Newspaper Nail Art With Water

As promised last week, I have come up with yet another simplest and chic way of designing finger nails. This nail art will definitely suit your casual wear or daily wear for sure!

Its as easy as sticking a piece of newspaper onto your painted nails and then pulling it out!
Easy peasy!

OK! More or less, that is the concept :-)

So here we go again...

All you need:

• A small shallow container or plate
• Tap water. Some people use rubbing alcohol, vodka or surgical spirits. Believe me, the universal solvent: tap water will make do. :-)
• Squarely cut pieces of newspaper. One for each finger. Cut any part of the newspaper which you would love to have on your nails like crossword puzzle blocks, horoscope symbols, pictures of ads (smaller ones), channel logos etc. Literally anything that would fit well on your nails because that's the size of your canvas!
• Nail Polishes
• Pastel shades are preferred as the newspaper print will be visible on light colors.
• Transparent polish to give top coat for final touch
• Cotton buds, nail polish remover to clean off any mess
• Cotton towel. You wouldn't want to mess up your work area, right? ;-)

To begin with:

Paint your nails a base coat of lighter shade. You may choose pastel shades of blue, pink, green, violet, grey or white. Give 3-4 coats of paint on each nail so that the newspaper print would be clearly visible on the nails. Wait for it to dry completely. (You can also paint your nails and dry it overnight.)

In the meantime, dip the newspaper cutting in the plate filled with water for 5-7 seconds. Make sure that the printed part of the newspaper is well immersed in water and that it soaks up well.

Now, take the soaked paper and lay it on your nail, your desired print facing down on the nail and press it nicely for about 20 -25 seconds. Start counting!

Now, gently peel off the paper.

The printed words are embossed on your nail now. Blow lightly on the nail for the print to dry up.

Apply a top coat of transparent nail polish for the final touch. The top coat gives a protective layer and helps the design to stay longer.

And.. your are done! Here's a look on finished manicure.

This is one of the easiest nail art that anyone can do... So do try and give me your views and suggestion! :- )

Tips and Tricks

• Instead of water, you may also use alcohol. It gives a darker impression of newsprint on the nails.
• Make sure your nail paints are dry before you press the paper on it. 
• Apply light top coat with the brush gently touching the nails so that the ink does not smudge. As soon as it dries up you may add another coat liberally to add to the shine.

Nail Art - Water Marbling

Until recently, I used to believe that nail art or painting designs on fingernails is not my cup of tea (or coffee?!) as I found myself too clumsy to hold a brush steady enough to make designs or flowers, which would then end up as huge blotches on my nails :(

I am neither an artist or have any artistic inheritance,so to say, nor do I have patience to sit and create beautiful pieces of art work on my nails. Somehow, I am not that comfortable in wearing artificial nails. So I had been surfing through lots of blogs, websites and videos searching for a easy "recipe" for designing fingernails.

Man! people do have patience and come up with innovative, sometimes crazy and other times weird ideas for designing fingernails. And the tools they use.... 
I came across hordes of creative stuffs, among which I liked the best: "Water Marbling" and "Newspaper" nail art. (I shall do a detailed post on Newspaper nail art on my next blog).

Water Marble Nail Art is simple and neat technique and moreover its easy!!! (That's why I chose this, becoz even an amateur like me can do it!)

Water Marbling involves drawing abstract designs, specially swirls or lines in water using nail polish. Weird, eh? Until then, I was unaware of the fact that nail polish droplets when dropped in water disburses and forms a thin film on top of the water surface. Basically, you need to create a bull's eye like pattern in water with nail polish. You can use any number of nail colors. The choice is yours. Then draw lines or swirls with a toothpick. Dip your nail(s) in  the water. Wait for two seconds and then pull it out. Tadaa! you fingernails are now painted with unique designs! Easy right?

OK! Its not that easy... I have just given you an overall picture of how it should be done. Now, we move into more detailed steps. I shall also share with you the tips and tricks, do's and dont's while doing Water Marble Nail Art.

So here goes:

What you need:

• A relatively small shallow bowl filled 3/4th with normal water (Not hot/warm/cold/ hard water. Just normal water. You may also use distilled/filtered water )
• Nail Polishes

• White or Light shade nail polish for base coat
• Nail polishes of contrasting colors. Minimum of 2 is required.( I had used 3-4 different shades. It shows the difference!)
• Transparent/Colorless Nail polish  for the top coat

• Toothpicks. You may  also use needles/ bobpins/ chopsticks which ever comes in handy.
• Waste cloth
• Scotch Brite cello tape (Masking tape is also OK)
• Nail Polish remover
• Cotton buds

Lets get started!

