Striping tape for beautiful nails

Striping tape

I love a beautiful manicure. Unfortunately I also lack willingness to actually do my nails. There is always some "good" excuse not to do it, like "Oh it's too late and I'm so tired" or "Think I'm gonna do some work with polymer clay next day, so I'll probably ruin my nails, so maybe next time" and so on. However from time to time I actually do my nails. And for those rear occasions I like to have some good inspiration. That's why I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to nail art and care. While admiring the gorgeous manicures all over the web I always wondered how do they do those tiny lines so perfect, is it the professionalism or is there some trick? One day I finally found out that there is this amazing striping tape. OMG! Where was that before? :) This tiny 1mm wide tape was like a miracle. It can be used to make those perfect lines or You can simply use it as a part of Your design, because they come in a range of colors. God knows why but it took me quite some time to actually buy this tape. I ordered it online, it didn't came the first time, so the seller kindly send a replacement. And finally it's here! It's so cute and tiny I love it. :) Yesterday tried it and it's great. I guess it will take some time to master it, but this is going to be fun.

These are some of my favorite designs.

1. http://wackylaki.blogspot.jp/2013/03/tutorial-tuesday-striping-tape-and.html
2. http://pshiiit.com/2013/06/14/decouverte-les-desserts-de-marie-antoinette/
3. http://pshiiit.com/2012/02/06/essie-tart-deco/
4. http://www.spektorsnails.com/2012/04/square-nails-design-by-sophie-from-my.html
5. http://pshiiit.com/2013/01/14/tuto-nail-art-facile-nail-art-aux-couleurs-de-printemps/
6. http://pshiiit.com/2013/05/18/bourjois-et-ses-nouvelles-couleurs-dete/
7. http://wackylaki.blogspot.com/2011/09/day-9-rainbow-nails-with-striping-tape.html
8. http://polishartaddiction.blogspot.com/2012/07/nautical-striping-tape.html
9. http://www.makeupwithdrawal.com/2012/05/striped-manicure.html

So this is one of those helpful tricks that make nail art a bit more easier. But there are a lot more tips and tricks witch can help even more. Here are "27 Nail Hacks For The Perfect DIY Manicure", I specially love this great way of removing the polish, tried it and it really works great, because removal can be a bit tricky and irritating some times.

Best wishes and may Your nails be beautiful!
Kristina

Peacock inspiration

I find myself having a bit of a peacock obsession lately. The colors, shapes and the over all mood of this majestic creature is captivating and some what overpowering. Of course this is not something new to the fashion and inspirational worlds, peacock have been around for quite some time. But for me this fascination helps to see all this from a new perspective. Now I can see so much potential for so many new projects. And let’s face it peacock is not one of the more simple creatures. Let alone the number of colors and hues.

So this all started from a couple of bottles of nail polish. One ordinary day I stumbled upon a new color collection from my favorite nail polish. I picked two lovely colors – apple green and this teal with glitter. They looked really nice together, figured I’m gonna do my nails in that green and use the sparkly teal for the ring finger (Yes I love this trend!♥). When buying these nail polishes I thought to myself that together they remind me of peacock. And that was the trigger. After few days I was working with polymer clay and decided to make some earrings in peacocky colors and this nice swirl pattern so it would look kind of like swirly feathers. It came out beautifully and made me want more of this peacock inspiration. So as always for inspiration I “went” to Pinterest. After few hours of countless images I made a “Peacock” board and got hooked for real LOL. 

Now I’m working on this bead loom bracelet pattern with a peacock feather. Since it’s beauty is mostly in the colors I had to made it in 25 colors (mostly different hues). And after raiding my bead supplies I managed to match only half of those colors. Good thing my favorite (and the best) bead shop is very near my home and my good friend works there so bead shopping is always twice as fun. So I got like 14 new colors (couple of more “just in case”) and plan to by done with the pattern soon. And I’m really excited to start beading this bracelet. Since after this I will have a LOT of peacock color beads left, I feel plenty more peacock project coming up. Right now I’m also making new set (or few sets) of crochet flowers in these colors and while bead sopping I found these gorgeous tiny sparkly cabochons in blues and purples so they will be becoming something too.

Accordingly Cup of Color may be changing it’s color scheme for the time being, we’ll see ;)

That’s it for now, till next time!

Best wishes,

Kristina

For those who love colors

And who doesn‘t, right? Personally I LOVE colors. They are my main inspiration and "creation fuel" :)

So this all started while browsing in Pinterest (like most of the times lately). I was looking for information about some polymer clay technique for the polymer clay class I‘m teaching now. And I stumbled upon an interesting post about some miracle template witch let‘s you to pick colors for extruded canes (the Retro cane to be exact). "Well this is extremely helpful!"– I thought. Tried it and loved it. It lets you pick 5 colors and gives you the final look, the result will even change if you rearrange the color order. It‘s so great, no more wondering "will this look good in the cane?", and let me tell you it‘s FUN. I made three color combinations, though it was really late and I was barely keeping my eyes open. I think anybody who makes these extruded canes will appreciate this template.

But this was just the beginning. Yesterday I looked around the page witch had this template. Jackpot! It's called "COLORlovers" and this actually appeared to be a whole, kind of social page, dedicated to colors and patterns. There you can make your own color palette, patterns, color the patterns others made and much more. There also is a store where you can order multiple things with your colors or patterns. I immediately singed up. This is just a page for such a color freak like me :D

It was a good day for discovering ;) 

And here are few of my first creations.