Friday, September 28, 2012

31DC2012: Day 28, Inspired by a Flag

Morning! For "inspired by a flag" I chose to depict the Arizona state flag. This prompt seems kind of out of place to me… a flag is so random. I feel like the person that created this challenge had a specific idea in mind for some nail art they wanted to do and then wrote this prompt to fit it. 


Since I know you came here to learn, here's some history on our flag. There are thirteen rays on the top half, and they represent the original thirteen colonies. The colors are also representative of the awesome sunsets that we have here. The copper star represents the Arizona copper mining industry, and the blue stands for liberty.

(source)
For this manicure I used two different tape techniques. On the star nails, I used the same technique that I outlined in my Fourth of July tutorial: hole punch some painters tape and use it as a stencil. On the ray nails, I cut super skinny triangles of tape and then arranged them on my nail so the points all met at at the base of the design. Then, I painted over the nail with my second color and slowly removed the pieces of tape.

As with any tape manicure, make sure your base is completely dry before taping. I like to use Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat to speed up the process.


The navy in this manicure is China Glaze Man Hunt. I used two coats for opacity. It's a really great shade & applied evenly. The stars are OPI Legs Celebrate, an older OPI that my sister gave to me.

The yellow is China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, my go-to yellow creme. The red is China Glaze Velvet Bow, which was a little streaky and required an additional half coat before removing the tape.


My choice of red may have ended up being a little dark, but I wanted to avoid the McDonald's look again since I was separating those colors from the blue nails entirely. I'm happy with it, anyway!



Here's a handy pinnable combo image if you're interested... :)


Last year's inspired by a flag can be found here, and challenge prompts here.
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26 comments

  1. This is awesome! What software do you use for your watermarking? I love it and I just can't get mine to look as nice.

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  2. This is great! Arizona has a cool flag! Illinois' flag is not as cool...

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  3. Gorgeous! But my first connection was Superwoman, hahaha!

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  4. cool well done I trouught It was a Wonderwoman version

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  5. I've lived in Arizona for 16 years and I never researched the state flag! Thanks for the lesson :)

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  6. That turned out really nice! I love that red you used:)

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  7. So lovely! I love the flags meaning as well! Who'da thunk it?

    Jazz x

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  8. I do have to say that one of the things that I liked about moving to AZ was having a super cool state flag. I'm from TX so that flag is pretty cool too. But some states have some real fuggo flags. Where do you live in AZ. P.s.: Great mani!!

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  9. That's so pretty! Yeah, I also thought this was a super hero inspired! You did it so beautifully!

    Samantha
    Nail Art Couture

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  10. I feel it's a little random of a prompt as well! I love your interpretation, though :). As always, perfect. Reminds me of Wonder Woman <3

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  11. I have lived in Arizona since I was 5 years old and had no idea what the flag's colors stood for! How cool! I love living here, I instantly recognized the nails and it brought a smile to my face!

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  12. Looks awesome! I love our flag

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  13. This reminds me of wonder woman :) I love it!

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  14. Really cool interpretation of the arizona flag, I didn't know how it looked like before this :) If I would have guessed and didn't know it was a flag I'd probably would have guessed wonder woman as well. :D

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  15. Wow! love this! I'm hosting a giveaway! check it out if you like xxx

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  16. I thought it was a circus themed design at first glance. Super fun either way.

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  17. As a resident of AZ, I think they're wonderful. I wish I'd seen this before our Centennial celebration.

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  18. Love your interpretation! They are amazing! You made quite a complex design look flawless

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