Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Nail Art Wednesday: Calgary Flames Nails

After I did the Toronto Maple Leafs nail art in honor of Mr. J's birthday, I've had a nagging feeling that kept telling me that I needed to be fair and do one for the Calgary Flames, too. It could very well just have been Hammie with his subliminal messages, but wherever the thought came from, I knew it had to be done. See, I'm not originally from Toronto. I lived on the opposite end of the country, closer to the gorgeous Rockies in Calgary before moving here and that was where I first learned to appreciate hockey. I have a theory that wherever you first fall in love with the sport is where your loyalties will lie, no matter where you move in the future. So even if I now count Toronto as home, I still root for the Flames (Sorry, Leafs..). What better way to show your support even without a jersey or face paint on than to wear them proudly on your nails?

Go Flames!


What I Used:

Red: Wet N Wild Everybody Loves Redmond (a tomato red jelly)
Black: Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out
White: Wet N Wild French Creme White
Yellow: A mix (1:1 ratio) of China Glaze Sunworshipper and Sally Hansen

How I Did It:

I wasn't able to take photos in the process of creating the design so I made some graphics to make it easy to see how it was done instead of just describing it with words. This particular design can be broken down into three parts: the stripes, the logo and the jersey.

For the stripes (on the index, middle and pinky fingernails):


For the logo (on the ring fingernail):


For the jersey (on the thumb fingernail):


This is an easy design, albeit a bit time consuming. The harder parts were making sure the writing is legible and that the logo was as close to the original as possible. Another method I was considering to get the logo right was to try doing it the same way that newspaper nails are done, but instead of newsprint, I was going to use a print out of the logo. In the end, I decided to take the challenge of doing it freehand and it came it out pretty decent, all things considered.

A creme would have been a better base but this was the best red I had to match the team colors.

Mr. J has a few collectible pucks and the red in this design complemented my Flames nails well!

Hammie likes the jersey nail better than the logo nail. I agree.

Last look!

Hammie asks: Who's your favorite NHL team? Who are you rooting for to win the Stanley Cup? Do you prefer actual nail shots or graphics for the tutorial part of the post?

7 comments:

  1. Oh, I can tell just from looking at your design that it not only was time-consuming, but that you had put a lot of careful thought into it. Well done! The colour-blocking is really crisp, and I think the jersey adds a personalized touch.

    It's nice to see that you've included step-by-step graphics. They definitely help see the process from start to finish. It would be nice to see actual photographs, but when that's not possible, the graphics do a good job at getting the steps across.

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  2. awesome job! ^what she said^ lol! hate to write the exact same thoughts. and you are spot on with the statement that you stay a fan of a team, even if you move away. I'm still a Redskin fan, even tho I live in New Orleans - gotta say that I love the Saints too! I'll have to try manis for both teams!

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  3. Thanks, Mary! :) I was supposed to tape the stripes part for each color but it took waaay too much time than I had so I ended up freehanding it. The jersey is my favorite part of it! I'm just glad the logo looks recognizable. ;)

    Thanks for the input! I always seem to forget to take photos whenever I do freehand work so these graphics will definitely come in handy whenever that happens.

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  4. Thanks, Suzánne! :) Loyalties run deep, I think. Although with the way the Leafs are playing right now, I'm slowly getting impressed (and it could be that my hubby's enthusiasm is slowly rubbing off on me, hahaha!). I'd love to see your manis for both teams! I'm thinking of adding more of these team inspired manis but we'll see. :)

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  5. I used to be a big hockey fan (before the kids arrived ;) )
    Peter and I were diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fans... and then they traded all the cute players... ;)
    I actually like how you used the jelly based red... it adds a certain jello- red frozen ice (in a non bloody way) feel to it... its very fun!

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  6. Which cute players were those? Any chance those were the ones they traded to Calgary in exchange for Phaneuf? Hahaha! ;) Mr. J is a huge, huge fan himself. I think I've seen all their games this season because of him!

    Thanks, Marta! :) I was initially thinking of mixing my own custom shade but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth so I went ahead with the jelly finish seeing as it's hard not to like a jelly finish anyway. Glad you like it!

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  7. This are way dope! I've been looking for ideas for my girlfriends birthday, and I've been looking around for place that can do her nails in Calgary. These was very helpful! Thanks for sharing.

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