Blog Archives
Inspiration: Spring/Summer ’12 Pastels
I’ve been looking for more current inspiration for the pieces I’ve been making – more current than “Hey, I like purple let’s make all purple stuff,” which has generally always been my MO. But now that I’m temporarily over purple, I’m looking around me, through magazines and online to figure out what people are going to be wearing in the coming months.
Let me just say that there are thousands of “trends,” so nothing seems to ever be like “the thing” until it suddenly goes viral and everyone is like “ZOMG I love whales I really need a whale t-shirt.”
SO, beyond my future fascination with whalephernalia, I looked online to net-a-porter to consolidate the upcoming trends that I might use as inspiration, starting first with PASTELS. A color zone that I am entirely uncomfortable with, possibly due to excessive overuse during my high school years. (Like, baby blue pleated skirt with a white t-shirt adorned with pale pink rosettes, with a lavender cardigan. Ew, right?)
Inspiration Image:
I looked at the other clothing images, but this one really was my favorite.
So pastel pink and minty blue, eh? Not my strong points, nor my stash contents at all. In fact, I have zero baby blue / minty green anywhere… except my nail polish bin. So.
Side note: after I started writing and crafting, I realized that actually, I do not own pink nail polish. I had to go buy some specifically for this project. Totally feminine, girl.
So.
I made these
I was thinking about making a full DIY of this, but at that point I was (once again) dizzy on nail polish fumes, and had forgotten to take “during” pictures. I think one can figure out the process, though:
- Cut four pieces of small chain – mine were about 4″ each.
- Paint the ends with your desired nail polish color (minty blue)
- While that is drying, paint the adjacent sections your second color (pink), leaving the center section unpainted.
- Paint, dry, paint, dry, paint, dry.
- In between coats, it is good to flex the chain around to keep the links from sticking to each other too badly. Though, this will happen regardless.
- Hang 2 chains per earring from around the center, staggering where the ends fall for a nice uneven fringe effect.
The pink nail polish I bought? Not good. Very translucent. Looked like nonfat milk when I put it on my fingernails. But I’m not willing to purchase any additional pink polish to try to accurately represent a Spring 12 fashion trend… so there you have it. A pair of super cool, customizeable color earrings for any fashion trend that may happen upon us in the upcoming years.
DIY: Painted High Heels
This is really a lot like the post I did on my Glitter Captoes, only less glitter and extremely more smelly. Seriously. I’ve burned my sense of smell straight out the brain. I suggest, perhaps, opening a window when you do this. Or being a smoker, because then you can’t smell as much anyway.
ANYWAY.
I bought a pair of shoes at a thrift store yesterday for THREE DOLLARS. Normally, I’m not really a thrift store shoe wearer, because it grosses me out when they are all collapsed and have mystery smudges inside. What if that is blister juice? I think of things like that. But these shoes.
No smudges. No collapsing. No blister juice.
Spoiler Alert! I’m painting them with that nail polish in the photo. Also note the safety backup in the background. I tried painting these a different color first, but it was UUUgly.
But first I taped off the fabric around the heels and sole. I had to tear the tape a little around the heels to allow the tape to curve (one of the 5 things I’ve learned from sewing).
I can't stand how glorious these shoes are. I won't be able to stand that even more when they are done.
And, time to put on your respirator and get to painting! Seriously, I was going to look up for you all how safe it is to breathe in nail polish fumes, but then I thought about it and decided I probably don’t want to know right now. Coat one!
I've always wanted to load my nail polish brush ALL THE WAY UP. Life goal accomplished.
On the heel, since I couldn’t cover top to bottom in one go, I painted from the top down to the middle, and then from the bottom up. The brush lines then blend for a more seamless look.
Coat two? Are you woozy yet?
Let the polish dry by setting it near your heater (or in the sun, or on your desk, whatever). Don’t believe them when they tell you it’s 50-second dry nail polish. They are fibbing. Then remove your masking/painter’s tape and marvel.
Marvelous.
Amazors. I may or may not top coat them, but for now I don’t want to breathe in my apartment (have I mentioned we live in a basement?), so they will stay like this. The nail polish I used was Maybelline Express Finish in Grape Times, which I have had and loved (in my cabinet) for years. Now I will love it on my feet.
Can't. Withstand. The Awesome.
