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!

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!

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!)

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!!

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!!

It's Beginning to SOUND a lot like Christmas

It's beginning to look ... and SOUND ... a lot like Christmas at my house!

The tradition in my family growing up was that everything Christmas had to wait until after my Dad's birthday, which is November 28th.  Even though I'm "all grown up" now with a family of my own, that's still the Tradition!!  So, since yesterday was November 29th, we pulled out ALL the Christmas stuff last night!  Including new Christmas Nail Art!  And the tree, stockings, and music, of course!

Actually, this is Christmas Nail Art #2...the first attempt was, well, Junk Nail, and since this is NO Junk Nail, that had to go!  I tried alternating red and green polish with silver glitter on the top, but the silver glitter was too thick and just covered it all up in a real mess.  So I did THESE instead.....in honor of CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

It's beginning to SOUND a lot like Christmas!!

(Left Hand with Christmas Tree in background)

(Right Hand with Christmas Tree in background)

After the complex and time-consuming Thanksgiving Nails, these were an easy one!  I alternated 2 base coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Emerald City and Cherry Red.  The music notes were done with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Celeb City.  (This was the polish I tried to do over the other ones....it's a GREAT glitter if you want thick glitter.....really smooth, not rough like some glitters are)


I hope this Advent Season you find some time to remember the reason for the season....the birth of Jesus.  Can you imagine what it would have been like to be waiting for a King and be given a baby?  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!  

Thanksgiving Nails

I know it's been a while since my last nail art post.  I took the Jayhawk jerseys off and left them bare for a few days because we had a funeral at the church where I work for a wonderful man in our congregation.  Don Ruff will be missed!


Last night, I sat down, planned and then painted these Thanksgiving Nails!  I used more colors and more detail than I've ever even attempted before....and I think they turned out pretty dang good!  So without further adieu...pictures!

• Started everything off with two coats of CG Boundless Color White Night
• Thumb - Pumpkin 
• used Pure Ice Hot Tamale for pumpkin, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Emerald City for vines, Pure Ice Naughty Girl for light highlights and New York Color Fifth Avenue for dark highlights
• Index - Apples
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red and New York Color Fifth Avenue
• Middle - Indian Corn (MY FAVE!)
• Pure Ice Hot Tamale, Excuse Me & Naughty Girl and New York Color Fifth Avenue and and embossing tool to make lots and lots of really close dots!
• Ring - Squash
• Pure Ice Naughty Girl w/ outlines in Hot Tamale
• Pink - Wheat
• Mixed together New York Color Bryant Park and Pure Ice Excuse Me and then added some darker lines with just NYC Bryant Park
• Topped it all off with Revlon Extra Life No Chip Top Coat

Just for fun..........this is what my workspace looked like...

These are my Embossing Tools I used for just about everything.

Notice the tips are balls of different sizes.

Last Photo....

I store my "stash" in a shoe box and the colors are arranged by color...

which makes it so much easier to find exactly what I want to use.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

And THANKS for reading my blog!

KU Jerseys

(Sorry, I couldn't think of a catchier title!)


We're going to another KU men's basketball game tonight!
So, I had to do some sort of KU nail art.  My husband helped me brainstorm for this one and we came up with doing a mani that was the players' jerseys!


Like this:

And this:

Here's a close-up...can you tell they're jerseys?

For the jerseys, I used CG Boundless Color White Night.  The blue trim around the neckline and the numbers were done with CG Boundless Color Blue You.  The necks were done with either New York Color Bryant Park (for the lighter-skinned players) or Fifth Avenue (for the darker skinned players). 

And in case you were wondering, there really is a rhyme and reason to the order of the numbers.....height!  My left hand middle finger is #5 - Jeff Withey, who is 7' tall!  Here's how it lines up:

Left Hand:

Pinky - #12 - Brady Morning Star 6'4"

Ring - 0 - Thomas Robinson 6'9"

Middle - 5 - Jeff Withey 7'0"

Index - 23 - Mario Little 6'6"

Thumb - 10 - Tyshawn Taylor 6'3"

Right Hand:

Thumb - 14 - Tyrel Reed 6'3"

Index - 24 - Travis Releford 6'5"

Middle - 21 Markeif Morris 6'10"

Ring - 22 - Marcus Morris 6'9"

Pinky - 15 - Elijah Johnson 6'4"

ROCK CHALK!!!

Eat Mor Chikin - aka Cow Spots

EAT MOR CHIKIN!

(aka Cow Spots!)

This one was super-easy!  Anyone can do it!

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear White On for two bottom coats.

To make the spots, I used Sally Hansen Black Out.  I put a blob on some aluminum foil, then to paint the irregularly shaped spots, I used an embossing tool I bought from Hobby Lobby.  I bought a three-pak of dual-sided embossing tools with different sized of balls on the tips for dots and painting.  You could easily achieve the same effect with a toothpick.  The best part of all this is that the spots are irregularly-shaped, so painting the right hand with my left hand was a piece of cake!  No perfection needed!  

"V" for VICTORY (Rock Chalk!)

Tonight, we're going to the KU Jayhawks Basketball Season Opener!!
So, of course, I had to do some Jayhawk-inspired nails!
(Two different nail art designs in two days!)
So here they are...."V" for VICTORY!

And a closer look.....

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear "Blue It" to make the v-ish french manicure-ish shape on the tips.  Then, using a brush that was intended for eyeliner, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Cherry Red for the "V"s.  I topped everything off with two coats of top coat.


Can't wait for the KU Game Tonight!!
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

Acorn-y

This nail design was inspired by the lovely bunch of acorn nuts my four-year-old daughter found, put in my purse, and forgot about.....until I found them when I cleaned out my purse last week!  Fun.  Easy. Cute.

A little closer...

First, I applied two coats of New York Color Fifth Avenue for the body of the acorn.  Then, I did the "hats" with New York Color Bryant Park.  These were two new polishes I bought just for this nail art, and I really liked them!  I can't wait to find other uses for them, especially the darker Fifth Avenue!

The next part didn't show up very well.

I combined the two for a color in between the two.

With an eyeliner brush, I tried to do a cross-cross pattern on the "hats" to make them look more "acorn-y".  If you look closely at the bottom pic, you can see them.

It was easy.  It was fun.  It was cute!

You can do it, too!  (which is half the point of this blog!)

Fading Into Fall (or Flames...)

This one took a little experimenting and was pretty easy in the end.
I was going to a Fading Into Fall kind of look.....but they also look a lot like Flames!


First the photos, then the "how-to"

Here's how I did it:

• Painted each nail with one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow
• I cut a new sponge in to pieces (pictures below) and slightly dampened and wrung out all the water.
• On a piece of aluminum foil, I brushed a few stripes of Pure Ice Hot Tamale, then sponged it on the top third (or so) of the nails)
• Repeat with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Cherry Red on the top third of the nails

Here's a closer look at the nails:

And the mess I made to paint them: