Homemade Nail Wraps

Nail wraps are all the rage!

With the super-cool designs and easy application, why not make your own with the nailpolish you have laying around? 

I will show you the basic technique on how to make these wraps, but you can customize the design to fit your needs and style.

It's a lot easier to make a detailed pattern on a flat surface instead of a curved nail!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are nail polishes, a ziplock bag or laminate report cover, a sharpie, a toothpick, and an xacto knife. You need somewhat of a thick plastic base to paint your decal on, so don't use a flimsy sandwich bag or something....

Step 2: Cut a square of the plastic from the bag so you are only working with one plastic piece.  Trace an outline of all our nails on one side of the zip-lock bag. Turn the piece over so you will not be painting on top of this Sharpie (it will leech off into your decal and look bad if you paint on the same side).

Step 3: Paint a thick layer of paint on one of your outlines. I added four drops of other colors and marbled them with a toothpick. Repeat this for all your nail outlines. Make sure your plastic is lying flat

You should have something that looks like this. Let all your paint decals dry for one day.

Step 4: Take your xacto knife and trim off any ragged edges so that the plastic is more of a nail shape; slice very gently with the blade so you only cut the nailpolish decal, not the bag underneath. Once you have a decal shape, gently lift off the whole decal, being careful not to rip it; it helps to pry the ends up with your blade. Paint a layer of nailpolish on your nail and when still wet, place the decal on top. Gently burnish the decal to adhere and remove air bubbles. 

Step 5: Repeat for each nail. If the decals are longer on the edges, you can gently trim with scissors and/or file them to shape the nail. Once they are all totally adhered and the paint beneath has had time to dry, finish with a top coat to totally seal.

There are so many possibilities with this! I will be experimenting with different designs and posting them. I started out with a simple marble to show the technique. This is great to make decals ahead of time, and then have several to choose from the next time you want a manicure!

All photos and instructions copyright Allison Cooling. Do not repost this or use my photos unless linking back to me.

Pizza for the Birds!

It's pizza....for the birds! With the holidays and winter time, I always like to help out the wildlife! A great way to use stale bread, and they look cute hanging from outdoor trees! Put them by your window to see all the different types of birds stop by. This is also super easy and a good craft to make with kids!

Just a slice!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are birdseed, peanut butter, scissors, stale bread (use thicker bread like halved sandwich rolls or something, so that they hold up. Don't try with plain sandwich bread), and paperclips.

Step 2: Use the scissors to cut out triangles like pizza slices. Spread with a good layer of peanut butter.

Step 3: Take the birdseed, and if you want it faux-pepperoni, place a bunch of seeds in small clumps and press down. You can just coat the whole thing with seed if you'd like.

Step 4: Un-bend your clip, so that the outside piece of wire is bent at 90 degrees, and the top still retains a hook for hanging. Stick this through the slice.

That's it! Go hang on a tree outside, and wait for the birds.

All images copyright Allison Cooling

Color Monday: Rabbit Food

A palette of greens! From bright lime to deep emerald, all the possibilities within a lettuce leaf!

Feel free to use the palette in your art works and other projects.

Quilled Peacock Earrings

For this next project, I used a different inspiration than my normal

 designer pieces. Peacock feathers!

I wanted to capture both the colors and the elegance of these beauties, so I figured I'd try something new and make a quilled earring. For those who don't know, quilling is the art of rolling and shaping thin paper strips. I find it very pretty and versatile, and not used often in the world of art.

This is a very easy tutorial for quilling beginners; usually, you want to use a quilling tool (sort of a wand with a slot at the end to insert and roll the paper), but you can use an eye of a large sewing needle instead if you are new. It will be a little harder 

though, but it's still doable.

Adding gems and glitter to these earrings makes for very sparkly and eye-catching earrings, despite their size. A perfect party accessory when you want something just a little different, something that people haven't seen before. They will be surprised when they find out the majority of the earring is paper!

We seal these earrings with clear gloss so they are somewhat waterproof, but still be careful with these.

Use any color combination, my combo was obviously inspired by peacocks, but if you have a certain outfit to match please do. Make these in all different color schemes for different party outfits!

Let's get started.

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are scissors, glue, a toothpick, glitter, clear gloss (not shown), flatback gems (like 3mm or so), two earring posts, a quilling tool, and quilling paper.

If you're new to quilling, I suggest you buy yourself a quilling set like this one, it's got all the basics you need and isn't expensive at all. That's what I did when starting out! You can get really creative with the art, and can even make things like Christmas ornaments. The possibilities are endless!

Step 2: Cut 6 4" pieces of quilling paper. Create coils out of each strip, winding, the paper around the quilling tool, and glue the end down to hold. The toothpick helps you with getting little bits of glue on the paper! Let these dry.

Step 3: Pinch both ends of your coils to form eye-shapes. Glue two of these shapes side to side, as seen in the middle pic. Glue the third eye right into the center, then the posts onto the arrangement, as seen in the picture. Let dry.

