Tribal Antler

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First off....look what my lovely and very generous boss gifted me for the holidays:

(Salley Hansen Nail Art Pens) 

I guess my nail polish obsession is apparent.  I will be using one of these for the following tutorial......

My inspiration for this weeks nails?...... a painted antler.

A bit of a weird piece, I realize, but I just loved the simplicity and the colors.

So, why not create this same pattern for my nails?!

First paint your nails in Finger Paints' Tiffany Imposter

(I LOVE this color!)

Then, using tape, tape off the center of each nail.

*I have been having a lot of trouble with scotch tape lately, often pulling off the color below it.  So, this time I tried blue painting tape.  It still caused the same problems.  I think the best thing to do is paint with  your base color, wait a full day, then tape as necessary.  Still working on perfecting this step.*

Then paint remaining portion of nails in Sephora by OPI's Already Famous (one of my most favorite colors!).  Make sure to do two coats here so the base color does not peek through.

Once dry, carefully pull tape off.

*The good thing about this is that if you pull the tape off and the base color comes off with it, as it inevitably will, then it is super easy to fix.  Just grab your base color and do a quick swipe for a touch-up.  I totally had to do this on at least four nails :(*

Let dry.

Then, using Salley Hansen's Nail Pen in Black, draw the following print on each nail as seen in pic:

Let dry completely.  And when I say "completely," I mean totally and fully, there is not chance that it will every smudge, dry.

*These Salley Hansen Nail Art Pen's are tricky.  You think they are dry, you have been sitting patiently for a couple of hours, then you go to wash your hands or paint a top coat and they smear all over the place.  Very frustrating.*

Make sure to coat your nails in a healthy top coat, to seal in the nail art pens and give your nails a nice shine.  The top coat makes a world of difference on these nails; don't forget this step!

(Up close like this you can see the smudges these pens make)

All in all, I really like this pattern and these nails.  Just wish the pens and tape didn't give me so much trouble.  If you follow this tutorial, I say plan this out over a couple of days, so that you do the base color one day, the tape and second color on the next day, and the nail pens and top coat on the following day.  Let me know how it works out for ya!