manic MANI: BIG HEART NAILS

You may have seen our other version of "Baggie Design" Nails. You can check it out here. I had been eyeing these nails on Pinterest forever so I decided to try it out today! This time I used a plastic page holder but a baggie will still work just as great.


Print out or draw hearts on a piece of paper. I made 2 of the hearts bigger- for the thumbs, 6 medium size for the pointer, middle and ring fingers, and 2 small ones for the pinky fingers. Put the paper in the plastic sleeve.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD MY EXACT HEARTS HERE


Fill in the heart shapes with the color you want the hearts to be. I used American Apparel's Palm Springs.


Outline the hearts with black. You can see that my hearts were not all the same exact shape by the end. They will still look great on your nails and if the shape is really bad, you can use scissors to shape it up when you peel them off.


Paint your nails whatever color you want the base to be.
I used Julep's Sophie- Trina Turk Fall '12. Love this color all by itself.


After the hearts have dried for about an hour, peel off each one very slowly.


Then place the design on the center of your nail.


Cover the nails with clear nail polish and you are done! I'm excited to have fun nails again!
It has been a while.

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the DIY: REMOVE THAT GLITTER!

There was a time when Casey and I wanted to glitter EVERYTHING. We put glitter on our shoes, in our visual journals, and even on my cell phone case. I thought it would be a brilliant way to change up my case. WRONG. Although this looks awesome (to some), the mess isn't worth the awesomeness. Every time I would talk on the phone, I'd end up with glitter all over my face and hands and you already know how successful I was trying to get it all off of me. NOT successful at all. At one point I thought this case was gone forever but then I thought, why not try to get all of the glitter off and start over with a new design? So here is what I did...


Originally I put this glitter on with tons of Mod Podge. You can see on the front of the case where I was trying to scrape off all of the glitter and Mod Podge. Wasn't working too well. And you can see that the inside of the case is still the original colors.


I set the case in a bowl of water overnight. Make sure the case (or whatever you are de-glittering) is submerged completely in the water.


After it has set for at least 8 hours, you should be good to pull all of the glitter off.


As you can hopefully see in the pictures, the Mod Podge has turned white- like it has gotten soggy.


Take a butter knife to scrape off the first bits. Once you get it started with the knife, use your fingers to peel the rest off.


And in a few moments you have a clean slate again!

I just ran my case under some water to get the last pieces of glitter off and now I'm ready to decorate my cell phone case again. I don't want to get started about iPhone 4 cases and how hard it is to get one that is perfect but, this baby meets all of my needs and it was only $6 so I really wanted to keep it usable! You may never need a tutorial like this but.... just in case?

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sleep ON IT: FRENCH BRAIDS TO BEACH WAVES

As a girl with basically straight hair, I'm always thankful for little tricks that will give my hair some body without much trouble. I've been doing this to my hair since I can remember. At least since I knew how to french braid. I HATED my straight hair at one point of my life (this was waaay before straightening your hair was a thing.) One time I french braided my hair (for style) and after a whole day of wearing it like that, I pulled it out and my hair looked amazing. And the rest is history.

This is my hair before bed. Make sure your hair is a little damp before you braid it or mist it after you've braided it. I part my hair right down the middle when braiding and then part my hair to the side when styling it. It helps add body on the top of my head. I think it works best if you french braid your hair in two braids rather than just one. If your hair is super thin, maybe you would only need one braid. My hair is pretty thick and one braid makes the waves a little too loose.

This was my hair as soon as I woke up.

And my hair after I pulled the braids out! No make up on face = no front views.

By time we took these pictures, the waves had fallen a little bit. We were running late and didn't catch a picture before we left the house. If you use some hair spray it should stay pretty well- I don't prefer to use hairspray.

We plan on making "Sleep On It" a series so check back for more overnight tricks!

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