Mint Mani's for Talia Joy

The world lost a beautiful young girl earlier this week.  As announced on Angels for Talia,  Talia Joy Castellano earned her angel wings on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 11:22 am.  The last picture that she had posted to her Instagram page was trio of mint mani's of her mom, sister and herself.  It had been suggested by Nail Polish Wars that the nail community do Mint Mani's for Talia today; this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of Orly Basket Case and Orly Gumdrop; topped with SV.



Stamped with red, black and white Konad special polish using assortment of plates; Apipila 02 (mascara on pinky), A49 (wings on thumb), FUN12 (compact and brushes on middle), SdP 119 (words beauty and nail), SdP 57 (lipstick and polish on index), BM321 (ribbons on ring), HB18 (angel on thumb) and MJ XVIII (RIP on thumb).



Stamped a few random stars using red Konad special polish using an image from SdP 57.



Added random dots throughout in an attempt to bling it out as I had seem from pix that Talia had really loved the use or colour and had lots of bold, colourful mani's!



Topped with SV to finish.



I finished this mani around 3 am last night (this morning!) and my eyes were a little blurry and I had a hard time to get my phone to take a focused pix (or maybe it was the blur in the eyes; not sure!) so I didn't have that great selection of pix to share.  I took another this morning outside in case I could get a better one; it's OK, but still not the best.




Here's some other Mint Mani's for Talia.







My condolences to the Castellano family.

Girly Bits Bachelor's Button

Warning - lots of pix in the post!

I immediately knew I *needed* this colour in my stash when I first seen it; unfortunately, it took me at least one, if not two, llarowe restocks before I was able to snag it but I eventually did; here's Girly Bits Bachelor's Button stamped using a new MJ plate.

Started with a base of two coats of Girly Bits Bachelor's Button; no topcoat.

How gorgeous is this?!!!  I'm on the fence if I *need* a backup bottle.  I've been *trying* not to buy backups as I already have so many bottles of polish that there's little chance I'll ever use one bottle of a particular colour; never mind the need for a backup (except in some cases like my go to white base, for example)....but I still can't part with the backups I already have...and I still find myself buying backups even when I've been telling myself not to!

Stamped using white Konad special polish using MJ IX.

(Lol, I just seen the pink polish I had on my thumb right now in these pix...not very good cleanup apparently! A more conscientious blogger would edit it out, but I barely have time to do posts, never mind a while lot of pix and blog editing so it stays and everyone will have to look at it!)

 Anyway, unfortunately, when my nails get long, they get curvy so the stamping didn't get all to the tips; it was especially noticeable on the index finger, so I filled it in using a thin brush, but didn't do a very good job! I'm not sure what is worse; the missing stamping or the poor fill in!  

Topped with SV to finish.

(This pix is before SV; just better holo showing through the stamping so wanted to share too!)

A few pix of MJ IX.

These new MJ plates are available here!  It also seems Girly Bits has a new online store here; Girly Bits is also available via llarowe and is in stock now at Harlow & Company!

My Online Shop was good enough to send along extra plates with my recent plate order, which will be part of an upcoming giveaway!  Be sure to watch for details coming soon!

Thanks for looking!

Indy 500 Nails...Plus New Plates!

This weekend was the Indy 500 in Toronto; while I didn't attend, I thought it was a good time to do an Indy 500 mani....as well as gave me an excuse to use a few images from a newly released plate, MJ XXII; this is what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet, with an accent of Nubar Faded Jeans, then topped with SV.



Stamped using black Konad special polish using images from Big SdP Q (pinky and flag french tipped design on middle finger), Big SdP J (thumb), MJ V (car on middle), MJ XXII (flag on index and racing words), Mash-16 (CN Tower on accent) and m79 (clouds on accent).



Topped with SV to finish.



Here's a closer look at MJ XXI.











MJ plates are available here.

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen; Tape Mani's, Day 4

Another tape mani for the Digit-al Dozen challenge.  

Started with a base of two coats of China Glaze I'm not Lion; topped with SV.

I took a few pix of how the mani was done.  Sectioned off half the nail with tape.  There's so many fingerprints on the tape as I read that if the tape isn't super sticky when you place it on the base, then it's less likely to pull the base off when pulling the tape off.  As I only waited about 15 minutes for the base to dry before taping off, I didn't want this to happen!

After picking an image, stamped as normal over the nail. I used HD-B and black Konad special polish.

Immediately remove the tape after stamping.

This is the finished look once all nails are done including cleanup. In retrospect, I should have used an image that was a little more clustered together in the stamped area to make the polished-only area pop!  

