10 Blank Canvases

Spring Plates

2012-03-20T14:48:00.000Z

My latest inspiration came from the cute spring plates we use at home. I painted the design on to a set of false nails using acrylic paints.

The plates that inspired me:

Creating Galaxy nails using acrylic paint

2012-03-13T21:34:00.000Z

This is how I created my galaxy nails. I have done the examples below on false nails for show but I originally did them on my natural nails. Note that you will get paint on your fingers, but acrylic paint is easy to clean off the skin, either with nail polish remover as you normally would, or wait until the nail is totally dry and you can scrub it off with soap and warm water.

On to the tutorial...

Start with a black base:

Next is to create the nebula background:

The idea is to create a gradient background. I used purple and blue because I liked how bright they look, but you could also try reds or greens (here are some cool pics to help with inspiration!)

The tools I used - makeup sponges torn into small pieces.

Purple:

1. Starting with the darkest colour (I mixed purple, white and a touch of red).

2. I added a bit more red

3. I mixed a lighter purple with no red.

4 - 5. I kept adding a touch of white to the colour mixed in 3 to fade the purple to near white.

6. Neaten up by sponging black where necessary the finish with a layer of Seche Vite.

Blue:

Pretty similar to the purple gradient -

1. I started with a mix of blue and white with a touch of purple.

2 - 5. As above, started with a blue and white mix and added a touch of white to slowly lighten each new layer.

6. Neaten up by sponging black where necessary, then finish with a layer of Seche Vite

adding the stars:

The tools I used - A needle for the smallest dots and a very fine paintbrush for the rest.

1. shows the completed background.

2. Grey crosses painted as shown.

3. white crosses added to the centre of the larger grey crosses.

4. A few large dots scattered around.

5. Fill the rest of the background with smaller dots at random.

6. Finally finish with a layer of Seche Vite.

And voila! you have yourself some bright galaxy nails.

Galaxy madness

2012-03-10T18:20:00.000Z

Iv gone a bit galaxy mad this weekend! It all started when I saw these:

From Killer Constellations at Etsy.com. So I thought they didn't look too difficult to make...so I made myself my very own pair of Galaxy/Nebula shoes:

They were pretty simple to make. Acrylic paint sponged on to give it a spacey feel, with all the little stars hand painted on (I didn't trust using a toothbrush to flick the stars on in case it got lumpy and looked rubbish). I hope they last especially as I live in London and it rains quite a lot here...in case you didn't know!

Then I decided to finally have a go at galaxy nails to match my amazing new shoes:

I used the same method as the shoes and sponged acrylic paint on to black base coat. The stars on my right hand are a little wobblier than the left, but overall looks pretty cool.

And finally all the starry loveliness together :D

Braided Tips

2012-03-08T16:43:00.000Z

This mani is just a simple French mani but with a braided tip. I did the black outline with acrylic paint as personally I find I can get a much thinner line that using nail art pens.

Cute Paperchase pattern

2012-03-05T22:44:00.002Z

My latest inspiration came from my toothbrush mug from Paperchase. The cute little animals make a great pattern for a fun mani.

Below is the mug photographed showing the whole pattern:

Portuguese Nails

2012-02-29T18:29:00.001Z

When I was younger every summer my family and I went on holiday to Portugal. So the inspiration behind this nail set reminds me of being young and carefree! The design is based on the Portuguese Cockerel statue:

And here is my little friend in his natural habitat - looking over Lisbon.

Matte Leopard

2012-02-28T22:30:00.002Z

A simple nude matte leopard mani:

Colourful pattern

2012-02-26T14:42:00.000Z

I was inspired by a card that I saw when queuing in the Post Office and had to buy it. I loved the colourful pattern and have done a nail design to match:

Aboriginal nail art

2012-02-22T15:05:00.004Z

I have been meaning to do this nail set a while as I really love the deep colours and patterns used in Australian Aboriginal art. Also my parents are currently in Australia, so I did this set specially for them as my Mum loves to show off my nail designs (hi ma!).

I painted this using nail polises and a needle, finished with a matte top coat to give it a real painted artwork look.

On my left hand: pinky - an emu, middle finger - a turtle, thumb - a lizard.

On the right hand: thumb - sunset over Ayres Rock, middle - a platypus, pinky - a kangaroo.

Below is the collection of images I used to inspire the designs:

Finally, this nail design coincides with Chalkboard Nails' competition. The challenge was to do a design using only a dotter tool. Seeing as this design is really inspired by dotted art I thought it was appropriate for the competition. Below is the polishes I used and my dotting tool - a needle.

Little Skulls

2012-02-20T13:41:00.004Z

This nail set was inspired by my bracelet. I made the bracelet myself apart from the skull bead, which came from another bracelet that I didn't like that much - so I decided to make it better!

Nails with the bracelet:

Close up of the little skulls:

Art Masterpieces

2012-02-12T22:54:00.009Z

I have been working on this set for a while now. It is 10 paintings by some of my favourite artists. They are painted on to a set of false nails with acrylic paints.

It shows the progress I have made since my first post, which was also of paintings, but painted with nail polish using an orange stick (which you can see here).

