Skittlette!

I have officially done my first skittlette nail design! Woo Hoo!!!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have been wearing gel polish a lot lately in order to grow out some breaks. Well with that, I have on this gorgeous pink color right now (same as in the last blog photo) and I felt like changing it up a bit. So without having to remove the gel, what do I do? Paint over it! And to tell you the truth I LOVE how it turned out!

Two colors that I think go really well together, are pink and gold. They make an elegant and soft combination. I wanted to do a skittlette, and I decided to use the ABCAB pattern, so I had to think of what to do as my accent nail, and well the pink and gold still screamed spring to me, so why not some flowers??? I didn't want them to stand out to much, but blend in with the other fingers to keep with the elegant look, so just a simple white stamp seemed to work.

I haven't really done a skittlette design yet, not because I don't love how they look, I do, but more because I have a hard time figuring out three things that are different, but yet still go together. Mixing patterns is something that is hard for me, for instance, at I am writing this my middle tiny is having picture day, and he was wearing a subtle plaid shirt, but wanted the camo background... I let him do it, but it was hard for me to accept.

So this skittlette was easy for me to envision, because I used two colors that worked well together, and only one pattern. Now don't get me wrong, I love almost every skittlette that I see others do, I just have a hard time conceptualizing how things will go together. I think I need to either buy, or make one of those mani idea books, so that I can try and work things like this out first, and then apply them to my nails. I feel that I do a lot of starting over, or removing polish from a nail, because the idea is not fully planed out, and is more of a whim... we will see. 

I will say, this picture doesn't look as loose as I would have liked, and have started making them, but the corner of the thumb nail that you would have seen... well the gold was rubbing off, since I took the picture after a day or two of wearing them. So I just covered that up with my finger... hahaha, problem solved! I think this turned out well, and may do something similar in the future, but for now, on to something different!

Colors used:

Base Gel: "Foundation" by Gelish

Base Color Gel: "Pink Chiffon" by Sensational

Top Color Gel: "Pink Champagne" by Sensational

Top Gel: "Top It Off" by Gelish

Gold Color: "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" by O.P.I.

Stamp Color: "French Tip" by Color Club

Stamp Plate: "BP-108" by Born Pretty

Happy Birthday To Me!!! Nails

April 24th... the anniversary of my birth!
(or as my sister would put it, happy anniversary of your natal day!)

So for the last number of years, my birthday has been a day of depression for me... I'm not sure why, maybe it is because I am getting older, or some other reason, but I just get depressed... 

I feel like people only wish me a happy birthday out of duty, and any cards or gifts are after thoughts. I don't really get anything anyways, and it just feels like any other day, nothing special to it. (I kind of feel the same way about Mother's Day) In talking with someone just yesterday, I realized, that is is more the feeling that there is a lack of thought. I think I would feel different if it was obvious that time and thought had been put into it, like making a card or gift... or getting something that had to be ordered (or something that I just really really want, as that shows that you pay attention to me and what I like), or making a reservation for dinner... something that shows you thought about it ahead of time, not just an "oh crap... let me get something on the way home". That probably sound selfish, and self centered... but its just how it seems to feel. Anywho...

Well this year was exceptionally so... my husband didn't say happy birthday in the morning, but did call later in the day. I spoke with my mom a few times, but she didn't say anything till the next day, and my kids didn't say anything till my husband had them sign a card (I hate cards... a waste of money on something that is just going to be thrown out! Unless it is a homemade card... those would be cherished). Even my brother and sister didn't try contacting me till about 9 pm... (see feels like an oh crap... better do this before time is up).

To make matters worse, it was a gloomy, rainy day, and I was having two different personal health problems. Needless to say the day sucked.! So to make myself feel better I decided to do my nails!

My favorite color is Purple, and I have fallen in love with holographic polishes and glitters! So I decided a purple holo polish was just what I needed. Added to that some stamping of "happy birthday", balloons, streamers, and cupcakes, and we have it made! I used silver holo glitter polish, and the sharpie trick to add more holo and color, and we have birthday nails.

 

I will say, secretly there have been things over the years that I wish people would do for me. When I turned 16, all I wanted was for someone to play the song "16 candles"... alas no one did, and nowadays I see these Birthday collage collaborations people do for other nail artists birthdays, and I just hope that one day I will get to experience the joy of one being made for me! To know that you were thought about before your birthday, and that someone spent time making something just for you! What a lovely gift!

