Printed page nails

I've been drooling over the countless photographs of printed page nails floating around the blogosphere for quite some time and today I finally plucked up the courage to try to create my own.  Every time I glanced at the instructions, I thought to myself "that cannot be as easy as it sounds!".  But I wouldn't lie to you folks: it's as easy as it sounds!  This was my very first attempt so my nails turned out a little messy but I think I've mastered the technique now so they'll hopefully turn out better the next time.

Required Materials:

• Pale nail varnish
• Several small cuttings of text from a newspaper
• Alcohol - I used gin.  I'm told you can even do it with mouthwash!
• A clear top coat
• Cotton buds and nail varnish remover

How to create your own printed page nails:

1.  Paint your nails with a pale base colour. 

I chose white, but as you can see from the pictures above, other pale colours such as light grey and beige work well too.  I think they would look nice with a pastel shade if you fancy something a bit more colourful - as long as the colour is pale enough to make the printed words stand out.  Often, pale nail varnishes don't provide a solid, opaque colour on the first coat so it may be necessary to apply two to achieve the desired effect.  Oh - and if you're sensible (I'm not), you might want to apply a clear base coat before applying the nail varnish to protect your nails.


2.  Dip your nail into the alcohol and keep it immersed for about five seconds.  Then press a piece of newspaper firmly against your nail and hold it there for about fifteen seconds.  Learn from my mistakes: make sure the newspaper covers the whole of your nail or the printing will be uneven and try to hold it as still as possible to prevent smudging. When you peel the paper off your nail you should have your printed page effect.

 

3.  It's important to apply a clear top coat to prevent the print from smudging or rubbing off your nail.  Clear up any excess print or nail varnish that has strayed onto your fingers using a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover.

Ta-da!  enjoy your printed page nails...