The Cheese Thief: September 2013

Sunday, September 29, 2013

How to Save a Chipped Manicure (A Nail Art Tape Strip Tutorial)

I love the clean polished look of painted nails, but it totally bugs me when my polish starts to chip. I also love the look of nail art, but I really do not have time to wait for my polish to completely dry to do any nail art. Here is a perfect solution for my nail dilemmas. Below is a manicure that I had for a few days. You can see that the corners are chipping but my cuticle area is fine.

To fix only the tips and to put a little nail art I decided to paint my nails white on a diagonal.

I used painters tape, but you could also use scotch tape. Just be sure to seal the edges onto your nail so polish doesn't seep.

You could leave your manicure like this without the striping tape, but I think its cuter with the tape.

To make the manicure even cuter, I bought these nail striping tape from amazon. It was only a dollar for 8 rolls. Yes, it was shipped from China, but came in about a week. The quality was decent. One of the rolls didn't stick very well, but overall I was happy with the quality. I don't even know how they made any money since it was only a dollar, and shipping had to be pretty expensive. Apply the tape on each finger (see video tutorial below on tips on how to apply nail art strip tape). You will need small cuticle scissors to cut the excess.

Couldn't be easier. And its so much better than doing a whole new manicure.

This video tutorial is not only how to put striping tape on, but how to do it with your non dominate hand. I am a righty and not very coordinated, so doing anything with my left hand is always a challenge. This video will help you do nail art with your other hand.

Monday, September 23, 2013

How to Make Math Fun (Compass Art)

I fell in love with this post about using a compass and watercolors for a child's craft. I remember when I was in fifth grade math class we made compass art and drew geometric flowers with compass. Expanding the pin, I wanted to see if I could make some cool patterns with the compass and paint. It turned out so great and was so fun to do with my daughter.

The original pin used watercolors, but I found that the colors were too light and the paper eventually tore because of all the liquid. I decided to use acrylic paint instead. This made for bold colors that were not too wet and didn't soak into the paper. To get a cool effect, I didn't completely clean my brushes between paints, that gave a nice artistic look to the flowers.

I posted a video tutorial on how to make these flower shapes with a compass. Hopefully doing this will show kids that geometry is fun!

To make the paintbrush stay on the compass I needed to add some tape to thicken the handle.

Compass flower art. YOu can see that the blue still has streaks of yellow in it because I didnt clean the brush completely. You only want to do this (not clean the brush) for one or two colors. Any more and you colors will become muddy.

I love the way these turned out. Such a fun project for all ages.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Best Free Script Fonts for Silhouette Cameo Cutter

I recently received a Silhouette Cameo and am so excited about it. The one complaint I had about my Cricut Mini is that it doesn't allow you to use custom images or fonts. Images I was ok with, but fonts, c'mon now, fonts should be a given. To limit people to cartridges to me just seems like a bad strategy in the long haul. I'm secretly waiting for Provocraft (makers of the Cricut) to go under.

I started searching the web for free cursive fonts that would weld well. Below I compiled a list of my favorites. Number two Pacifico is actually my all time favorite. It looks great on everything I've cut and the lines aren't too thin so its not hard to remove from my vinyl cuts. Keep in mind that some of these fonts you want to bold before using it to cut, or else it will be too thin.

1. Black Jack 2. Pacifico 3. Brannboll 4. Marketing Script

5. Honey Script 6. Saginaw 7. Brody 8. Lavanderia
9. Channel 10. Harlow 11. Mistral 12. The Only Exception

Here is a little card I made using contact paper and Pacifico font. You can use contact paper from the dollar store instead of the expensive Silhouette vinyl. I just set the thickness to 6 instead of 9 in the cutting menu.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Some Toys That Consistently Keeps My Child Entertained for More than Five Minutes

It's so hard to buy toys for my kids that keep them entertained for more than twenty minutes. Most of the toys that they own just get piled up in an baskets. Even if it holds their attention for more than twenty minutes, it is only when they first open the toy. After the novelty has worn off they never really play with it again. There are a few toys that keep my daughter entertained over and over again. A few tried and true toys that has kept my three year old entertained for quite some time are the Spin n Spiral Doodler Drawing Set (this is basically a toddler version of Spirograph), Kid Kraft Retro Play kitchen and newest on the list Perler Beads (also known as Hama Beads).

I seriously love these Perler Beads. They keep Avery entertained for hours, and not only on the first time she used it, but for consecutive weekends. The beads help her with hand and eye coordination and they aren't messy like Playdoh (unless you spill the box). The beads are small, so its not recommended if your child still puts things in their mouths.

The beads not only kept her occupied but it was fun to create things with her. These beads are strangely addicting. I made little cupcakes to decorate greeting cards with. I love this idea of making thank you cards to get her more involved in writing thank you cards. She gets super excited because she had a hand in making the card, so writing in the card isn't a chore for her.

The kits basically come with small plastic beads, a pegboard, an sheet of parchment paper. You place the beads on the pegboard in any pattern and then melt them with an iron. You can buy kits online at ConsumerCrafts.com, Amazon.com or at Michael's.