I also hope that over time, I will become known well enough to be asked to participate in some of these collaborations. To be able to give that gift to someone else, would feel amazing. But to achieve that, I just need to do more artwork, and be better about posting!

So this was a shitty post, that I feel doesn't paint me in the best light, but if you haven't suffered from depression, that's the way it feels. Over time things can change, but you can't change the way you feel, and I don't feel like sugar coating it! Anyways, my birthday ended, and the next day was better. Now to post more pictures and write more blog entries!

Colors used:

Base Color: "Harold's Crayon" by Smitten Polish

Stamp Color: "French Tip" by Color Club

Stamp Fill Color: "This Is My Tiara!" by Smitten Polish

Happy Birthday, Balloon & Streamer Image Plate: "BM-H19" by Bundle Monster

Cupcake Image Plate: "BM-H20" by Bundle Monster

Sharpies & Alcohol for color tints

4th of July

Ok, so first off to all my followers, and anyone who checks out my page. I am truly sorry for not having posted anything in sooo long. I actually have done a few manis since my last post, but I have been to busy to post it. So I figure here is a good one.

One or more of the groups that I an in on fb, are doing a  4th of July challenge, I am not, but I decided after seeing a number of the other posts, that I would like to do one. I also figured since I was going to be out all day with the fam doing 4th type things this would be nice.

First of when choosing what to do, I didn't want to do something that was over the top. I wanted something that was subtle, and elegant. So I hope you like my little tribute to the nation of my birth!

Colors used:

Base Color: "Superstar!" by Pure Ice

Stripes Stamp Color: "Crawford's Wine" by Orly

Stars Stamp Color: "Saved by the Blue" by Wet n Wild (fastdry)

Stripes Image Plate: "Mash-40" by Mash Nails

Stars Image Plate: "CH24" by Cheeky

ABC's Week 4 - 'D'

Ok, so let me start of by saying Grrr... I had this post set up Tuesday morning, ready to be posted on Wednesday, and then I get a really nasty 24 hour stomach bug... I could barley do anything but lay down, and... never mind you don't need to know the rest. Anyways I tried really hard to have this out on the due date, but oh well...

For this week, we have the letter D. I knew last week what I wanted to do. I was looking through my image plates, and saw this one image, that just clicked on a light in my head... and I though...

DANDELION!!!`

So now that you know what I choose to do, I don't know what else to say, so here are the pictures. Hope you like them as much as I do. (I really liked how this one came out as well... I guess I am getting a little better then I used to be since I seem to be liking more of my manis...) Also sorry for the funky light, it is heavily raining here, and I used the light from my turtle tank, hoping it would be the closest to the sun light, and not give that orange tinge.

Any way enough of my rambling. Pictures!!!

Colors used:

Base Color: "Cinderella" by Sinful Colors

Stamp Color: "Black Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "Mash-30" by Mash Nails

Trick or Treats (Nail Tarts Halloween 2012)

Woo Hoo, time for Orange!

Ok, so I have always kind of loved orange, so since this is my first Halloween challenge, I decided I would just have to use orange.

So for this challenge it said Trick or Treats... so I wasn't sure how to do any form of Trick, so I decided to do Treats. There are a number of stamps that depict different types of candy. So having a bunch to choose from, I decided to do stamped images of Treats!

I had first started out doing a free style candy corn nail, as this was the example used for the challenge, but didn't really like the way it turned out (actually at first I did the colors upside down, and it looked awesome, but then when I did it correctly, I didn't like it). So I decided to change and do all the nails kind of the same.

I really like how these came out. Especially the double effect of the silver under the black, I think it gave them another dimension. I hope you enjoy! (and yes I am going to say something like this each time, but if you don't like it then that means I need to get better, so let me know and help me grow!)

Colors used:

Base Color: "Orange" by Wet n Wild (Fantasy Makers)

Silver: "No Place Like Chrome" by Essie

Black: "Black Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "BM02" by Bundle Monster

Image Plate: "BM-322" by Bundle Monster

Welcome Fall!

Well I figured that I should probably get out a fall mani before starting the huge endeavor of Halloween challenges (read more later). I do plan on doing some more before Thanksgiving, but figured that as we are now officially in fall, that this would be appropriate.

I had meant to get this done on Saturday, but unfortunately was unable to because of time, but I did do it yesterday!

