Nail Art Wednesday: Special Birthday Nails Part 2, Toronto Maple Leafs Nails

Every week in the month of October, we celebrate 1 birthday. This week's birthday celebrant is super duper, extra special. You see, 34 years ago today, the love of my life was born. *goofy grin*

I was originally thinking of doing red based nail art. Not because it's Mr. J's favorite color, but because it's Chinese tradition to wear red during people's birthdays and it would be a great way to honor his heritage. But he's not exactly what you'd call traditional so in the end, I ended up with nails that best describe one aspect of him: a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

Mr. J is a sports nut. He calls into radio shows on his drive to work to give his two cents on the latest buzz. He puts on baseball/hockey/basketball/football games in the background while we have dinner. He's almost always updated on who traded who, which team is top of the ranks and which coach just got fired. Out of all of his favorite teams, the Leafs hold a special place in his heart. He has figurines, mugs, a throw, shirts..yeah, you get the idea. Never mind that these days any hope of them entering the playoffs is pretty dismal. But you never know, right? While I love my hubby to pieces, I'll never cheer for the Leafs as the Flames will always be my team.

Go Leafs Go!

What I Used:
Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It
White: Wet N Wild French White Creme

To do the look, I first painted my ring and thumb nails white and the rest blue. I wrote "Go Leafs Go" on the thumb using the smallest detail paintbrush from an unbranded set of 10 detail brushes I got at Wal-Mart. Still using freehand, I painted the maple leaf logo (or an approximation of it) on the ring nail. I was hoping to keep the stripes as straight as possible so I employed some painters tape I had lying around from the last painting job we did in the summer. I used the tape as borders to keep the white stripes as straight as possible. After they're dry, I then went over it with the paintbrush to do the blue lines within the white stripes. I like how this was forgiving in the sense that with only two colors involved, if I made a tiny mistake, I could always just go over it with the other color to mask it.

They came out better than I expected!

I still cringe at the sloppy blue lines. 

Definitely need to work on freehand lines.

Very happy that this came out legible!

Ugh, those blue stripes.

Quite proud of this. Came out better than I thought!

Posing with Mr.J's favorite Leaf: Mats Sundin #13

Mr. J absolutely loved this (despite the wonky stripes and funny looking leaf) and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did creating it!

Hammie says: Happy, happy birthday, Mr.J!!

Do you follow hockey? Who's your favorite team? Are you your worst critic (I know I am!)?