ways to washi: manicures

Hi everyone!

Today I have a fun non-scrappy way to use up some of that fabulous washi tape. I used extra wide diagonal/airmail striped washi tape for this because it was easy to cut along the lines, but any width or pattern of washi would work well.

1. To start, gather supplies. Washi tape, and scissors. Here I've already trimmed some washi tape strips. A pair of tweezers, just to make picking up thin strips easier, and I find I'm less likely to mess up my fresh nails when I use tweezers to apply/peel off the tape strips. And, nail polish colours: I used neon pink for the base colour, and a pale pink bar glitter and metallic gold for the accent colours. I always use Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for a quick-dry topcoat.

2. Cover well-dried bottom colour with pieces of washi tape. I lined up separate pieces and covered the entire nail, because I found it easier to keep nice neat and even lines this way. 

 3. Remove alternating pieces of tape, where you want the accent colour to go. The tape left in place will mask the bottom coat colour. 

4. Add nail polish. FIRST, put a coat of the BASE COAT colour on the places where you removed the strips of tape. This helps seal the edges of the washi tape and minimizes/prevents any bleeding under. Then quickly go back and add in the accent colours. I did gold across the tip of the nail and pale pink bar glitter across the middle.

5. Add top coat, and then quickly and carefully peel off remaining tape pieces. Make sure to remove tape while nail polish is still wet. Some of my glitter lines weren't as neat as I would have liked them to be, because glitter nail polish always dries so quickly, so there was a bit of pull and lifting of the glitter coat when I peeled back the tape.

6. Experiment with mixing up colour combos and line thicknesses! 

Have fun! :)