TUTORIAL: Pokemon Nails

I grew up with one older brother. He was my biggest influence and my best friend ... I wanted to do everything he did and I lived most of my childhood being a big tomboy.  We watched power rangers, monster trucks, scooby doo and pokemon. We climbed trees, built forts, played some intense pillow fights and everything like that. Dang I miss those days... haha! But Pokemon was huge with us. We both bought decks of cards and played pretty hard core :) And I will admit that a year and a half ago we got back into it and we went out and bought new decks and played every spare second for about a month until i was creaming him and he tried making the rules change for him (he always has done that) and I got mad and then we quit.

Anyways... moral of the story... I miss my brother. Okay no it's actually that I decided to make pokemon nails but I just realized how good of a life I have. Who knew God could work through something silly like this and make me appreciate life more? :)

ANYWAYS... enough with my ADD!! I made pokemon nails. And I want to show you how you can, too. So here we go, you ready?

You need: Red, black, white, base and top coat nail polish. tape.

1. the usual. Fix up the nails and base coat... you know the drill!

 

2. Get black. Paint a stripe down the middle of your nails like so:

3. Wait for that to dry. Cut some painters tape (that's what I prefer to use... I think any kind will work!) in a small strip and put it on top right down the middle of the black.

4. Paint white on the bottom and red on the top.  Let it dry and do a second coat if needed and immediately peel the tape off after your last coat.

 5. Paint a black circle in the middle of each nail. Let it dry and do a smaller white dot in the middle of that.

6. Let it dry and then top coat and you're done!

This was my first try ever, so I'll be trying out a different technique soon and I'll let you know if that one works better.

Thanks for sticking around and I hope you enjoyed it!

Alyssa

what i've been up to..

So on Sunday, we were all sitting around the table having a nice brunch after church. My dad asked me what i was planning on doing with my day and i said i didn't know. He's the type who will come up with some horror for me to do just because i said i have no plans... so i quickly asked, "hey can i paint my room today?" completely out of the blue. We hadn't even talked about it before that moment. :D and to my surprise he replied, "yeah sure. you can paint it whatever color you like as long as you have it fully prepared before we go get the paint."

 now looking back on his reply i see that his goal was to get me to clean my room -.- i think he thought that's as far as I'd get that day, but boy was he wrong :)

yes that is a black cat lovingly decorating my white bedspread with her fur. -.-

 *please ignore the mess. i beg of thee. yeah i know it's pretty bad!*

 These are all my before pictures :)

so then i came up with a floor plan and set out on my adventure...

if you want to know how i make my floor plan planners i'll do a tutorial on it soon :)

 So i hauled all of my furniture to the middle of the room completely by myself. i cleaned my trim and removed all the nails from the walls. and i filled the holes and did lots of prep work :)

 Then i cut it all in. twice. :/  haha and yes i did paint i love you on my wall. why? to show all of you dear readers just how much i love you :p

oh yeah and i had to show you my super awesome bun haha it was quite ridiculous ;)

So i'm slowly getting everything back to normal. Starting to decorate and stuff. :D it's been fun... now i have to paint my closet and bathroom O.o

what do you think? Going from bright green to pale cream... haha
Alyssa

//Guest Post: Made in a Day//

Hi! I am Kim and I am Guest Hosting today for Alyssa here on Live Love Craft. My blog, Made in a Day, it is where I share my DIY crafty expertise with the world! I love going to thrift stores and finding unique items to decorate with and make into something totally different or just better than new again.

Today I am going to share how I made the two pics below, I bought them a year ago, and I just couldn't find a place for them and I needed to transform them into a great addition to my sea themed bedroom.

Now they weren't that bad to begin with, but I needed two pics that were pastel, shabby and more up to date. So first I removed the tiles in the center and gave the frame a nice coat of beige satin spray paint. Then I cut light green burlap with a rotary cutter to fit in the inside area of the wood frames. Then decoupage them in with Mod Podge, I did not coat the outside of the fabric, I wanted the burlap to keep its texture. Next I printed out vintage pics of shells on card stock and decoupaged them with Mod Podge onto the tiles. I did decoupage over the top of the pics as well to seal them onto the tile. Hot glue the tiles back to the center of the pic. I then took sandpaper and scuffed up the frame edges, to make them shabby chic.

These turned out really great! I love them they are a perfect addition for my bedroom.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! Thank you Alyssa for having me over to share!

DIY //knock off// green lace earrings tutorial

I can't wait to show you these lovely knock off lace earrings that Vanita from House of Avandan made a tutorial on! Without futher adeau: Vanita--

My name is Vanita and I am a working mother to two wonderful kids and wife to an awesome husband. We have a dog named Boots (and he hates anyone wearing boots) and live in a house full of jewelry, (literally, I have necklaces hanging from curtain rods).

