hunger games nails | Craftynail

The final week of August’s Nail Art Ideas Linkup (NAIL) challenge is A GREAT READ. If you’d like to do a manicure for this theme here’s more info and you can submit your design up until Sept. 1st! Oh, and did you vote for last week’s NAIL Genius yet? Everyone gets three votes! Cast yours now!

A Great Read? Well, my most recent favorite book is from the Hunger Games trilogy. It’s book #2 called Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It usually takes me a few months to finish a book. But not this one- I whipped right through it (just like with the Hunger Games)! After I finished book 2 I started book 3, but I stopped. Duh, right?! I dunno, sometimes I like to wait to read a book ’til RIGHT before I see the movie. It’s fun to have it fresh in my head when I go to the theater. But that’s kinda dumb- I should go read Mockingjay like right now!!!!

I started this manicure the night before by preparing DIY nail stickers. I’ve never made my own decals before- but I’ve been itching to try them and they’re perfect for a night when you wanna play with nail art but don’t wanna do an entire manicure from start to finish! It turns out that these DIY nail decals were a lot of fun and they applied so much better than I expected! Here’s how I did it…

I taped a plastic snack baggie to a heavy piece of cardstock so the bag wouldn’t move around too much. Then I painted some mockingjay emblems on the baggie using a detail brush and cheap black nail polish. I also tried gold, but that didn’t work well as you can see (there’s wiped-up gold smudges in the above picture). Anyway, when I was done painting my mockingjay symbols, then I painted over top of them with enough clear topcoat to cover the design and maybe a little extra around the corners. I let it dry overnight. The next day I was afraid they’d stick… but instead, my stickers lifted right off the baggy. They peeled right off without a hitch! Then I cut them with scissors a little bit ’til they looked like they’d fit my nails well.

Once I had my nails all clean and bare, I was ready to paint them and test out my diy stickers. I used one coat of Nail Envy and then three coats of L.A. Girl 3D Effects Nail Polish in Electric Coral. When my thumbs were still tacky I placed my stickers on top of my orange polish. Because my stickers were big they felt kinda wrinkly when I tried to wrap them around my large curved thumbnails. But after a couple minutes they seemed smoother somehow. Go figure?! Then I covered them with a coat of seche vite and they looked so nice & shiny. WIN! For my other 8 nails- I stamped a flame design using Cheeky 52 plate (it only seemed right given the name of the book- Catching Fire). I think they look wicked.