Collage Your Nails!

Michelle Casey, "My Grandmother's Hands", Collage / Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches, June 6 2010. Text: "old, worn, freckled works of art adorned with rings, sometimes bare, sometimes polished pink."

Many summers ago while she was visiting from England, my grandmother Sophie and I would spend time painting our nails together. We hadn’t seen each other for years so it was a great bonding activity. While doing this, she told me stories about her life as well as advised me on the best nail colours to choose. A wise old nail sage, she informed me which shades would make me look like an elegant young lady and which ones would make me look like a “tart”! Now that she’s gone, I miss those times. Well, it’s been a crazy busy six months, so what do you think I did the first free moment I had? I declared a spa day and did my nails, of course!

Recently I ran across two wonderful collage-like ideas for layering words and textures onto your finger nails. One I discovered from a young student I was teaching… I glanced down at her nails and noticed she had these tiny words running across them! Smitten, I asked her how she achieved this fabulous look which she excitedly relayed to me. The second, I came across while browsing through Sephora. I noticed that a sales girl had the loveliest metallic blue nails with glitter polish painted only on her nail tips. I liked that the glitter didn’t cover the whole nail – I find that a bit overkill. Applied only to certain sections of her nail on the upper or lower edges, the glitter looked cool. I learned her secret and was off to try these two techniques on myself which I’m also happy to share with you!

Left to Right: supplies; dipping nail in rubbing alcohol; pressing newsprint onto nail; adding top coat to finished nail.

Word Nails

Supplies: pastel-coloured nail polish*, top coat polish, small bits of nail-size newspaper,  rubbing alcohol, cotton pad cut in quarters, nail polish remover.

1 Paint your nails with at least two coats of pastel nail polish.
2 Let your nails dry for half an hour.
3 Cut a cotton pad in quarters.
4 Cut out small sections of newspaper* (a little larger than your nail size); make sure the newsprint ink smears when you rub it or it won’t work.
5 Dip a nail in rubbing alcohol.
6 Place a newspaper bit on top of your nail; pat down on it with cotton pad for a few seconds and remove.
7 When finished adding words, let your nails dry for about ten minutes before applying top coat polish to protect the newsprint from rubbing off.
8 Remove any words on your skin with nail polish remover.

*Notes: Pastel or matte colours make the words “pop” better than other polish colours. I used Essie colours: Van D’Go (pink), Turquoise & Caicos and Nice is Nice (lilac). Using newspaper print in other languages like Arabic or Chinese would be interesting, too. You’ll probably have to practice this a few times to perfect the technique.

Left to Right: supplies; adding coat of metallic blue polish; adding coat of glitter polish; finished nails.

Sparkling Nails

Supplies: blue metallic nail polish*, glitter nail polish*, top coat polish.

1 Apply two to three coats of blue metallic nail polish.
2 Apply one to three brushes of glitter polish near the lower half of your nail tips*.
3 When glitter is dry, apply top coat polish to seal.

*Notes: I used Misa: Lounging by the Pool (metallic blue) & OPI Pirouette My Whistle (glitter). I think luminescent metallic polish colours look best with this technique. This OPI brand of polish is great because it contains different sizes of glitter and goes on smoothly… often a single coat of glitter is enough.

So why not take a summer spa break with your mom, girl friend, grandma or the kids to spice up your nails … and expand your collage skills at the same time! 😉 If you have any collage-inspired nail decorating ideas, I’d love to hear them.