Quick NOTW: April Showers

Hello friends! It looks like spring's come early this year (at least to where I am). The ground's usually still got some slush and snow on the ground this time of year, but this year's totally different. We've already several days where had the temperature above 20 degrees celsius and everything is already so beautiful and green. They say that April shower bring May flowers and is it every true! Some flowers are already booming but I can see all kinds of flower already spouting and forming bulbs. I even passed by a couple of gorgeous cherry blossom trees the other day. The house I used to live in had a cherry blossom tree in front of every house and it was just so amazingly beautiful come springtime when all the trees on the street would bloom!

This manicure was inspired not by the blooming flowers, however, but by the frequent rainy days we've been getting. An umbrella print is something that I've been wanting to do for a while, but this really did not turn out how I wanted it to. The umbrellas were okay, but there was too much negative space left in between and the nails just looked empty. I used rain drops to fill in the leftover space but it just turned out looking quite odd. I think the individual umbrellas really needed to be much closer together, with maybe just one or two rain drops in between. I definitely want to re-try doing an umbrella print design some day in the future and I hope it turns out way better!

Quick Post: Beach Inspired Nails (with Pictorial)

Hello friends, I hope you're all enjoying your summer! It's been so hot here in the past few weeks with barely any rain, so it just feels dry all the time. I really wish I could spend a day sitting by a beach. A day off from work would be so nice, but that's not happening anytime soon, so my nails will have to do. These beach nails I'm wearing right now are for the beach prompt for SNCjuly2016. 

For these nails, I finally used the fan brush that has just been sitting around in my storage bin been the past year. I avoided using the fan brush because I just didn't know how, and none of my designs really required the techniques that could be executed with the brush. I really like how it turned out though, the ripples in the water looks more realistic. From this experience with my fan brush, I know that I definitely want to try doing more designs with it!

Continue reading to see how I created my beach nails...

Waves for WNAC2016 (with Pictorial)

Hello friends and welcome to my second post of he week! These days, I've been working around 6 days a week at this small family diner type place and it's been very difficult to keep my nails long or square. It's very tricky for me to keep my nails in a square shape since the corners always manage to chip off no matter how careful I am. I really enjoy the look of square nails on my hands though, they make my short stubby fingers look more elegant; but I guess I'll have to have short little nubs for the time being since they're the most practical.

While scrolling through instagram yesterday, I made the decision to join in the Weekly Nail Art Challenge once more. I quite enjoy how WNACs are planned out and how the prompt dates always correspond with my schedule.  The monthly theme for June 2016 is the beach (how fitting!) and the first prompt is water inspired nails. This prompt gave me that little push I needed to do a nail design that I've had saved in the back of my mind for a while, but was too lazy to do. 

These nails are inspired by a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai named The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Hokusai makes wonderful woodprints and I especially love pieces of his work that involved water because they have so much movement and power in them. Obviously, my version of them take on a more simplified and line-art like approach. I tried very hard to create more movement in the waves using the black lines. I also added little tiny birds to fill up the negative above the waves and to make it look like an ocean scene.

Read on to see my tips and tricks fo creating these nails (and a step by step pictorial)