Nail Art Theme Week Day 4: Houndstooth Freehand Inspired by Nail Nerd

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It's time for Day 4 of Theme Week! This time the theme is "Follow a Tutorial." I'm getting together with some of my blogger friends so be sure and check out the other great theme week manis at the end!

Today I have one of my favorite patterns of all time - houndstooth. I have a couple of stamping plates with houndstooth but I really suck at stamping, so I thought I would see if I could find a tutorial to follow for today's mani.

I found a pretty good one from Nail Nerd that I sort of followed. I didn't do it exactly the same, but it's close. Go check hers out here!

And this is how it turned out. I only did it on an accent nail over my current mani (Kiko 291) so it's sort of an Extend-A-Mani too! You can see that it's not perfect in this close up of course - I need new brushes for sure. I touched up around the edges of some of the pattern with the Kiko 291 and you can tell LOL! But at arm's length it looks awesome!

Because I was doing this over an existing mani and only wanted to use one color (black) I freehanded the little squares instead of doing the stripe method like in the tutorial. Also, I added the second line to mine just because that says houndstooth to me. So I put together a quick and dirty one-photo tutorial on just the houndstooth. I've done it larger here so you can see. But for the full tutorial using the stripe method for the squares, please refer to Nail Nerd's tutorial.

What do you think? I just love houndstooth. And you can do it in any colors of course - even alternate the colors of each "tooth" if you want!

Don't forget to check out the other great manis for this theme week below!

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Nail Art Theme Week: Follow A Tutorial Day Two - Nail Polish Wars' Foggy Trees

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It's time for Day Two of Theme Week! This time the theme is "Follow a Tutorial." I'm getting together with some of my blogger friends for this so be sure and check out the other great theme week manis at the end!

When I saw Nicole's (Nail Polish Wars) Foggy Trees mani I fell TOTALLY in love with it. Everyone loved it. Thankfully it was popular enough that she did a quick tutorial in her blog post, which I followed for this mani. Please click the link to check it out - it's SPECTACULAR!

Foggy Trees

Inspired by Nail Polish Wars

Mine are a bit messier, (you HAVE to check hers out) but the tutorial was easy to follow and I just love it.

I used a base of Illamasqua DSW with a gradient using a-England Sleeping Palace. The trees are Wet n Wild Black Creme and Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.

What do you think?

Check out the other great manis in the links below!

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Nail Art Theme Week: Follow a Tutorial Day 1 - Bold Retro Wallpaper

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The Bold Retro Wallpaper mani I'll be showing you today was inspired by Arcadia Nail Art aka +IndigoNova1 - so let me tell you the story.

When I saw the theme for January's Theme Week, I googled "nail art tutorials" and just scrolled through until I found one I liked and felt like doing right now (since I'm battling some sort of crud at the moment, it needed to be quick and easy). I'd never heard of Arcadia or IndigoNova1. So I go to the video, which is on her old YouTube channel (the indigonova1 one instead of the +ArcadiaNailArt  one) and started reading comments. Apparently, this is one of the many designs stolen by a certain someone. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can see my post about it here.

So I'm even happier to be showing you this "follow a tutorial" mani today! I get to show you a cool design AND I get to link you to the one who originally did this mani...the one who inspired me. I did a retro mani using a similar color palette (Elevation Polish Jengish Chokusu and Haba Xueshan) that I just loved - reminded me of mid-century modern and I think that's why this one grabbed my eye.

And since I'm getting together with some other blogger friends for Theme Week, you can check out their great manis at the bottom in the link-up!

Bold Retro Wallpaper

And matte using butter LONDON Matte Finish Top Coat...

Here's the YouTube video tutorial I used as a guide. Of course my mani isn't exactly the same, but it's the same idea in a similar color palette. My dots are smaller because I used a dotting tool. And of course it's messier than hers. I love it both ways actually.

I used a-England Galahad as my base color. The black and white polishes are Wet n Wild WildShine Black Creme and Salon Perfect Sugar Cube. I have acrylic paints, but I enjoy using polish when I can.

