Nail Stamping

Hi There!

You know that terrible moment when you've done a beautiful job painting your nails and you're trying to wait patiently until they're fully dry before you start doing anything, but then you get hungry and reach for a snack and accidentally bump your nails and all your hard work is ruined?  Yeah, that happens to me too.  All the time.  So today I was in the stamp isle at Michaels and it dawned on me... what if I dented my nails on purpose and in a pretty way?  I decided to try it out and I got this:

Here's how to do it:

1.  Paint your nails any color you want.

2.  Let them dry for a half hour so that they will be dry but not dent-proof.

3.  Gently press a clean, dry stamp onto the nail on your ring finger (or all of your nails, if you want!).

4.  Paint over all of your nails with a clear top coat.  The one I used on my nails was a matte finish, but a glossy one should work great too.  This top coat will fill in the divots in the nail that you stamped and make it feel smooth again without erasing the impression that the stamp left.

I like this look because it is so subtle that you could get away with wearing it to places where full-blown nail art might not be appropriate (like at work).  What do you think?



Happy stamping!
xoxo
Laura

Ombre Nails

Hi Friends,

Have you noticed the amount of ombre in the world today?  It seems like this style of shading a color from dark to light has seeped into everything from hair colors to clothes to kitchen utensils lately, and it turns out that it's super easy to join in on the fun.  You only need 2 things: a colored nail polish and a white nail polish.

1. To create a dark to light affect, with your thumb being the darkest and your pinky finger being the lightest, paint your thumb pink, using the pink nail polish right out of the bottle, then make four matching pink nail polish drips on some tin foil (or cardboard or anything else you can throw away).  Now drip some white nail polish next to each pink drip, making sure that each white drip is significantly larger than the last.


2. Mix the pink and the white together.


3. Use your newly made shades of pink to paint your nails.

Tip: Always wipe off your brush every time you switch from one color to another so that all the colors don't bleed together on your nails or -- even worse -- inside your jars of nail polish.

How easy was that?!  And look how pretty your nails will be:

Happy shading!
xoxo
Laura

Knitting for a European Winter Part 2: Fun Pink Scarf

Hello from Amsterdam!

I'm very excited to blog about this pink scarf that I made for myself because I am very excited about the scarf.  I've been wearing it everywhere, and not just because it's cold outside.  This scarf is so fun and cutesy and soft and warm and I made it for myself all by myself.

I found the free pattern at The Tricksy Knitter which is a super cute and informative website that I just happened to stumble across on google.

Things you will need:

• Two or three balls of bulky yarn


• Size 8 (5.0mm) knitting needles


• Scissors


• Needle for weaving in the ends

Directions:

• Get them right here from The Tricksy Knitter herself.

Here are four fun ways to wear this fancy-dancy scarf when you're walking across European bridges :



In addition to being pretty, the stripes of garter stitch help keep the scarf from rolling too much, which is what happens when you make a whole scarf out of stockinette stitch (like the one that I made for my boyfriend a few posts back).

I hope you're staying warm wherever you are out there in the world.

Tot ziens!
xoxo
Laura