Smitten Shamrock Shake

Happy St. Patrick's Day Eve!  Don't forget to leave milk and cookies out for the Leprechaun's tonight! Here's another St. Patrick's Day mani!

For the base, used two coats of Smitten Polish Shamrock Shake, no topcoat.

How gorgeous is this? 

Stamped using XXL Big SdP 2 on index and ring fingers and MM04 on the rest using white Konad special polish.

I tried out a new squishy stamper and it didn't pick up the best so the stamping is all blotchy. I wanted to add  few dots as distraction against the stamping so added a few dots using OPI Love. Angel. Music. Baby and CND green.  I think in hindsight this was too much; I wish I had have left the index and ring finger dot free.

Topped with SV to finish.  I'm not sure if it noticeable in these pix, but the white stamping polish turned slightly green after top coated.  

I was able to snag Smitten Shamrock Shake and Claddagh during the release a few weeks ago (and am still ticked at myself for missing Mintmallow which was an oops polish that was sold in limited quantities....if you have you it and find it's not for you, please contact me!); however, they will be restocked via her Big Cartel shop in the future. Noelie is also releasing a new spring collex soon too!

Thanks for looking!

Colourful Easter Bunnies

A quick Easter mani I did last night!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff; topped with SV.

Stamped using plate XXL Big SdP 2.  Stamping polishes used, starting at the thumb and going clockwise, Sally Hansen Instra Dri Heat Flash, Sally Hansen Instra Dri Fast Fuchsia, Konad yellow special polish, Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime and Sally Hansen Blue By! (One of the green bunnies didn't stamp too well but I just filled it in with a bit of polish using a brush as you can tell two pictures below.)

I debated on whether or not to add some dots...I thought if I do any more dotty mani's, I'm going to have to change the name of my blog to the Canadian Dotting Fanatic...but ultimately decided to add them anyway.

Topped with SV.

 

Hope you're having a great weekend...thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen, Geek Week; Day 4

Another mani for the gaming geeks! 

Base polishes, starting at thumb, are Zoya Dea, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Red My Fortune Cookie; OPI Bride's Bouquet and Essie Shelter Island; two coats each; topped with SV.

Stamped using various plates; DRK-C (thumb), MJ VII (ring); Sugar Bubbles 007 (pinky) as well as added two stamping decals made with Sugar Bubbles 004 (brief tutorial on this to follow).  Stamping polishes used were all Konad special polishes; black, white, red, green and yellow.

Added Mario and Luigi to thumb from XXL Big SdP 2 using black Konad; as well as the moustache from Winstonia W109.

For some filler, added a few clouds on the middle finger using Sugar Bubbles 007 as well as a few random dots using yellow and red Konad special polish.

Topped with SV.

For those who may be wanting to do some stamping decals, I've taken a few pix as I went along for the one decal I used here.

Stamp your image onto your stamper.

With a fine tipped brush, fill in the leaves with your polish.  I've used Konad special polishes, here but you can use regular polishes too.  (Please excuse my messy workstation in the background!)

Do more filling in of the image; this time I added white in the areas used a dotting tool for the dots.

Further fill in the main part; I used a brush and filled in the red.

Apply coat of SV around the image.  I've found one coat is good; and try not to go too far past the stamped image.  If you do apply too much topcoat and then there is too much of a free edge when you place it on your nail, it's easy to remove with remover with a light hand.

Once the SV is dry, it's ready to apply.  I took it off with a toothpick and applied on my nail after my nail had been coated with a coat of clear, and after the base was good and dry.  Its important that the the clear coat be applied as otherwise, it won't stick that well plus it helps it to lay down that flat. I also use my fingers and push the decal down fairly hard onto the nail as it has a tendency to want to curl up (which is why it's important to make sure base is good and dry).  When the image is placed on the nail and as smooth as possible, add a coat of SV to seal.  When you are placing the decal onto your nail, a little bit of decal wrinkling may happen but usually not too noticeable once the coat of SV is placed to adhere the decal.  I found that there was less decal wrinkling on the nail with one coat of SV onto the stamper versus two, which was called for in the original tutorial I was following; I found two coats made it thicker and then it wrinkled more on the nail.

