Have you seen the adorable little bottles of nail art glitter at Dollar Tree?  They have loops on the tops that make them just beg to be turned into necklaces!  This is a great craft for kids, tweens, and teens, and would be a great activity for a birthday party or sleepover.

Project estimate:

• Bottled nail art glitter, $1
• Elastic cord, on hand or $1
• Glue (optional), on hand

Total:  $1 and up

Cut a length of colored elastic cord.

Thread the cord through the top of a mini bottle of nail art glitter.

Tie a knot in the cord to secure.

The post Tutorial: Fairy Dust Necklace appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I love nail art.  But – and this is a really big but – I am generally not patient, coordinated, and artistic enough to pull off a nail art manicure on my own.  I recently saw a really cute video tutorial for watermelon nails and, while fairly basic compared to many other nail art tutorials I’ve seen, it still felt like it was a little beyond my skill level.  Taking that idea as inspiration, I decided to simplify the design down to more of a nail-art-for-dummies level.  I even managed to use my extremely clumsy left hand to paint this design on my own right hand – if it’s easy enough for me to have left-handed success, anyone can do it, I promise!

Project estimate:

• Nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Toothpick, on hand
• Top coat, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $1 and up

Colors I used:

• Pink – Essie, Off the Shoulder
• Green – LA Girl Color Pop, Peacock
• Black – Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Pat on the Black

Start by painting a base coat of color on your nails.  Paint your thumb and pinkie nails green, and paint the middle three nails pink.  Let your nails dry.

To add the seeds, make a drop of black nail polish on one of your pink nails.  Use the tip of a toothpick to “pull” one edge of the polish outward to a point, creating a seed-like shape.  Repeat on your other pink nails.  (I chose to leave an accent nail on one hand without a seed on it.)

After the seeds dry, apply a topcoat to seal them and make the design last longer.  I decided to give this matte topcoat a try and I love the effect it gives – try different topcoats for different finished looks!

I love how my nails turned out!

The post Summer Nail Art: Watermelon Manicure appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

While I don’t do it every day, I love themed nail art! What better way to kick off Shark Week than by getting all gussied up for the occasion? Cass from A Dingo Ate My Nail Blog gives a great step-by-step tutorial for how to get great whites of your very own. [how to paint shark nails]

Project estimate

• Blue sparkly nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Grey nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Silver nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• White nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Black nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Top coat, on hand or $1 and up
• Toothpicks, on hand

Total: Free and up!

More shark crafts:
Follow Mrs. Greene’s board Shark Week! on Pinterest.

The post Paint Your Nails for Shark Week appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Project estimate:

• White nail polish, on hand or $1
• 4-6 bright nail polishes, on hand or $4 and up
• Toothpicks, on hand
• Topcoat, on hand or $1
• Remover/ cotton swabs ( for additional clean up), on hand

Total:  Free and up

Lets start!

1. Apply your white polish. This step is recommended, but not required. I prefer to apply 1-2 coats of white polish to all of my nails prior to starting the tie dye. With the white undercoat, your colors will pop even more! Let these dry for 5-10 minutes.

1. Gather your toothpicks and polishes. Open all the nail polishes for quick access and lay out your toothpicks. Now you can decide what order you would like to make your tie dye. I started with the darker color as the “eye” of the design, going from purple to yellow.

1. Begin the tie dye. Start by creating a thick stripe of your first color at the upper corner of your nail, you can also alternate where it starts on all your different nails. Continue to add stripes of your color on the rest of your nail, its okay if they flood together. The key is to make the stripes thick enough to swirl around.
2. Drag the polish. Gently drag the tip of the toothpick through the polish, going from top to bottom. Avoid dragging the white through, this will cause clumping. Finish this step on all of your nails.

1. Apply your favorite topcoat. This is a rare time when I will say that it is okay to apply the topcoat prior to your nails drying. I find if the polish is a little tacky, it helps smooth out the tie dye. This step will seal in your design, prevent chipping, and add an excellent shine!

