Watercolor Nails and 40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Aqua or Turquoise

Hey everyone, today I'm showing you a completely new to me technique I tried out which was SUPER simple and the results were stunning. Also this had nothing to do with my 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt, I just decided to add to it for that – so more on that later.



First up let me show you how to watercolor with sharpies and rubbing alcohol.



What you will need to start with is a light colored base. Most bases I've seen online are white. We all know I cannot do without holo, so I chose ILNP Paper Route – a light grey almost white polish with holo shards in it!



Once you base is dry, pick out the colored permanent markers you plan to use. Then you can take a shot glass (or as I have here, mini red cups) and color the permanent marker on the bottom. You can also use tinfoil as a base too, make a tiny little bowl for yourself. Then take a dropper and drop in three to four drops of rubbing alcohol and use a paint brush to put strokes on your nail.





Keep adding colors until you're happy with it!



And when it's done you have a Monet-esque masterpiece! Now I knew my 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt was coming up, and I thought this base made a great aqua/turquoise base and my prompt for this was mermaid/scales – so I broke out some scale stamping and a mermaid decal I bought ages ago but hadn't used yet.



Ta-da! Instant mermaid nails!



I think the star of this whole look was the new watercolor method I learned, and it wasn't even part of my prompt! Next time I want to try a gradient look using watercolors! This was so easy and now the results are endless!

Now don't forget to visit all the other ladies sites in the inlinkz below for more great aqua/turquoise nail art ideas!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Three Shades of Purple

Today I've got another nail art look to share with you in my 52-Week Crumpet's Nail Tarts Challenge.



My prompt for the week was three shades of purple and leopard. I know the natural thought here was, sure, go with a gradient. But I was not going to give in to that thought.

I thought, let's really get challenged, time to play with reverse stamping decals.



To start with this look, I painted two quick coats of the gorgeous Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Petal to the Metal on each nail.

Then I stamped a leopard image using KBShimmer Eyes White Open on a clear coat on my UberMat. Then I filled in the leopard spots using Glam Polish Daily Dilemma and Lemming Lacquer I'll Give You Darkness (which I admit almost looks black here but is actually a dark violet, I'll have to swatch it on a whole nail soon).



Then I put a quick dry top coat on the image, and waited a minute or two and then ta-da! I created a reverse stamping decal!





Then because I was getting tired and the idea of creating more decals seemed like it would take too much time, I wanted to round out the look on the remaining tow fingers. So I just freehanded stripes of the purples in an attempt to show them off better.



I think the final look was ok, but it wasn't really what I was hoping for. But I feel I actually challenged myself with this look, and I feel like I might be getting my nail art mojo back!!! What do you think?!?

And of course, make sure to check out the other talented ladies to see what they came up with for this fun three-purple prompt!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Things that Fly

Hey everyone, I'm a little late on my Crumpet's Nail Tarts Things that Fly prompt, but better late than never, am I right?!



Every night when I drive home, it's my favorite time of day, twilight. The light is fading on the horizon and for some super strange reason the street I live on is home to a host of crows, that fly together finding a place to sleep for the night (usually on the tops of tall pine trees that line my street).

So for the this prompt, I thought I'd try to recreate that on my nails!



For the base I did a gradient of Zoya Blu and Zoya Stella and then topped it with that brand I wish not to name – it's a holo topper with silver flakies.



Then I broke out Painted Polish Midnight Mischief and I stamped the bird image using my Bundle Monster BM-508 plate. I messed up my thumb a buuuunch of times so for these shots only include four fingers, not my norm.



Don't forget to check out the other talented ladies doing this 52 week challenge with me!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Pale Blue Base

Hey everyone, today I am suffering from a terrible migraine but wanted to get this posted before I missed the deadline and head to a hockey game!



Today I'm sharing with you a beautiful pale blue holo that works as the base for some mega nail art fail that I put together to go with my Nail Crumpet's Art Challenge theme.







This polish is Great Lakes Lacquer A New Slate v2 – a gorgeous light blue with a strong linear holo finish and magenta flakies (see macro) which give the polish a pinkish flash. The polish was a bit sheer, but worked up to opacity in three thin coats. It was a Cyber Monday Exclusive, but I just looked and the polish is still available on the website!



