Newspapers and party lights

I'm back!! Finally!! Sorry it took me so long, I've been on what can only be described as a month-long coursework bender. Not pleasant, but I've never been so productive in my life. Now I'm free, it's motivated me to spend my summer doing productive things with my summer, unleash my "creative" (read: crazy) streak now I'm free, rather than spend my time consuming consuming consuming. Or gazing into the nothingness of my facebook newsfeed.
Sooo, the moment I was free, instead of sleeping (which is what I *should* have been doing, definitely), I went to the Arts and Crafts shop, where a friend had to talk me out of buying the whole place, and then Boots, which is also an Arts and Crafts shop of sorts, and went wild for a couple of days. I made a bunch of stuff, mostly some origami jewellery for my etsy store (preview coming soon!), but also a bit of nail art:

Newspaper nails

Nail art tip#4: I saw this effect on Pinterest a while back and wanted to try. It's actually really easy. Once your colour base coat has dried COMPLETELY, tear off a strip of newspaper the size of your nail and dip it in alcohol. 70 dregree medical stuff is good, but anything above 40% will do. Me? I use vodka.

Dab off any excess liquid and then cover your nail with the newspaper. Apply pressure for about 20 seconds. Tadaa.

Do apply a top coat though, or the print will rub off when you wash your hands.

For the textured effect you can see in the pictures, I used Barry M's Textured Nail Effect in turquoise.

Party Lights nails

I bought a couple of nail art sticks in Primark - you know, the ones riiight next to the tills? I'm such a sucker for those cheap marketing tactics. Anyway, I wanted to try them straight off, so here goes:

They're not great, but I was being experimental, and I think they could work well for a party or a club night.

Ingredients...