Crafting for Christmas: Part 1

It's late in the season, but I've been hit with the fever.  It's bitten me- the crafting bug.  I told myself I was NOT Making gifts this year (mostly thinking of knitting and how time consuming it is and how unknitworthy most of my family are) so I'd banned myself from even considering it.

But as you know, I have another passion, and with that passion comes a collection of 328 bottles of nail polish, all of them quite lovely.  I was inspired by my nail polish ladies asking about crafts and nail polish on ornaments.  Mostly, this involves buying clear glass ornaments, pouring polish in, swirling it around, etc.  That take s a lot of polish, and I am willing to share in the beauty, but not THAT much.

(Speaking of, let's take a moment to update my current mani- I am still wearing the Zoya Godiva, but I added a third coat and wanted to see what night-time in my car with the overhead light looked like, so here you go:)



It DID eventually develop into talk of nail polish jewelry.  Cabochans, specifically.  (Don't worry, I had to google what they were called, too.  All I knew was "glass painted with nail polish and glued to a setting.")  Unfortunately, for the few pieces I planned to make, the supplies can add up- most internet retailers specialize in whole-sale quantities, I wanted to make 2-4 necklaces.  But I DID come across a tutorial for making them with glass vase filler beads- they aren't uniform ad have flaws, but I think that adds interest.  They won't fit in a specific setting, but you can use them on flat backing or on other crafts.

I decided to play around and plan to glue a bunch onto picture frames for some family members who have a big wall of family photos- they are always looking for interesting frames, and I think they'd love these when I'm done!  I did also buy a few individual cabochan supplies from the local craft store, but I haven't painted them yet- I wanted to use the glass beads to experiment with color combos before committing them to the more expensive jewelry glass.

So now, MOAR PICTURES!

First, I cleaned the beads with rubbing alcohol.  Then I painted the flat half with a sucky top coat (seriously, I bought it at the Dollar Tree because it said "Seche Vite" and I thought it was hilarious.  I figured it would not even come close, and I was right.  But at least I now have a use for it!) and let it sit for a few minutes.



Then I worked backwards: glitter then base color, x2 if necessary.

My first batch was Ruby Kisses Mardi Gras (the bar glitter) with a base of China Glaze Bizarre blurple.  This is what gave me the inclination that glitter polishes were not going to give me the desired "gemstone" effect- the glitter sits right ON the glass, as opposed to when it's on your nail and the polish it's in kind of mutes it.  The bar glitter is a little too jarring, but will still work nicely for one of my gifts.

The second set I did was a combo of Orly Fowl Play and a base of an unnamed (well, it probably HAD a name, but it's so old it's worn off) Sally Hansen dark blue shimmery color.  The flakies in Fowl play were just lovely.  The difference betwen these two made it clear that flakies were well-worth experimenting with, as well as other polishes that had a more hidden shimmer effect that was harder to see on the nail.

After both sets had dried (I gave them a good half hour), I put the same top coat over the base.  I had to keep cleaning my brush, though- the shitty top coat kept trying to pull the color up, hence it being shitty.

Here's the underside as they dried.  In this light, you can't really see much difference in the colors, and on the front side, it doesn't matter as much, but there IS a definite difference between the blue and purple.



And the final result:



I love the Fowl Play stones so so so much.  So rather than make an entire batch of another combo, I pulled out a handful of stones and did a different combo on each, which was fun.  there were some "meh" results, but some were just great.  I'm going to make a few necklace pendants, as some of these polishes are not something I'd like to use a whole lot of on dozens of little stones.

The bottom sides:



And the lovely front sides:

Row 1: Essie Dive Bar x2; Pure Ice Heartbreaker, Salon Perfect Red Dahlia; Vivid Lacquer Oops! In Spaaaaace, Revlon Royal; Orly Space Cadet, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme; OPI Just Spotted the Lizard x2

Row 2: COAT Cosmic, Cosmetic Arts dark green creme; Zoya Opal, Cosmetic Arts dark green creme; Essence It's Grey-t to Be Here x2; Butter London Dosh x2

Row 3: Pure Ice Midnight Show, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme; Essence Chic Reloaded; Vivid Lacquer Evil League of Evil, Revlon Naughty; Essence Jacob's Protection x2

Row 4: Orly High On Hope x2; Maybelline Mod Moss x2

The first of these I did was the Private Show- I thought it'd be a nice blackened glitter.  Nope- far too bright, for above stated reasons.  I didn't try any more glitter after that.  The duochromes didn't do as well as I'd hoped, though they didn't look BAD.  Anything with flakies, however, looked WONDERFUL.  Polish that notoriously gives me trouble and looked "meh" on the nail looked GREAT on these stones.  (I'm looking at you, Jacob's Protection...)  One of my happiest mistakes was the Zoya Opal- I'd planned to paint a light color over it, but I grabbed the wrong flakie and painted it with dark green, instead.  OMG, gorgeous.  

I think I've got a few solid stone combos for my necklaces, and some good ideas for the picture frames, so... Mission accomplished!