Airbrush Nail Art:
Pretty Floral Design

For this project you will need the following:

• your airbrush equipment
• a selection of paints
• a fake nail (or a willing model)
• stiff paper
• exacto knife
• clear nail polish
• mechanical pencil

Scroll down when you are ready to start!

Step 1

For ease of picture taking I am using a fake nail to demonstrate this airbrush nail art - here I have adhered it to a piece of scrap paper with, of all things, bubble gum (hee hee hee)!

I have also skipped ahead one step (sorry) and painted the entire nail white.

Step 2

This airbrush nail art design works with any color of paint that you like....my only advice is to use a rich or darker color as we will be blending with white and we need the white to POP.

Apply your color in a slanted gradient as shown... fading lightly into the white.

Step 3

Using the exacto knife cut a small petal shape into the stiff paper (I used a light weight cardstock) as shown (I applied paint so you could see it better)

Step 4

Center the petal shape in the middle of the nail so that it straddles the gradient you created earlier. Apply paint only to the top half of the petal letting the overspray color the bottom half as shown below...

Step 5

Use the petal stencil and the technique described in step 4 to apply two more petals on either side of the first petal.... remember to only spray the tips and let the overspray do the work for you.

Step 6

Now you will need to use the exacto knife to make another stencil.... this time we need a leaf shape. It's important that your little leaf have a "vein" running through it so that it looks different from the petal. Size wise, it should be about the same size as the petal you made earlier.

Step 7

Apply a couple of leaves using your color. Keep them fairly light (i.e. dust lightly with airbrush) so that they don't over-power your flower.

Step 8

OK!! Here is where it starts to come together!!!

Clean out your airbrush and add a few drops of white paint to the cup.

Using the leaf stencil, lightly add in a few leaves at the base of the nail as shown...

Step 9

One last stencil to make.... this one is just a little squiggle to add some dimension to the airbrush nail art.

Step 10

Using the "squiggle" stencil add a few white lines to the piece. Do your best not to make a line through your flower...

Step 11

For this nail, I switched paint again and added a pink line too... it has minimal impact and is optional (no need to change paint too much)

Step 12

Now for the dots. These little dots really add a lot to the over airbrush nail art design... and they are really easy to make.

Just put a drop of white paint on your scrap paper and tip the pencil lead of a mechanical pencil into the drop. Touch the dipped pencil onto the scrap paper and make a few dots to get used to the method (and not mess up your nail).

You'll notice that the first touch-down makes a big dot and that every other touch-down after that, the dot gets smaller and smaller.

Step 13

Add white (and pink too if you like) dots as shown...

Step 14

Lastly, when you are happy with your airbrush nail art design apply a thick coat of clear nail polish to protect all your hard work!

Note: If you are doing this on a real person, they will have paint all over their cuticles and finger tips...just apply the clear polish, let it dry and use soapy water to remove the excess paint - PERFECT!

Step 11

And here it is all finished!!! Looks great!