Easter Nails!

Happy Easter!  Hopefully you had a good Easter weekend!  My weekend was pretty busy but I was able to do these nails over the weekend and wore them all weekend, until last night anyway.  Here's what I came up with!

Started with two coats of Barielle Green With Envy, shown with no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using an image from Lilac's A08 using FunkyFingers Gesso.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Shadow stamped accent nail using an image from MoYou Festive 09 using MdU 11 and FunkyFingers Dark Knight.

I had made 4 stamper decals for the lilies using another image from Lilac's A08.  Stamped each of them on a clear stamper, painted, applied sticky base to nails then stamped decals right onto nails once sticky base was tacky/dry to the touch.  Love this method; really makes stamper decals so much easier and faster with a lot less planning ahead!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Unfortunately, I nicked my middle finger decal with my other hand so it smeared; I hand painted the outline best as I could and tried to save it so I didn't have to redo everything.  Not perfect, but I've done worse!

Added a few dots on accent and lilies for colour and interest.

Finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Mythic Creatures; Day 3

I'm running late for Day 3's mythic creature challenge, but here it is!  Hopefully you can make out this mythic creature as the image was a big one as you can see!  It was tricky to stamp as well as necessitating some acrobatic finger poses but hopefully your eyes 'drag on' this mythical creature!  (How was that for a clue!) Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of one coat of Barielle Irish Eyes, no top coat.

Added a very thin coat of CND Creative Play Express Ur Em-Oceans, no top coat.

Added KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

For the scales, stamped using image from Vivid Lacquer VL022 using CND Gold Chrome.

There's another image on VL022 that has the filled in scales, so I stamped on top using Hit The Bottle Electric Indigo and Hit The Bottle I Blue It All On Polish, trying for a multichrome dragon scale look.  The idea here was also to shadow stamp (even though this plate came out before shadow stamping so the images don't line up that well) but to also have a hint of the base polishes peeking through.  

 Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 Stamped using another image on the same VL022 plate using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

 

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 Thought that if I matted it, the base and outline might show up a little better, so added a coat of OPi Matte.

Here's the other ladies Day 3 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does My Home; Day 4

I'm a little late in posting my day 4 Digit-al Dozen mani; it was super hectic last week and then I spent most of the weekend doing holiday shopping!

This is my day 4 my home mani based on one of my holiday tablecloths!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of 4 coats of Girly Bits Eggnogoholic, with accents of two coats each of OPI Adam Says, "It's New Years, Eve" and Barielle Central Park.  Eggnogoholic is pretty sheer and some wear just a couple coats but I'm not a fan of VNL on me so I wear extra to opaque.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using an image from Marianne Nails n.118 using MdU 37.

Added dots to the berries using Moyra SP.02.

Stamped accents using Hit The Bottle A Glint of Gold using an image from EJB-03.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

The stamping on the accents actually turned out better on Ms. Cindy so thought I would share.  The gold stamping on the red......swoon!

Here's the tablecloth the mani is inspired by.

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Stamped Pink Gradient

You will not believe how happy I was with this mani!  You see, I love accent studs for my mani's but the problem is the limited amount of colours the are available in.  I've tried to paint the studs before but haven't been that successful.  Then I read a post on FB (sorry, can't remember from who), who used tweezers to hold clear stones while they polished them to then adhere to the tops of the polish bottles so you could see them in a drawer.  I thought hmm, I wonder if I took tweezers and held the studs, that they might paint a little better.  So I set to find out if I could on this mani and low and behold, I was able to paint the studs decently! Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Barielle Cherish, then top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Did a sponged gradient using Seche Gifted and Sassy that I had bought over the holidays (buy 2 get 1 free, then 50% off!)

Topped again with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with an image from Lina Feeling Shapely! 03 using FunkyFingers Gesso.

I had test painted a couple nail studs using Seche Gifted and Sassy; applied them to the accent along with a white stud.

Topped everything off with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I don't see nail studs being used that often but I still like to use them and am really happy now that I can match the studs exactly to accent any polish I happen to want to use!

Thanks for looking!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July if you are celebrating!  I did these nails yesterday; I didn't plan it very well as I only had one set of plates with me (Apipila) and limited polishes so had to come up with an Independence Day mani using what I had on hand but was pretty happy how these turned out considering!

Started with a base of two coats of Quo by Orly Mega Silver with an accent of Barielle Bold n Confident topped with an unnamed Pixel polish (the name might have been on the bottle but I couldn't make it out if it was!)  While not shown, topped everything off with a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

I have to say, stamping this was a pain in the arse!  The image with the lines is from Apipila p.06.  As you probably know, straight lines with squishy stamper equals crooked lines, so took many attempts with several stampers to get them straight.  I didn't have many stamping polishes with me and no navy ones, so searching through what I had on hand and after trying out a few, ended up using Maybelline Navy Narcissist for the stripes, which dried super fast.  Even after closing all the windows and turning off the fan, dried at the speed of lighting!  Some nails took many attempts to get all the lines stamped and a few, the tailings at the end wrecked the image and had to redo.  But I managed to eventually get them stamped as good as was going to happen!

I was only able to stamp about 4 stars in total before the clear jelly stamper head I was using totally disintegrated.  So had to do the best I could with a regular stamper for the rest.  

Finished the remaining stars at the tips using red Konad special polish with an image from Apipila Kids A. This might have been the end look if I wasn't able to stamp the line of stars decently on the accent.

 Stamped stars from same image plate on accent; the first row turned out OK so decided to do a few more.

I was able to line up a second and third row of stars decently for the end result.

Topped everything off with a final coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.



This is final mani in the sun; the shade pix are more accurate though but the sun makes the silver really sparkle!

Enjoy the 4th if you are celebrating!

My Attempt at a Radial Gradient!

I did my first ever radial gradient a couple weekends ago and while it's not perfect, it didn't turn out half bad! Here's what I came up with!

This is what the sponge looked like for the gradient. For me, the hardest part was gauging how large of a circle to do in each colour do do to fit my (little) nails.  Obviously I think my nails are bigger than they are because didn't get purple outer ring on all them but at least I'll know for next time.  The polishes I used were pretty sheer even though they looked opaque in the bottle; it took a lot.....and I mean A LOT...... of sponging to get good colour on the nails.  

 The other thing obviously was the cleanup...I did these over the weekend in cottage country where I don't have all my supplies and while I had purchased liquid latex to use at home for manis just like this, it was of little help to me sitting at home.

Polishes used were Sally Hansen Mardi Gras (purple), Barielle Bold n Confident (red) and Sally Hansen Insta-dri Lightening (yellow).  This is in the shade, after cleanup, which still wasn't the best.

Stamped using FUN 14 with Funky Fingers Dark Night. 

Shade. 

FUN 14

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I know my radial gradient need some work, especially for sizing, but not terribly for bad I don't think for my first try.  Plus everything takes practise, just like regular sponged gradients, stamping etc so I hope I will improve! I can see this being pretty cool occasionally for some image stamping.

Thanks for looking!