In honor of Read Across America Day this past week, I decided to return to my childhood and paint a couple of children’s book cover-inspired manicures! If you’re not a teacher or don’t have children in elementary school, you might not be familiar with this little holiday, so here’s the gist. March 2nd celebrates Dr. Seuss’s birthday, so kids dress up as the Cat in the Hat and all that jazz. It also happens to take place the day before World Book Day, which worked out well!
Last year, I joined up with Julep to create a Dr. Seuss manicure for Read Across America Day. This year, the wonderful folks at Albert Whitman sent me some adorable picture books, which were perfect to create a series of children’s book cover nail art. So join me on a trip back in time to all of our childhoods!

Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss

I’ve always loved Hop on Pop! It’s one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, so I decided to take the bright colors and minimal cover art, and use them as color block nail art inspiration! I played with the idea of the green grass across the tips of my nails, and did fun geometric shapes in orange, like the text across the top.

I Will Fight Monsters for You, Santi Balmes & Lyona

This book is too sweet! The illustrations are so lovely, and I really enjoyed the pastel pink and blue color palette. It made for a very nice minimalist manicure, which allowed me to focus on creating detailed recreations of the center imagery!

Rapunzel, Sarah Gibb

This one was really fun for me. I did a little mix of the prior two approaches – some literal and some inspired. For Rapunzel’s pink dress, I used the triangular shape it creates as a geometric accent nail. For the rest of the manicure, I played up the TONS of flowers on the cover, and included a little reference to her long, blonde hair on my pinkie.

Is there a children’s book you’d like me to do in the future? Let me know! Happy Reading!