Green Glitter Ombre

I hope everyone had a great and merry Christmas.  I know my family and I did.  I had one more piece of Christmas nail art to show you, but in the hustle and bustle of Christmas I forgot to take a picture of it and then changed it yesterday.  Oops!  Anyway it was just some Christmas colored stripes and dots that looked nice, but particularly epic.  For my first mani after a month of Christmas themes, I choose a simple neon green glittery ombre.  I used Pure Ice's Wild Thing for the base then added a thin layer of Nailene Glitter top coat (It came with a french tip set so it doesn't really have cool name, but it does have iridescent glitter:).  Next I added some L.A. Colors Jewel Tones but not quite as far up the nail.  Finally I used NYC Starry Silver Glitter to do just the tips.  I went back over the tips with the glitter top coat to give them a bit more bling, then all done.  They are very simple but I think they have a nice look about them.

Nativity Nails

I was so excited about doing a nativity scene on my nails for Christmas. Since Christmas is all about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I had the idea to do a silhouette but had not seen one yet. Once I completed the nativity, though, I wasn't really sure what to do on the rest of my nails. I wound up putting the star of Bethlehem on my thumb, then a candy cane on the index finger, Christmas tree on the middle finger, and a wreath and bow on my pinky. I wasn't really thrilled with how some of those turned out and unfortunately they chipped really quickly this week, so I don't have a picture of the others. But I was pretty proud of the nativity. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  There is nail art inspiration all around this time of year.  I will show you a couple of the designs I have tried out so far.  There are so many that I want to do.  Looking on Pinterest, there are so many creative ideas.  Hope you enjoy! 

Roll Tide Roll

Happy Iron Bowl, ya'll!  Today is a big day in the state of Alabama.  Today is the day we get together as friends, family, and rivals to celebrate the smackdown of the Auburn tigers as they try to hold their own against the Crimson Tide.  It's a beautiful thing.  These are some nails that I did a few months ago, but I thought, given the occasion, they would be great!  Enjoy and ROLL TIDE!

Nail Art Movie Debut

I did some professional development on the new Windows Movie Maker.  We had to make a video at the training and I thought "what better movie to make than one to showcase nail art?"  So I thought I would share it with all of you.  Sit back, enjoy, and get inspired to do your nails!

Fall Ombre

Happy Fall, Ya'll!  I love this time of year with the final football games, campfires, and yard rolling.  This manicure has the oranges, yellows, and reds of the fallig leaves that beset our yards this time of year.  I started with the lightest color (yellow) and painted two coats.  I then sponged on orange about halfway up and finished up with sponging red on the tips.  I added some clear coat to smooth the colors together.  To complete the look I used black to stamp on the pattern.  I loved the bold colors.  I think this style of mani could be used to great effect with many different colors.

Spidey Webs

October means Halloween and Halloween means spooky spider webs.  These nails have a base coat that is irridescent.  You can't tell in the picture, but in different lights it looks black, green, gray, blue, and purple.  I wish that my camera could do it justice.  After the top coat, I added three or four stripes and then connected them with swooping lines.  Voila!  Spider webs!

What are you looking at?

In my first Halloween manicure, I decided to have some spooky eyes and cute little ghosts. This was incredibly simple. Just black for the base coat and I used the end of a bobby pin to dot the whites of the eyes then went back over that with the black dots. The ghost is a simple shape then I added little eyes and mouth to it too. Spooky!

Happy October!

Happy October all!  I was very excited going into this month because i had so many ideas for great nail art.  There is not enough time to do all of them so I had to pick a select few.  I decided to begin the month with a breast cancer awareness theme and then finish with several Halloween designs.  Here is the breast cancer awareness design.  The pink nails have a stamped overlay and then I painted the awareness ribbon on the ring fingers.  I look forward to sharing the rest of the month with you.

Monarch Butterfly

These nails are inspired by the beautiful monarch butterfly.  I really enjoyed doing this manicure although it did take some time.  I first painted the yellow then added orange at the bottom of the nail for the ombre effect.  Then I covered both colors with a layer of gold shimmer.  Next I painted the monarch design on top which was surprisingly easy.  I have seen other people use this design with many different colors under the black lines, even glitter.  It looks great any way you spin it.

Newspaper Nails

These nails were inspired by the Sunday paper.  You can take any newspaper print and transfer the image to your nails.  The print will always be reverse image but it still makes for an interesting manicure.  For these nails I have used a regular article but for another mani/pedi I used the Peanuts comic strip and it turned out really cute.  When you are transferring just words you can choose just about any background color but when you are going to transfer comic strips or colored pictures, it is best to use a base coat like white or a light color that is opaque.

To do this manicure, you simply cut out the pieces of print that you want to transfer.  Soak them in rubbing alcohol for 5 minutes and then place paper across the painted nail.  Hold in place for about 3 minutes then lift off and apply top coat.  Voila!  A great newspaper manicure!

Tiger's Curse

One of my favorite books is Tiger's Curse.  It is written by Colleen Houck.  I had the opportunity to meet her last Friday.  In the book there are two princes from India who have been cursed to stay in the form of tigers. Ren is a white tiger with blue eyes and Kishan is a black tiger with golden eyes.  In honor of meeting her, I designed tiger nails.  I have enjoyed wearing my two favorite tigers on my nails this week.  If you would like to learn more about the Tiger's Curse series you can visit the website here.

Spots and Dots

This manicure is light and whimsical.  I love the pale base coat and then having the bright spots with the black dots on top.  You could do so many variations of this design.  It was fun and oh so easy!

Football Season is Here!

I never really cared much about football until I met my husband.  He is a big Alabama fan and now I love watching Bama with him.  In honor of the opening game this year I created football themed nails.  I really had fun doing each nail different.  My favorite was the houndstooth on the pointer.  I used my Konad stamping plates to accomplish this easily.  I love those things!  Enjoy!

Braided Nails

I saw a tutorial on braided nails and thought I would give it a try.  They turned out to be tons of fun.  You can use any three colors you choose, but it works best it you use a solid, a metallic, and a glitter or a light, a dark, and a glitter.  This provides a good contrast between the different polishes.  This is definitely a design I will do in the future.  I want to do it again only using my school colors of gold, black, and white.

Back to School

As I am a school librarian, I thought it would be cute to do some back to school nails.  I had found several pictures online where people had done pencil nails and thought I would give it a go.  I thought they turned out cute, although I think that if I do them again I will try to make sure that the polish doesn't get too thick on the ends.  Enjoy!

Welcome

I am a school librarian with an obsession for books, The Sims 3, my kids, Alabama football and cool nails.  In January of 2012 I was piddling on Pinterest and came across some awesome nail art.  I thought to myself, "I could do that!"  So that's what I decided to do.  Since that weekend, I have had a different style of nail art every week.  I look on Pinterest, other blogs, and all around me for inspiration.  I am not the best by far, but I enjoy having interesting nails and I think my students enjoy seeing "what Mrs. Thomas has done with her nails this week."  So I have now decided that I am finally at a point where I feel comfortable blogging about my nails.  So here we go.  I hope you enjoy it!