Now onto the nail art. I got a little impatient while doing this look. I didn't wait long enough for the base to dry before stamping, and I thought I'd do a little stamping gradient with my prompt for this color – ikat, well as you can tell that got a little messed up.

Then I thought, why don't I try free handing it?



Also a fail. Buuuuut I do happen to like this color combination, so maybe at a later date when I have more patience I will attempt something like this again.

As always, don't forget to check out the other, I'm sure much better than this is, pale blue nail art ideas in the inlinkz below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Winter

Hey everyone, sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, but life has been a bit busy to say the least! Today I have some fun winter nail art to share with you!



Another week, another Crumpet's Nail Art Challenge, the rest of this month is themed with the holidays, so not difficult stuff here! Just simple stamping. Please ignore the smudge on my middle finger, a sign of how crazy life has been lately, I wore nails with a smudge!



The base of this look is ILNP Cozy Mittens, a beautiful champagne holo polish with gold flakies giving it added depth. And the linear holo finish in this is SO strong.



Since the name of the polish is Cozy Mittens, I was thinking I would pull out an appropriate stamp for it, so I broke out my Bundle Monster BM-S220, which is the perfect snow-day stamp! And for this look I broke out my B Polished Red-y for the Holodays, which is an amazingly opaque red that is perfect for stamping with!



I really liked how this came out, not your typical winter nails, but I already did snowflakes earlier this month. I wish we had snow days in California, but we don't. Maybe we'll get some rain days this year with the impending El Niño, but probably not. I can dream right?!

Don't forget to check out all the other amazing nail art my fellow nail tarts have put together for this challenge in the inlinkz below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Glitter Topper or Flakie

Happy Friday everyone! I'm here for a quick 40 Great Nail Art Ideas post! This week the prompt was Glitter Topper for Flakie and my particular patter was Houndstooth/Tweed/Plaid. And since I'm Christmas looks all month here at Newsie Nail Novice, I of course broke out some great red and green glitter for this look.



For the base of this look I used a Different Dimension Armstrong, a beautiful gold holo with some bronze flakies throughout. Then I added a layer of Model City Polish Christmas with a Chance of Snow.



Then I broke out my VERY first stamping plate ever, some Konad plate that had a plaid design (sorry I don't remember which one it was) and used KBShimmer Eyes White Open to stamp two plaid designs over the glitter.



This look was a little too much for me. SO much going on. But how perfect is that glitter for the holidays? I'm not much of a glitter person, but for anyone who is, this is a must have!

As usual don't forget to look at all the other ladies' nail art looks with glitter or flakie toppers!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Grey + a color

Good morning everyone and Happy Friday! Today I've got another Crumpet's Nail Tart's nail challenge for you. Today's prompt: Grey + a color!



Earlier this week my good friend sent me a link to an article of color pairings that would look good together and one of them was grey and chartreuse so I just knew I had to incorporate that into my my look for this prompt. My added challenge for this prompt was half and half, which is what I think is one pattern and a different pattern.



To start I did one coat of Morgan Taylor Sweater Weather (this is probably the first commercial polish I've used in months, I should totally up my indie creme game). I was pleased however that this was a one coater.



Once that coat was dry, I stamped the look using Liquid Sky Lacquer Turn Up, a lovely chartreuse holo polish using my MoYou London Tropical 13 plate.



Next I took a nail art brush to paint a line of Turn up in the middle of the nail as a guide for the chartreuse half and then painted the whole half with turn up.



Then I added the polka dots using Sweater Weather again to create the second pattern. I do like how this all turned out, I was sad I couldn't wear it longer. I know this isn't exactly seasonally appropriate but I like how it's switched up my normal look a bit!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the ladies in this challenge today!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Posts – Your Job

Well it's no secret what I do for a living here at Newsie Nail Novice, it's kinda integrated into the title of my blog! I'm a journalist, so of course I've accumulated stamping plates to showcase this!



