Portuguese Flag Nail Art

EURO 2012 NAIL ARTPortugal Flag.

I am a portuguese-canadian and because of that I am a huge supporter of the portugal team in the EURO 2012 tournament for soccer. I googled portugal flag nail art and was sad to see a lack of cool flag nail art. SOOOO! I made this tutorial which is completely unrelated to paper crafting but thought my portuguese girl friends would appreciate it. So this is how I did my Portuguese nails :)
First start off with a Portugal flag for reference. There are differences from my nail to the actual flag and that is obvious because the detail is so darn small that I couldn't get it on my nail.

First step is to put a base coat on all your nails. I chose to only paint flags on the ring fingers as it would be too much work to do on all my nails. Once that is dry study the flag for a moment. Notice the red on the flag is 2/3rds the whole flag. Also note 4 blue quinas. The lines of the yellow armillary sphere cannot be duplicated on a nail unless you are super pro which I am not so the blob is going to be sufficient enough for me! Also, Make sure each layer is DRY DRY DRY!
 

Step 1: Paint red or green first doesn't really matter. When painting try not to touch the two as when they over lap it looks funny. Like mine.  I used China Glaze Starboard #949 and OPI's Kennebunk-Port #NL N09. 

Step 2: With yellow nail polish (OPI's Need Sunglasses? #NL B46) paint a blob. A perfect circle is almost impossible but you can try!

 


Step 3: With your red nail polish and a tooth pick or fine brush paint the red shield on the yellow blob (How descriptive I know!). 

Step 4: Then take a white nail polish (I used Alpine Snow by OPI) and fill in the red shield.

 

Step 5: With a tooth pick take a royal blue colour (I have China Glaze First Mate #948 same collection as the green actually) and dot the blue quinas on to the white shield. 

Step 6: Wait a good few hours before applying a top coat. Notice the lighting difference in the photographs. I waited because if you don't your top coat may make the design bleed into each other. You can add the yellow castles to the red shield if you have the time and hand to do so. My hand was shaking the whole time and let me tell you the right hand is not as pretty!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I may do a few more in the future. VIVA PORTUGAL! 

More information on the Portugal flag: found this on tumblr from xsarahmagic


The Portuguese Flag is divided into two parts by a vertical line.

The first part is green (2/5 of the flag).

The second part is red (3/5 of the flag).

There is, in the center of the vertical trace, a shield with 7 castles and 5 quinas in blue.

Around the shield there is a yellow armillary sphere.

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Symbology

The 5 quinas —» They symbolize the five Moorish kings defeated by D. Afonso Henriques in the Battle of Ourique.

The 5 white points within each quina —» They represent the five wounds of Christ.

The 7 castles —» Symbolize the fortified locations that D. Afonso Henriques conquered from the Moors.

The armillary sphere —» Represents the world that Portuguese navigators discovered in the XV and XVI centuries and the people with whom they exchanged ideas and trade.

The green —» Symbolizes hope.

The red —» Symbolizes the courage and the blood of the Portuguese killed in combat.