It’s been snowing here non-stop. Snowing and snowing and snowing some more, with lots of snow days all around. Need a fun snow day activity? Try making these recycled soda tab snowflakes! Like real snowflakes, you can make endless variations on this theme so no two are exactly alike.

Project estimate:

• Soda tabs, on hand
• Nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Paper, felt, or craft foam, on hand
• Rhinestones, on hand or $1 and up
• Glue, on hand

Total: Free and up!

Start with a few soda tabs – about 5 or 6 per snowflake is a good number – and paint them with nail polish. I like thins particular polish because it was cheap, it gives a fairly opaque finish with a single coat, and it’s super duper glittery.

When the nail polish dries, arrange the tabs in a circle on a piece of paper, felt, or craft foam and glue into place.

Arrange rhinestones in a patten around the soda tabs to fill out the snowflake and add even more sparkle. Glue these into place as well.

After the glue dries, carefully cut around the design, leaving a thin strip of the background material showing around the edge as evenly as possible. Voila! A snowflake!  Wondering what to do with your finished snowflake? Mine is going to go on my bulletin board. To hang it, glue a loop of string or ribbon to it. Or use it as an embellishment in any other number of craft projects!

The post Tutorial: Soda Tab Snowflakes 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.

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!

The post 15 Easy Nail Art Tutorials appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

The girls over at HowDoesShe? have come up with yet another great reuse project. This time, Heather has come up with a genius way to make nail templates out of office supplies. The second I saw her tutorial, I face-palmed – why didn’t I think of that?! Using round labels, a decorative hole punch and nail polish of your choosing, you can having professional-looking nails in no time that even your kids can help with. [how to make your own nail art templates]

Project Estimate:

• Nail polish (at least 2 colors), on hand or $1 each
• Label stickers, on hand or $1
• Shaped scrapbooking hole punches, on hand or $1 and up

Total: Free and up

The post Easy DIY Nail Art Templates appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

How do dollar store nail polishes compare to salon brands? Our beauty contributor Megan is an expert on salon brand nail polishes such as OPI and China Glaze, so I sent her to Dollar Tree in search of some nail polish so she could compare them to her favorite name brands. Her results were surprising, even to her! Read on for Megan’s dollar store nail polish review.

How Do My Dollar Store Nail Polish Finds Compare to Name Brand Nail Polishes?

by Megan, Razberriez

Have you ever thought that dollar store nail polishes could be just as good as the salon brand? I recently went to the dollar store to find some new colors, and even some that I thought looked similar to the ones I already owned.  I happened to be very surprised with the results, and actually loved some of the colors. Switch it up, go check out to dollar store instead of the your normal store. You be will amazed at what you find!

L.A Colors Color Craze – Sea Siren

This first polish I chose, was actually the one that caught my eye first. It made it say ” Wow, that is such a pretty color”. All it is, is a medium toned-blue with a slight sheen to it. I feel like it is in between a matte and high-shine finish. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the formula was to work with, similar to OPI’s. The blue polish glided on with ease and left me with a nice even finish. The only con I found, was the drying time. It took forever to finish drying and I ended up getting a few ding marks. This definitely was a great buy, for only $1 and I would recommend checking them out. Rating: A-

Simply Irresistible -Dawn

This raspberry pink color definitely struck me as one perfect for the toes. It has a jelly-like formula and I found it went on a little thick. I needed 3 generous coats for it to become fully opaque, but looked great after it was done. This is not necessarily the easiest polish to work with, but I wouldn’t give it a total thumbs-down. Rating: B

LA Colors Color Craze- Aqua Crystals

Blue glittery nail polishes tend to always catch my eye. When I caught sight of this little guy (or girl I guess?), it reminded me of one of my new China Glaze polishes. Aqua Crystals is a beautiful teal glitter with a sheer blue base, perfect for layering over any shade of blue. Again, drying time was an issue, but if you use thin coats, it isn’t that bad. Rating: A-

Covergirl – Fireworks & Crushed Ice

This glittery duo is an amazing deal, when you consider you are getting 2 versatile nail polishes for $1. Let’s start off with the clear polish that has the silver, hexagonal glitter and a hint of red shimmer  in it. I would use this over top on another nail polish, either on one finger as an accent, or on all 10. The second one, a sheer silver polish would be great for designs. I find it is too thin to use alone, ( 5-6 coats ), yet too opaque to use on another color. Rating: Polish #1: A Polish #2: B+

LA Colors Art Deco – Silver

I was so happy to see these thin tip polishes at the dollar store! They had so many different colors, textures, and basic glitters to choose from. I chose the silver one, mainly because I figured it was one of the most versatile shades, next to white and black. You can use this to make flowers, stripes, dots, whatever you want! This may become my new place to buy them, as I am currently paying $5 for 3 of these at a local store. Rating: A+

Overall, I would say that this was a success! I was very impressed at some of the little gems I found hidden in the dollar store! I would definitely check out the L.A Colors brand, as I want to go back and try out some more of their colors.

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