Digital Dozen Does Traditions; Day 1

It's Digit-al Dozen week!  This month, our theme is traditions.  While they don't have to be centered around the holidays, because its so close to Christmas, all mine will be (I think, because I haven't finished all five yet; but that's the plan anyway lol).  For Day 1, I did a mani based on leaving a letter along with milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, and carrots for the reindeer.  I did this as a child, as did my children. Some years, we even left Santa an onion because 'Santa' hates onions lol.  Here's what I came up with!  

Started with a base of Pure Ice Shore Bet, two coats, no top coat.

Added coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I wanted a little bit of background interest for the stamper decals i had made but not enough to overpower the images; went with an image from Messy Mansion MM40 using MoYou Falcon.  Top coated before applying stamper decals (no pix, as this post has enough lol).

I made five stamper decals for using images from Mundo de Unas MdU Christmas 3 (centre and ring), FUN 20 (index), Cheeky Home Sweet Home Jumbo 7 (pinky) and Big SdP P (no pix here because I messed up my first decal so had to make a second but continued along with the mani in interest of time).  For stamping polishes, used Girly Bits Emerald and FunkyFingers Dark Knight.  Filled in the stamping using assortment of acrylics.

Mundo de Unas MdU Christmas 3

Added assortment of dots on the Christmas tree for interest.

My two favourite nails!

Added words from BundleMonster BM-S217 and snowflakes for filler.  I used the clear jelly stamper for the work placement but unfortunately,  the 'AS' at the end of Christmas didn't stamp well, so tried to remove it, then restamped just those two letters.  

BundleMonster BM-S217

It was late by the time I finishedand my second thumb stamper decal wasn't dry enough to apply.  So in the morning, added the stamper decal on the thumb. 

Thought that this decals would look better matte; added coat of OPI matte to finish.

I love how this turned out but it was a lot of work looking through plates, then planning all the nails, doing the decals, filling them, waiting for them to dry,  etc etc.  It would be nice to do something this creative every day but simply not enough time!  

Here's the other ladies Day 1 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

With Christmas just 10 short days away, Santa's is making his list, and checking it twice, to see if you have been naughty or nice!  

Started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (no pix as have shown before; in fact, I didn't take as many progress pix as I went along as I typically do).

Using black Konad special polish and Mundo de Unas stamping polishes in blue (#4), red (#9), yellow (#11),  brown (#22) and green (#48), stamped using various image plates; MoYou Fairytale Collection-10 (bear and ball on ring, blocks and rocking horse on pinky), BM-SE1 (present on ring), Chez Noel 003 (tree on middle), Chez Noel 002 (holly on index, stars), Poupee (words on middle), Big SdP P (thumb) and BP-01 (Santa on index).

Filled in the background words on the thumb and stamped holly from Chez Noel 02, then added red dots on index, a few stars here and there for filler. (Really botched the holly on the index finger; pretend you don't see it!)

MoYou Fairytale Collection-10

Poupee

Top coated to finish.

Are you on the nice list or the naughty list? 

Thanks for looking!

Pahlish Electrique

I received an order of Pahlishes earlier this week; I knew as soon as I opened this from its little donut, that this stunning Pahlish had to go on my nails that night!  This is Pahlish Electrique!

Started with two coats of Pahlish Electrique, topped with KB Shimmer Clearly on Top.  Electrique dries on the matte side and top coat helps enhance it's real potential!

Pahlish Electrique is a 'vibrant neon purple creme with taupe shimmer and gold metallic flakes' as described on the Pahlish shop. I describe it as pure gorgeousness!




I took my time in deciding on what stamping plate to use; after lots of deliberation, chose Marianne Nails n.46 with an accent of Big SdP P.  Stamped using white Konad special polish.



Marianne Nails n.46




Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.  The pix below is immediately after I top coated....



....after a few minutes, my white stamping polish turned light purple.  While I had a coat of topcoat between the base and the stamping, still had discolouration.  While it didn't look too bad, I much preferred the crisp white stamping on top.  Next time, if I use white stamping polish, I'll try to remember to use two coats before stamping to see if that helps.



