We were tasked with creating board game inspired nails across 10 nail tips using only gel. 3D elements had to appear on at least 6 nails.
I chose Chutes and Ladders because I loved that game as a kid, and it also gave me the opportunity to recreate my family as game pieces!
Step-by-Step Nail Art Tutorial
1
To start the player pieces, I wanted some thickness to them, which is hard to get with gel since it wants to self-level, and tends to get thin at the edges. To work around this, I stole some of my husband's WED clay that he uses to sculpt props with, and made a very basic mold so I could flood the area to the thickness I wanted. You can use Scupley, he just has tons of WED clay sitting around, and wasn't looking. Once cured, remove the clay, and clean the piece. E-filing the edge also removes any clay stuck in the gel.
2
Building on that technique, I used a custom loop tool to sculpt a round, swooping channel into a block of WED clay. I use a little water and my pinkie to smooth out the channel.
3
I then flooded the mold with red builder gel to a thickness that gave the slide enough rigidity to stand up off of the nail. I also built a ladder out of toothpicks, and encapsulated it in gel.
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I then based all of my player pieces and box art cloud in white gel.
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Using a pencil, I sketched out two caricatures of my son and myself onto the player pieces. Using acrylic paint, I then added base colors, and finished with a shadow color blended into the base.
6
Using acrylic paint, I started adding detail to the spinner, and the logo that's used on the box art nails.
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Start planning assembly. Play with this a bit, and have some fun!
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Begin painting the base for both the box art and game board in gel polish.
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Assemble all of your pieces, and add any final details like the old school Milton Bradley logo and barcode from the box! There, you have nails form one of the greatest board games of my childhood! Just keep it together when you hit that slide two spaces from the end! After all, it is just a game...
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