Valentines Nail Art

You don't need a sweetheart to don some super sweet nail art this Valentines Day. I've been practising some love-themed nail art in the lead up to Thursday.

Conversation hearts, ring of roses, tattoo heart, XO, bleeding heart and valentine. I altered a few designs by some of my favourite nail artists - Nancy Mc Nails and Fluery Rose.

The bleeding heart nail is great if wearing pretty little hearts all over your nails is too saccharine for your taste. You can choose whichever colour you like as a base (white contrasts really well with the red). Use a nail art pen of a small brush to paint a red heart in the centre of your nail. Then you can either use a tiny brush to paint the drips, or alternatively, you can use a brush dipped in acetone to make the red polish run, creating drips (a la Fluery Rose). After the red polish dried, I outlined part of the heart with a black nail art pen.

These are the nails I'm sporting this Valentines Day. I'm still practising writing on my nails so forgive my illegible words.

...And these are my love tattoo nails I wore last weekend for our first wedding anniversary.

If you'd like a tutorial for any of the nails, or you have any at all say (whether of value or not), give us a shout!

D.I.Y Your V.D

No, don't run out to buy rhinestones and studs for your rampant herpes, for I refer to Valentine's Day. Although, who am I to stop you from celebrating your venereal disease through the medium of craft or any other way you see fit?

During primary school, there was a boy in my year who anonymously sent me lizard-themed Valentine's presents with a persistent fervour for several years. This invoked conflicting feelings within my tiny frame - on the one hand, I was puzzled by his commitment to lizards and their apparent connection with love; on the other hand, I was proud of the fact that he had chosen me to shower his reptilian affection upon; and on the third hand, I was a little repulsed, because at that period of my life, boys were all snot and scabs and trying to expose themselves to you in the playground while the teacher wasn't looking.

These days, I have a proper valentine, who has outgrown the snot and scabs and self-exposure (for the most part), but Valentine's Day is still a puzzle to me. I always feel the pressure to make something very personal and cute, which is becoming increasingly difficult as time goes on. Buckle succeeds via his reliance on mixtapes in handmade cases, while I opt for making D.I.Y cards.

These are some examples of cards I've made for Buckle out of whatever I had at hand - wrapping paper, coloured foil, what-have-you.

Last year, I made a little book out of playing cards from a tutorial I can no longer seem to find. It's super easy and pretty impressive to receive ( if I say so myself). I covered the back of a deck of cards with colourful paper and pictures, then wrote one thing I loved about Buckle on the front of each card.

That's not a euphemism - he happens to cook excellent Japanese curry.

I laminated the cards to stop them getting torn and battered, then punched two holes on the left of each card and tied them together with ribbon to make a little book. Et viola, one hamdmade, heart felt D.I.Y Valentines present for your Lady Friend or Gentleman Companion.

It would bring me much joy to hear your D.I.Y Valentines gift ideas.

P.S. Here's a little punk gem to get you in the lovin' mood.

THIS BLOG. AND THIS DINOSAUR.

Let us compare this dinosaur to this blog. Both were placed in public space by people who felt that that public space needed a little extra something: this animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex was constructed in the middle of a golf course by an eccentric mining magnate who believed, within himself, that golfers wanted to navigate a small ball around a course obstructed by a behemoth prehistoric creature; similarly, I placed this blog in your path as you navigate the internet because I believe perhaps you would enjoy my own little man-made obstruction full of music, clothes, nail art, other art, reviews, DIY, this that make me happy and things I can't understand.

Unlike dinosaurs however, I do not have recurring nightmares about being chased by blogs stemming from a traumatic childhood viewing of Jurassic Park.