Thursday, December 23, 2010

Santa's Crew

No Junk Nail's "Twelve Days of Christmas" Nail Art almost made it all twelve days!  I didn't really intend for them to stay on that long, but I kept them on to show off.  :D  It was one of my favorite designs.....until these!


Oh my they turned out cute!!  
Santa's Crew of eight tiny reindeer
(Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen)
plus Rudolph and Santa himself!
And here they are!




These were pretty easy for all the cuteness in the end!
Here' s a close-up of the reindeer (which look just like Rudolph, but with back noses):


Here’s a quick how to:
1)  I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Emerald City.  If I had it to do again, I’d use a much lighter color…like a blue.
2)  Using New York Color Fifth Avenue and my largest embossing tool, I made oval shapes for the reindeer heads.
3)  Using a smaller embossing tool, I added triangular ears with the same bark brown.
4)  With New York Color Bryant Park, a lighter brown, and my smallest embossing tool, I added three-pronged antlers and little lines to highlight the inside of the ears.
5)  Next, I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails White on and a mid-sized embossing tool to make the white parts of the eyes.  I put them close together on purpose for extra cuteness. 
6)  The little black dots were done with Sally Hansen Black Out.
7)  Using Black Out and that largest embossing tool, I made big black noses.
8)  and then using the smallest embossing tool, I made the smiles on the sides.
Done!  Easy!
To make a Rudolph:
7a)  Using White and the largest embossing tool for the nose
7b)  Then I used Sally Hansen Cherry Red and that largest embossing tool to make the red nose on top of the white
7c)  Made the nose look "lit" by adding a small line of white on the top right.

And the Santa close-up:
He was actually pretty easy too!
1)  I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails White On and my largest embossing tool to make the entire shape with white...yes, the whole thing, beard, head, hat and all with white.
2)  Using Sally Hansen Cherry Red, I painted the red hat on top of the white I had just painted.
3)  With New York Color Bryan Park, I painted a rounded rectangle for the face.
4)  Made eyes like the Reindeer steps 5 & 6
5)  I used CG Boundless Color Pink Taffy to make two dots for rosy cheeks
6) Cherry Red for the nose
7)  Sally Hansen black-out for the mouth.

Then top everything off with two coats of Revlon Extra Life No Chip Top Coat!
Merry Christmas to all....and to all a Good Night!


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS!

Here at "No Junk Nail," I've been planning this one for a LONG time!  And I did it!!!!

 Here's the two hands and then I'll show each nail:



Right Hand, starting on the far right with the pinkie:

12 Drummers Drumming
11 Pipers Piping
10 Lords A-Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids A-Milking
7 Swans A-Swimming
(two on the thumb)


Left Hand, starting on the right with the thumb:
6 Geese A-Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and…
A Partridge In a Pear Tree

Now each nail….
12 Drummers Drumming

11 Pipers Piping
It's a bagpipe...like this one...


10 Lords A-Leaping

9 Ladies Dancing

8 Maids A-Milking and 
7 Swans A-Swimming
(had to do two on the thumb...I only have ten fingers!)

6 Geese A-Laying
5 Golden Rings
(again two on the thumb)
[pardon the bubbly look...it's being held together by superglue!]

4 Calling Birds

3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves

and…
A Partridge In a Pear Tree

Here’s the set-up (aka “mess”) it took to make this awesome NO JUNK NAIL maicure.
and my planning page where I drew out what I wanted to do and made notes about what colors I was going to use for each nail


I used FIFTEEN different colors:

  
From the left:
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Hard As Nails Celeb City [got cut out of pic-oops!]
  • Sally Hansen White On
  • New York Color Fifth Avenue
  • Sally Hansen Black Out
  • Sally Hansen Emerald City
  • Pure Ice Crème Wild Thing
  • Pure Ice Excuse Me
  • Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
  • Pure Ice Hot Tamale
  • Sally Hansen Cherry Red
  • Sally Hansen Fucia Power
  • Sally Hansen Bubblegum Pink
  • CG Boundless Color Grapevine
  • Sally Hansen The Real Teal
  • Sally Hansen Marine Scene
  • Plus Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black & White
  • Topped it all off with two coats of Extra Life No Chip Top Coat

Hope ALL twelve of the days left until Christmas are wonderful for you and yours!

