I’ll be honest,t his was supposed to go in a different direction — but I couldn’t find my Exacto knife anywhere, which made cutting fun shapes a no-go, so had to quickly come up with a Plan B before the sun set.
Then I realized that one of the hardest tricks to get right in nail art is perfectly straight lines. If you’ve got a super-steady hand, you can do it freestyle (practice makes perfect). And there’s of course the taping method, but so many times it goes wrong with minor bleeds and paint lifting up with the tape (again, practice…). But using the DIY nail decal method? Easy-friggin-peasy!
I started this one with a two coat base of OPI Casino Royale from the Skyfall Collection — I’ve definitely been keeping things in my favorite colors wheelhouse lately and this plummy color is no exception; rich and thick, it’s got this royal air to it that’s really delicious. Followed that by placing some chunks of nail polish on parchment paper to dry while I went and did some yard work (from left to right, China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, OPI Berlin There Done That, and China Glaze Man Hunt):
Once those were dry (and the yard didn’t look like a complete disaster anymore), I went in with some scissors to cut them into strips. This was all eyeballed, so obviously there are some inconsistencies, and if you wanna be super precise about things you can always use a ruler as a guide… but I was admittedly rushin’ things so this is how it worked out.
Once sliced and diced, it was only a matter of peeling up the slivers and weaving them together. I used my fingers, but you can employ tweezers too (probably helpful if you cut your lines thinner than I did).
Using the nail decal method, I dropped the strips onto my nail and pressed them into place:
Then used a pointed cotton swab and some nail polish remove to clean off the excess (this is where I realized I missed the opportunity to weave the lines up near the top once more, whoopsie)…
Wrap it up with some topcoat and voila, you’ve got some no muss no fuss straight lines/woven patterning for your nails!
This came out awesome! Especially love how the colours look together! Again, AWESOME!!!
Looks awesome! Great idea
look great
fantastic
good idea
Wow, these are absolutely awesome!
Whoha, that’s a fun idea, and look at those crisp lines!
Great work!
Lovely! I didn’t know you could do this on parchment paper! I tried it on the waxy side of freezer paper…laziness on my part…but not go. Was the paper hard to pull off the back?
awesome! love the color combo
This is a really neat idea. I thought you had painted the lines.
nice 1….i also have my own design .can i mail u??
So I am digging your website and this pattern in particular. I managed to do it but I ended up having trouble getting the strips woven together to actually hold their pattern while picking it up to place on my finger.