Thanks again goes to Julia, the creator of Messy Mansion, who originally posted the tutorial of the stamper decal here!  There are so many possibilities now with stamped images; just a little time and preplanning...it really takes stamping to a whole new level!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen: Art, Day 5

Day 5 of the art challenge is here and I made it!  I actually did better than I thought I would with the challenges mainly because of my lack of knowledge regarding art so it was a real challenge coming up with some mani's around the theme.  It also expanded my mani horizons if you will....I'm definitely sure I never would have done a Pollock inspired mani otherwise, or even the Warhol one...and I think the Warhol mani was one of the more interesting mani's I've done in a while....anyhoo, here's the mani I came up with for the last day!



Cartoons are art, aren't they?  I've had a note to do a Sponge Bob mani for a while now (I have an ongoing list of mani ideas as I think of them, or while I'm searching through my plate stash, I may get an idea but it's not appropriate to do the mani I'm thinking of doing, like Sponge Bob at Christmas or whatnot, so I keep an ongoing list of mani ideas on my notepad on my iphone for future use in case I'm lacking inspiration some day!).  The challenge, combined with the newly purchased bottle of Hit the Lights moved the mani idea to reality. 

Here's two coats of Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, part of the Selena Gomez collex.  This is two coats, topped with SV.  I know this isn't an accurate colour for Sponge Bob but I had picked this bright yellow up as I had read out there on the blogesphere that it applied well, was non streaky for a yellow and wanted to try it out for myself.....and I have to agree!  No complaints here!  I'm sure this will be a colour I'll be wearing for many summer mani's!



Added images using Konad black special polish being XXL Big SdP 2 (pinky), 12-56 (thumb), Apipila 03 (index), and QA2 (middle and ring).



Using Konad pastel blue special polish, added a few dots as well as blue irises for Bob.  Also stamped in the flower on the ring finger using another image from QA2.



Added a few more dots using Nicole by OPI Selena, another polish from the Selena Gomez collex. I chose this colour to mimic Patrick's skin tone (hopefully).



Gave Bob some pupils with black Konad special polish.



Topped with SV.



Here's the other ladies posts for Day 5 of the challenge.

Well, I survived the art challenge!  I actually expanded my horizons and learned some interesting facts in the the process as I did a lot of googling of art, did reading on certain topics like Egyptian history, loads about Andy Warhol's life, etc. so the challenge was fairly successful to me personally even if it wasn't translated onto the blog....but to the ladies in the Digit-al Dozen who may be reading this....let's make art a challenge in 2016 next, k? lol!

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!!!

Snow White for Poisonous Challenge

I just realized that I've never posted this!  I did this mani for FB Adventures in Stamping when the challenge was poisonous some time ago. This is what I had posted for the challenge.

You remember Snow White? Her wicked step mother, the Queen, was beautiful but evil. She asked her magic mirror, "Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?". The mirror always said the Queen until one day, it said Snow White. The Queen was furious, and ordered her huntsman to kill Snow White. He took her to the forest but could not kill her. She was found by the 7 Dwarfs and she went to live with them. One day, the Queen again asked her mirror who was the fairest of them all and the mirror again answered Snow White. The queen discovered Snow White was living in the forest so turned herself into an old hag and knocked on the door of the cottage in the woods. Snow White answered; the Queen asked Snow White if she would like to buy an apple. Snow White couldn't resist but the apples were POISONOUS! She took a bite and then fell into a deep sleep. Many years later, a young Prince came across Snow White, kissed her and the spell from the POISONOUS apple was broken! And they lived Happily Ever After in the Prince's Castle!

  

Started with a base of OPI Bride's Bouquet (no pix as I've shared many times before...its just your basic white!) with Finger Paints Black Expressionism on thumb to accent. 

Stamped using assortment of white Konad stamping polishes using  SdP 38 (evil Queen), fauxnad D (couple kissing), SdP 30 (Snow White), SdP 71 (castle), SdP XXL2 (apple), SdP 27 (mirror).

Added a few more images that were QA 18 (bitten apples and small heart above couple), SdP 29 (spider), fauxnad H27 (fireworks) and fauxnad H47 (bird above Snow White).

Added a few dots for interest.

Topped with SV. 

Another fauxnad image plate that has a few Snow White images just arrived; however, its untried as of yet.  I ordered from same eBay seller as noted on the pix and you can check it out here! 

Thanks for looking!