Sparrow Headband

Whenever I go to Michael's, I sometimes just make impulse buys. I saw this blue sparrow iron-on applique, and I had to have it. It is so cute!! But then...I had no idea what to do with it. So....

 I made a headband! I got a plain black elastic headband that I already had laying around...

 

And I use a hot glue gun...

 

 And I glued the sparrow to the headband.

 Here's a detailed picture of the sparrow. I'd post a picture of me wearing the headband...but no. You can make this headband with any iron on patch you have! It's super easy and really cute.

Nail Polish Quality Experiment

 

Thumb: China Glaze-For Audrey

Pointer: Essie-Mesmerize (or Mezmerised...I've seen it both?)

Middle Finger: Claire's Cosmetics- Light Blue Irridescent

Ring Finger: Sally Hansen- Marine Scene

Pinky: OPI- What's With the Cattitude?

I painted every nail exactly the same, and I tested them to see which one was the best!

China Glaze: This one held up pretty well for a thumb (meaning I text with my thumb a lot.) There was just some moderate chipping on the edges, but nothing too bad.

Essie: This was surprisingly AWFUL! It was easily the most chippy. It chipped on not only the tips, but at the bottom of my nail, too. In it's defense, it was on my pointer finger, which gets used a lot...but this is my left hand!

Claire's: I knew it wasn't going to do well even before I put it on. I just wanted it to compare the others to. It was also pretty bubbly and really sheer, but I do really like the color! It's a nice summery color if you don't mind it leaving really quickly. 

Sally Hansen: This was definitely the winner. It held up the best out of all of them, even after about 2 weeks. I was surprised! But it was kind of bubbly, too. But most of my nails were and I think it's because I did them outside. I don't know what that has to do with anything but I think it made it bubbly!

OPI: This is the second place, NOT surprisingly! OPI is like the most popular salon line, and for a good reason! I like OPI because it's pretty thick, and the brush is wide (which means you need less coats and brush strokes.)

Perfect Manicure/Pedicure

Here's a picture of my disgusting foot. It's really nasty and ugly, but whatever. Start with clean nails with nothing on them...

And fingernails with my awkwardly long ring fingernail...

These are all the supplies I used. Essie nail polish; Revlon topcoat; OPI cuticle oil; a set of cuticle clippers, nail clippers, nail file, and cuticle pusher backer thingy that I got years ago from Bath and Body Works; a 4-sided nail buffer/filer from Sally Beauty Supply; and a nail file!

Basically, I just cut my nails straight across and filed them down to the shape I like, which is a squoval...meaning straight across the top and slightly rounded on the edges, but not too much rounded to avoid a nasty ingrown nail. For my feet, I used a pumice stone because they were really disgusting and needed it.

Then I  buffed my nails a lot, because I have a lot of ridges in my nails but I like them to be smooth.

After that, I put cuticle oil on my cuticles, and pushed them back. I washed and dried my hands, and I did the hugest bad thing you can do to your nails, and I cut my cuticles off. I just wanted to, because it looks better. But it is bad. So don't do it.

Finally, I did a base coat, 2 coats of polish, and a topcoat. TA DA

Notice how my nail is bleeding...that's what happens when you clip your cuticles. The color is Essie-Fair Game

  

I didn't clean up my nails before this, but you can take a Q-tip and nail polish remover and clean up the edges.

Essie- French Affair

Deathly Hallows Necklace

 I made this necklace today because I saw it on another website where it was for sale for $18. And while that's a reasonable price, I realized  I had everything to make one myself and it would be exactly the same and just as good! So I rolled out some black Sculpey (or whatever it's called...this wasn't in the package anymore) clay and cut it into a triangle. I baked it for maybe 12-15 minutes at 250 degrees. After I let it cool, I drew the symbol on with a silver Sharpie. Then I glued on a wrapped loop (look up basic jewelry making) and put on a chain, attacked a hook thingy and VOILA!!! Really easy.

Nail Art #4- Nautical Summer Nails

 All the supplies: base/topcoat, blue nail polish, red nail polish, nail polish remover, paintbrushes. There's other things in this picture, but I didn't end up using them...

 Colors

 Started out by painting my nails all white...

 

Then I added red and blue stripes with a thin paintbrush...they aren't great but who really cares?

 This is my favorite! I added a little anchor in red on my blue thumb :) soo cute!

Sally Hansen Crackle

I just used the new Sally Hansen Crackle overcoat in Fractured Foil, which is a silver glitter nail polish that cracks when it dries. It's pretty cool, but I wish it crackled more than it did. There's too much silver on my nails, and it's not the prettiest silver I've ever seen. But all in all, it was pretty fun to watch it crack..if you're into that kind of stuff...

Baby Felt Owl

 First, I did a rough sketch of the owl on a piece of paper.

 And dennn, I used the "template" to cut 2 owls out of white felt.

 Then I glued 2 rounded pieces of fabric (one floral fabric, one blue felt) for "wings" I guess. I also glued a little purple triangle to it's head...not really sure what it is, but it makes it look like an owl to me. I also glued on buttons for eyes and another tiny triangle (not shown) for a nose. All of this can be sewn on, but since it was so small and I was in a hurry, I just used permanent fabric glue

 Then I cut the fabric "wings" to fit the body, and whip stitched all around to make it look imperfect.

Finally, fill the inside with poly-fill or cotton or whatever!