My Manicure

I was never a big fan of Hello Kitty, but I do like a few of Sanrio’s other creations such as Pandapple. He’s like a half-fruit, half-animal abomination of nature or something. I love him. :)

This isn’t just a tutorial about Pandapple. This is also a post about stamping, or using stamps to create nail art on your nails. You can freehand if you like, but having a guideline or outline to work with can make the process much easier. 

You can use this post to freehand your own Pandapple, or you can see how stamping works and create something using any rubber stamps you have.  

Here is my Pandapple stamp. I bought it at the Sanrio store and I’ll be using it to give myself a light guideline. Pandapple is a very simple character though, so if you’re confident with a brush you can freehand this character or Hello Kitty, as she is very similar. If you want to make a regular panda just replace the red apple top with white. 

Paint your full nail with any color of nail polish. I think light blues look nice with Pandapple. I’m using China Glaze’s “For Audrey.” This is two coats. 

Do not continue until your nail is about 90% dry. I waited about 15 minutes before moving on to the next step.

(Waiting for nail polish to dry is boring, so I always watch a movie or a show while I do my manicures. Pause the show while you paint and watch while it dries. You’ll be much less likely to smudge your polish from continuing on too soon if you have something to do that doesn’t involve your hands.)

After your nail polish is about 90% dry, (do not try this on a freshly painted nail, it will be a squishy mess) roll your stamp against your nail. This will work with any stamp, just push against your nail to create a light imprint. What we’re left with is a very faint partial outline. It’s not exactly coloring-book-easy to fill in, but it will definitely help keep things in proportion. 

Using regular white acrylic paint and a small rounded paintbrush, outline the lower half of Pandapple’s face. 

Then fill it in. I avoided the eye area, to make it easier to see where they will be placed later. Again, you can freehand this, I just find the guideline very helpful. 

Always rinse out your paintbrush in between colors or when the paint becomes gloppy on the brush. 

Using the same paintbrush, pick up some red acrylic paint and fill in the upper half of the circle that is Pandapple’s bizzare head. 

Again, same paintbrush. I just rinsed it out. Dip into some green acrylic paint to create an almond-shaped leaf. 

Now comes the most difficult part: outlining with black. For outlining anything you need a paintbrush that comes to a very sharp point, like pictured. Any decent rounded paintbrush should do this. If you lightly dip into your black paint and your bristles don’t taper to a point, your brush is horrible. (Pictured is a size one paintbrush.)

Pick up a small amount of black paint. We’re going to “draw” with our paintbrush, just like it’s a pen. 

No matter the manicure design, it’s always easier to have a visual reference. When I did the Pink Leopard Tips tutorial I looked up pictures of leopards to see examples of spots, and when I did the Candy Corn Nails post I bought real candy corn. Your mind thinks it knows what something looks like, but it makes a huge difference to visually see it. What you draw when thinking “sailboat” and what you draw when looking at a sailboat are worlds apart. :)

It takes two seconds to do a Google-search. I’m using the sticker on top of my Pandapple stamp as my reference. 

Fill in the gaps we previously left for Pandapple’s eyes, leaving small white pupils. If you accidentally fill in the pupils while drawing your black circles, it’s okay! That’s what’s so great about acrylic paint. Wait for the black to dry and you can dot your white acrylic paint right over it. The same goes for if you accidentally make the black eyes too large. Just wait for it to dry and use your white acrylic paint like “Wite-Out.” 

Add a little nose and a smile.

Drag out a line between your white and red.

Outline and add ears.

Add a clear topcoat to protect your nail art and add shine. You can never skip this step because acrylic paint is water soluable. 

There he is! A creepy Pandapple friend for your thumb or big toe. :)

Little wrapped presents are the look we’re going for today, complete with a tied holiday ribbon. (This is a pretty complicated nail art design; if you’re finding it too difficult I recommend trying the snow sponging tutorial instead.)

You can wear almost any nail polish color as your base for this look; I’m using a shimmery gold. Pictured is two coats of a cheap gold nail polish, and one coat of OPI’s “Up Front and Personal,” (a champange-colored microglitter polish that I like to layer over other colors for added sparkle.)

I don’t have the right sort of burgundy-colored acrylic paint that I’m after, so I’m going to mix my own using red and purple acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is really easy to mix, even if the companies are different. 

I added some red acrylic paint to my purple, and mixed them up with my paintbrush. 

This is optional, but you can attach a gemstone, sequin or jelly-ball embellishment to be the center of your ribbon. Otherwise a simple acrylic paint dot in the center will do. 

Dip your paintbrush into your acrylic paint, and draw out a loop surrounding your center dot. I’m using a size one paintbrush, (not a special “nail art brush,” just a regular paintbrush.)

