Leaves

Another fall nail idea before I switch over to Halloween designs. I am fairly positive that I have come up with an original design technique because I haven't seen anyone doing this! I used two coats of Sally Hansen's  Hard as Nails Stonewall on my sister. 

I was inspired to use real leaves because of my lovely sister Tracy. She has been collecting fall leaves and any other leaves that catch her fancy since second grade. Her teacher had her class go out, find specific leaves that the little kiddies had to identify, and press between pieces of paper. Leaves are pressed within a book so that the pages soak up the water that is inside of the leaf. The pages in turn get water damage so use a book you don't want. 

When applying the leaves, I first cut the desired portion of the leaf I wanted to fit onto the nail. Next, I painted on a layer of top coat followed by immediately placing the leaf onto the nail bed. I adjusted the leaf into place by using my fingers and pressing them down firmly. My first attempt was with an older pressed leaf, so it was thin but non malleable. The edges of of that leaf would not stay down, so I opted out for fresher leaves. 

Luckily I had beautifully changing leaves from my backyard that I had picked earlier in the day. The leaves been drying out for most of the day which flattened them out a bit, but they still retained their freshness and flexibility. I used the same top coat and press technique and it worked much better since the fresh leaves were able to curve along the nail bed.

Although I cut down the leaves to fit the nail, I still had excess that hung over the skin around the nail. I took care of that by pressing the end of my nail tweezers down onto where I wanted the leaf to cut off. I continued pressing until the leaf eventually broke off. Once the leaf fit the nail bed, I applied a final top coat over the leaf.

The next morning, my sister looked at her nails and noticed that the leaves shrunk away from the tips of her nails. We took care of the showing tips by filing down her nails, but I know to press the nails for an extra day - hopefully pressing it for two days doesn't make the leaf to rigid to work with. 

Tamz