I love nautical stars. People get tattoos of it for the meaning of it, but I just simply like the design of it. Well, I guess, I look at it as a rocker thing. Either way…it’s a cool design for tattoos and your nails! Lol.

Besides flowers & feathering/lining/stroking, this design was the most requested at the last nail salon I worked at. I myself love this design. This one will probably be one of the harder designs of mine because you have to be able to draw a little. Other designs of mine are real easy because you’re just layering strokes on and adding dots.
So for this, you just need striping paint. Make sure the paint/polish in the bottle is the right consistency. The polish should be thin, not runny…pretty much how it is when you first purchase it. My bottle was on the thicker side, but I didn’t have any polish thinner to thin it out. I fixed that problem though. You can get polish thinner at beauty supply stores, probably Sally’s.

So here are the steps of drawing a nautical star. If you can’t draw it on paper, then it will be hard for you to draw it on a nail. Lol. Practice drawing this on paper first.

This drawing is pretty self-explanatory.
Polish two coats of your choice of polish, wait to dry a few minutes, then draw.
I did this design a lot with the colors I chose: purple polish with a white/silver star. I did it a few times with a chalky pink polish (Essie Figi) with a black star. Sometimes I would go over the drawing part only with glitter.

Since my polish was thick, I colored in the “negative space” with a color that wouldn’t be so noticeable. This makes it look cleaner and sharper. I used black because in natural light, you can’t see it. If you have striping paint that matches your nail color, use that.

Two stars are never going to be exact since you’re hand drawing this. I only rock one star when doing this on myself. =/ Can’t draw this one on the other like I can with my other designs.

I loved putting this star on the index fingers or thumbs. This is my friend, Ashley that came to me all the time for my designs. ^^ Miss ya, girl. Opera singer that moved to NYC. CRAZY voice! Younger than me too.

Anyways…hope you guys like it!

Click to enlarge.

I didn’t draw this for Valentine’s Day. Believe it or not. This is just me messing around with my Wacom tablet. I started it a few weeks ago, but got distracted with other projects.
I don’t think I can really draw, but like how this turned out. I didn’t look at any pictures for references. I figured…nothing is perfect. Not roses. Not art…especially mine. Lol.
I used Adobe Photoshop CS4» tools: brush, smudge, and blur.

As for the flower choice…I do like roses, but they aren’t my favorite. It’s probably the most used flower when it comes to art, clearly. I think the first flower people think of are roses. Not fair.
My favorite flowers are oriental lilies, gerbera daises, and plumerias. So pretty. =) Out of the three, plumerias are my favorite. I never even seen those flowers in real life, only in pictures.

This is how a lot of nail techs/manicurist put flowers on clients. Most of the time, they’ll just do step 1, put a dot in the middle, and a few strokes of color to represent leaves. I usually did Step 1 flowers for kids. For teens & adults, I would get fancier with it.
So here is a tutorial of how I polished on flowers for past clients.
Click pictures to enlarge.


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One coat base coat. Two coats of China Glaze in Audrey.

Dot some white polish on paper. The tools I used are dotters and striping paint [not shown]. If you don’t have dotters, you can use a pointy toothpick, the ball of a ball point pen, cotton swab [cotton removed, use for bigger flowers], and whatever you can find that resembles these dotters.

With a big dotter, dot on your petals [big dotter]. Five dots look the best. Drag petals in and drag them out [pointy dotter].

Add strokes of color on centers of petals [striping paint]. Add five small black dots [pointy dotter].

More strokes of color.

This is flower is on my nails now. The other design looks better on longer nails or on the big toe.

Easy right? If you have a hard time, practice on some paper to get your dotting right.

Products Used»
Seche Vite Crystal Clear Base Coat
OPI in Audrey
Striping paint: pink, silver, silver glitter, black, shimmery gold. On my nails now: orange-y peach, yellow, green, and blue glitter.
Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Plus in Pure White Tip
Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat.

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Valentine’s Day is coming up. So it’s all about the pinks, reds, and purples.
Mardi Gras makeup video soon. ^^

I know, I’m late on posting an entry about my birthday. Happy Belated Birthday to myself! Lol. I turned 25 on January 7th. It’s a weird & scary feeling. I know I’m not old, but heading there seems to feel faster. This year’s birthday was bittersweet. Bitter: I’m away from home, home [grew up in Michigan, just moved to Florida in November], so I’m away from friends and family. Sweet: I still have other real special people here in Florida with me to spend it with.

Things I got for the somewhat big day:
Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch.  I was shocked! I always wanted my own.

I tested out for the past two days. Love it! It’s real easy to control and navigate on the screen. The touch part of the tablet is pretty cool. For MACbooks, you can’t double tap on the control pad to open a link. With the Bamboo, you can while it’s plugged it. It’s good to use when I’m lazy to unplug or need a quick reference.
My first drawing I made with it: click to enlarge.

I’m excited to use this tablet with my vector/vexel work.

Another gift I receive wasn’t necessary, but really appreciated!! Got the new Google/HTC phone, Nexus One. I love it! People call it the iPhone killer. I don’t think it’s a killer. I personally think the iPhone is still better, because of the App store, music, and zoom methods. But I do think this phone comes very close; it has other things to make up for it. I talk all about it from an average person’s point of view, so I’m not true on the specs. I just know and played with it enough to love it. Nexus One.

I had to go to school in the morning until daytime. I was running late. When I walked in, the whole class said HBirthday. =) People were shocked that I was turning 25, saying I look 20. ^^ One girl got me a cupcake with candles. A few girls sang for me during lunch break. I’ve only been in school for like two weeks. That was very, very sweet of her and the others to sing.

After school, went to see some more special people. Got some shirts from Urban Outfitters, Hoops & Yoyo birthday card [they make the best cards!], an ice cream cake and some awesome singing. ^^

Straight to the thighs. Ate at The Cheesecake Factory. Yummy. I had a Kobe Burger. Love this burger. Their description: American Kobe Beef with Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions on a Toasted Brioche Bun. Served with French Fries or Green Salad. My picture is of my food is messy. I had to cut it in quarters. I ordered mine medium-rare. I love burgers. For dessert, Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake. Uber yummy. (I had alot of sweets this day…lol)
Mmm…I could go for another Kobe burger right now. Even though is 4:30 am right now! :P

To top the night off, I got so many birthday greetings on Facebook and Mixpod. :) Cherries on the top. Thanks to the birthday notifier.

It was a wonderful day. Bittersweet.
I didn’t need anything. I truly am not a materialistic person. Gifts are real great and I’m very appreciative. But the true gifts are the people who celebrated it with me…the people who took the time out of their day to quickly say, type up, call, or text me “Happy Birthday”. Thank you everyone. Words cannot express. Blessed.

Much Love.