Craft Wars: The Nail Art Challenge

Kick off the New Year with stylish fingertips.

Good thing it’s never too cold to show off your fingers. Here, three beauty bloggers come up with fabulous ways to prep your nails for an evening out — or let’s face it, any time of day.

Aggie from Once Over Lightly elegantly layers polish.

A great look for day-to-night wear.

What you’ll need: Two nail polishes in contrasting colors (one metallic looks cool), a base coat, a top coat, and tape.

Apply the base coat and base color. Aggie used OPI’s “Russian Navy” as the royal blue undercoat. Let the nail polish dry completely.

Use clear tape to create a triangle stencil in the middle of each nail if you don’t have steady hands. You may skip this if you would prefer to freehand the gold triangle.

Paint the gold polish over the nails. Remember to let each layer to dry completely before layering up. You may use other colors as well, but metallics are easier to work with since they dry more quickly.

Peel off the tape once the gold polish is completely dry. Finish up with a top coat and you’re done!

The perfect combo of classy and badass.

Next up, Maria from Maria Just Do It glams it up with lace.

The supplies: black lace, transparent nail polish, gold nail polish, 6 silver nail diamante or any other shining details, scissors, and tweezers.

Cut out 10 small irregular lace pieces. Then apply one coat of gold nail polish; allow it to dry, and apply another coat.

While the nail polish is still wet, use tweezesr to cover the nail with a piece of lace. Cover about half of the nail, and cut away any excess lace.

Paint a layer of transparent nail polish, then attach 3 silver nail diamonds. You can apply the diamonds to all of your nails, or just a couple.

Finish all nails with a coat of transparent polish. Gold, black, lace, and a touch of diamonds are prefect for Carnival season!

Last but not least, Ashley from The Shine Project shows off a no-fuss way to get cute and quirky nails.

This is so easy to replicate.

Start by gathering your supplies. You’ll need two of your favorite nail polish shades (a bright color and a neutral color looks good), metallic sharpies, and clear nail polish.

Paint four of your nails with your bright polish color, leaving one nail unpainted. Paint the last nail with your neutral color. After applying your second coat, wait until your nails are completely dry.

Take your gold colored Sharpie (or bronze, or silver) and make fun designs on your nails. Doodle shapes, letters, words, your lucky number… anything! Top your designs with clear nail polish (this is very important because otherwise your Sharpie designs will wear off in a matter of hours).

21. Which Is Your Favorite Nail DIY?

Let us know in the comments!

Pippa Armbrester is a quilt maker and designer. Follow her adventures in quilting and life on her website.