First, paint your nails a base coat of light shade. White is preferable as it acts as a canvas for your marble design. You can also use pastel colors which will enhance the marbling effect that you are about to give to your nails.

Allow it to dry.

Now, take the scotch brite tape. Cut 2 pieces of the tape so that you can stick it around your finger. One piece should be stuck horizontally around your finger starting just below your fingernail. The other piece should be stuck vertically covering the sides of your finger so that only the nail will be exposed.  Cover all your fingers in this way. This is done to avoid the excess nail polish from sticking to your skin which would otherwise require extra time in cleaning up with remover!

Next, gather all the nail colors that you are going to use. Unscrew the top and keep it ready as we need to add the droplets sooner before the previous droplet dries up. Make sure the nail polishes that you are going to use are fresh and free-flowing ones, not the lumpy, guey ones. Because the sticky ones would not spread in water.

Now, take the bowl of water and the nail colors that you are about to mix. Into the bowl of water, add a droplet of each nail polish color. Add the first drop, wait for it to spread and form a thin film on the surface of the water (which happens instantly). Next add a drop of another nail color in the middle of the film. You can see that too spreads instantly forming a circle within first droplet circle. Keep adding nail polish droplets of different colors into the middle of each circle. The nail colors should contrast each other to give a vibrant effect. Keep adding until it forms rings of colors.

 (You may add 2-3 three drops of a nail color at a time to give a darker shade effect)

Take a toothpick. Start from the outer edge and drag a line towards the centre of the circle. Clean the toothpick with the waste cloth and then draw another line. Repeat this process around the circle. Each time you draw a line, make sure to clean the toothpick on the waste cloth .

You can see that the pattern formed is similar to cafe-latte art, done on top of coffees that we get in barista! :-). 

Make sure you finish creating the design before the film of color rings hardens.

Once you are pleased with the design, slowly dip one finger into the bowl with the nail facing downwards, in line with the design that you like.Wait for 2-3 seconds. Do not move your finger. 

Now take another toothpick or a cotton bud, clean up the excess polish around your dipped finger by wrapping it around the cotton bud.

Now, slowly remove your finger from the bowl. Blow off any water droplets sticking to your fingernail and leave it to dry.

Repeat this process for all the other nails using new water each time. Yeah I know! Its not that easy as it seems to be. But believe me, once you see the result, you will realize that its worth the effort! :-) You may dip three fingers at a time and pull out three different designs on each finger nail ( Now, this would have cheered you up! :-))

Once all the nails have dried up, remove the tapes around the fingers. Take a cotton bud damped with nail polish remover and rub off the excess polish on skin surrounding the nails.

Give a top coat to all nails with a transparent polish for the final touch. And its done!

You have super chic nails to flaunt! :-)

Here! check out this video (which tempted me to try water marble) which I got from youtube. Thanks to one who posted! :)

Video to water marble your nails

Tips and Tricks:

• Make sure that the water used is distilled or filtered and of normal temperature. It should not be cold or warm or hot. Nail polish does not spread in hard water as well.
• If the drop doesn't spread out, gently shake the water or try pulling the sides out with a toothpick.
• If you do not wish to use tape, you may use vaseline lotion or lip chap around your nails. It helps remove the excess polish easily from your skin.
• Always drip the nail polish drops from just a little above the surface of water. If you drop the polish from high above, it will fall to the bottom of the bowl.
• While pulling out your finger from the bowl, pull it out with one quick and straight move. Do not angle your finger as it may create water bubble blotches on the nail. If you get one, you can always cover it up using rhinestones :-)
• Instead of a toothpick, you can use needles, bobpins etc, which has a sharper tip.
• Do not use a normal cellophane tape as its got a polished,slippery surface and the nail polish will not stick to it.
• Make sure, the nail polishes that you use are the watery kind. The lumpy ones will not spread in water. Even the nail polishes thinned using a thinner, also will not work...
• When the first droplet of nail color is dropped into the bowl and it forms a thin film, take a toothpick and pull the outer edges of the film towards the cup's edge so that the nail color film will cling to the cup and will not move when you dip your nail in.

The images in this post have been taken from other websites for informative purpose.

