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.

Sparkly Bottle Cap Refrigerator Magnets

Materials:

*Bottle caps
*Paint in color of your choice
*Glitter nail polish
*Magnet
*All purpose adhesive
*Paintbrush

Directions:

*Paint bottle caps in a color of your choice.  Let dry.

*Paint over dry paint eitw glittery nail polish.  Let dry.

*Add magnets to the insides of the bottle caps with all purpose adhesive.

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.

50 Reasons

     This post was inspired by a project that my local UMaine chapter of Active Minds put together.  During the fall semester, members of Active Minds asked students to write down positive things that tomorrow could bring on squares of paper.  They collected 1,100 squares, one for each student in the U.S. who dies by suicide each year, and assembled the squares into a quilt.  According to Sarah, President of the UMaine chapter of Active Minds, the goal of creating the quilt was to, "inspire hope, positivity, and optimism for the endless possibilities of tomorrow.  It's finished project symbolizes at least 1,100 reasons to stick around for another day."  The quilt, which was displayed at Fogler Library, provided a powerful visual reminder of what good the future could bring.  Some of my personal favorite suggestions were Halloween, cats, and playing Pokemon GO, but there were all sorts of ideas from foods to activities to goals that people could look forward to.

The quilt on display at Fogler Library

     Filling out some squares was cathartic for me and I thought it might be nice to adapt a smaller scale version of this project for my craft blog.  All of us have our rough days and it can be nice to have a visual reminder of the things we have to look forward to.  I came up with a list of 50 things I like and goals I have, but you could come up with any number of reasons that works for you.  I originally wanted to arrange the squares in a quilt, but I didn't have enough space on my wall, so I arranged them around existing artwork.  You could arrange them in any pattern you'd like.

Materials:
*Sticky notes
*Marker or pen

Directions:

*Write things that you like or goals that you have on sticky notes.  You can do this yourself or with a group of friends.

*Arrange the sticky notes in whatever pattern you would like to.

Googly Eyes Staple Remover

     When I was younger, I had a staple remover which I named Mr. Meanie Mouth because it looked like it had a fanged mouth.  When Brian brought home a staple remover, I named it Mr. Meanie Mouth II in honor of my old staple remover.  I thought it might be fun to give it some eyes, so here we are.  This craft is fast, easy, inexpensive, and may prove highly amusing.  I'm already considering giving the new stapler a face.

Materials:
*Staple remover
*Googly eyes
*Permanent marker or paint that is the same color as your staple remover
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Draw angry eyelids onto the two googly eyes.

*Glue googly eyes onto your staple remover.