scrapbook scissor design nail art

Last night I got to play with a bunch of new polish colors!! I picked up another Seche Vite fast dry top coat, a small brush white for french manicures, a bottle of Power Clutch (from Essie's Fall Collection). Also, Mom passed on a bottle of blue polish from Avon (Inspiration) and a purple from a new company. (Will provide pics and more details later.)

I have a family reunion and wedding this weekend and I couldn't decide whether I should paint my nails on Monday night (last night) for that trip or do something fun and repaint on Thursday. After being so inspired with nail art designs on Pinterest the last few weeks, I decided to go with something fun and change it up before my trip!

So I decided to try the method with cutting scotch tape with scrapbooking scissors. Unfortunately I didn't have a scissor cut I thought I did, but I got to chose between Scallop, Zig Zag, and Wave. I ended up going with Scallop which reminds me of the edges on stamps or old photos.

First, I painted a base coat, two coats of my color (Topless and Barefoot by Essie) and a top coat. I waited a few minutes for the top coat to dry. While I did this I started cutting pieces of scotch tape (one for each finger) - also, I highly suggest cutting all ten at this point! I did not and later found it rather difficult to cut new tape with wet fingers and long pieces of tape sticking off the edges of my fingers.

Stick tape onto your nails when they're dry. (Do just one hand at a time! Painting with tape on your fingers could prove to be tricky.) Be careful to press it down close to the edges! Nail polish can get under here and make your design look sloppy. This is also a good time to decide if you want all ten fingers to be set up exactly the same (highlight on the left) or if they should parallel each other (highlights on the outside of nail). I went with the outsides of my nails... this proved to be an interesting decision because if I tilt my hands a certain way I can't even see the detail. 

Paint a coat of polish in a downward motion, covering all the exposed nail surface. Wait a few minutes for the paint to dry! Peel off the tape, slowly, and VOILA!

I've received a number of comments on these. I like the colors, I think the grey-green and pink-beige complement each other well. Also, I like the theory of this design, it certainly is fun. However, it will be removed before my trip this weekend... I'm leaning towards a classic french manicure! After all, I need to put that new white polish to use :)