Weird Wednesday ~ Feeling Punk with Craft Scissors

Hello Dahlings!

 

I was feeling da need to do something punkish on my nails recently & decided this would also be a good time to try a cut tape mani. I've seen several blogs use decorative edged scissors from da craft store to cut tape that is then used to mask off areas of da nail & polished over...but I had never tried it myself. Partially cuz me & tape manis have a love/hate thing going, but mostly due to just having so many other nail art techniques I wanted to try more than this one. It's pretty silly when you consider da huge pile o' crafting toys I have in my crapht room,

including a couple dozen decorative edged scissors.

 

Yes, I spell craft with a ph when it comes to my dedicated play room. When my room needs to be cleaned da 'ht' is silent cuz at that point it's a crap room.

 

 

Da polish line up: Orly Beach Cruiser, American Apparel Neon Violet,

Color Club Diamond Drops & Black Heart Beauty Cursed.

 

Da tool line up: Fiskars Deckle Paper Edgers & a piece of 'dog bone' sponge.

 

This brand of scissors is widely available at craft stores & online. I got mine at JoAnn's. Michael's carries da ProvoCraft deco scissors line. Both these brands & any other brand of paper cutting deco edge scissors can be used for this technique. Check da craft section at your local dollar & other discount stores.

 

Da sponge is from a 3 pack of car washing sponges I got on clearance at GI Joe's years ago. Pretty much any sponge can be used for nail art, but da finer da surface (smaller bubbles), da better da blending. Make-up sponges are most commonly seen on blogs being used for nail art & I have them. I use them cut into small pieces cuz while cheap to buy, you get a lot more control as well as uses out of them when da sponge being used is smaller than your nail. I also have da dog bone sponge (that's what da package called them cuz they're shaped like a cartoon bone) & it works just fine too. I like to cut my sponges into pieces with one end measuring 1/4" x 1/2 - 3/4". How long depends on da length of my nails at da time. Da piece above is about 1 1/2" long & I just cut off da used part when I'm done & save da rest for next time until da piece gets too small to hang on to easily. You may be able to find this type of sponge in da auto section of your local dollar or hardware store.

 

This is 2 coats of Beach Cruiser. It is MUCH brighter in person...

like 'blinded for life!' neon. Me likey!

 

I then sponged a 2 color gradient using Beach Cruiser & Neon Violet with a my piece of sponge. I think I like 3 colors in a gradient better cuz I get a better flow of colors, but this turned out ok. Da Neon Violet was on da sheer side (like many neons are) & required my going back after da 1st coat dried & dabbing a bit more on da tips. I still ended up with a couple of tiny spots where da pink showed thru.

 

I then added a stripe of Diamond Drops down da center of each nail from cuticle to tip. I have to say that while I loved da look of this polish in da end, it was a pita to apply. I had to fish for da silver holo shards & da base is an unattractive milky, gloopy mess to apply. While it does dry clear, those lumps need to be smoothed out while da polish is still wet cuz it ain't self-leveling.

 

TA DA! Before I started painting my nails, I cut two 2" pieces of 'magic' tape (da kind that is frosted) & then used da scissors to cut both long edges on both pieces. I cut one piece down da middle parallel to da long edges to make masks for my index, middle & ring fingers. Da other piece I cut off center (1/3 - 2/3) for my thumbs & pinkies. I then cut da 1st piece into three equal pieces & da other piece of tape in half using regular straight edge scissors. This gave me 10 masks that would fit all my nails. 

 

I applied da correct size mask down da middle of each nail on all da fingers on one hand & then painted Cursed down da sides of each masked nail. I tried to not get polish on my skin cuz black can be a pita to get off later. After painting my thumb, I used da pointy end of my cuticle stick to clean up da couple of spots of black on my cuticles. (I tried to paint cleanly! LOL) I then placed my pinky on a piece of paper towel & used da pointy end of da cuticle stick to pin down da free end of da tape to da paper towel & pulled my finger away. I did this on da rest of my fingers on that hand & then repeated all of this on my other hand. I know many peeps use tweezers to pull da tape off, but I hadn't gotten mine out & doing so with wet nails is not advised. So I improvised & found an easy way to do it. I don't know how well this method of tape removal will work with really skinny pieces of tape (i.e. striping tape), but for wider pieces it works just fine & I didn't have to pull painted tape off with my fingers. I finished with my usual coat of Seche Vite & it mostly smoothed out da lumps from da Diamond Drops.

 

I have quite a few different patterned deco edge scissors to try now that I'm getting da hang of tape manis!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

P.S. I'm still working out some technical issue with posting my Blog-a-versary Give-a-way, but it WILL happen this week!!!