Laid Back 31DC - Tape Mani

The 31 day challenge hosted by the lovely Debbie, The Crumpet is being re-run with a laid back approach, 2 manis a week instead of daily.

Tape Mani.  Hooruh!  I started off with great gusto and wanted to do a tape mani with a star/flash effect in the corner of each nail.  Hmmmm ended up being a mess and a tad harder than I thought.  The polish got underneath the tape so I had to take it all off and start again.  So I've gone for plain & simple stripes.  The tape I used is crafting embellishment tape and doesn't have a very clean edge unlike the thin tape you get specifically for tape manis.  Anyhoo, turned out ok, not great but ok, and actually looks better in real life as I can't see as close up as the photos!  To the pics.....

The polishes I used are La Femme Lilac Creme & Odyssey.

Money Smart Nail Art - Glamourous manis without the price tag!

MoneySupermarket are running a competition on how to create great looking nails and saving you money at the same time.  We all want great looking nails right?  But we don't always want to pay for an expensive manicure, so why not have a go at creating your own designs in the comfort of your own home, for hardly any cost at all and have loads of fun at the same time!

Here are a few of my designs from previous blog posts, as you can see they are easy peasy!!

First up, good old sellotape!  Paint your base colour, apply two pieces of sellotape with the corners of each square thouching in the middle, apply your top colour (I used glitter as I love sparkle!) peel off the sellotape while the top coat polish is still wet and there you go!

Or how about raiding your (mum's!) craft box.  I wanted to do a tape mani but didn't want to buy the tape, so I found some brilliant wavey patterned tapes in my mum's craft box.  This is the tape I used on my middle finger below

I used 4 different types of patterned tape, simply paint a base colour, I used a bright barbie pink, once dry I placed the tape on my nail and painted a top coat of black with pink glitter, remove the tape and you see the original colour underneath - bingo!

If you have any of those round hole punch stickers, they look like polo sweets, you can create this fab design.  I used yellow as my base colour, applied the (polo) sticker to my nail, painted above the sticker in one type of glitter and below the sticker (where the hole in the middle is) a different colour.  Again, so easy yet such a fab design!  Looks like you've spent ages doing this but only you know how quick it is!

Dotting tools are great ways to make stunning manis but you don't need to buy specific dotting tools, you have loads of things around the house you could use, a cocktail stick or BBQ skewer (wooden one of course!), an old ball point pen that doesn't work anymore, an orange stick, end of a sewing pin, anything pointy will do, here's my dotted mani.

And don't forget to oil those cuticles, again you don't need to go out and buy expensive nail oils, Olive Oil from the kitchen cupboard will work just as well, just remember to apply day & night.

I hope this gives you a few hints and tips for some great manis that didn't cost me anything at all, all you need is your imagination, and have loads of fun creating your very own personal designs.

The Lazy 15 Challenge - Tape Mani

First day of an exciting new challenge hosted by  Totally Nailed called "The Lazy 15" named as such because we're too lazy to do a whole 31 days!

This challenge is Tape Mani which is another first for me.  Had to have a few attempts and learnt along the way to pull the tape off while the top layer of polish is still wet, especially as some of the tape are holey.

Base coat is Nails Inc Shoreditch, 4 different tape varieties which I raided from my mum's craft box, topped with W7 black (which was an absolute pig to use), topped with some pink glitter. I'll deffo try a tape mani again, it's fun and you get a really good striking effect, oh and sorry for my poor index finger nubbin!  What a sorry state!  Onto the pics......

 This is the tape used on my middle finger

Here's the details of the Challenge if you'd like to join us