A Path of Love

We have been walking through the path of the many Saiva saints on our garden temple lands. Together we have looked back through history and seen real people living real lives, doing pragmatic things, sometimes foolish things, some even hurtful. There were workers among them, royalty, housewives, yogis, businessmen, a spiritual community divided by caste but with one thing only in common. They all loved Siva. That is their heritage. That is their message: that there is hope for all of us on this path to Siva, hope of attaining His grace. These men and women will be remembered as they were for thousands of years. On this path, you don't have to be a great rishior a highly trained yogi. You don't have to be a great philosopher. You don't have to know Sanskrit. Just love God, which is the Life of the life within everyone. And to realize that God is the Light of the light within everyone, you have to be very simple, very uncomplicated, so that obvious realization can manifest through your conscious mind, through your subconscious mind, through your superconscious mind.

It's very simple: the energy within our body is the same energy that pervades the universe, and it's all emanating right out of Lord Siva. It's very simple: the light that lights our thoughts, that light doesn't care -- it has no preferences -- whether it's a good thought or not a good thought. That light is illuminating every thought. Take away the thoughts, and you realize that you are just light.

The path of Saiva Siddhanta, as you all know, is a very simple path. It's the path of love, a path of devotion, which makes you want to be self-disciplined, because to maintain a feeling of love all the time, you have to be self-disciplined. You don't discipline yourself to attain the feeling of love. You attain the feeling of love and then you want to discipline yourself because you love the discipline, because it brings more love.

The path of Saiva Siddhanta is worshiping God on the outside and realizing God on the inside, and when the two come together -- transformation! That means that you're different than you were. You have different desires. You have different motivations, different goals in life, because you've been transformed. You look at your previous life and you say, "That's another person." Why? Because, you have found something real on the inside of you. Thoughts on the inside of you -- they're not real, they're always changing. Feelings on the inside of you -- they're not real, they're always changing. Siva on the inside of you is right there -- never changes. Those of you who hear the nada, it's the same inner sound, morning, noon and night, 365 days a year. The light that lights your thoughts, 365 days a year, twenty-four hours a day, is the same. It lights up your dreams also. And the energy of your body -- all coming from Siva.

Siva is so close to you. The Nayanars, the saints of Tamil Saivism, teach us a great lesson. They did so much wrong, but they survived with just the love of Siva and maintained that love without anything getting in the way of it. Of course, if you love Siva, obviously you have to love everyone else. Love brings forgiveness. Love brings understanding. Love brings feeling.

All Saivites of the world love Siva. They all love each other, and they love the Vaishnavites, the Shaktas, the Smartas, the tribal Hindus and everyone in the world, because Siva's energy is working through everyone in the entire world -- plants, trees, animals, fish, birds. It's so simple. The object of the lesson is to make yourself a very simple, uncomplicated person.

 Aum Namah Sivaya.

[Extracted from Merging with Siva, Sivadarsanam Katham - How to realize God]

Preparations For True Yoga

We must live in the now to follow the path to enlightenment. In the lower realms of the mind, where time and space seem very real, we are worried about the past or concerned about the future. These two intermingle and limit conscious awareness. Living in the past or the future obstructs us in this way: the past, by reliving old experiences - mainly the negative ones, for they are vividly remembered -- clouds our vision of the future. Living in the future over-activates the intellect, the emotion and the desires. The future is little more than another form of mental fantasy. Past and future are equally unreal and a hindrance to spiritual unfolding. A person functioning in the now is in control of his own mind. He is naturally happier, more successful. He is performing every task with his fullest attention, and the rewards are to be seen equally in the quality of his work and the radiance of his face. He cannot be bored with anything he does, however simple or mundane. Everything is interesting, challenging, fulfilling. A person living fully in the now is a content person.

To attain even the permission to perform yoga one must have the grace of Lord Ganesha and the grace of Lord Murugan. Lord Murugan is the God of the kundalini, of the advanced yogic practices. Unfolding all happens within the kundalini and the chakras within our subtle bodies. Once a profound relationship is developed with Lord Murugan, then, with the guru's permission and guidance, true yoga may commence. Otherwise, no matter how long one sits in meditation, no matter how hard one tries, it is just sitting, it is just trying. There is no fire there, no shakti, no power, no change. It is the Gods who control the fire and at this stage help the devotee immensely, bringing him closer and closer to the supreme God, Siva. Quite often the yogi in his deep internalized state may see in vision the feet or form of God Siva before he begins to blend into the mind of God Siva, called Satchidananda. It is God and Gods in form, that help us to find the formless God.

[Extracted from: Merging with Siva, Sivadarsanam Katham- How to realize God]