The post Nail Art Tutorial: Tie Dye Finger Nails appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Did you see Carissa’s recent tutorial for turning bottles of nail art glitter into easy necklaces? She wasn’t the only person eyeing up those little bottles for jewelry-making purposes! Jessica at Mad in Crafts was inspired to turn a few of them into “message in a bottle” necklaces, each containing a special message or sentiment. It’s a wonderfully thoughtful, unique idea that is perfect for Valentine’s Day. Leave them plain or dress them up all fancy-like; she even offers a couple of ideas for beautiful variations on the design! [how to make a message in a bottle necklace]

Project estimate:

• Nail art glitter bottles, $1
• Paper, on hand
• Chain, on hand or $1
• Jump rings (optional), on hand
• Bead or other embellishments (optional), on hand or $1 and up

Total: $1 and up

The post Make a Message in a Bottle Necklace appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

While perusing the aisles of my local dollar store recently, I came across a package of 8 tiny bottles of glitter in the nail art section. My initial thought was that they would be perfect for adding some sparkle to small projects. Thinking about it further, I realized they would be perfect to turn into pixie dust necklaces. Give these as gifts or as party favors for kids and teens. You can even make them into less-girly “wizard amulets” by using dark or neutral colored glitter (like copper), a black ribbon and silver or black beads – perfect even for boys.

Project estimate:

• Nail art glitter bottles, package of 8 for $1
• Ribbon, on hand or $0.50 and up
• Beads, on hand
• One head pin for jewelry, on hand
• Pliers, on hand

Total: $1 and up

The bottles of glitter used for these necklaces can be found in the nail care/nail art section of Dollar Tree in a package of 8 (seen below)

Please note: These bottle are very small so they are not appropriate to give to children who still put things in their mouths. You may also want to consider gluing the lids onto the bottles depending on the age and activity level of the recipient.

Step 1: Make the charm

Select beads that coordinate with the glitter and ribbon you will be using. String the bead(s) onto the head pin. Make a loop to attach the charm to the necklace as follows:

• Leaving some space above the top bead, bend the head pin down with pliers. (now is a great time to go ahead and loop it around the ribbon instead of threading the ribbon through later)
• Grasp the top of the bend with your pliers.
• Using your hand or a second set of pliers, wrap the end of the head pin around the top of your charm.
• Clip off the excess and use pliers to press against loop.

(disclaimer: I am a super novice jewelry maker. If you have more experience or a technique that works better, by all means, do that!)

Step 2: Add the glitter

String your favorite bottle of glitter onto the ribbon with your charm.

Step 3: Make the necklace adjustable

I chose to make my necklaces long enough to easily slip over the wearer’s head. You can finish your necklace with a bead to make it adjustable by threading both ends of the ribbon through a snug fitting bead (mine is an “E bead”) before tying a knot. This will let the wearer slide the bead to  adjust the length of the necklace if desired.

That’s it! Making these necklaces is quick and fun. You can coordinate your glitter color based on the occasion (just empty the bottles and refill with your glitter of choice):  Make pink and red necklaces as valentine’s gifts. Use green for St. Patrick’s day. Or create an assortment for a pixie party and let each child pick their favorite color.

Here are some more examples of ways to make your necklaces:

The post Tutorial: Make a Pixie Dust Necklace appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

You don’t need to be an artist to paint cute nail art!  With artistic nails becoming more and more popular, we’re always on the lookout for ways to make our fingers look fancy without requiring lot of time and extreme talent.  Our beauty contributor, Megan from Razberriez, is here today to show us a simple technique for making your own nail stencils, allowing you to easily add personality to your manicure.

Project estimate:

• Basecoat*, on hand or $1 and up
• Two nail polishes*, on hand or $2 and up
• Topcoat*, on hand or $1
• Wax paper or a plastic baggie, on hand
• Painters tape, on hand
• Mini Scrapbooking Punch (small enough to fit the nail), on hand or $1 and up

Total:  Free and up

*Polishes used here:  Essie Grow Stronger basecoat, Color Club “blue-ming”, OPI Black Onyx, Sally Hansen Mega Shine topcoat

To create your nail stencil, start by cutting up your plastic baggie/wax paper into even squares. Then, take your low-tack painters tape and lay it on top of the squares so that they stick together. This will prevent the mini punch from sticking to the tape.