A little bit more about me, I am a writer, more specifically an education journalist. I write about local schools happenings. I also do a number of other editorial duties (page layout, special section management, associate editor etc.), but first and foremost I'm writer. Which thankfully translates perfectly to the nails.



To begin with, I chose a lovely grey fun holo that has a name that I just couldn't refuse – ILNP Paper Route. How perfect is this polish for this prompt?!



For the center nail, I did a fun typewriter, which hails back to the old newspaper days (before my time). This is from MoYou London Scholar 02 plate stamped with B Polished Midnight in Death Valley.



For the rest of the nails, I used my favorite newspaper font stamp from Messy Mansion MM24 plate.



So that's it, nothing super complicated, but simple and to the point. Like most of my news stories. ;-)

Now don't forget to check out the rest of the ladies of this awesome prompt, can't wait to find out more about all of them in their posts below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Black and White

Happy Friday everyone, time for another great edition of Crumpet's Nail Tarts presents 40 Great Nail Art Ideas! Today's prompt was Black and White and my specific prompt to do for this one was gradient.



Well my inspiration for this mani came a few days ago when I saw Paulina's Passions Geometric Nails, I knew I needed to replicate it, and since gradient was my prompt for this week I figured it would be a good time to do try and do so!



To start this look I knew I wanted a base of a super vibrant holo to offset the neutral black and white so I broke out Cupcake Polish Berry Good Looking. Berry Good Looking is a vibrant royal purple holo polish with a gorgeous blue flash. This polish is almost a one coater, which is why I thought it would make a great base for this look.



For the accent nails I used chevron nail vinyls to create cute simple chevrons that tie in the black and white perfectly.





Now for the gradient nails, I used straight nail vinyls to create a similar design that Paulina inspired! My guess is she used nail tape, which I've never used before. After doing this checkered look, I put a stripe of KBShimmer Eyes White Open and B Polished Midnight in Death Valley and moved in an up and down motion to create the gradient look. Both Eyes White Open and Midnight in Death Valley are my go to one coaters that are perfect for nail stamping and a ton of different nail art looks.





I'll be wearing this look at least through Sunday and I have to say today it brought me much joy as I slugged through a rather busy work week! It was cloudy for a decent portion of the day, but I did manage to snap a sun shot during a sunny moment while running an errand on my lunch break.

So what do you think of my look?! I am in absolute love with it. I stayed up waaaaaay too late on Wednesday night working on them, but I do love the final result so much!

Don't forget to check out the rest of Crumpet's Nail Tart's Black and White nails in the inlinkz below. Word on the street is a lot of ladies really loved their manis in this prompt.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Nail Art Ideas – Orange, Purple & Green

Happy Friday everyone, time for my weekly Crumpet's Nail Tart's challenge. This week we bring you Orange, Purple & Green nails, perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.



In addition to this color prompt I had the challenge of geometric nails, so let's see the results shall we?



This look was pretty involved and time consuming, but I'm super pleased with the final result. The glitters are all Smitten Polish microglitters – Orange You Glad It's Pun-kin Season?*, Poach Busters* (green) and Out of the Darkness (purple).

* press samples



Now the base of this look is an amazing new one-coat-perfect-for-nail-stamping black B Polished Midnight in Death Valley. This polish applied perfectly in one coat, no streaks and dried super quickly!

Now on to how I created this look.



First step was to take the microglitters and paint the non-sticky side of scotch tape. Then I cut up tiny triangles and stuck them to the back of my hand (see below).



Lessons learned from this whole mess, the stickum gets lost being stuck on my hand and the tiny triangles start to lift. When applying them to the black layer, I should have put a top coat on top to give the triangles a sticky base (might have helped with the lifting edges as you can see better in the next shot).



So overall, I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, but I'm sad the triangles started to lift and the look was as textured as it was. But oh well, you live you learn, and hopefully all you will learn from my mistakes. I think this is definitely a look I will try for again!

I'm off to go apple picking and pumpkin picking this week at Apple Hill, can't wait! It's so very fall! Hope you all have fun adventures ahead and don't forget to check out all the other awesome orange, purple and green looks at the inlinkz below!

    An InLinkz Link-up