31DC2013 Day 01: Red Mix and Match

It's day one of the 31 Day Challenge 2013, and the theme of the day is red nails! When I first started painting my nails, I wasn't really into red polish very much. It seemed too boring, too "classic" and not funky enough for my tastes. But as I experienced more and more, I found myself being drawn to a classic red nail. I guess it's just one of those things -- like how you don't like beets as a kid but they are one of your favorite foods as an adult (true story!).

For my manicure, I grabbed my favorite red. Those of you that have been reading for a while can probably say it along with me: American Apparel Downtown LA! Then, I wanted to add some colors that would complement the red without taking away from the theme. Two old standbys came to mind: OPI My Vampire is Buff and American Apparel Hassid.

I've been into mix and match manicures lately, and decided to do one with the three shades. I wanted all ten nails to be different, but still feel like they went together. I chose to go for a kind of edgily romantic vibe with hearts, polka dots, and gradient touches.

The gradient bow and XOXO nails were created by painting the silhouette on first in red. Then, I mixed varying amounts of black in with the red to create a range of shades that I could use to gradually darken the lines.

Then, I made sure to include some 3D accents and the rest is history!

It's simple, but I think the black-to-red gradient on my right hand is my favorite. I also really like the black rhinestone triangle and the heart surrounded by dots.

I'm so eager to poke around and see what the other challenge participants have come up with! Be sure to track the hashtag #31dc2013 for easy browsing.

More 31 Day Challenge
View upcoming prompts!
My red nails from 2012!
My red nails from 2011!

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Hipster Mix and Match - China Glaze Sunsational Nail Art

Everyone has a little hipster spirit inside of them, and in today's nail art, I couldn't help but embrace mine! I pulled out all the stops: chevrons, bows, drips, geometrics... The only thing I left out were the nebulae. ;)

Press Sample 

Side note: isn't it funny how hipster is basically just the newest word for 80s?

For this look, I used all six of the China Glaze Sunsational collection creme shades. The collection also has 6 jellies but I'll be showing those off another day.

Sun of a Peach is a neon peach; you can see it used as the base on my middle finger. Unfortunately I had a hard time photographing this one correctly next to the other shades! It's a bit brighter and a touch lighter. Lots of fun. The formula was a little bit difficult to work with -- I used three coats to even things out.

Highlight of My Summer is a bright neon mint green. I used it in the dots on my pinky and the triangles on my ring finger. Again, it is a touch brighter than in the photo. I had trouble with application because I didn't wait long enough between coats. I ended up using 4 thin coats to even everything out.

Too Yacht to Handle is a bright teal. I used it as the base on my thumb and for the drips on my middle finger. The formula on this one isn't too bad... I think I used three coats for opacity.

That's Shore Bright is the purple base of my pointer finger and the second layer of dots on my pinky. A bit darker than I was able to capture, this one had the best formula out of all of the cremes. I used two coats for opacity and it applied easily.

Neon & On & On is the coral-y shade on the base of my pinky and as the chevrons on my pointer. I like this shade a lot, it's super bright, summery, and fun. I used three coats for opacity.

Bottoms Up is the pretty pink that I used on my ring finger and as the bow on my thumb. The formula on this one wasn't bad either, needing three coats for opacity.

I recently lost my trusty striper brush, so I was forced to use a different nail art brush for this look. I was surprised to learn that I actually liked the replacement better!

I started with a shorter brush and then cut the amount of bristles down by half using cuticle nippers. If you've never cut a brush before, Candice did a great video tutorial on it that I would recommend checking out. The shorter brush gives me better control, and lowering the amount of bristles let me keep the fine lines that my old striper brush created. Here's an Instagram shot of the new brush if you want to check it out!

What do you think? Do you want to be friends with my inner hipster?

The China Glaze Sunsational collection is available this month at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide.

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Craft hair accessories: The Hair Bow tutorial

Craft hair accessories: The Hair Bow tutorial

Hello, all of my blog friends! Guess what? My weekend has had an early start! Yes, there are definite perks to working at a Christian college. Good Friday, here I come.

I have been seriously lacking in creative projects recently, so I decided that in honor of my new niece I would share one of my absolute favorite crafts to make: hair bows.

