Elephant and Roses

I recently purchased a bag from Designs by Abby Jocson. It was a large and sturdy bag made with water resistant material, which makes it the perfect work bag for this unpredictable weather.  It also came in an absolutely adorable print that inspired this nail design.

My version of Elephant and Flowers

Rainy days are never gloomy with a bag so bright!

Special thanks too to Polished In The City for my beautiful blue base color! It's Snowcone by Orly, and I love the way just one coat creates an even and opaque quality.  They also carry different brands such as Seche, OPI, Zoya, LA Colors, Sally Hansen, Revlon, Essie, Wet n' Wild, and The Face Shop. Please do check out their site for more fab nail finds <3

For this design, I used fimo sticks for the flowers instead of painting them as I usually do.  Fimo sticks look like long erasers.  They are used by slicing them, then sticking them on the nail using clear polish. I purchased my fimo sticks from Amazon a long time back.  I'm sure there is still a lot available now :)

fimo sticks (picture taken online)

So let's get started!!

Materials:

1. Base Coat
2. Top Coat
3. Nail polish in: Medium blue, light blue or light grey, pink, green, black, and white
4. Big dotting tool
5. Small dotting tool
6. Very thin paint brush
7. Rose Fimo stick, sliced very thin

Procedure:

After applying base coat, paint all nails with your medium blue color.

Place a rose on each of the fingers except the thumb.  To do this, dot a bit of top coat on the part of the nail where you want to place the flowers, then gently press the rose on the nail.

Start painting the elephant by first making a silhouette on the thumb using light blue or grey polish (I don't have grey polish so I had to use light blue)

Now use dotting tools to create the eye and pink part of the ear.  I used the big dotting tool to dot the white part of the eye, then the small dotting tool to create a small black dot.

Use a thin paint brush dipped in black polish to outline the elephant.  I also added a mouth last minute to make my elephant look happy :)

Use green polish and a dotting tool to place leaves around the roses.

Outline the leaves the same way as the elephant to make the leaves look more alive.

As always, apply top coat, and you're done!!

Helpful Tips:

• Should you want to buy fimo sticks, try to buy in bulk, then share with friends as this may come out cheaper.  For example, I found a vendor who sells for $2.5/stick, while another sells for $9/100 sticks.  Big difference!
• Fimo sticks are great for nail art because they have detail that would otherwise be almost impossible to paint by hand.  They also provide flexibility, as the user decides how thick or thin they want the design to be.
• On the other hand, I sometimes find it bothersome to have fimo sticks on my nails because they tend to snag on my hair, among other things :s
• To clean your paint brush that has been dipped in polish, dampen a piece of cotton with nail polish remover and gently wipe the brush.

Thanks for reading!!