Step 4: Glue three gems onto each center of the three coils. Let dry. Take the gloss and paint the edges of your earring, and cover in glitter. Let dry.

Then, paint the whole earring with clear gloss (don't paint over the gems as this will make them glassy), and let dry. This will help seal and strengthen the earring. Let dry.

Very elegant and dainty, plus tons of sparkle!

Little, but pack a punch of sparkle!

All photos and instructions copyright Allison Cooling. Do not repost this or use my photos unless linking back to me.

Color Monday: Jungle Fever Palette

A bright blend of the colors of the jungle; yellows and greens, browns and deep reds. Catch the fever!

Feel free to use this palette in any of your designs.

Punch & Judy Friendship Bracelet

This bracelet  is very "Indian Summer"-looking. The mix of the seed beads with the thread and the handmade look all make for an interesting piece. I really liked the simplicity and knew you'd love a tutorial on it, so here goes!

You can change up any of the colors (like most of the time) to create a one-of-a-kind piece. These are great friendship bracelets as well, 'cuz they are easy to make but not the usual run-of-the-mill knotted kind.

Make the beaded panel bigger or smaller, depending on the look you want. 

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are seed beads, a clasp, thin wire (I believe it was 26 gauge), embroidery floss, pliers and scissors.

Step 2: Cut a length of wire (size depends on how big/long you want to make the beaded panel) but a couple of feet will be plenty. Thread on 4 beads, then thread the other end of wire through the beads in the opposite way, securing on the beads. Pus the beads down to the center of the wire.

Step 3: Thread on 4 of a different color, and again thread the other end through the opposite way. Push the beads down to sit right on top of your first layer. Repeat with another color.  Keep building your panel in this way, increasing by one bead after about 4 rows of 4. I did about 4 rows of 5 then, a row of 6, a row of 7, then a row of 6, the 4 5's, then 4 4's. You don't have to follow this exactly, but make sure you gradually increase then gradually decrease for a symmetrical panel. When it's long enough, I threaded my extra wire back through the second to last row and cut right at the end of those black beads. I superglued the ends so they hold and weren't pokey. 

Step 4: Cut a length of embroidery floss, about 30". Fold it in half. Fold in half again. You should end up with a group of 4 strands of floss. Take this full group, and thread the end (starting with the side with two cut ends of floss) through the first two rows of your bead panel. Set up exactly as you see in the second picture here. Thread on so that half of the floss is on one side of the panel, and the rest is on the other side. Take the side of the floss that has the two loops as ends (the other side will have one end and two cut ends, where you cut the floss), also the side that is facing you. Separate this side into two groups of two threads, it should separate naturally. Take your side with the four threads, and bring it back over the bead panel towards you, and through the very end of the side facing you, through the two groupings you just made.

Continue pulling until your knot forms. When it is fully tightened, it should look like the picture above. Two threads will be on one side of the group of four threads, and the other two will be on the other side. This knot is also called a Lark's Head.

You can add beads to the ends tie knots to hold. To wear, simply tie the floss into a knot at the back and let the beads dangle! Super cool and handmade-looking!

All photos copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

If you post/share this tutorial, please link back to me.

Color Monday: Glitter Girl Palette

Taken from the glitter of an eyeshadow palette, this mix combines blue hues with a baby pink, offset by  chocolate brown. A great palette for a nursery!

Feel free to use this palette in any of your art or design projects.

Fall Trend Nails: The Gilded Manicure

Fall 2012 is all about excess; from the baroque trend, the layers upon layers of leather and furs (that's not nice!), the obsession with glitz and glam, and with bordeaux being the "Color", I knew this would be the perfect opportunity for a manicure tutorial.

It mixes a base of the deep red with metallic "brushed" texture on top, mimicking the way designers have mixed and layered gold and silver fabrics this season. 

Plus, they are SO easy to do; and you will use an unexpected material; tin foil. It gives the polish that great texture that will shine and layer well. The result looks like a mix of brushed metal and crackle polish. It's super quick to do and it doesn't take any skill at all!

I used silver on top of gold for a mixed metal look, but you can use one or the other if you'd like. Also, change up the base color for different looks. A darker color works better; deep sapphires, rubies, and amethysts would give you a very rich look!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are a base coat of polish (use any dark red for this look, change it up for other looks), a gold polish, silver polish, and tin foil.

Paint the nails your base coat, you probably need 2 coats.

Step 2: Rip a piece about 2" of tin foil; crumple up real good, then carefully undo the ball till it's flat again. Put a medium drop of the gold polish, and stamp the tin foil into it, then stamp onto your nails. Make sure you only use a little of the polish at the time to get detail. Stamp all over the nails, but leave a lot of red show through.

Step 3: Let all the gold dry. 

Do the same thing, but now with the silver; take a little at a time, and make sure you don't overly stamp, you want both the gold and the base color to be visible.

Let dry. Clean up any mess on your nails with nail polish remover.

See? I told you it was super quick and easy. It's great if you need to do your nails fast, but still want something creative vs. a plain color. The mix of metal colors give a great shine.

Copyright Quiet Lion Creations.