Digit-al Dozen Does Nail Heroes; Day 2

Today is Day 2 of Digit-al Dozen challenge week with the theme of nail heroes.  This mani is my attempt to create one of my very early stamping nail heroes, Lisa from Glammed-Up.  I remember when I was first getting into stamping and was surfing the net looking to see what people were doing with their stamping (you have to remember, this was back in the day when the only plates we had to use were Konad and a few fauxnads).  I was always amazed at the mani's that Lisa came up with!  Even after all these years, I still love the nails she came up with!  First of all, the layering upon layering upon layering of the stamped images which if I attempted would just be a jumbled mess but she came up with mini pieces of art!  There was only a few bloggers at the time that were this creative (at least that I know of anyway including Fab Ur Nails and Art of Nail).  She was also into frankening and would often mix up her own polish or stamping polish and this just wasn't being done that much back then.  One of the reasons I do my blog posts the way I do is also because of her; while she would show her nails and then list the plates and/or polishes used, I would look at them and think, well, how did she do that?  What image on that nail was from what plate?  Even when I was looking at her blog posts to come up with something (easy) enough I could attempt to re-create and even having the same plates she listed, I couldn't figure out which image she used.  I often thought that if I have this issue, there must be other people that have the same issue (and by no means was she the only blogger who does this; there are many that just show one pix of their mani and the products used; heck sometimes, they don't even list what polishes or plates they used!  I'm not pointing fingers at anyone or complaining, just stating the facts!). But I often thought that if I did step by step blog posts that it might help someone out so that's why I always do my manis and blog posts like I do.  Sometimes I might forget a step here or there or forget to jot down a plate or polish, but for the most part, each blog post I do is like a mini tutorial of the look for this reason.  Anyway, here's the blog post of the mani that I did, my tribute to one of my nail heroes; Lisa from Glammed-Up.

This was pretty much the only mani I thought I had a hope of even coming close to recreating.  I urge you if you have the time and are so inclined to browse her site for some pretty cool nail art.

photo credit to Glammed-Up:  Skulls, Roses and Barbed Wire Fauxnad

Even though I have the same plates and polishes that were used in the mani I was using for inspiration (except Claire's Matte Green), my mani isn't 100% the same as I wanted to put my own spin on it and there a couple images that even though I looked at the plates, I still could not figure out which image was used where. So I did some improvising, keeping in mind the inspired mani.  Plus obviously my nails just aren't as long as hers and I didn't want to add more than one rose for fear of a jumbled mess lol.  

Started with a base of two coats of Il était un vernis Chardonnay, no top coat.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

Added roses from fauxnad A using Konad red and green special polish. (This image might look familiar to some as I shared it or something close to it around Valentine's Day.)

Added skulls from Hot Topic plate and barbed wire from H17 using Funky Fingers Dark Knight using clear jelly stamper for placement help.

Top coated using Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Unfortunately, Lisa hasn't blogged in four years; I know she had health issues in the past but do hope that she is doing OK and is still rocking her nails!  I know that at the tail end of her blogging, Bundle Monster was just coming out with plates and I do know that she got the first bunch of Dashica plates; both of these were not the best but just the start of new nail plates that were being sold.  I can only imagine the awesome nail art she would be creating if she has any of the newer MoYou, Moyra, Dashica, MJ, FUN, etc etc. plates that are on the market now!  Thank you, Lisa for all your inspiration and talent!

Here's the other ladies Day 2 Nail Hero mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Nail Heroes; Day 1

It's Digit-al Dozen week!  This month's challenge is nail heroes; and you might recognize my Day 1 nail hero by all these dots on my mani today!  Yes, if you follow The Crumpet, you will have seen her big, bold dots and this is my tribute mani to her!  Thanks so much Debbie, for all that you have done in the nail community. Not only is she our fearless leader for the Digit-al Dozen, but I have bought more polishes than I care to admit from her swatches!  She also was the founder of Adventures in Stamping, an online facebook group and is also the founder another challenge group that I belong to, being Crumpet Tarts which is currently running the 40 Great Nail Art Ides.  What I have always admired about Debbie is her no nonsense, no holds barred on whatever the topic or polish it may be.  I also admire her writing skills; she can make me want a polish I didn't even know I had an interest in with her descriptive writing!  I also enjoy her non nail posts and her new blog which is more personal.  Thank you Debbie for allowing me into your inner circle of Digit-al Dozen members and thinking that I warrant a position in the ranks!  I know that Debbie has a lot on her plate personally and is at a nail blogging crossroads and as I commented on her blog, I hope it is just see you later versus goodbye!

Started with a base of two coats of The Fox & The Owl by CANVAS lacquer**, shown here with no top coat.   The Fox & The Owl is warm chocolate brown with gold holographic shimmer, red microshimmer, and a sprinkling of different sized red holographic hexes as described on their Etsy shop.  There were no application issues and even with the glitter and shimmer, the polish was smooth and shiny.  The Fox & The Owl other CANVAS lacquer polishes are available here via their Etsy shop. CANVAS lacquer ships from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to select countries. 

Bottle shot of The Fox & The Owl by CANVAS lacquer.  In my mind, I kept on comparing this to chocolate covered cherries with the chocolate brown of the polish being the chocolate, encompassing the cherries which is the red glitter and the gold glitter and shimmer being the glaze that always oozed out when you took that bite!

Topped with a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Started to add dots all with a dotter; the largest dots are piCture pOlish Beige, the holo ones are Darling Diva Champagne Wishes & Holo Kisses.

