Sat- ART- Day Club: One stroke mani

Hello everyone!

One stroke mani

This is my first one stroke mani. I have seen tons of tutorials on YouTube, and have wanted to try this technique for a long time. But I needed the Sat- ART- Day Club to get me started. So this is what I made for last weeks Sat- ART- Day Club, when the challenge was to make a the one stroke mani. I'm sorry that I haven't written this blog post earlier. Actually, I had hoped to make many more posts in November, but things don't always go as planned.

I especially have to thank Cutenails/ Tartofraises and Marjorie Harris for teaching me the one stroke technique. I'll include two of their videos for you at the end of the post. This mani is especially inspired by Cutenails, although it's my own design.

One stroke mani

One stroke mani

What I did: 

What I did: 

(After a nail broke that day, and I had to cut them all... My square nails only lasted for one week)

Making a one stroke mani

2) Make flowers with the one stroke technique:
First I mixed a little water with the acrylic paint. Then I used a flat brush that was cut in an angle, dipped one corner of the brush in one color and the other in a different color. Then I made a gradient on the brush from the two colors, by making some stripes on a piece of plastic. And then I was able to make one gradient colored flower petal with only one brush stroke. I waited a few seconds to make it dry a bit. And repeated painting until I was pleased with the thickness of the paint. And then made one more petal, and so on.

Making a one stroke mani

This is only one way of doing a one stroke. But what's important is that you paint with two or more colors at the same time, with each brush stroke.

Making a one stroke mani

3) Then I used a round brush to outline each petal with white.

Making a one stroke mani

4) Top coat and two rhinestones.

I had fun making this, but also some problems. I'm not sure, but I think it was because I tried a different kind of acrylic paint, and the top coat didn't go well with it:

Making a one stroke mani

That's what happened with Seche Vite. I went into shock, but as you can see I managed to take a photo while holding my breath, and staring at the crackled flower, but after a while it fixed itself pretty well. But you can see small lines. Then I tried all my top coats, and Gosh was the only one that didn't react with the paint, but when I used it on another nail, it crackled a bit. But IsaDora Clear and L.A.Colors Rapid Dry didn't have as strong reaction with the paint as Seche Vite. And I think I had waited long enough for the paint to dry. How do I know how long to wait? Any advice?

So for once (for you who want to look closely) here's the list of top coats used:
Thumb: Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat
Index finger: IsaDora #600 Clear base-/ top coat
Middle finger: Gosh #01 base-/ top coat
Ring finger: L.A. Colors Rapid Dry
Pinky: Gosh #01 base-/ top coat

One stroke mani

Lighting:

Some photos are taken in low light, to have some photos where the cracks don't show so well. To show you what the purple color looks like in real life, some photos are taken in a light that also makes my skin a little yellow. And some are taken under a very strong LED bulb. The very first photo is the one that shows the real color of my nails best.

One stroke mani

One stroke mani, low light

Paint & brushes:

Before all this I went to the mall to buy a brush that was cut in an angle, and black acrylic paint. They advised me to use Hobby lacquer (instead of the acrylic paint I have used earlier, that is meant for painting on canvases). I found a little set on sale, and also bought a purple of the same type of paint. And I also found the brush in a set of brushes in the junior section.

My new Hobby Lacquer and brush set

Hobby lacquer is a type of acrylic paint, and I'm not sure how it's different from regular acrylic paint. I really liked the Hobby lacquer (, if we forget about the top coat problem for a little while). It was very easy to work with, and I was surprised that the flowers turned out so well. And it was easier to make nice lines. It was also easy to remove my mistakes or paint from my skin with wet cotton. So I liked the Hobby Lacquer better than the acrylic for canvas.

The second from the right was used for one stroke. The left one was used  outline

But I wish I had bought smaller brushes. The flowers became much bigger than I had planned. So you nearly don't see the flakies. I used flakies because I wanted to make some orange flowers too, but the orange was too similar to the white, and therefor I went for only purple and white flowers

One stroke mani

The one stroke technique:

MarjorieHarris shows how she uses the one stroke technique with three colors to make roses on a canvas:




I'm always fascinated when I look at videos of professionals like Cutenails/ Tartofraises, Marjorie Harris, Robin Moses, Colette (/My Simple Little Pleasures on YouTube), LOVE4NAILS, and others, and am very thankful that they make tutorials for us. I hope you don't get sad because they are so good at art, and that you can find joy in looking at these tutorials and find inspiration. Remember that they have practised and practiced too. Probably for very many years.

One stroke mani

I liked this technique, and want to use it again soon. I only wish I had smaller brushes for my small nails. I've been looking at small nail art brushes online, but couldn't decide which to buy. And it would have been nice to know what happened when I put top coat on, so that I don't ruin my next manis. I really liked my new paint, and it would be sad if I couldn't use it.

And as usual, you can see all the other Sat- ART- Day Club manis below

Lani

American Apparel Giveaway!

****THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!****


I haven't had a giveaway here in my blog for a while and I decided that it was time again to thank all my readers, so here's a little American Apparel giveaway for you guys! I hope you all like it!

There will be two winners and both prizes are basically the same. I just want to quickly remind you that I'm still doing my studies at university, so I'm constantly on student budget, so these prizes won't be so huge that some blog have. But I've bought everything with my own money and everything is new and unused. So, let's see the prizes, right?

So both prizes have three American Apparel polishes (both have the same polishes) and one sheet of 3D-color pads (16 pads in each).

The polishes in both prizes are called Office, L'Esprit and Dance.

Christmas nail art stickers (382)

Hello everyone!



I have been contacted by KKCenterHk again, and one of the things I chose are these Christmas stickers. Nail stickers is an easy way to make a special mani on big days, when you have too much to do and think about. I will show the stickers used on an accent nail, with one image on each nail, and with glittery tips. Christmas is only one month away!

First I'll tell about the stickers, and then lots of photos.

One pack of stickers is enough for 3,5 full manis. So there are 6 of each image. There are 6 different images. I have used 4; Santa, snowman, penguin, and a tree with a star.



The images are in many colors: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, black, and white, with glitter. But because the stickers are placed on see through plastic, it's easy to check which polish will work best.



KKcenterHk have very many stickers, or 3D Nail Seals, as they call it. So if you want Christmas stickers that are more monochrome, you have many to choose from. But if you want to use these stickers and you want your mani to match different colored clothes, you can either choose to just do an accent nail, like I did with the snowman, or you can add glitter, or you could only use two images on all the nails. Or you can use all the different colored stickers and add a multicolored glitter french, to enhance the multicolor look so much that your mani actually goes with nearly everything.


Different image on each nail:








Accent nail:













With glitter tips:




Used:
Nail stickers: 3D Nail Seal Xmas Christmas Bell Tree Penguin Design Seal-382 [3D-382]  
H&M: Je t'aime
Deborah Lippmann: Happy Birthday
top coat



Thank you KKCenterHk for giving me these Christmas stickers and the coupon code "Nailphotos by Lani". You can use this coupon code and save 10% on your order until January, 31st, 2014. (Edited January, 2013)



Lani