St. Patrick's Day Nails

When I sat down the night I did these nails, I didn't have St. Patrick's nails in mind but these just evolved once I had picked a base colour (mainly because I couldn't think of many stamping polish colours that would go with it).  To be honest, while the stamping polish looks OK with this base, I was a little hesitant because while it may not seem very obvious here, it is actually a yellow stamping polish.  But it worked and I went with it and the nails are what they are!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of three coats of Borghese Euro Green, no top coat.  Two coats would have been good but you could see some thin spots in the bright lights for photos so added another coat for good measure!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using Hit the Bottle The Yolk Is On You! using images from HD-B (thumb) and MoYou Festive-21 on the rest.

Added words from MJ LVIII on middle and ring as well as a few dots for interest, filler and to balance the colours throughout the mani.

MJ LVIII

Topped with a base of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

If you are out and about celebrating with some green beer, please be safe!  Hopefully you don't drink so much that you start seeing Leprechauns! lol.

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Books; Day 4

I know.  This does look like a St. Patrick's Day mani (and I guess it is doing double duty as I do want to get my St. Pat's mani's posted before the 17th!) so I'm using it today for the Digit-al Dozen book challenge.  Thankfully we have a lot of liberty how we interpret the theme so this Irish looking mani is based upon a book that I read from one of my favourite authors, Nora Roberts.  The book is called Irish Thoroughbred and is the first book in the Irish Legacy trilogy.  I've also read Irish Rose which is also part of the trilogy but not the last book, Irish Rebel.  Anyway, here's my final nails for the Digit-al Dozen book challenge!

Started with a base of two coats of Daily Hues What Band Is Next?, no top coat.  This is a perfect base of a St. Patrick's Day (or Irish!) mani.

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on top.

Stamped using images from MoYou Festive-21 (all fingers except pinky) and CJS H-14 (pinky only as the other image is too big to fit!) using MdU 37.  Added a few smaller shamrocks using different image on same MoYou Festive-21.

Clear Jelly Stamper CJS H-14

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other ladies day 5 mani's!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Hopefully you have enjoyed the book themed mani's and had time to check out all the other fantastic mani's done by the group this month!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Books; Day 3

Today's mani shows my most liked genre of books; romance.  I do a fair amount of reading and I would have to say that my most read genre by far is romance.  Favourite authors are Nora Roberts, Fern Michaels, Lesley Pearce and Maeve Binchy; if you are familiar with them, then you have read the romance lol.  If I have a preference, it's a novel set in a past century because I like to read about how people lived way back when.  I also really enjoyed the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel's again because it is set in prehistoric times and I found it fascinating how people lived.  Not lived, survived.  The Earth's Children series isn't romance related but I did enjoy the series.  So here's to some romantic reading!  

Started with a base of three coats of Nubar Grape with accent of two coats of Girly Bits Stayin' Alive.

Topped a couple of the nails with FunkyFingers Unicorn Dust for some layering interest.

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using BundleMonster BM-XL201 on all nails except ring which is BP-L13 using FunkyFingers Gesso.

Finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I also took a picture of the mani outside; you can see the layering a bit better.  I mean, look at the thumb?  Not bad for a $1.67 polish!!!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Books; Day 2

As I couldn't think of a mani to do with a book that I have read, I got to thinking, what type of books are there?  Comic books came to mind; one of my favourites as a kid were the Archie comic books and my day 2 mani is inspired by them!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Pahlish Sailing the Hispaniola, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Applied stamper decals that I had made using FUN 11 (Veronica, Archie and Betty) and MJ XXII (Jughead).  I used regular nail polishes for the filling in and the skin tone was a pretty transparent nude by Essie so unfortunately, it wasn't very opaque and some of the base can be seen under the skin.  I'll have to remember to use something more opaque next time. The thumb lettering is Nailways Back to Basics 123 ABC.

Added dots for filler and interest using same colours as on decals; CND Bicycle Yellow, China Glaze That'll Peach You and FunkyFingers Gesso.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other day 2 book mani's!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Books; Day 1

It's Digit-al Dozen week!  Our theme this month is books!  The book lover in me loves the theme but try as I might, I had a hard time coming up with mani's related to books.  But the great thing about the group is that we can each do our own interpretation of the theme which really gives us some unique manis for the challenges!  Anyway, this is my day 1 mani for book week!

