April 28- International Astronomy Day- Nebula Nails

Happy International Astronomy Day. My inspiration today comes from the challenge prompt itself. I loved the swirly nebula colors and wanted to recreate it on my nails. I've always been fascinated by the idea of space and what may be out there. It's crazy how we're able to see objects that are so far away just enough to create more mysteries than we're able to solve. If space travel became a reality in our lifetime I'd be tempted to buy a one way ticket!

To add to the astronomy theme I've painted some popular constellations on each of my nails. From thumb to pinkie I have Orion, Cepheus, Little Dipper, Cancer and Ares. I sponged on the nebula using bunch of neon colors from the China Glaze Electric Nights Collection- Glow With The Flow, Home Sweet House Music, DJ Blue My Mind and Violet-Vibes as well as Fuzzy Dice from Spoiled. I topped it off with Fairy Dust (probably mandatory for any space manicure) and painted the constellations using a dotting tool for the stars and a small paintbrush to connect the dots.

Do you have a favorite constellation?

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April 19- National Garlic Day- Garlic Nails

National Garlic Day y'all!! I know I got pretty fake excited over Big Wind Day, but my excitement for Garlic Day is completely genuine. Garlic all the things! 

Garlic is my absolute favorite seasoning for foods. I put it in everything. Not sweets. That's just weird. I guess I probably could have stuck garlic cloves to my nails as a jokey manicure for today, but I couldn't waste the precious garlic. Instead I've painted a cute garlic pattern onto each of my nails. I had to quiz my husband... "Honey, what does this look like?" He looks for a few seconds.. "Umm.... garlic?" he says, with a terrified look like if he's gotten it wrong I'll probably have a meltdown case of nail rage. But of course he's right because every nail design I think up in my head comes out perfectly on my nails the first time every time. Isn't that how it works for every blogger?

For my delicious garlic nails I've used China Glaze, Life Preserver as my base. The formula was a little thin and runny on this one, but manageable. I got good opaque coverage in two coats. I hand-painted the garlics with a small nail art brush by layering two tan colors, OPI, My Vampire is Buff and Finger Paints, Don't Make a Scene. I outlined them and drew in the cloves with Spoiled, Pumping Gas.

I had just finished painting and was taking the first of my nail pictures when I heard from the kitchen the distinctive sound that is the papery skin being torn off the perfect garlic I'd painstakingly chosen at the store that morning. Nooooooooooo.... I needed that for my pictures!!!! Well, at least the painting went reasonably well. I got a photo with what was left of my magnificent head of garlic and I got to eat it with dinner, so life isn't too bad.

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April 12: Big Wind Day- Wind Gust Inspired Nails

Try to contain yourselves... it's the holiday we've been waiting for all year long... National Big Wind Day! According to this totally official looking website Big Wind Day commemorates the highest wind gust ever recorded on Earth's surface, coming in at 231 mph. Wow. This is exciting stuff. Today didn't happen to be a very windy day here so we're not breaking any records this year, but I have high hopes for next April.

To celebrate I've painted some nails with gusty looking wind inspired stamping. This is two coats of Color Club, Over the Moon. I stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-312 and Mundo de Unas white stamping polish. Below we have the obligatory holo in the sun photo.

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April 6: National Tartan Day- Plaid Nails

Today is National Tartan Day. I had to look it up. This is actually an American holiday celebrating the Scottish Declaration of Independence which our own Declaration was modeled on years later. You can read all about it here. This is a stroke of good luck because I'm going to a Scottish festival with my uncle this weekend. My family comes from Clan Donnachaidh and of course we have our own tartan which I have attempted to paint on my nails. I didn't get a ton of detail in there with my hand painted lines, but the colors are approximately right. Y'all need to remind me to finally spring for that stamping plate with all the plaid patterns on it. That would have come in really useful for this challenge.

I started with two coats of NYC, Carnival Red. For the green lines I used Spoiled, Permission to Proceed which is a bright green jelly. For the blue I diluted Sinful Colors, Endless Blue with some clear polish to make it more jelly-like. I was hoping the jelly colors would overlap differently giving this look some dimension. It worked better with the green than the blue, but I'm happy with the overall effect.

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April 1- International Tatting Day Nails

I know, I'm a day late, but I couldn't resist painting some nails for International Tatting Day. Katherine of Procrastinails has put together a really interesting challenge for April. The challenge prompt each day is inspired by a unique holiday during the month of April. If you'd like to join check out the 30 Days of Colour group on Facebook and jump in any time.

A few years back my grandma found some awesome framed tatting pieces at an estate sale that she thought would be perfect in my apartment. My grandma is hands down the best curator of interesting antiques and home decor, and she was right. I love these tatting pieces. Wikipedia seems ignorant of this fact, but grandma says that each framed piece has to have a button hidden somewhere within the lace. Both pieces she gave me have a tiny hidden button, so there has to be some truth to it. I painted a "hidden" button to go with my tatting nails so they could match.

 I have another smaller piece that's buried somewhere after the move, but couldn't be bothered to find it. When these pieces came to me they had glossy brown frames and 70's-tastic brown velvet backing. I fixed them up with some new fabric and a can of spray paint to make them a bit more modern and they hung on my wall through three different apartments before we came here. The move was a little overwhelming so not everything got unpacked, but I'm excited to take them out someday and give them their proper place on my wall.

For my nails I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and free handed a design similar to my tatting piece with white acrylic paint. I topped it off with a coat of Wet n Wild Matte Top Coat.

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