Monday, August 27, 2012

Cross Stitch Nails

I wasn't sure what to call these nails, and am still not really sure. I began making them without really knowing how they were going to turn out... the only idea that I had ahead of time was the naked nail part near the cuticle of my pinky, ring finger, and thumb. I don't even know what to call that! It reminds me of a knight's visor -- with the vents cut in around the mouth part.

In the end, I decided to call this a cross stitch manicure, because of the use of the X's, and because of the lack of any other name to call it.


I started out by placing striping tape on my nails in the "knight's visor" pattern. This involved one strip across and three strips perpendicular to that. Then, I painted over the striping tape with OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, a warm nude. When I removed the striping tape, the nude nail bits remained.

Then, I painted on my accent nails. The green is China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise, and though I can't 100% remember what I used for the pink, I know it was one of the pink China Glaze neons. Using the same colors, I painted on rows of cross stitches (or rows of x's) along the tips of my other nails, and using Pretzel again, I mimicked the "knight's visor" on the tips of my accent nails.


I think this manicure turned out pretty interesting, especially for me not having a plan at all going into it.



What do you guys think I should have called this? For a bit I was calling them quilted nails, but that wasn't quite right, and tribal doesn't quite apply either.


Thanks for reading!
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32 comments

  1. Haha how about a hybrid of the two: tribal quilt nails. Love the colours, and the design is very interesting!

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  2. looks more like they could be inspired by Disney's Pocahontas. the pink and teal remind me of the hummingbird.

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  3. I immediately thought of Powder Puff football. I can't quite explain it. LOL

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  4. Love the designs and the colours used! Although even I wouldn't know what to call this look. I'd probably generalized it as pattern nails. But that kinda kills the uniqueness of the outcome eh? =/

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  5. How about Joust? Those Xs could be wins. :)

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  6. @jess i was thinking the same about pocahontas!! esecially with the beige shade xx

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  7. This was awsome! Feels really original.

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  8. The visor part reminds me of an embroidery stitch known as the blanket stitch that is used as a decorative edge binder for wool blankets. Between the cross & blanket stitches, your mani looks like a mini embroidery sampler. Great job!

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  9. It does look like a quilt!!
    That nude is so yummy....lol am I making ANY sense?

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  10. these colors play really well together. good job sarah.

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  11. I was going to say the exact same thing as Inky Whiskers. The Knights Visor looks just like a blanket stitch. So cross stitch is fine :) Looks good too, really original :)

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  12. Looks like a blanket stitch to me! Love it very innovative and original. The colors are really rich too great job!

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  13. I think cross stitch fits well! Also I didn't even realize at first that the nudey parts were your nail, I thought it was a different polish haha. Lately I've been loving doing manis without a plan! It's really fun to see what's swimming around in the ol' noggin while you aren't looking. Also, love this color combo (obviously I am a big fangirl of neon + nude).

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  14. The design is really pretty! Would have been interesting to do the tape for the two tips too

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  15. It looks Native American to me.

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  17. This is gorgeous! I like calling it cross stitch. You've actually inspired me, my grandma used to do cross stitch and I have one that she made for me. I think I might try to copy the stitches onto my nails now. :]

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  18. It's surprising but very nice! I like it :)

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  19. I think the name you've found is pretty creative...you should keep it...I just want to say thanks for all your creative mani tutorials....definitely an inspiration for me....

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  20. ohh i like this! very different and pretty

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  21. these are pretty cool nails

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  22. I love the nails and I love name!

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  23. Hello! Are you an active online user or maybe you are for live communication?

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