Vincent van Gogh - Sunflowers

Georges Seurat - The Eiffel Tower

Pablo Picasso - Weeping Woman

Edvard Munch - The Scream

Claude Monet - Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies

Henri Matisse - The Dance

René Magritte - Son of Man

Edgar Degas - Dancers in Blue

Salvador Dali - Persistance of Memory

Paul Cézanne - Still Life with Apples

Union Jack inspired nail art

2012-02-08T21:39:00.007Z

This post is a collection of all my nail art inspired by the Union Jack flag

First and most recent is this nail wheel of patterns and designs inspired by the flag:

Below are older nail sets I did inspired by the union jack pattern.

Bright colours:

Colourful and glow in the dark:

Pink nails with a pink union jack on the ring finger:

Finally all pink union jacks:

Snow Nails

2012-02-06T23:10:00.004Z

It's snooowwwing in London!! well, it snowed, so some snowwy nails to match the weather.

Daisy nails

2012-02-02T21:36:00.005Z

These nails were inspired by my perfume at the moment, Daisy by Marc Jacobs.

The nail set was based on this ring/solid perfume case:

Simon's Cat Nails

2012-01-28T14:20:00.006Z

This nail set was inspired by the Simon's Cat cartoons on Youtube. I love this mischievous little cat and he makes me want a cat more than ever!

For anyone who hasn't seen his videos below is a link to the first video he made (there's loads more, you should watch them all!!):

Chinese New Year

2012-01-23T20:29:00.006Z

Here is my nail set for Chinese New Year - the year of the Dragon. I used the base colour Broadwick Street by Nails Inc, with gold Barry M and acrylic paints to fill in the details. Links to the images I used as inspiration for Chinese characters and patterns are at the bottom of the post. I copied the text off these images and hope they read what I think they do!

Left hand clockwise from thumb: 'Happy New Year', Chinese 'Fu' symbol for prosperity, 2012/dragon, lantern and 'dragon'

Right hand - Dragon

A more detailed close up of the dragon's head:

Chinese characters

2012 dragon

Chinese prosperity symbol

Fu symbol for prosperity

It's me, Mario!

2012-01-21T17:02:00.007Z

These nails are inspired by that little plumber Mario. I painted a scene with characters from Super Mario World using some nail polish and some acrylic paint, painted on to a set of false nails:

Right hand from thumb anti-clockwise: Super Mario World title, Mario, ? boxes, Piranha Plant and Goomba.

Left hand from thumb clockwise: Bowser, Koopa Troopa, coins, Super Mushroom and empty boxes.

The full scene when applied to my nails:

Bruno Mars nails

2012-01-17T23:48:00.009Z

I did this nail set when I when to see Bruno Mars a while ago, but it hasnt made it on to my blog until now. My idea was to do a set of nails inspired by this image of Bruno:

I practised a little Bruno doodle on my desk first and chose some bright colours for the background:

Et voila! Bruno faces with a grenade and 'i'd catch a grenade' written underneath on the right hand thumb and Bruno Mars on the left hand thumb below:

The show was amazing, of course. He is such a great entertainer, below are a few photos from the show:

Finally my index bruno with the real Bruno...way blurred in the background!

Chanukah nails

2011-12-20T22:37:00.006Z

My menorah nails for Chanukah. I added a new flame to my nails on each of the 8 nights of the holiday.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

Day 8:

The detail on the right thumb was the 4 hebrew letters: נ nun, ג gimel, ה hay, ש shin. Which represents in hebrew the phrase 'a great miracle happened there' referring to the story of Chanukah, where a small amount of oil meant to last one day, lasted 8 days. Click for the full story.

Happy Channukah!

Nordic Jumper

2011-12-18T20:00:00.003Z

My latest nail design was inspired by the Nordic pattern jumpers that emerge this time of the year. So, I brought out all my patterned clothes:

Chose two designs that I liked and used them on my nails on alternate fingers.

I used Nails Inc Charlotte Street at the base colour, then acrylic paints to create the pattern

Seasonal Skulls

2011-12-11T20:32:00.004Z

I really loved the way my McQueen skull design turned out, so this week I did a festive skull nail set.

Clockwise from thumb: Santa skull, gift wrapped skull, Christas pudding skull, frozen skull and candy cane skull.

Anticlockwise from thumb: Rudolph the skull, candy cane skull, snowman skull, gift wrapped skull and gingerbread skull.

Tis the season for cute animals

2011-12-04T18:25:00.003Z

I was feeling in a wintery/Christmasy mood when I painted this nail set! Its a bit of a mix of nail polish and acrylic paint when I didn't have the right colours...

Anticlockwise from thumb: robin in a hat, snowman and Rudolph.

Clockwise from thumb: polar bear in a scarf, penguin in earmuffs and gloves.

This is a detail of the nails between the animals, blue faded to white with silver snowflakes on the tip (done using Konad Stamps).

Rainbow Leopard

2011-12-04T18:15:00.003Z

This week, I took inspiration from all my Nails Inc colours. I tried to use as many of the colours in the design and used Charlotte Street as a grey base and painted leopard print pattern fading from red to blue.

Black and gold

2011-11-19T17:41:00.006Z

I recently bought some nail wheels to practise designs on.

Here is my first attempt of black and gold designs:

Lightning nails

2011-11-19T17:04:00.004Z

I was inspired by the electric look of the blue nail colour (OPI DS Magic) and made my nails even more electric with some lightning bolts:

Which of course glow in the dark too: