Construction Crane Nail Art

Hey there!  In case you're wondering why I have poorly painted cranes on my nails for this post, I promise it's not as random as it looks.  This past Saturday was my dad's birthday so, for the first time, I decided to do my nails for him.  Not only was it his birthday but he was "performing".  My dad is a crane operator and is currently working on a huge project in Edmonton known as The Ice District - part of which is a new hockey arena that has been years in the making (very exciting for our hockey-obsessed city).  This weekend there was an art event called Nuit Blanche here (originally started in Paris) and one of the exhibits was Dance of The Cranes where my dad and his coworkers had choreographed movements for the cranes set to music.  He thought it was silly but I could tell he was secretly proud of it.  And he even liked my nails enough that he asked me to text him a pic of them so he could show his crane buddies!

To do these I did a base of KBShimmer How You Dune? and then did a fan brush gradient with (from bottom to top):

China Glaze Peachy Keen

Pretty Serious Dangerous Curves Ahead

China Glaze Tart-y For The Party

China Glaze Fade Into Hue

Essence Sunset Paradise

I've done fan brush manis before but usually by dipping the brush in polish then applying it.  For this one I blobbed the polish onto the base and then just brushed it back and forth...way faster!

Then I used black acrylic paint to add the cranes and silhouettes.  They didn't come out perfect but good enough that they were recognizable to my dad so that was enough for me.  My right hand was even messier but at least they sort of matched.  

Just for fun, here's a photo of me, my mom, my sister and my very tired niece (it was almost midnight) taken at the show.  If you look really close, you can see that my nails.  You can see 3 of the 4 lit up cranes in the background.  I also found the coolest pic on cranes on Instagram here to get more of idea of what it was like there.

'Til next time...