I had made the stamper decals for the mani in advance and wanted a colour that would go nicely with them.  Decided on brights; this is two coats of KBShimmer Lei It Again, no top coat.  I am loving this colour; what a nice pick me up!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Did a sponged gradient using the same KB and CND Raspberry Parfait.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Unfortunately, the gradient was lost in most of the stamping, but I love how this turned out and will keep it in mind for a future mani.

After a coat of sticky base, applied the stamper decals that I had made.  Used images from MJ JR-2 and MdU 3, 52 and 66.

Shadow stamped the thumb and the letters above the book on the pinky using image from Marianne Nails n.132.  All images on the index are from MJ JR-2 as are the I Heart on the ring finger.  Unfortunately, the books from the MJ JR-2 (as seen on the index) was far too large to fit and even with the smaller letters from Nailways Back to Basics ABC 123 which I ended up using, still didn't fit that well but I tried.  Hopefully you get it anyway!

Marianne Nails n.132

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for looking!

Another St. Patrick's Day Nails

I have so many St. Patrick's Day mani's done but because tomorrow is the start of Digit-al Dozen week, I fear I may not get them all posted.  So I had better get my butt in gear and start posting!  I guess there's always next year...believe it or not, I already have a couple Valentine's Day posts done and scheduled for next year as I didn't get them all posted; I foresee the same for St. Pat's!.  Anyway, hopefully I be able to share most of them.  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Native War Paints Zombie Unicorns Love Brains, no top coat.

\

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using MdU 37 using UC Uber Mini: St. Patrick's Day.

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped accent nail using same plate and same stamping polish.  Added a couple single shamrocks on top as well.  I wasn't sure how well the words would show up which is why I top coated the rest of the nails before hand in case that was how I was going to share the mani but the words did end up stamping OK.

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

Fluid Nail Art Friday with St. Patrick's Day Nails!

Not too long ago, I decided I was going to finally try my hand at some fluid nail art.  I've had the Dance Legend Spot Its for a while now and thanks to my awesome US nail pal, I have all the Sinful Colors Transforming top coat polishes and the Sally Hansen Color Whirl (and even the OPI Spotted Top Coat from a couple years ago) but have never used any of them.  Nope.  That's right, haven't even used them once!  Well, after watching a few fluid art tutorials (stamping and for paint wall art), I sat down and tried out the technique!  Here's what I came up with!

I made my fluid nail art from decals on a plastic lid.  The polishes that I used were OPI Envy The Adventure, OPI Green Come True, China Glaze Gaga For Green, Sally Hansen CSM Slime Scene and Savvy Knightly Armour.  Again, I had watched a few tutorials and especially when viewing Kyong Lee's on YouTube (you can google link), it seemed like you can use quite a bit of polish to make some of the nail decals, so I didn't want to use anything overly HTF or even an indie which might be a little bit more pricier to buy.  Fluid art might be a good way to use up some of the cremes that I have that haven't seen the light of day!  I added the Savvy just because I like the look of a little sparkle in my decals for interest.  For the fluid, I found I had the best results with Dance Legend Spot it; I didn't have very good results with the Sally Hansen Color Whirl.  I didn't try any others as I felt I had enough decals for my nails with what I already had experimented with.  That being said, I did formulate my own 'spotted' mix after watching some paint tutorials as I don't necessarily want black cells, or white, or whatever cell colours I have from Sinful and Dance Legend, I might want to create my own cells!  I've already tried the method (not too successfully I might add, the Dance Legend polishes seem to work the best so far of any I have used) but will share the decals I made at some time!

After applying a base of sticky base to my nails, I cut the decals to somewhat fit my nail, then trimmed and used acetone and brush to remove any excess.   I tried to pick parts of the decal that had the most interest to me, keeping in mind that I still needed a cohesive mani that somewhat matched on all nails.

The leftovers lol.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top for shine and to help adhere the decals.

With the base being green, I knew I wanted to do St. Patrick's Day nails but didn't want to cover up too much of the base because that's the highlight especially after working so hard to make them!  So stamped most nails with image from BM03 on all except accent, which is MoYou Festive 21 using MdU 1.

Topped with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I initially thought that I'd only wear these for a day or so but I liked how they turned out so much that I think I wore them for 3 or 4 days!  I only removed them because they started to lift but I did enjoy them on my nails while they were on!  Overall, I like the method, I think it makes for an interesting base and hope to do these more often!

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!