Nail Art Designs

This is a really quick and easy mani that gives a great bold pop of color in a retro design - anyone can do it on any sort of nail shape or length...just adapt it to your own nails.

You can also do versions of this using different colors as the base. Different look altogether. But still totally cute!

So head on over to Arcadia Nail Designs and check her out. She has lots of great tutorials.

And THAT is how you give credit. And I defy you to tell me how sharing the link love and giving credit where credit is due is anything but beneficial to ALL parties involved. It's not. The only thing it's detrimental to is an ego.

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December Nail Art Theme Week - Day Four - Cherry Blossoms

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I'm back with Day Four of December's Nail Art Theme Week! This week the theme is Japanese and I've teamed up with a few blogger friends, so please be sure and check out the other great theme week manis at the end!

Today I have Cherry Blossoms/Sakura!

I used Sinful Colors Jolt (blue) and Zoya Shelby (pink) for the base and I just mixed up a brown on my palette for the branches. The blooms are Zoya Shelby and Nails Inc. Holland Park Road. Again I went with slightly abstract because, you know, the details get me down. LOL!

I did cherry blossoms once before...

Also more on the "abstract" side LOL!


Happy Thursday! ♥




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December Nail Art Theme Week: Geisha Nails

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One week a month, I team up with a few other blogger friends for a theme week. This week the theme is Japanese. 

Today I've done a Geisha mani for you. ♥

Red: Chanel Lotus Rouge
Pink: Zoya Shelby 
Tan: China Glaze Kalahari Kiss 
Yellow: Milani Yellow Whiz (yes, that's the real name lol) 
Aqua: Chanel Nouvelle Vague
Grey: (for the lines in the fan) Essence Movie Star (mixed with a little white - because yes I was too lazy to get up and go get a lighter grey LOL)

I use Wet n Wild Wild Shine Black Creme and French White nearly every time I need a black or white.

I used a long, thin striping brush and dotting tools and I'm pretty sure I held my tongue just right - you know, sticking out of the left corner of my mouth. 

Be sure and check out the other great manis from my blogger friends below!

♥

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Nail Art Theme Week: Japanese - Bamboo Nails

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One week a month, I team up with a few other blogger friends for a theme week. This week the theme is Japanese. 

So I decided to go with bamboo! I've done a few paintings on canvas featuring bamboo and let me tell you, it's much harder to do on your nails.

I used a base of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss with Kleancolor Fashionista and a plain black creme.

A bit abstract, but I'd probably try bamboo nails again!

Don't forget to check out the other great nail designs for Japanese Theme Week below! ♥





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Rock/Mineral Nail Art Theme Week: Day 5 - Opal Nails

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I wanted to do opal-inspired nails for this week. But I wasn't sure how to go about it. So I have a couple of opal-inspired manis for you for the last day of Rock/Mineral Theme Week I'm doing with a few of my blogger friends.

Opal Nail Art

First up, a saran wrap mani that was inspired by the base my friend Jacki over at Adventures in Acetone used for her butterfly nails. I really thought her base looked like opals and I loved it, so here's my version...

For this mani, I used a base of Sinful Colors SinfulShine Alfresco and followed Jacki's tutorial using SinfulShine Rendezvous, Sinful Colors 24/7 and Color Club Pucci-Licious.

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Of course we all know opals come in all shades with all sorts of striations, so here's another version using a flaky polish...

For this mani, I used a base of Elevation Polish Mountain Air and layered over Ruby Wing Sweet Shimmer (sheer shimmer) and Ruby Wing Chocolate Mousse (the flaky polish) and finished up with a coat of butter LONDON Bread and Butter Pudding (a very sheer nude) to tone it down a bit.

That concludes Rock/Mineral Theme Week! Next theme week is the first week in December and the theme is Japanese. Hope to see you then!

Don't forget to have a look at the other great theme manis in the links below!




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