Repeat the same loop on the opposite side. As you can see, I made each of my loops in two strokes. This is easier than trying to paint the loops in one rounded brushstroke.

For the bottom tail of your bow, you can simply draw out a line, or you can paint a line with two little flicks at the end like pictured. 

Repeat the same tail on the opposite side. 

Paint a triangle-shaped stripe above, and on the sides of your ribbon. 

Apply a clear topcoat over your entire nail for shine, and to protect your nail art. 

If you have any questions about this design or any other tutorial, feel free to ask me in any comments section or e-mail me at: mymanicure@yahoo.com. I’m always happy to help. :)

Back in August I posted a sponging tutorial. When sponging is done in white, it always looks like snow to me, so I’m bringing back this design as a holiday look. 

Paint your full nail in red or green nail polish. 

Put a bit of white acrylic paint onto a piece of tin foil and have a cup of water ready. Wet your sponge very lightly and squeeze out any excess water before stamping it over your white acrylic paint.

Then stamp your sponge onto your tinfoil or paper towel until you can see a sponge pattern emerging. (See the original sponging post for an image showing how much paint should be loaded onto your sponge.)

Press your sponge onto your painted nail for snowy tips. 

Continue until you get the amount of snowy paint spots you desire.

Coat your entire nail in a glittery clear, or a regular clear topcoat. 

If you’re going to decorate several nails this way, I recommend using different areas of your sponge in order to keep your snow looking fresh and even. (Using the same area over and over can load up your sponge with too much paint.) This is a quick and easy nail design that also looks cute on toes. Happy holidays!

This is a colorful holiday nail design meant to look like slightly tangled Christmas tree lights draped across your nail. 

Your base color can be anything you want, but since the lights themselves are colorful I’d suggest keeping it simple and avoiding bright shades. I’m using two coats of Sephora by OPI’s “Fancy Schmancy” as it gives off a nice holiday frost look, like clean snow.

We’ll be using forest green acrylic paint and a short liner/striper brush to create our string of Christmas lights. 

Dip the tip of your liner brush into your green acrylic paint and draw out a wavy line across your nail. Go light and just worry about getting your shape in; we can go over the paint after to make the line more even. 

I retraced my green acrylic paint line to make it darker and easier to see. Add some green dots here and there: that’s where our “lights” will hang from. 

I’m using almond-shaped gemstones, but round gemstones will work as well. (If you don’t have colored gems, try making dots using brightly colored nail polish, acrylic paint, small sequins, etc.) I placed small dots of clear nail polish along the green strand to give something for the gems to stick to. 

Coat your entire nail in a clear topcoat to protect your “Christmas tree lights” and your nails are all set for the holidays. :)

Candy cane nails! That’s today’s requested post; and I have two more holiday themed nail art tutorials set for tomorrow and the day after.

To start off this look, paint your full nails with any white nail polish. I used two coats of Sally Hansen’s “All the White Stuff.” 

All this nail design requires is some red acrylic paint and a liner/striper brush. You can buy a “striper brush” at a nail art shop, or a “riggers paintbrush” and an art/craft store. They are the same thing.

Dip your liner brush into your red acrylic paint and drag out a thin stripe across your nail. Making stripes with a liner brush is easy, because the long bristles naturally drag out a straight line if you pull the brush against a surface. “Drawing” a straight line with a short paintbrush is much more difficult. 

This is how acrylic paint can sometimes look over nail polish, but don’t worry. A clear topcoat as our final step will bring paint and polish to the same level and you won’t notice this bubbled-up look at the end. 

Repeat the stripe-step two more times to make three thin lines across the center of your nail. 

Color in a thick red stripe across the corner of your nail. It needs to be thicker than your first three lines because…

The biggest mistake I see with the candy cane nail look, is a “red/white/red/white” alternating stripe pattern, all stripe sections being the same width. If you look at a traditional candy cane though, that’s not what they actually look like. Real candy canes have a three-thin-stripe in between thick-red-stripes pattern.

Repeat the last step on the opposite corner of your nail. Also, this gemstone step is not necessary, but I attached a one to the tip of the nail for added sparkle. 

Very important - coat your entire nail with a clear topcoat. This will even everything out, protect your acrylic paint work and keep your gemstone from falling off. Now your nail design is smooth and shiny just like a real candy cane. :)

I realize this is a very labor-intensive nail design. If I were going to wear this look, I’d wear it on my index/ring fingers only, keeping the rest of my nails in simple white or red nail polish. People will notice your cute candy cane nails without you having to paint all ten, and a little holiday cuteness tends to go a long way.