There and Back to Nails

During some of my forays into the craftier side of the interwebs, I stumbled upon people who turn books into purses.  These things are so cool!  I love the idea of taking an old or destroyed book and giving it new life.  Instead of looking for an appropriate book, I'm taking a sorta-shortcut and making a book cover for a fictional book because, why not?

This week's inspiration is from J. R. R. Tolkien.  Bilbo Baggins writes a book called "There and Back again", about his Gandalf-fueled adventures.  I'm making my own version of his book and turning that into a purse.  

There's been a lot of problems to solve.  One of them is what kind of handles I'm putting on the book purse.  You can find some very nice purse handles for sale, but they didn't inspire me as much as I'd like.  I also had a whole bunch of pages and I didn't want to throw them away, but no idea what to do with them.  Then it hit me... glue them together and make handles from the pages of the book!  

I love the idea of having the handles relating somehow to the purse itself.  It has that artsy self-referential element that makes my outer geeky girl squee. Of course, that leaves me with the problem of how to attach them to the purse... and for that I'm recycling the hardware from a purse that's seen the end of its days.  So far, I'm hopeful that it will work, but I've never done this before, so it's all a guess.

Girly Nail Art Time

So for now, here's a simple manicure that I did recently.  It's very easy to do and pretty versatile by mixing colors.  Using black, white, silver, and gold will have a very different look from one done with pastels or neon colors.  Use what you have on hand and play with the density of dots.

If you don't have dotting tools, which are needed for this look, grab some household items.  Anything that comes to a point will work... pencils, pens, bobby pins, and toothpicks all make great dotting tools.  

I've also seen dotting tools and other nail art tools available in drugstores around here, so they're mercifully easier to find for 10 bucks or so.  If you plan on doing a lot of nail art, they're very useful to have around, especially since I use them for some sculpting jobs, too.

Metallic Lace Manicure Tutorial

I'm in the middle of working on a pair of decoupage shoes using images from one of my favorite comics when I was a child.  Since they're not done yet, it's nail art time!

This was the manicure that I had for SoonerCon, so since I was doing the steampunk thing, I thought I'd go with a nice metallic nail and I'm a sucker for "complicated" nail designs.

This one is a pretty easy one once it's broken down step-by-step.  It looks best with contrast between the colors.  You could do a contrast with light and dark, or even actual contrasting colors on the color wheel.  If you're not familiar with the color wheel or color theory, it's a very useful tool for helping to pick out colors for many arts and crafts.  

This technique isn't mine.  I can't remember where I ran across it the first time as it was several months ago. It's a variation on the no-tools cloud manicure, which is also an adorable look without all the extra dots.

However, dots make your nail art look much more complicated than it actually is.  

Tools 

• Base coat
• Nail polish colors:  Shown here is Pure Ice in "Silver Mercedes", "Magic", and "Bite Me" and Maybelline Color Show in "Bold Gold"
• Dotting tool: I used both a large and small diameter dotting tool.  If you don't have this particular tool, a toothpick will make the small dots and an old ballpoint pen will do for the larger dots.
• Palette
• Top coat

Butterfly manicure and Corset Belt intro

I saw the butterfly manicure online a while back and think it's beautiful. I'm not much of a butterfly person, but the butterfly is associated with fibromyalgia awareness, so a couple of weeks ago I was inspired to do a Fibro Awareness manicure.  I was diagnosed back in 2004 after a long and painful illness that led to a hysterectomy at 24.  It's cost me jobs, relationships, and opportunities.  Eventually, I've to come to terms with this disease and while it's a struggle, I'm determined to live the best life I can.  I'm with a wonderful man and a job that I love that has seen for the last 5 years the ups and "I am in so much pain I can't think" moments.  I'm grateful to the people in my life who have helped me through the depression that lasted through my twenties.  I'm glad that now they finally see me emerging from my own cocoon to become the woman that was inside all the time.

Done, right?  Nope.

I didn't document the steps that time because it was the first time I'd done that manicure.  I did the nails again because i liked them so much!  I still haven't stopped my crafting, though... I've got a deadline.  This next major project is a corset belt, which I'm still finishing up all the tiny little details.  One problem: I'm an noobie seamstress.

I wanted to do a hall costume this time around because I've never done it and I love having really cool, unique costumes.  This time, I'm doing a Steampunk Kitsune after finding a yarn tail tutorial on YouTube and getting inspired.  I had some of the elements already and it's now just adding all of the little details, like a corset.  I don't have the skills yet to be able to make one that isn't terrible, so I went online and found an easy corset-inspired belt that would be a successful enough project.  I've had lots of little bumps in the process of learning and although it's far from perfect, I don't hate it.  The sewing didn't take long, but now it's just adding all of the details that is taking a while.  You'll see the completed journey next week when I can show off both sides of this beast... it's reversible! (More costume, no extra room needed in suitcase FTW)


Now.. on to the girly-girl painting of the nails!!  This is not a manicure for the faint of heart, as it does involve drawing with your non-dominant hand (shudder), but it's easier if you've got something like Sally Hansen's Nail Art Pen or even a sharpie.  I did not create this manicure, and you'll see several different versions of this tutorial online.  You'll see this theme again come November for Transgender Awareness week.