Do It Yourself! Temporary Tattoo...?

In the name of bargain hunting and saving money, today I dedicate this post to the cheapskate, artsy, tattoo artist wanna-be in all of us. Also, I am participating in The Pintester Movement! Don't know what that is? Get on it yo...

OK, for my retest of a Pintester test, I am going to attempt the DIY Temporary Tattoo. Find the Pintester's attempt here and the original instructions here.

Since I already have tattoo's this one should be cake. I mean, I am an expert since sat through all those sessions. Doing that helped to enable me to be the best DIY Temporary Tattoo maker/tester out there. I have a feeling I am going to rock this one!

Awesomeness not pictured

Supplies:
- Parchment Paper
- Pencil
- Gel Pen
- Cloth
- Warm water
- Skin (this is vital, the article didn't say if it would work on scales or scutes. (Sorry turtles, no DIY Tattoos for you!)
- Awesomeness (this one I didn't have to buy, I was naturally blessed with this. If you want to buy it I think amazon sells it for about $12.99 + free shipping if you are a prime member)


Start by sketching something out in pencil onto the parchment paper.. OK. What do draw, what to draw?

Got it...

My artistic skillz rox! 

Now trace over the pencil with the gel pen... sounds easy enough. Pen wouldn't work and draw on the parchment paper... it may be user error but I doubt it.

Next, place tattoo on skin and add warm water to transfer over. I was going to put it on my ass cheek but I figured I'd have a hard time taking a photo of it so I resorted to my hand.

Yea...Next time will remember that the transfer paper mirrors the image.. good thing I don't do this for a living. Test - 1  Lindsay - 0  

Ombre Tiger Gel Mani Tutorial

I got a little bored the other day and wanted to try the tiger mani with the gel polish. I've done it before with regular polish. You can see those pictures here. That one had white and orange. This time I decided to use neon orange and neon yellow.

What you will need:

• Black polish
• Orange polish
• Yellow polish 
• Glitter accent (I used gold glitter)
• Realllllllly thin nail brush

Step 1: Start by prepping your nails as normal (cut, file cuticles etc). Then put on your base coat (cure base coat if your are doing gel)

Step 2: Now, paint the orange polish 3/4 of the way up your nail starting at the cuticle and going up. **Do not cure yet**

Step 3: Now, using your yellow polish, paint the tip you left uncolored by the yellow, and paint down and just a little over the orange. The gel polish because it doesn't dry by air, will kind of run together. This is why you do not want to cure after you paint the orange on.

Step 4: Now once you have done this to all of your fingers, cure the polish. Repeat step 3. You want two coats to give you that ombre. And again, with the gel, it will blend together mixing, but be careful not to use too much polish.

Step 5: With your nail brush paint black stripes over the nail. Make them thicker on the sides and go outward thinner to look more like tiger stripes. If using the gel, cure the black stripes in the UV lamp.

Step 6: Add glitter over some of the black tiger stripes to accent. Cure if using gel.

Step 7: Top coat (if using gel... you guessed it, cure!) 

Step 8: Go out and show off your cute DIY mani! Go ahead brag that you did it yourself. I give you permission!

Fun Easter / Spring Nails

Today just a quick tutorial for a great spring or Easter nail. I like this take on an Easter Egg without being too literal about it.

I got this idea from a Pinterest pin, so I cannot claim the creativity on this one. However, I loved it so much I had to try and recreate it.

Start by taking an all over color. Choose something light so that the overlay will show up. I chose Harmony Gelish Seafoam.

After you paint your 1 or 2 coats of an allover color, paint a diagonal line with your thin nail brush with a black.

Fill in the tip of the nail from the diagonal line up with black polish.

Using a dotting tool, make medium sized dots over the black polish.

Use a thin nail brush to create a glitter accent diagonally where the light color meets the black.
Lastly, finish with a top coat!

I will post pictures when I do it next :-( sadly I didn't have my camera while I was doing this.
Enjoy!

This was done with gel nail polish. The base color is
Gelish Harmony Seafoam

Wrapping paper funzies - DIY Magazine Wrap

I am sure we have all been in that situation where we need to wrap something but you have nothing to wrap it with. I have had this happen many times.

I used to wrap things in tissue paper. This is a great solution and super cute way to add your own personality on gifts. You can add stamps and stickers etc. This only works if you have tissue paper on hand :-/

I went to wrap a gift for my sister for her birthday and checked for wrapping paper. Of coarse I didn't have any, then I went for my secondary choice; tissue paper. I had run out of that too. With only 10 minutes until I had leave the house and not enough time to hit a store for a gift bag, I improvised.

Take a magazine and start by ripping a few pages out.

Next tape the pages together, but hide the ripped edge.

Wrap the gift and add a ribbon and wa-la!

This is a fun way to wrap without having to spend a bunch of money on paper. You can customize the pictures you rip out to the person you are giving the gift to. This adds a personal touch to your wrapping and my sister loved it!

Finished product!