beads | Craftynail

Day 17 of Julie’s April nail art challenge is dedicated to 3D nail art! I love that this nail art challenge makes me try new things. I don’t have a lot of nail embellishments in my stash so my best bet was to think outside the box! I have a lot of jewelry findings and beads so surely I’d be able to find something to decorate my nails with. When sifting through my beads I came cross these lovely silver-plated feather charms from Fire Mountain Gems. I used to love these things! I don’t make myself a lot jewelry- usually I give it to family and friends…but I made myself these aqua chandelier earrings with the silver feathers and they turned out to be my absolute faves! I wore them all the time! Until I lost them 😦 Here’s a pic of them on the left. I really should make myself another pair… but first, lemme put these feathers on my nails! I cut them with my wire cutting tool and secured them to my painted nails with a clear top coat. They looked really awesome, but I kept scratching myself with them! So I didn’t get to wear them too long lol.

If you are wondering about my purple base color… it’s called Fowl Play by Orly and it’s part of their Birds of a Feather Collection from 2011 maybe. It has a dark purple jelly base with a thick suspension type formula… and it’s got all kinds of crazy shimmer, micro glitter and small flakies. Lotsa colors in here! I like deep complex colors like this. In fact, the whole Birds of a feather Collection is beautiful- check out Orly’s promo shot for the collection. Don’t you love this bright metallic peacock blue polish that the model is wearing? I know this collection is old news… but this blue is so pretty! And so is my purple Fowl Play- I hope you like it too!