As far back as I can remember I've always been attracted to the pretty things (clothes, flowers, jewelry), but never pursued that direction in college or career. Until one day, I just decided to start making jewelry. I have an etsy store and the jewelry is edgy meets pretty. House of Avandan Store

I am inspired by steam punk, nature, metals, gems, textures, and the glamorous life. My items include handcrafted necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I use a variety of materials from chains, gemstones, beads, and metal.

I started this blog to share my passion for jewelry with the rest of the world. We'll discuss trends, showcase jewelry designers and share jewelry tutorials that you can easily make.

Here is my tutorial on these pretty green lace earrings:

Designer Inspiration

My DIY

Lucifer vir Honestus Carved Imperial Jade Earrings has a price tag of $5700, although I would love a pair of these particular earrings, there would be no way for me to justify that price tag to my husband. And if you know me, when I see something I like, I can find an alternative way to make them. For my DIY earrings, I used white lace fabric, painted it and stabilized it with green fabric.

Materials:
Lace fabric
Green fabric (two pieces glued back to back for sturdiness)
Emerald green paint
Brush
Diamond template
Two gold jump rings
Two gold ear wires
Tacky glue
Fray Check
Sharp pin

Cut out diamond template.

Paint lace fabric with green paint. Let dry completely.

Using tacky glue, glue lace fabric to green fabric.

Trace template onto lace and canvas fabric.

Cut out and use fray check along the edges to prevent threads from fraying.

Pierce small hole for top part of earring.

Attach jump ring and ear wire to top of diamond shape. Repeat step for other earring.

Ta da! All done!

Smother yourself in jewels,
Vanita

//guest post// Retro Table Makeover from ReMadeSimple!

{Welcoming the lovely Kristina of ReMadeSimple! She gave a plain little table a gorgeous makeover! I'm in love. without further adieu --- here she is!}

Since the New Year, I've been having fun changing up a few painted furniture pieces in my house, turning a few things lighter from rusty reds and blacks to yellows, whites and pastels.

And, this little side table of mine was bugging me. It looked too dark and boring sitting in the corner of my living room next to a dark brown leather chair. 

So, I decided to give it a lighter, brighter revamp...

I painted the legs a pale gray, and the top the same yellow as my pie safe called "Magnolia"

by Martha Stewart. (Looks a lot like hard boiled egg, but I like it!)

I used eggshell latex paint for this (not on the chalk paint bandwagon...yet).

After the paint was dry, I decided to stencil the tops and sides for a nice pop of "Tangerine Cream" colored paint.

 I used my Nagoya Craft Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. 

(I had done stenciling for the first time with this stencil on a market tote bag 

and decided stenciling was fun and not scary!)

After the stencil was dry, I thought the design looked a little too bright how it was, 

so I decided sand down the top and sides with an electric sander using fine sandpaper.

Sanding the table did the trick of toning down the orange accents and added that aged look that I love to the table. I love my new brighter table-

I think it adds a fun retro feel to my previously dark corner. 

And I love the combination of stenciling and distressing-will definitely be doing this again sometime!
(And maybe I'll be trying out that chalk paint everyone's raving about too...)

I hope you enjoyed this table revamp and I'd love to see you at ReMadeSimple sometime!

//graphic branch earring holder TUTORIAL//

introducing the brand new tutorial by me....

oh yeah. that's right. i finally got around to making you lovely people a tutorial. :) It's my vintage inspired graphic branch/twig earring holder! It's very useful and pretty if i do say so myself!

anyways... no more blabbing... on to the tutorial~

supplies:

• a dead branch/twigs {make sure they're small enough your earrings fit on them.}
• acrylic paints in desired colors {you want about 3-5 colors}
• a paintbrush
• small yarn/thread. embroidery floss would work.

start with your twig. {i only have my largest one in this picture... i used three but any amount can be used.}

mix your paints and start painting it in bands of differing size. leave spaces between some bands and overlap others.

it's up to you... but i think that leaving some branch showing here and there looks better than completely covering it in paint.

paint all your twigs

 take your string and tie it to the branches keeping them level. remember to leave enough space between them for your earrings to hang.

hang on your wall and put your earrings on it!

{most of these photos are SOOC because i didn't have time to edit them...}

{edited. that's the real color of my wall... haha}

inherited from my mom...

{middle} my FAVORITES from forever 21. i think they were only like $1.50. I wear them ALL THE TIME :)

Let me know what you think!

xoxo,
Alyssa