DIY Fall Leaves Nail Art

     Here's a technique to make gorgeous nail art even if your artistic abilities are limited.  The keys to this technique are painter's tape and shaped hole punches.  With the right hole punch, you could easily modify this tutorial to create nails with whatever design you would like.

Materials:

*Leaf shaped hole punch
*Base coat
*Nail polish in the color(s) you want your leaves to be
*Gold nail polish
*Painter's tape
*Tweezers

Directions:

*Paint on clear base coat and let dry.

*Paint your nails the color(s) you would like your leaves to be.  Let nails dry for at least two hours before continuing (or else you run the risk of peeling off your nail polish when you peel off the tape).

*Punch leaf shapes from the painter's tape and stick to nails.  Make sure that part of the tape extends beyond the nail, onto the surrounding skin.

*Paint one nail gold.

*Immediately after painting, grab the edge of the tape with tweezers and carefully peel it off your nail.

*Repeat the process until all of your nails are painted.

DIY Spooky Eyeball Nail Art

     Looking for some last minute Halloween nail inspiration?  Why not try these spooky eye nails?
     Also, if you liked my zombie look from a few weeks ago, I've entered this costume into the Dare to Wear Halloween Costume Contest.  Please vote for me if you haven't already and if you have, thank you so much!  I really appreciate it!

Materials:
*Black nail polish
*White nail polish
*Nail polish in color(s) of your choice
*Dotting tools in 3 different sizes
*Base coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails black.  It may take a couple of coats to get your nails dark enough.

*Use the large dotting tool to place white circles where you want the eyes to be.  Let dry.

*Use the medium dotting tool to create irises in the color or colors of your choice.  Let dry.

*Use the small dotting tool to add pupils to the eyes.

DIY Zombie Nails and Zombie Photo Shoot

     This year I decided to go for a zombie look for Dare to Wear's annual Halloween costume contest.  I saw these awesome nails on Pinterest and decided to use them for inspiration.  I'm not nearly as talented as the person who painted those, but I think my nails give that "just crawled out of the grave" vibe nonetheless.  Plus, you can make these using just nail polish.
     I intended to take pictures of the stages, but it ended up taking some trial and error, removing polish and adding it back, before I got the "bruising" to a point where I was okay with it.  Thus, my instructions don't fully capture the process I went through.  Hopefully you can replicate these without those issues, but if it takes a few tries, you're in good company.

Materials:

*Clear base coat
*White nail polish
*Dark purple nail polish
*Lavender nail polish
*Magenta nail polish
*Crimson nail polish
*Nail art brush
*Makeup sponge or sponge brush

Directions:

*Start by painting your nails as you would for a French manicure.

*Sponge on dark purple around the base of the nails to create bruising.

*Sponge on a light layer of lavender nail polish to tone down the dark purple a little.

*Sponge a little bit of magenta around the edges of the "bruising.". Let dry.

*Use the nail art brush to draw on "cracks" in the nails in crimson.

*Add crimson "bloodstains" to the tips of the nails and sponge on some crimson along the skin beneath the nails.

Undying Love Photo Shoot

     For Dare to Wear's contest, I wanted to do something with the Sweetheart Top in scarlet.  The red roses remind me of Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day reminds me of zombies, so I decided to go with a zombie themed shoot I called "Undying Love." Here are the photos that I thought  captured the story.

Other Zombie Photos

     I also took some photos that didn't really fit into the narrative.  And since I have my zombie romper, I thought it would be funny to do a zombie shoot in a zombie romper, so we did a second photo shoot with the zombie romper.  I'm so glad we did that second shoot too, because I feel like I really got into character with that one and some of the pics are pretty creepy.
     This was probably my favorite photo shoot I've done.  The nice thing about being a zombie is that you don't have to worry about looking pretty.  I didn't have to smile.  I spent the two hours Brian was photographing me growling and gnashing my teeth.  This may sound weird, but I had a ton of fun pretending to be a zombie.
     The pics that follow are just a small sample of the ones Brian shot, and I love each one of them.

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Nails

     I just got a new romper that looks like something Alice in Wonderland would wear, so I decided to put together an Alice in Wonderland look.  Next week I'll show you the outfit, but today we'll focus on the nails.

Materials:

*Light blue nail polish
*White nail polish
*Black nail art pen
*Glitter top coat
*Base coat
*Clear top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Place masking tape over the upper portion of your nails where you want the white polish to go.

*Paint the exposed portion of your nails blue.  Let dry.

*Paint the exposed portion of your nails with the glitter coat.  Let dry.

*Peel off the masking tape and paint the tips of you nails white.  Let dry.

*Once the polish is dry, use the nail art pen to draw a line between the white and blue parts of your nails.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

DIY Blood Splattered Nails

     Celebrate Friday the 13th with these blood splattered nails.  To be honest, I had completely forgotten about Friday the 13th until Brian mentioned it.  I saw splatter paint nails online and realized I could use the same technique for blood splattered nails because of course that's where my mind went.  It was only after I had painted my nails that Brian mentioned Friday the 13th, so I would have had blood splattered nails in the middle of April anyway, but if you need an excuse to join me, now you have one.

Materials:

*Base coat
*Top coat
*White nail polish
*Crimson nail polish
*Thin straw or coffee stirrer
*Nail polish remover or clean up pen

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails with white (or other light colored) nail polish.  Let dry.

*Dip the end of the straw into the crimson nail polish.  Over a well covered work space, blow the nail polish onto your nails one at a time.  Repeat until each nail is sufficiently bloody looking.  Let dry.

*Seal with a top coat.  Let dry.

*You will probably have a ton of excess nail polish on your hands at this point in time.  Clean up with nail polish remover and/or a nail polish clean up pen.

Pastel Easter Egg Nails

     Get ready for Easter with these Easter egg inspired nails.

Materials:

*Pastel nail polish in five colors
*White nail art nail polish
*Nail art dotting tool
*Glitter nail polish
*Base coat
*Top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint each nail on a given hand a different pastel color.  Let dry.

*Using the nail art brush, paint one nail on each hand with horizontal stripes and another with diagonal stripes.

*Using the dotting tool, add dots to one nail on each hand.

*Add a glitter coat to one nail on each hand.

*Let nails dry.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Alice in Wonderland Playing Card Nail Art

     Looking for a fun but subtle way to incorporate Alice in Wonderland style into your look?  Or perhaps you need some ideas for an Alice in Wonderland costume?  Try these Alice-inspired playing card nails.

Materials:
*White nail polish
*Red nail polish
*Black nail polish
*Base coat
*Top coat
*Black nail art pen
*Thin nail art brush
*Plastic lid
*Cleanup pen (optional)

Directions:

*Paint nails using the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails white.  Let dry.

*Paint nail tips alternating black and red.  I used a small amount of polish to paint a line going across the nail to mark out where I wanted to paint and then used more polish to color in the tips.  Let dry.

*Using nail art pens or a nail art brush, paint a playing card symbol onto your fingernails and A's onto your thumbnails.  The white polish I used had a nail art brush, which made it easy for me to clean up the edges of the diamonds.  I highly recommend using a thin brush for touching up mistakes.  Let dry.

*Seal with a top coat.  I've found that by touching up the edges of my nails with the top coat as small chips start to form, I can keep the polish intact for about a week.  With these ones, I also ended up touching up the tips with red as needed.  The picture of me as Alice (below) was taken six days after I painted my nails and you can see they still look mostly fine.