So....here are the simple steps to making adorable, professional looking hair bows for all the little girls in your life (speaking of which, I'm pretty sure every pregnant person I know is having a girl). Yes, I'm spilling all of my secrets. Feel special. 

The Simple Hair Bow:
Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
-30 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Drape the longest piece of ribbon over your hand, wrapping twice so that the ends of the ribbon face opposite directions.

Step 2: Place the folded ribbon on a flat surface.

Step 3: Gather and pinch the center of the ribbon to create a bow. (Sorry about the blurry picture....I looked after I had finished the bow.) Wrap the center of the bow with jewelry wire to hold in place. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect right away, you can pull and mess with the ribbon once the wire is in place to get it looking like a bow.

Step 4: Take the 8" piece of ribbon and fold one half over the other.

Step 5: Create a knot by pulling the top half up through the center loop.

Step 6: Place and hot glue the knot over the center wired part of the hair bow.  Wrap ribbon around the back, hot glue, and trim off the excess ribbon.

Step 7: Hot glue the top of an alligator clip or hair clip and attach the hair bow. Be sure to place wax paper in the hair clip so you don't glue it shut!

Step 8: The last and probably most important step is to fray check the ends of the bow. We don't want unraveled ribbon, people. Fray check is your new bestie.

Ta-da! A cute and simple hair bow.

The 3-Layered Hair Bow (my favorite)

If you like huge hair bows, this bow is for you!

Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
- 3, 19 inch long pieces of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Take one piece of 19" long ribbon.  Overlap as shown below.

Step 2: Pinch the center of the ribbon and hold in place by wrapping jewelry wire around the middle.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the remaining 19" pieces of ribbon. Your bows should look like this when you finish.

Step 4: Stack the 3 bows on top of each other. I usually stack them in a clockwise direction so that they don't lay directly on top of each other. Wrap jewelry wire around the center of all 3 bows.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 4-8 in the above directions to make a center knot and complete the bow.

And you should get something like this when you're done!

Love :).

The Hair Bow

Hello, all of my blog friends! Guess what? My weekend has had an early start! Yes, there are definite perks to working at a Christian college. Good Friday, here I come.

I have been seriously lacking in creative projects recently, so I decided that in honor of my new niece I would share one of my absolute favorite crafts to make: hair bows.

So....here are the simple steps to making adorable, professional looking hair bows for all the little girls in your life (speaking of which, I'm pretty sure every pregnant person I know is having a girl). Yes, I'm spilling all of my secrets. Feel special.

The Simple Hair Bow:
Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
-30 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Drape the longest piece of ribbon over your hand, wrapping twice so that the ends of the ribbon face opposite directions.

Step 2: Place the folded ribbon on a flat surface.

Step 3: Gather and pinch the center of the ribbon to create a bow. (Sorry about the blurry picture....I looked after I had finished the bow.) Wrap the center of the bow with jewelry wire to hold in place. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect right away, you can pull and mess with the ribbon once the wire is in place to get it looking like a bow.

Step 4: Take the 8" piece of ribbon and fold one half over the other.

Step 5: Create a knot by pulling the top half up through the center loop.

Step 6: Place and hot glue the knot over the center wired part of the hair bow.  Wrap ribbon around the back, hot glue, and trim off the excess ribbon.

Step 7: Hot glue the top of an alligator clip or hair clip and attach the hair bow. Be sure to place wax paper in the hair clip so you don't glue it shut!

Step 8: The last and probably most important step is to fray check the ends of the bow. We don't want unraveled ribbon, people. Fray check is your new bestie.

Ta-da! A cute and simple hair bow.

The 3-Layered Hair Bow (my favorite)

If you like huge hair bows, this bow is for you!

Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
- 3, 19 inch long pieces of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Take one piece of 19" long ribbon.  Overlap as shown below.

Step 2: Pinch the center of the ribbon and hold in place by wrapping jewelry wire around the middle.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the remaining 19" pieces of ribbon. Your bows should look like this when you finish.

Step 4: Stack the 3 bows on top of each other. I usually stack them in a clockwise direction so that they don't lay directly on top of each other. Wrap jewelry wire around the center of all 3 bows.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 4-8 in the above directions to make a center knot and complete the bow.

And you should get something like this when you're done!

Love :).

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