paint from getting underneath  Again be sure to wait until the black is completely dry before moving on.

Next I took the post-its off leaving my nail with four distinct sections. When taking of the tape try and pull in a straight line, and ideally end with the tape just on the edge of the paint, and then pull straight up. Do not pull it from the side or in a rolling motion as sometimes the edge of the paint will be pulled with it, and then your line is not as clean.

For a last touch I took a straight pin and covered the head in black polish. Then using the pin made two dots on each nail, one in each white section connected to a black section, giving a puzzle piece shape. Next I covered the pin in the white polish and again made dots on the black connected to the white, giving a puzzle piece shape to the white sections.

Thats it! I hope you enjoy the nails and be sure to leave any suggestions/comments/questions.

PAC-MAN

So for this week I decided I would do something really fun and more intricate, so this week my nails were inspired by the beloved arcade game, PAC-MAN!

Now I chose to do my nails so that they would go across left to right, making one nail a pac-man, others ghosts or fruit and some just dots. Any way of mixing and matching the various nails however looks really cool. I would over all suggest doing things that worked towards your strengths. For example if you have a very clear distinction between your left and right hands choose some of the simpler designs (probably the ones that use tape) for your dominant hand.

So for starters I did a base coat of black and let it dry completely  This is really important, usually you can paint over top of semi-dry base coats but for this don't  Allowing the black to dry completely allows the colors on top to show up better, and prevents any black from mixing in. Also this is an essential step if you are using tape, as that can pull up the base coat if it is not fully dry. A tip for helping with drying is to after few minutes dip your fingers in some room temperature water for a few seconds, this tends to help most polishes stop being tacky. Also note that if your having a hard time getting a color to show over the black, try other brands (if you have them in that color) or doing multiple layers once one coat of color is dry. If you really are having problems then do the shape in white first and after it dries use the color. I have issues doing that without it looking messy, but if you can do it then that should work as well.

Now on top of the black any of the following can be done:

Pac-man:

I found this one to be the easiest to do. I took a sticky note (though any kind of tape would do) and cut of the corner giving me a nice right angle. After this I placed the sticky note on my nail so that the point was were I wanted the mouth to be.
Be really sure to press it down firmly so that no polish can get between it and the nail. Then I simply took some yellow paint and painted on a circle. Dont worry about the tape at all, just go over it and make a nice even circle. This can be done using a small brush, a pen, a pin head, or a simple drop from any normal sized brush. Now before peeling off the tape be sure the yellow is 100% dry, otherwise this might not work. If all goes well you should be left with a simple pac-man shape.




Ghost:

Similar to the pac-man this one uses tape. In fact I found the cutting out of the tape to be the hardest part. Cut out triangles from tape leaving a zig zag side which will be put on the nail. In general I found that I could never get my triangles small enough, so just be aware of how small or large they really need to be, and use a small scissors if you have them.
 Now placing the tape on the nail bed, be sure to push it all the way down and then paint on a square over it. Try and round the top part of the square. I found this to be pretty easy even with a full sized brush. Now using a small brush, pen or a sewing pin make two medium sized white dots with a small black dot in each for the two eyes. Be sure to wait for the polish to dry fully before taking off the tape (seriously wait the whole time otherwise the zig-zag doesnt happen).

Cherry:
For the cherry I used  the head of a sewing pin to get two even dots with the red polish. I then took a thin green brush I had and drew in the two lines which can up and met for the stems. Two more small lines on the side for leaves and the cherry is done.







Banana:
I started the banana using a thin yellow brush, and made a simple arc shape, like a very wide U. Then using green I added a small dot to the top of the U for the stem of the banana. Now to make the lines on the banana, before it dried I took a pin (the pointed end) and dipped it in black paint (not very thick) and drew two lines along the yellow for the black lines on the banana. To be honest I think the black comes from the base coat underneath  and the pin is in face just pushing the yellow aside. However I still think it helps to dip the pin in black to get a clearer line.

Dots:
The dots were quite simply done using the head of a sewing pin and white polish. For the larger on, I just put a lot of polish on the pin and it created a pretty large dot.

So have fun with all the different pac-man inspired nails. Mix and match how you wish and in whatever order you think looks good and works with the dexterity of particular hands. Also if you want as a finishing touch you might choose to to a thin blue line along the edge of the nail, however I did not. As always suggestions/comment/questions are always appreciated. Enjoy!

Strawberries

Okay so for my first week I decided to do something fun, and relatively easy, were starting with STRAWBERRIES!
*I'm trying very hard to figure out how to make these pictures look better. Please be kind, I know they are bad quality, I'm working on improving them.*

So this should be our final product:

Now to do this I started with a standard red base coat. I would suggest letting it get so that it's dry to the touch, though it doesn't have to be 100% hardened yet. You defiantly do not need to wait over 10 min for the base coat to dry.

So I then used migi nail art pens for my detailing (link at bottom).
Using them I drew a small set of green lines at the top center of the nail.About five or six lines coming from a central dot worked for me, though you could have less or more depending on how thick you want your leafs to be.

Then using the white I randomly made dots, pulling down just a little bit to give them more of an oval or tear drop shape. When pulling down be sure to pull to the base of your berry, otherwise the seeds look like they are going the wrong way.


Now this can still be done even without any kind of nail polish pen. If you have thin brushes you can use those to make your leafs, though they might be thicker than mine. A think brush can also be used for the seeds. If doing that either make very small lines using the white, or put a small dot and pull just a little, as I did with the pen.

Another way to do this if you only have normal sized brushes is to use a normal straight pin (the kind used for pinning cloth before you sew it) for help.

With this technique for the stem put a large dot of green on the end of the nail, and then take the pointed end of the pin and pull out from the dot of paint. If you need you should add more green and keep trying to pull it. With this you wont get very distinctive leafs but it is still clear what they are.

 

Now for the seeds you can either dip the pointed part of the pin in the white and use it to draw short lines, or dip the head of the pin in the white and use that to made dots. With either technique I always dab the pin once on a tissue before putting on my nail, because often there is too much paint on it. If you use the pin head and do dots, you can also then take the point and pull the dot a little to get more of a teardrop shape, though you have to be pretty quick about it. Here's the nail I did without the pen:

My non-pen nail (shown above) was not quite as good as my others, but I did not spend any time practicing the design that way. I would suggest trying out the pin a few times on paper or a test nail first. My biggest problem was that my dots were a little big, and I tried to pull the white paint too late after I did the dot. Still I feel confident that given a try or two you can defiantly get a good looking strawberry using pens or not! 

Please feel free to leave any suggestions for ways to improve on this design, or any ideas for new designs!

Happy painting to all!

Migi nail link: http://www.miginailart.com/ 

(I am in no way sponsored by migi nails or anyone else)

Welcome!

Welcome to Nail Art Made Simple!
This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. For the past year I have gotten really into nail art, and do a new design every week. This is my own small form of self expression and attempts at being artistic and I think that there are lots of ways to make really cool and fun nail designs at home. I hope to post each week some of my own tips and such, and hopefully get more ideas from people. Some of these designs are meant to be cute, others pretty and sometimes I'll just be testing some new techniques and we can see how they go. Any suggestions are welcome :)