Pahlish sells on the Pahlish Big Cartel shop and I see this is still in stock.  llarowe also sells Pahlish (but it's out of stock, sorry...not surprised that everyone snagged it up but hopefully it will be in stock soon!!).

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Eve Excitment

It's the last week for the Nail Polish Canada contest; this weeks theme is Holiday Memories.  While there are a whole lot of memories about the holidays that are dear to me, the most anticipated, as a kid and for my kids, is Santa coming on Christmas Eve.  I remember the excited feeling well when I was a child; and my kids were no different, being so excited on Christmas Eve with the anticipation that Santa was coming!  Well, if they have been good, that is!  They always put out milk and cookies for Santa (and a carrot for Rudolph!) then off to bed, fighting sleep so they could hear him coming down the chimney...of course, they are always sleeping when he arrives!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Duri Taming of the Shrew and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then topped with SV.

Added assortment of images; Big Sdp P (thumb), Chez Xmas 001 (index), Bunny HD-F (middle), FUN 6 (ring) and Fauxnad K (pinky) using black and white Konad special polishes.

Added a few accent images from Chez Xmas 001 using white and red Konad polishes.

Topped with SV to finish.

Here's a look at Bunny Nails HD-F.

Here's the entries for the Nail Polish Canada; please vote for your favourite if you are so inclined!

Hope you had a great weekend; thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen; Day 3, Black n White

It's been a challenge to vary the designs for the black and white theme so they don't all look the same so when I sat down to do this mani, I thought I'd use texture polish to add a little variety to the mix versus the black and white creme's that I've used so far.  This is what I came up with. 



I was lucky enough to receive Barry M Nail Effect Lady as part of a lovely secret exchange package received recently.  It had been promptly added to my wishlist after lemming it severely upon seeing Crumpet's post here!  To minimize the number of coats I thought I'd have to do (to make it last longer!), I did one base coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales walls and then topped with one coat of Barry M Nail Effect Lady on all fingers except accent, which is one coat of Kiko 646.  No topcoat.



Stamped using FUN black stamping polish using Big SdP P.



Topped with SV.



Here's a rare pix of my right hand; I actually think I stamped it better as the black and white contrast are more centered on the nail, so thought I'd share hangnails, bad cleanup and all!



I think this is a pretty effective mani and was checking my plate stash for more images that have this type of design but there aren't many images that have this half and half type of idea for an image.  I think we stampers need more!

Please be sure to check out of the other ladies awesome Day 3 mani's!

Thanks for looking!

Revlon Surf

Hard to believe I did this mani almost a month ago...I'm so far behind in my posts!  Anyway, I went through a spell when I was trying out a bunch of Revlon's as I picked up a few at Rexall/PharmaPlus for $2.99; this is one I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Revlon Surf.  This was quite opaque and probably could probably have done nicely with just the one coat if I had have been more carefully when I was applying it.

Added a coat of NYX Girls Under the Moon for some sparkle/glitter interest.

Stamped using white Konad special polish using Big SdP P.  I think this is an interesting design with a lot of stamping possibilities simply by changing up the base and stamping polishes.  I should point out that the shadowing on my index finger is not a plate problem...I've had this happen a few times with different plates and stamping polishes...until I figured out that the cream I was using on my cuticles before stamping (so you didn't see all nasty dry cuticles in the pix of the base polishes) would occasionally cause my stamper to slightly slip or drag when I was applying the stamped image to my nails......you can see it here too on index finger)...so lately, I've been trying to take pix without the cream to avoid this mis-stamping, unless my cuticles are so dry even I can't stand them!!  But I am glad I figured out what was causing this because I was thinking I had forgotten how to stamp or something!  

While I was blog surfing, I came across a giveaway I thought I'd share.  NailsIT, the creator of some pretty fantastic polishes....who also happens to do awesome stamping mani's.....is having a 100 follower giveaway and the prize package includes said pretty fantastic polishes.  Please go here if you are interested in checking it out!  

Thanks for looking!