If you haven't been able to tell from my previous posts, I really like french tips... be it a true french with just white, or be it a colored tip, stamped or not... this is a new version as the tip is done on the naked nail (for the most part) so the tip is the stamp itself. This is simple, but I think a really pretty mani, hope you enjoy!



Colors used:

Base Coat: "Mademoiselle" by Essie

Stamp Color: "Hot for Chocolate" by Revlon

Image Plate: "Mash-27" by Mash Nails

ABC's Week 1 - 'A'

Before this challenge started, the creator of the challenge was fabulous and put out a list of what letter was on which day, and also had some ideas listed for each letter. For me this is super helpful as sometimes (and I blame this on lack of IQ from kids) I just can not think of creative things without help.

Often what I do is think of an idea, and then do a search on the Internet for examples. Sometimes I feel like this is cheating, but I don't copy what I see, it just helps me come up with what I will do. And that is just what I did this time. I started out by seeing the idea of Abstract on the master list, and did a search of that.

So for my first mani of this challenge, I decided to do an ABSTRACT design using a polish that also started with A: ATHENS.  Well this is what I came up with, hope you like it, I sure do. I think this one came out Great! Simple but nice.

Colors used:

Base Color: "Mademoiselle" by Essie

Tip Color: "Athens" by Sinful Colors

Stamp Color: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "RA-116" by Red Angel

It's Been Over A Week... Time For A Mani!

Ok, so sad to say that it has been just over a week since my last mani.

I have to admit that when I reached my last day of the 31 day challenge I just finished, it was kind of nice to not have to do my nails for a few days. I had a nice mani for the last day, so I chose to enjoy it. Well that lead to me just not bothering as I was spending all last week heavily cleaning my house. So this past weekend I went to my in-laws house, and decided it was time to do a new mani.

Later this week I will be starting a new challenge, and come October another. Both of these are once a week so that is only two mani's a week I have to do (sounds a lot more reasonable than doing one every day). I am excited to start these new challenges, and very happy that they will not be as intense as this last one. I will go into more details to each challenge on the first day of each one.

Anyways, here is the result of this ever so long awaited next mani, now time to think of a new one. There is a thin light blue sparkly base, that you can't really tell is there in the pictures, but it is pretty. Enjoy!

Colors used:

Background: "Cinderella" by Sinful Colors

Stamp Color: "White On" by Sally Hansen (xtreme wear)

Image Plate: "BM-312" by Bundle Monster

Day 31 - Inspired By A Challenge

We made it!!!

For this final challenge, a number of us in the group who were doing the 31 day challenge, decided that instead of redoing one of our own past challenges, we would pick one from someone else in the group and redo that mani.

For my redo of a fellow challenger, I chose the Delicate Print challenge, done by Cristina from The Clockwise Nail Polish. You can view her original mani HERE.

I liked this mani, because it was very delicate, and pretty. I hate to admit it, but I have kind of been waiting for the challenge to end so that I could finally have a mani for more than a day. Also since I have a party to go to tonight (well its really more of a group of us who get together once a month for food, drinks, and games), I figured this would be a nice mani to have.

So without further ado, here is my final mani of this challenge. I will worn that there are like 6 pictures because luckily they all came out non fuzzy, and I really like how this came out, so you get to see both hands, enjoy!

Colors used:

Background: "Rose Petals" by OPI

Pink Sparkle Color: "Princesses Rule" by OPI

Stamp Color: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "BM 11" by Bundle Monster

Hex Glitter Taken From A Purple "Bon Bons" These Don't Seem To Have Names

Day 29 - Inspired By The Supernatural

For the supernatural challenge, I pulled some inspiration from my 4 year old daughter. She used to love (and still kind of does) Tinker Bell, so I think Fairies!

Luckily I just got some new stamping image plates, and they had some grass, and fairies, so I think, Woo Hoo! So here is what I came up with... unfortunately when I put on the top coat, it made the fairies (the whole point of this challenge) basically disappear... I have never had this happen before and am very confused and upset by this... oh well, other than that, and the fact I need some better stamping greens, I am happy with this mani. Enjoy!

