Sunday, January 29, 2012

Navy Nail Mani

It's time to venture into the realm of beauty with an easy colorful French Manicure inspired by www.beautylish.com. I am obsessed with navy nail polish at the moment and today the mega best friends went on an adventure to Ulta to track down some of the sought after polish.

While there I picked up O.P.I.'s "Road House Blues" and "French Quarter for Your Thoughts." Below is a picture of everything that I used to create this look.

 (Scotch tape, scissors, the two polish colors, base/top coat, and O.P.I DripDry Drops)

 I started with the base coat on all nails. I then painted my two ring fingers with the gray for a base color, and the navy on my other nails for the base color. I applied two coats of each color and let them dry thoroughly (I did my toes while my fingers were drying). 
To create the French tip look I used Scotch tape. I cut a piece into 5 thin strips and repeated. To get a smooth slightly rounded line I first pressed the tape onto the middle of my nail, and then pulled and pressed down to the edges of the nail. When the strips are thinner it is much easier to complete this step. It is important to do only one hand at a time since you need to take the tape off when the polish is still wet, and the tape can get in the way of the other hand. 

I then took the opposite color to the base color and painted the tips of my nails, slowly removing the tape. After letting this cure for a couple of minutes I then finished the other hand. Next applied a top coat and the drying drops. This is what it looked like in the end!

 
This was my first attempt at a colorful French Mani, and really like the way it turned out. I did also pick up a gold polish at Ulta, (which is what I painted on my toes) and would love to pair it with the navy next time.

This was quick and easy, and will try again!

-Bailey

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Crayon Art

You will need:
Canvas - Small to medium in size
Crayons- We used several of the small boxes because those were the ones on sale.
Painters tape
Tarp or garbage bags
Pencil
Scissors
Exacto knife
Craft board- We used a piece of cardboard to cut with the exacto knife, so if you dont have a craft board the cardboard works just fine!
Hair dryer
Paint brush
Black acrylic paint
Hot glue gun with glue
Picture- Both Bailey and I picked silhouette's. It is easy to cut out and paint and also looks GREAT!
 Start out by cutting the picture with the exacto knife. Make sure you are being careful by not ripping the paper and by not cutting out details like a nose, a shoe or hair.
The next part can go either of which way...
Bailey had picked a beautiful silhouette of two lovers underneath an umbrella. She chose to trace the picture first, paint and then do the blow dry. I did a little boy on the swing and did not know where to position him, so I did the blow dry first and then the tracing and painting.
We are going to show you how to do Bailey's.
You are going to trace the the picture onto the canvas in the position desired. After you have traced it, go ahead and paint the picture. Make thin coats of paint onto the canvas. By making thin coats, you are able to control the paint best because you have little paint on the brush. You don't want to drip and end up missing the fine details of the silhouette.

While the paint is drying, you need to glue the crayon's down to the canvas. Put strips of hot glue down the crayon and glue is pointing down on the top of the canvas. Using different shades is a great way to get more color and get dimension. When the crayon melts, it will melt into layers and it looks awesome with the different shades!
After this is done, go ahead and put a strip of tape on the crayons from one end of the canvas to the other. This will help ensure that they do not melt and fall off of the canvas when blow drying. Your silhouette should now be dry. Put painters tape over the dry picture. This makes sure that wax does not cover up the silhouette. Everything taped? Great! Your on your way :)

Okay, this one with the green crayons is mine, so dont worry about why the silhouette isnt there...it cam later. Find an area where you can get easy clean up and you have an accessible outlet. Cover the area with a tarp or garbage bags because when you blow dry, the wax WILL splatter.
There are different things to know when you do this project. Any which way that you hold the blow dryer will give you different results. If you angle the blow dryer, the wax will drip at an angled position. The best way we discovered to do this is straight on the middle part of the crayons and going across all of them evenly so that one side was not heavier on the drips as the other side. With the little boy swinging from a tree, a layered look is what I wanted to get. To achieve this layered look, stop for a few moments after the wax has melted and then start again. you can also melt "already melted wax" on the canvas.
Melt crayons until you have reach your crayola crayon art vision. Take tape off of the crayons and off of the silhouette carefully. Put one hand on the crayons while the other hand is peeling off the tape to make sure they do not come off of the canvas. Some loose one may need extra re-enforcement with the hot glue gun. You also want to make sure that when peeling off the tape from the silhouette, to not tear off or crack wax. Be as careful as you can!
Ta da!!! Two awesome crayola canvas art...
...and two happy bloggers! Have fun and enjoy :)

-Shawna and Bailey

P.S- DO NOT hang these in a sunny area. Remember, its wax and it will melt!