Nail decals: An easy way to put design onto your nails!!



 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  Hope you are all good!

 

I thought I would do another nail art post, but this time instead of using nail polish or pens etc. to create designs, I used nail decals.

 

 

 

 

What is a nail decal?  Basically it is just a little transfer sticker that you can put on top of nails to add some design!  There are lots of different types of decals around, from stickers to nail wraps to water activated decals and the like.

 

 

 

 

They can be used to create an easy look with no fuss, and good for people who want to apply little designs and detail onto their nails but don’t like having to wait for a long period of time for the polish(es) to dry.

 

To be honest, I don’t really mind the whole drying process - I can get a wee snoop in Instagram while I wait!  That’s where I discovered these nail decals!  I found that they were being sold in town, so when I was in one day I thought I would get some and give it a go!

 

I have listed the steps I took to create the nails below – just to show you how easy it is!

 

 
 

Steps:

 
 

1.      I picked the size of nails I needed and stuck them to a flat surface using Blu Tack.

 

 

 

2.      As they were false nails, I didn’t need a base coat.  I put on two coats of a hot pink nail polish.

 

3.      Next, I chose the designs I wanted and cut them out.  Following the directions on the back of the packet, I soaked the cut-outs in water for 5-10 seconds and slid them off the card with my fingers, and using tweezers I carefully grabbed the corner of the transfer.  I then placed each design on the area of the nail I wanted it to be.

 

 

4.      After pressing onto nail and patting off excess water, I applied a coat of clear nail polish on top to seal the transfers onto the nails.

 

 

That’s basically all that was needed - here are some photos of the finished nails!

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

These decals can also be used on skin like a temporary tattoo.  I tried a wee one to see what it was like.

 

 

 

So, all in all, the decals are super easy to use and I think they are quite funky!  Maybe next time I will try and combine these transfers with some of my own nail art…we shall see.

 

Thank you so much for reading my post!!

 

I will catch you all next Sunday!

 

Have a fab week and take care guys! Xxx

Wee heart-shaped things!

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  

 

Hope you all had a good Valentine’s Day!

 

So, I thought this week I would incorporate hearts into my post - seems fitting as Valentine’s Day was yesterday.  

 

This week I did a spot of baking and a wee bit more crocheting!  (I hope you are not all bored reading about crocheting!)  

 

Anyway, these are the photographs of what I made and, as usual, I have put links to the recipes/tutorials at the end.

 

 

 

 

 Heart-shaped shortbread!  

 

These are yummy, if I do say so myself!  I made about 60 biscuits yesterday…and there is less than half left today.  Safe to say, these were a favourite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jam sandwiched biscuits/Linzer-heart biscuits!

(These are also yummy!)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little crocheted hearts!

 

 

 

 

Well that’s all I have for this week!   Thank you so much for reading my post!

 

I will catch up with you all next Sunday!  

 

Have a fab week and take care guys! Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources: 

How to crochet a heart using magic ring: beginner friendly tutorial by B.hooked crochet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKuVEmWQ3xw

 

Jam sandwich biscuit/Linzer-heart biscuits

http://borrowed-light.com/linzer-heart-biscuits

 

Shortbread

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9556075/Classic-shortbread-recipe.html

 

 

 

My week of making hats...

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  

 

I thought I would do this week’s post on knitting woolly hats – the equipment I use and some photographs of hats I’ve made.

 

Since making my fave red bobble hat, I’ve had loads of pals saying that they loved it!  And they were asking me if I could make them one, which is basically what I have been doing in my spare time this week!

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the hats I’ve given away, but I do have the ones I’ve made for myself and family that I can show you.

 

So, basically all I really use to make the hat is a 36-peg round knitting loom with the hook, and the needle to finish off the hat…and wool of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought my loom in a quirky little store in town.  The pack came with instructions on how to make a hat.  I followed the instructions for my very first hat, but I didn’t really like the way the hat turned out, as the brim sort of curled up - not sure if it was because of the wool I was using or not.  So I searched YouTube to find another way of making a hat.