Colors used:

Background: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Grass Stamp Color: "Exotic Green" by Sinful Colors

Red Flowers Stamp Color: "Crawford's Wine" by Orly

Blue Flowers Stamp Color: "Midnight Blue" by Sinful Colors

Purple Fairies Stamp Color: "Let's Talk" by Sinful Colors

Image Plate (grass): "RA-105" by Red Angel

Image Plate (small flowers): "BM-311" by Bundle Monster

Image Plate (large flowers): "BM 06" by Bundle Monster

Image Plate (fairies): "RA-112" by Red Angel

Day 26 - Inspired By A Pattern

So I don't know if this would really be considered inspired by a pattern. But I have this stamp, and have seen a number of people use it, and just loved it, but hadn't had a chance to use it. So when I came across this challenge, I new this would be a great time to put it to use. I will apologize for the uncleaned cuticles, and how the stamp in kind of crooked, but I was trying to do this quickly before I left the house. But even with the issues, I am so happy with this mani. Hope you like it.



Colors used:

Base: "450?" by Wet n Wild

Stamp Color: "Liquid Leather" by China Glaze

Image Plate: "BM-203" by Bundle Monster

Day 23 - Inspired By A Movie

So yesterday I was talking with my sister, and she reminded me that we left our copy of "Cars" at her house this past weekend. Therefor when I was thinking about my Inspired By A Movie mani, the first thing I thought of was to do Lightning McQueen on my nails. I thought this would be so cute, I could do the eyes on my fingers on my thumb. Well it was a great idea, but when put into practice, it really didn't turn out that good, you couldn't tell what it was, as you can see below.

Now after that disaster I figured I needed to try something different. I decided that even though it is summer, I would do a mani for probably my favorite movie "White Christmas". So I decided to show snow (obviously), and I think it turned out pretty good. I do wish that I had some white stamping polish, because then it would have been better, and you would have been able to see the snow better (right now you have to look real close and carefully), but over all it is still pretty.

Colors used:

White: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Blue: "Cinderella" by Sinful Colors

Stamp Color: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "BM-205" by Bundle Monster

Day 18 - Half Moons

Half moons, this is an interesting design. I have never done one before, so bare with me.

So, I once again didn't really know what I wanted to do, not even what colors. So this is going to be a short post.

I don't really know what to say about this one except to please forgive me for the fact that they are not clean, and the half moon part is not done well. I had my youngest that wouldn't stay out of my lap, and kept messing with everything. But I tried to clean them up, I swear.

Once I did decide on the colors, I knew I wanted to make something a little more indepth then just the colors, so here is what I came up with.



Colors used:

White: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Pink: "Tickled Pink" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Stamp Color: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "BM-205" by Bundle Monster

Day 15 - Delicate Print

Welcome new followers!

So I have to admit that I did not put much into today's mani. I am having a bunch of people over to my house on Sunday, and have a bunch of cleaning to do. Unfortunately I will be working for the next two days so I will be unable to clean then, so it is today and Saturday that I have. With two little kids in the house, I have a lot to clean. so as I said I did not spend as much time with today's mani.

To make matters worse, I broke a nail this morning as I finished building my new nail polish rack (this will be another blog post). To tell the truth I didn't even take the time to fix my nail before doing my mani for today (I will take the time to do that this evening after the kids are asleep), as you will see in my photos, so please forgive me on that one.

For a delicate print, I knew from the start that I wanted to do some form of lace, because for me, when I think delicate I also think dainty. That makes me think of women from like the 1890s that would be decked out in these dresses that were bussled with frills, poofs, and lace out the wazoo. So I think lace! Now since I am not the best at doing free hand work yet, since I did just start getting into nail art, I took a look at my stamping plates (sorry for doing so many stamped manis lately), and this is what I came up with, hope you like it!

Colors used:

Background: "Nude Shimmer" by Sally Hansen

Stamp Color: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Image Plate: "BM-323" by Bundle Monster

Day 14 - Flowers

So as you can tell from my last couple of posts, now that we are into more intricate manis, I just have not had any ideas before hand. There is nothing different today.

Today's challenge is Flowers. Since I had no idea what to do, my thought was look in my image plates, and see what I had.

I knew that I had this one stamp with three little flowers, that I have used many times before (as one of my simple and quick manis). While I was looking through, I found a few that looked kind of like leaves and vines.

So put those together and I got today's mani! Hope you like it.

Colors used:

Background: "French White Creme" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Leaves Stamp Color: "Exotic Green" by Sinful Colors

Flower Stamp Color: "Ruby Clarity" by Sally Hansen

Image Plate (leaves): "BM 20" by Bundle Monster

Image Plate (flowers): "BM-311" by Bundle Monster