Added more dots using Love, Angeline Classical Citrine.

Finally, added a few small dots using CND Desert Suede.

Once I thought the dots were dry, maybe 10 minutes, finished with a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I sure hope we all see The Crumpet's nails around for a long, long time, but if not, I will think of her every time I do these funky dots!

Here's the other ladies Day 1 nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

**polish provided for review; please see disclosure policy

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Today is all about love and no one plays a greater part in love than Cupid!  So this mani features Cupid spreading the love to everyone on this, (supposedly) the most romantic day of the year! (Well, not in my house, but that's besides the point! lol)   No matter how you are spending this day, may you have a good one!

Started with possibly the worst water marble ever using OPI Small+Cute=Love, OPI Look at My Bow!, Funky Fingers Gesso and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Red My Lips.  The water marble actually turned out good but then I kept on touching things and had to smoosh out the polishes to cover the bare spots but used them anyway as I was just wanting a mish mash polish base and thought I could work with it. Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

I had made a couple stamper decals in advance.  These were three days old and very brittle; I had used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails as the clear coat and the smaller one ripped when I was taking it off the stamper head and larger one which I ended up using was very brittle with little bits falling off it during cleanup.  Next time, I'll just paint on the stamper and clear coat about an hour before using it.

Sugar Bubbles SB032

Cupid! from Infinity 138.  You might see at the cuticle how the decal was falling apart.

Infinity 138

Stamped using images from SdP 72 (cupid on index), Infinity 51 (words on index), Sugar Bubbles SB032 (middle), Big SdP U (ring) and Wistonia Wedding Bliss (pinky) using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

Infinity 51

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Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Thanks for looking!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas Does Love!

It's Friday and that means 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge (and somehow I forgot about last weeks challenge so sorry about that; not that anyone missed it, I'm sure!)  This weeks theme is love!  I know this doesn't seem very much about love and I do have a more lovey dovey mani planned but was going to save it for Valentine's Day, but hearts are an expression of love so I'm going with it!  And I love this mani, so there, it's theme appropriate anyway lol!

I am so into flakies right now so love everything about this one I recently got in a blog sale; Ever After Falling.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how sheer it was until after I already applied to the nail so this is three coats of Ever After Falling, no top coat.  

Added a coat of Girly Bits Clearly on Top QD TC before stamping.

I did something a little different on my Cindy hand because I'm just not a fan of every having to apply three coats of anything.  This is one coat of piCture pOlish Beige with one coat of Ever After Falling then top coated..  I actually prefer this look and I'm sure it will show up on my nails at some time!

Stamped using an image from Bundle Monster BM-317 using Mdu 43.  I picked this image for the sole reason that there is lots of area to let the base shine through! Love, Love, Love!

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.  This isn't the most flattering pix I have but its good to see the shimmer.



The finished look on my right hand.  So loving this slighter lighter look!



Here's the other ladies mani's; I hope you LOVE them!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Silver Valentine Nails

I have been going through some old computer files because I was getting warnings that I was running low on disk space.  I came upon this mani I did around this time last year that I had not yet shared and had to laugh at myself.  When I'm going to do a series of manis like for a holiday or theme, I go through all my plates and take out the appropriate plates that have an image on them what I might want to use.  That way, when I sit down to do the mani, I only have to look through a short stack of plates.  Well obviously these images are favourites because they made their way onto my nails last year and again this year...including two on the exact same nails in this mani that I shared not too long ago here.  I thought this was very funny!  Here's the mani that I did back back in January 2015.

Started with a base of two coats of Elevation Polish Silversword.

I'm not sure which stamping polish this is sorry as I can't remember and didn't have it in my notes but I'm gathering from the look at it that it is FAB red as it is a little brigther than Konad red.  Plates used are Sugar Bubbles SB 015 (pinky), Sugar Bubbles SB 029 (ring), MJ JR-1 (thumb), Infinity 88 (index) and Sugar Bubbles SB 011.

Sugar Bubbles SB 015

Infinity 88

MJ JR-1

Sugar Bubbles SB 029

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on top to finish.

It is so odd looking back at these pix a year later; they don't even look like my nails as I rarely keep them this long.  

Thanks for looking!

Mardi Gras Nails!

Today is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday; here are the Mardi Gras nails I'm wearing today!  

Started with a base of two coats of CND Bicycle with accent nails of one coat each of CND Green Scene and Butter London Bramble.  Shown with no topcoat. 

I thought I'd do a radial gradient using the same polishes but it wasn't very successful!  I think I blended too much, then just had navy nails.  I sponged in some more yellow at the end to at least have a lighter colour (not that it would matter once the decals were applied but I didn't know this at the time).  (I had applied GB Border Patrol and it snapped up on the ring finger which is the blob you see on it; I tried to remove it with tape but it was a no go.  I figured it wouldn't matter because of the decal that was going to be applied but not the best for pix.)

Stamped the thumb with MoYou Purple Rain and the pinky with MdU 11 using Chez Divers 004 then top coated all with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping. 

Made stamper decals using combination of polishes and acrylic paints.  This image is from Chez Fete 003.

Another stamper decal from MJ XXXVIII.  I might have to use one of the harder clear stampers for making decals to see how accurate I end up making them.  Even though I used the finest brush I had, I'm still way outside the lines on these.  

Applied the stampers decals from Chez Fete 003 (middle and index) and MJ XXXVIII (ring) then top coated all with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Added image to the thumb using Chez Fete 003 using MdU 11.  

Have a good one if you are celebrating!

Thanks for looking!