Take your mini punch and stamp out the design you would like on the tape. To make it easier when you go to put it on your nail, use scissors to cut them into smaller pieces. You can find these mini scrapbooking punches at various craft stores, I found mine for $1 each. They usually have a fun variety of designs you can choose from, so pick your favorites!

Now that you have made your nail stencils, apply your favorite base coat to all of your nails to help prevent chipping and staining. It will also help this cute manicure stay on that much longer.

Once that has dried, paint your nails with the polish of your choice. These have to dry until they are 100% dry so that the painters tape won’t ruin the nail polish underneath when you peel it off. I recommend waiting an hour or two.

After you’ve ensured that all of your nails are dry, you can then decide which nail you would like to apply the design to. I chose my thumb because it was the largest nail. Gently peel the plastic backing off of your stencil and then carefully press it onto your nail.

Using a contrasting nail polish (I chose black), paint over the stencil with thin coats so it doesn’t bleed through. Let this dry for 1-2 minutes before peeling it off.

Peel off your nail stencil and viola! Now you have an adorable design on your nail. The stencils can be reused, but I only would reuse them if I was using the same color again. Otherwise, I would just make a bunch and cut them out at the same time.

Apply your favorite top coat and you are done! These nails are sure to impress any crowd. Have fun experimenting with designs and different shaped punches to further customize your manicure!

The post Tutorial: DIY Nail Stencil appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Nail art is all the rage right now, but going to a professional salon can get pricey. Lately we’ve been featuring a few DIY nail art tutorials here at DSC, so I thought I’d scour the web for some more tutorials to help get you inspired. Hopefully after trying all of these tutorials, you’ll come up with some of your own to share with us! Tutorials marked with *** mean that you should use regular nail polish instead of quick-dry, otherwise the technique will not work properly.

• Try Out These 3 Easy Nail-Art Designs by Refinery 29 [Pictured] ***
  I love the ombre technique pictured above. Think of all the color combinations that would work together!
• Nail Art Tutorial: Gradient Sponge Technique by EBeauty Blog ***
  This tutorial shows you how to create gradients using make-up sponges. The possibilities with this technique are endless!
• Christmas Ornament Inspired Nails by Ask Me Whats ***
  I really like her sponge technique here. This tutorial was later published in a beauty magazine, so go try it yourself!
• Tie-Dye Nail Art by NAILS Magazine ***
  This is part of their Easy Nail Art for Newbies Article. If you liked the marble look, you’ll love the tie-dye look as well!
• DIY Turkey Day Nail Art Guide by Refinery 29
  Refinery 29 provides us with three more nail art techniques, these are just in time for Thanksgiving.
• Fimo Nail Art Tutorial by EBeauty Blog
  You read right – you can use thin slices of Fimo clay to decorate your nails. Who would have guessed?!
• Frilly French Nails by NAILS Magazine ***
  This tutorial says to use gel, but I’m sure regular nail polish would work just fine.
• Nail Art Tutorials by Cutepolish You Tube Channel
  This You Tube channel has tons of nail art tutorials. From handlebar mustaches for Mowvember to back-to-school notebook paper designs, you’ll spend lots of time watching the videos.
• 5 Easy but Beautiful Nail Art Tutorials from Youtube by Goddess of the World
  I love the splatter paint tutorial, even though I’m sure I’d make a GIANT mess!

Previous DSC Nail Art Tutorials

• Easy DIY Nail Art Templates
• Tutorial: Marbled Nail Polish
• Simple Nail Tutorial: Zebra Stripes
• Simple Nail Design: Flower Tutorial
• Make Newspaper Nails

Do you have any tips, tricks or tutorials you’d like to share with us? Post them in the comments below! Also, follow my Nail Art Pinterest board. As I find cool Nail Art, I will “pin” them there, so keep checking for cool techniques!

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