Stars and Stripes Basket Weave Nail Art

It's almost the Fourth of July, and I had to get my nails ready to par-tay! I've shown off a couple of polish options for those of you who are not nail art inclined (see here and here), but let's be real -- I'm very nail art inclined! This year I did a sort of basket weave look that combines stars and stripes in a nontraditional pattern.

Looking for more Fourth of July nail art ideas? Check out some looks I've done in the past!

• Textured American Flag
• Stenciled Star Gradient
• Red, White, and Burgers
• America the Glittery

While this look is pretty simple, it took a deceptively long time to do. The hatchmark stripes were easy and very quick, but painting the stars took quite a while. I enjoy meticulous work, but they are just so small that it was difficult to keep them even on all sides. I ended up trimming down one of my medium nail art brushes to get a finer point, which helped achieve more consistent stars.

The base here is OPI Alpine Snow. The stars were painted with JINsoon Cool Blue, and the stripes use Nicole by OPI American As Apple Pie (how perfect, yeah?) from the Carrie Underwood Collection.

I always enjoy full nail patterns and this one is no exception. For those of you that are wondering, yes I did do my right hand with this pattern...except instead of the freehand stars I just put large blue dots. Trying to do those stars with my left hand would have probably been the end of me.

If you are celebrating tomorrow, be safe and have fun!