Decided to stamp the other half of the nail; used black Konad special polish with plate HB-49 for the cat on the middle nail and Chez Animaux 01 for the paws on the rest.  Topped with SV to finish.

I'm still using Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel for easy glitter removal.....makes glitter removal a breeze!

Here's the other Digital Dozen Tape Mani's!

Hope you're having a great week; thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen;Tape Mani's, Day 3

It's back to Digit-al Dozen mani's this week; I have a few mani's finished but unfortunately, haven't been able to post them due to being too busy or having no internet due to storm systems.  Then, I finally got some time...and the internet is working.... then Blogger was being an arse, giving me an error code to my posts and wouldn't let me add any text or do any type of editing to the pix...anyway, I seem to have figured it out, so finally joining the group posts today!  Here's what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of Layla Softouch Effect 06, topped with SV.  (Those in FB Adventure's in Stamping will know that this weeks challenge was doing a mani using the colour of your birthstone...I have an August birthday, my stone is peridot and this is the start of the mani I did for the challenge...just didn't get around to posting it!)

Stamped using white Konad special polish using Cheeky Jumbo 10 Plate, Happy Hands.  (I topped the mani with SV and wore it for a day like this, but as this post has so many pix, no pix shown at this time. )

The next day for the Digit-al Dozen tape challenge mani, I added various pieces of tape over the stamped base and then applied Color Club Pink Flame to the tape void area.  This green and pink combination is one that I love and I wear this colour combination fairly often; although, I'm not sure how many of the mani's have been posted though!  

My taping skill (lack thereof, actually!) is to be desired so the end result wasn't the best.  The pink on the index finger is all blotchy as I nicked the pink while putting tape on the middle finger so just brushed over top of it to fix. And, well, you can clearly see the rest of the mistakes!

Once Pink Flame was dry, stamped using white Konad special polish and added a row of hearts and lips from plate SdP 120.

I got to looking at my nails now and thought the mani is looking a little off as there is stamping only on two fingers and decided more stamping was needed.  I decided to see if  I could challenge myself and get some itty bitty stamping onto those itty bitty pink stripes on the index finger; so added stars from SdP 49 and a flower from SdP 77; also added a couple more flowers from SdP 77 to the pinky. I was surprised that I was able to get a few images on somewhat OK on that thin pink strip!

Topped with SV to finish.

This actually turned out better than I thought; a little on the girly side and really on the busy side...but that is pretty typical of my nails!  It was a good time saver that I was able to use a mani for two challenges, too!

Here's the other Day 3 mani's of the Digital Dozen; again, so much talent in this group!

Thanks for looking!

Happy (Belated!) Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!  Unfortunately, I'm a little late in getting this post up as I spent most of Canada Day either in airports or flying home and didn't arrive home into the GTA until the evening on Canada Day.  I was in Las Vegas for a few days meeting up with some fellow nail fanatics!  More about our getaway will follow in other posts; you can also check out KarenD of Frazzle and Aniploish's post here!  The only nail plates I took with me were to do Canada Day nails for the trip home as I was flying home on Canada Day....but we were so busy out shopping for polishes and seeing the sights and shows.....aka having a great time!..... that I just couldn't fit time in to do my nails while I was away! So better late than never in doing my Canada Day nails so am sharing now!  While this pix isn't the finished mani, I thought it was a kinda cool in progress as it looks like the Canadian flag.

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet and Duri Taming of the Shrew; topped with SV.

Stamped the red maple leaf on middle nail with red Konad special polish using plate OB-M (I bought this plate specifically for this maple leaf image but was a little concerned it wouldn't fit as the images on the plate generally are on the large size; it's a tight fit but it did!)

Added accent of Girly Bits Canadian, eh? on thumb and pinky; topped with SV.

Stamped tips using white Konad special polish using Mash-26.

How everything looked together at this point.

While I was pretty happy with how this looked at this point, I thought I'd add a little more to it, so added the I Heart Canada using the I Heart image from plate Chez Animaux 01 and the Canada wording from fauxnad m56.  Also added more maple leaf french tip images from Mash-26 twice to fill in the ring finger.  Topped with SV to finish.

Another pix just because I like the look of these three nails together!

Hopefully you had a great Canada Day!  I didn't do any celebrating this year as I was in transit all day.  However, after my husband picked me up from the airport and drove me home, he took the kids to the local park where they watched an awesome fireworks display and my daughter seen Hedley performing.  At least the family was able to enjoy some festivities...I was simply too tired from my weekend away!

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

**Post edited to correct OM-B to OB-M!