Merry Christmas from No Junk Nail!






Saturday, December 11, 2010

Piano Nails!

Piano Nails!

We’re going to see Jim Brickman in concert, so naturally I had to do piano nails!  If you don’t know who Jim Brickman is, check out www.JimBrickman.com and listen for a while….beautiful!!

First, I’ll show you the finished nails, then below is the step-by-step with some process pictures.


  1. First, I appled a single coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear “White Out” on every nail.
  2. Added a second coat on the diagonal where I planned to put the piano keys.
  3. Used Sally Hansen’s Nail Art Pen in black top draw the diagonal line that will be the top of the piano keys.
(This photo shows steps 4, 5, and 6)

4.  Used Nail Art pen to draw lines that would be the line separating the keys.  (as seen on the far left pinkie and ring finger naisl)
5.  Using Nail Art Pen, I drew little “tick marks” where the black keys will go.  (as seen on the left side of the middle nail)(Google an image of a piano keyboard to see how the black keys are grouped in sets of two and three)
6.  Use the Nail Art Pen to draw the black keys (as seen on the index nail)  On my Right hand, I used the white Nail Art pen to help fix/cover a few places my left hand wobbled with the black.

(This photo shows all the nails with the keys drawn on them.)  
(I had to go back and apply another coat of the black over the places where it had dried and cracked)

7.  I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear "Blue It" over the top of the back half of the nails.  I ended up adding two coats for an even look.  I used a small brush to make sure I got it where I wanted it.
8.  I added a silver line with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Celeb City" 
9.  Went back with the Nail Art pen to redraw the top of the key.

(This Photo shows the nails all painted, before clean-up)

(and after clean-up)
(GORGEOUS, if I do say so myself!)








Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Jack Frost

It's getting COLD here in the land of Oz!  So it's time for a Jack Frost Nail Design!  This one was a relatively quick and easy one that anyone could repeat with any number of variations.



And a closer look....


Like I said, it could be done with any number of variations....
An easy, classy look, I think.  Simple, but I like them!

I started with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, added tips with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Marine Scene and the glittery line was done with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City.

Coming SOON...piano nails!  We're going to See Jim Brickman in concert!!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Let There Be LIGHTS!

The Christmas music nails were such a hit, I left them on for a few extra days.  Then, last night, I did these…..


I knew I wanted to do Christmas lights, but I had to do a little experimenting to figure out what looked best.  It took some trial….and some error….and ta-da!  Let there be LIGHTS!

Right Hand


Left Hand

I started with three base coats of Pure Ice Mint Dream to give my nails a little shimmer.  Then I turned my hands palm-in with my fingers curled down and tried to make the lines look like they were one continuous strand of lights.  I used my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black for the cords and light sockets.  For the lights, I used my embossing tools (see previous Thanksgiving Nails) to make tear-drop-shaped lights.  I used:  Pure Ice Splash (pink), Pure Ice Crème Wild Thing (green), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Potion, Pure Ice Excuse Me (yellow), and Sally Hansen Ztreme Wear The Real Teal.  After the lights were all dried, I added a little tiny moon shaped accent with Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in white, to make it look like the lights were shining.  And topped it all of with a generous helping of Revlon Extra Life Top Coat.  Tip:  The Nail Art Pens smear really easily, so I had to use a generous helping of Top Coat just gently laid on the top of the nails instead of brushing it on like usual.  

These were pretty quick and lot of fun!  I’m already thinking of the next Christmas Nail Art idea!  If you know of anyone interested in Nail Art, be sure to send them here to read my blog and get ideas!  THANKS!!