The first thing I should probably tell you before I start is that I'm in no way an expert at painting nails - something you're about to find out! I've never had a professional manicure in my life and the last time I painted my nails was about 3 years ago, so I'm writing this as a complete novice.
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| Studio number 22 blog |
I do however love playing with Decopatch papers, so when I saw this tutorial on leopard print decopatch nails, I was desperate to have a go.
I'd also been inpired by this postage stamp manicure which seems to use the same principle - although of course stamps have the added benefit of being self adhesive so there would be less user error involved... or user ineptitude in my case!
How hard can it be to cover your nails in Decopatch paper? A bit too hard for me apparently! The nails above look beautiful, neat and perfectly stuck down. Mine on the other hand looked great at first glance, but on closer inspection were peeling away at the edges. And after just a couple of hours' wear were coming away entirely...
Back to the drawing board.
I came to the conclusion that as wearing at the edges had been my downfall, maybe I should try a design that just covered the bottom of my nail.
I found a Decopatch paper that had a small flower detail on it and found some complementary blue nail varnish.
Then chopped each flower in half down the middle.
I'd made myself some nail templates out of some stick on nail foils, stuck onto thin card and then cut out. I drew around the curve of my template, overlaying the curved edge over the centre of the flower on the reverse of the paper.
Finally, I cut around the curve and then the outline of the petals until I was left with these. I arranged them in order of size with 2 large, 2 small and 6 mediums.
I then painted my nails blue and set about 'sticking on' my flowers.
I'd also been inpired by this postage stamp manicure which seems to use the same principle - although of course stamps have the added benefit of being self adhesive so there would be less user error involved... or user ineptitude in my case!
 |
| The improvised life blog |
How hard can it be to cover your nails in Decopatch paper? A bit too hard for me apparently! The nails above look beautiful, neat and perfectly stuck down. Mine on the other hand looked great at first glance, but on closer inspection were peeling away at the edges. And after just a couple of hours' wear were coming away entirely...
Back to the drawing board.
I came to the conclusion that as wearing at the edges had been my downfall, maybe I should try a design that just covered the bottom of my nail.
I found a Decopatch paper that had a small flower detail on it and found some complementary blue nail varnish.
I roughly cut out a few flowers.
Then chopped each flower in half down the middle.
I'd made myself some nail templates out of some stick on nail foils, stuck onto thin card and then cut out. I drew around the curve of my template, overlaying the curved edge over the centre of the flower on the reverse of the paper.
Finally, I cut around the curve and then the outline of the petals until I was left with these. I arranged them in order of size with 2 large, 2 small and 6 mediums.
I then painted my nails blue and set about 'sticking on' my flowers.
I put a thin layer of clear nail varnish all over my blue nails and then set about sticking on my Decopatch flowers. It might be worth pointing out that I hadn't realised that the clear nail varnish would dissolve the blue nail varnish quite so much as it did and I managed to smudge quite a few of my nails in the process.
They did start to look a little better after a second coat of clear varnish though, but they're nowhere near as perfect as I'd like
Despite my clumsiness and inexperience, I think I will try using Decopatch on my nails again. Especially for a special occasion as, with practise, I'm sure I could get quite a professional finish with minimal effort.
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