 

I found a few videos on how to do different styles and patterns, and I have put the links below so you can watch them for full instructions.

 

Anyway, these are three hats that I’ve made:

 

 

 

Loom knit hat #1

 

 

 

 

Red bobble hat: this is actually the easiest one to make, because it only takes a few hours to do!  Super easy!  I also think it looks the nicest on, but that might just be me.

 

 

 

Close up of bobble

 

 

Detail of stitches

 

 

 

Loom knit hat #2

 

 

     Front                                                                                Back

 

 

 

Dark blue slouch beanie: this one took a wee while, probably the longest of the three, mainly because you have to do a lot of swapping stiches on pegs and purl stiches. (I can’t explain what a purl stich is because I’m still a beginner and don’t really know the terms and stitches yet…but you can find out how to do it in the second video in list of links at the bottom of the post.)

 

 

I was using the wrong size of loom for this hat. An odd number of pegs was needed to create the knitted detail, so it didn’t turn out exactly like the video…I ended up with a different kind of stitch!

 

 

 

Detail of stitches

 

 

 

Loom knit hat #3

 

 

 

 

Mustard yellow beanie: this one took a while to make too, though just a wee bit faster that the blue one!  For this one I didn’t join the brim to the hat, so it can be folded up, or just left down.  I just used knit stitches and purl stitches to create the detail of the hat.  It is quite similar to the detail in the first hat, but this one you could probably wear either this way or inside out.

 

 

Detail of stitches

 

 

 

So that’s basically what I’ve been trying to master this week – trying different knits on the round loom.  I still have a long way to go, but I will keep trying and hopefully will learn new stitches and maybe use the circular knitting needles (two small knitting needles that are connected by a wire/string or plastic tube) to make a hat!

                                                     

It’s a good feeling when you see the end result of something you’ve spent time to make! Haha.

 

Anyway, thank you so much for reading my post! I will catch up with you all next Sunday!  

 

Have a fab week and take care guys! Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Youtube video sources:

 

Knitting an adult hat on round loom – start to finish by starnstv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5uRXhalbws

 

How to loom knit a slouchy beanie hat (DIY tutorial) by Tuteate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEHE3WGui30

 

 

A super easy how - to / idea for beautifying a boring wall!!

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  

For this week’s post I thought I would do a how-to/idea post on how you can decorate a wall for any room in your house or office…or shed….anywhere you’d like!

And this is pretty much the easiest thing to do to give your wall a wee bit of character! 

I had been thinking of doing this to a wall in my room for ages and thought ‘why not! I'll do it this week and post about it?’

 

So, here it is an example on how you can beautify a drab bare wall.

 

 

 

I am a sucker for postcards!  Whenever I go travelling or visit a new touristy/museum place I ALWAYS have to get a bunch!  These, by the way, never get sent to friends and family though - they get filed away for interior décor ideas like this!!

 

Okay, for this ‘wall art’ you can basically use anything - from photographs, magazine images, printed out quotes to drawings.

 

I would say this is one of the easiest things to do because all you really need are the things you want to display and some blue tack.  Easy peasy!
 

 

This is a before and after picture of my wall, you can see that the wall looks so much better now.

  

                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can stick the images directly onto the wall or stick them onto some nice card then stick that to the wall, or lean it against the wall…again it’s entirely up to you and what you think works best in your chosen room!  

 

There are so many layouts and ways images can be displayed on the wall.  It all depends on your preferences. I’m a bit (maybe an understatement?) obsessive about thinks lining up and having the same amount of space between images etc.  You should see me trying to do a PowerPoint presentation…takes forever!

 

Well, thanks for reading my post!  Hope this has given you some ideas if you are stuck on how to decorate and jazz up a wall.

 

Okay, I will catch up with you all next Sunday!  

 

Have a fab week and take care guys! Xxx