Let The Easter Mani's Begin!!!

Easter snuck up on me; it seems we just got over St. Patrick's Day mani's and for some reason, I thought I had a few weeks to get a few Easter mani's ready to post; I guess it's a little earlier than normal, which is why I thought I had more time.  Anyhooo, here's the first Easter mani I'm sharing.

Started with a base of two coats of Lime Crime Milky Ways; this is two coats then topped with SV.  I was going for a colour to mimic the colour of egg shells, more off white, but this polish is a little more tinted than I was expecting.  

Stamped using HD-A (thumb, middle and all the eggs) and HD-B (pinky) using Beautiful Scratchers green stamping polish and Konad special polishes in pastel yellow, pastel blue, pastel lilac and pastel pink. 

Added a few random dots using the same colours.

Topped with SV.

A pix in natural daylight (overcast).

I might as well name this weeks posts Easter Week...as I'm sure that's all I'll be featuring for the next little while being the holiday kind of gal I am!

Thanks for looking!

Light Over Dark

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was light stamping over dark.  Here's what I came up with.



Started with a base coat of New York Summer Hot Purple, three coats, no topcoat.



This is two coats for comparison.  I probably could have left at two coats if I wasn't taking pix as it did have pretty good coverage IRL and the VNL wasn't as obvious.



Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Hex Appeal.



This is Hex Appeal bottle pix.



Stamped with light gray Konad special polish using VL 001.  I chose this image specifically so the glitter from Hex Appeal would be visible underneath.



While I didn't mind the look of this, I decided to add random flowers on top using pink Beautiful Scratchers special polish using XL F; topped with SV.  Even with the additional flowers, you can still see the glitter underneath which was cool!



I got my bottle of KBShimmer from Harlow & Co. as KBShimmer does not offer international shipping of nail polish.

Hope you had a great weekend....thanks for looking!

Halloween Mani Using Plates from Giveaway!

As you may recall, my recent giveaway includes five image plates provided by Beautiful Scratchers (BS). This is an unposted mani I did at Halloween using S8 from the plates.



While I had emailed Beautiful Scratchers to buy them, as they are a local GTA company in my area, Jenna delivered a set of them to my office along with some new metallic polishes that I had seen on her esite. When we met, she was good enough to offer a set of her new image plates as a giveaway for my blog so this is why I'm able to offer them as part of the giveaway!



From what I gathered in our conversation, Jenna actually created these stamping plates - you will not find these exact designs on any other plates or be able to buy any place other than Beautiful Scratchers. I acknowledge though that there are similar designs (ie more than one pumpkin or Hello Kitty image out there!)



Jenna has also created a whole bunch of stamping polishes. I found her company about two or more years now while surfing ebay looking for alternatives to Konad special polishes (they too expensive, frustrated as some didn't stamp well as well as looking for more colour options). This was well before I started blogging or even surfing the net for stamping sites. I guess I wasn't smart or creative enough to realize that other polishes might well for stamping!



Since that day a few years ago, Jenna and I have met up a few times as I've bought more of her products. I've also been lucky enough to get samples here and there of new colours she had been working on developing (like the hot pink which stamps well, unlike Konad's hot pink, which is why I just bought a full size bottle). I always adore meeting up with Jenna as its great to speak to someone in real life who has a passion about stamping like me!



The polishes that I used for this mani are Wet n Wild Black Creme (thumb), Icing The Golden Age of Glitter (on black base); Revlon Alluring Amber (orange base); Icing Pumpkin (orange glitter on orange base), Misa Green with Envy (green base); Misa Disco Green (green glitter on green base), CND Eclectic Purple (purple base), Claire's Diva Purple (purple glitter on purple base) Wet n Wild Red (red base), Generation Red glitter (glitter on red base). Stamped using BS IP S8 using Black Konad special polish and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

My giveaway is here. This image plate as well as the rest of the Beautiful Scratchers plates and polishes can be seen here. I again acknowledge and thank Beautiful Scratchers for donating this as a prize for my giveaway!

Thanks for looking!

Giveaway!

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

Here's another mani I did using Red Angel plates which are part of my current giveaway, the details are below!



Base is OPI Don't Know...Beets Me, two coats.



Stamped using Konad white special polish using RA-102.



Added a few black dots using Konad black special polish.



Then a swipe of random silver glitter.



Lastly, a few more black dots and topcoated with SV.



Now onto the giveaway**! There is only one prize for this giveaway which looks like this:



A 21 piece set of Red Angel image plates, which can be seen here; five image plates (S2, S3, S6, S7 and S8) graciously donated by Beautiful Scratchers as seen here (my next post will include an unposted mani I did using only these plates at Halloween) and 11 polishes which are China Glaze Snow Globe, Glittering Garland, Twinkle Lights and Ring in the Red (from the 2011 Let It Snow Collection); China Glaze Ick-A-Bod-y, Mummy May I, and Zombie Zest (from the 2010 Halloween Collex in case you missed out), and lastly, Sally Hansen Glow in the Dark, Orange Pumpkin, Goulish Green and Black Cat....love these for the names if nothing else!

Here's the 'rules' of the giveaway, which are simple. Please read in full before you post your comment, which is your entry ballot and provide all info in one comment reply!

The rules are as follows:

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog under Google Friends Connect. In the comments section below, outline your GFC follower name and our email address that you may be reached for one entry.

2. If you post about the giveaway or add it to a sidebar on your blog, or tweet about it, or post the giveaway on your Facebook, provide link in the comment section and get another entry for each.

3. If you add Canadian Nail Fanatic (CNF) to your blog roll, provide the link and get another entry.

4. That's it! The giveaway will be open until Wednesday, December 21st. I will tally the info and contact the winner shortly thereafter; the winner will have 72 hours to respond or another entry will be chosen (I've increased the hours from 48 to 72 as I'm sure that time of year will be hectic and I don't want you to miss out if you happen to win!!).

5. The giveaway is open internationally and there is only one prize.

6. Good luck!

**Please note that I paid the retail price for the Red Angel plates, which are new. The Beautiful Scratchers plates being offered in this giveaway are new and were donated by them specifically for a prize for this blog, which is graciously acknowledged and appreciated. I do have my own separate set of these image plates that were paid in full by me. All of the polishes offered for this giveaway were bought new by me specifically for this giveaway. Please note that I will mail the prize postage prepaid to the winner, take pictures at the post office, keep the postage receipt/customs declaration and pack it well for travel; however, I cannot be held responsible for undelivered or lost packages, broken polishes in transit or any associated custom fees to enter your country. I have no affiliation with Red Angel, Beautiful Scratchers, China Glaze or Sally Hansen.

Jack-o'-Lantern Nails

Another Halloween mani I came up with recently.



Started with two coats of OPI Osaka To Me Orange.



To add a little shimmer interest, topped with one coat of Nicole by OPI Fresh Squeezed.



Added the pumpkin faces using image plates S8, D03, and A37 as well as the scary shark face (well, looks like shark to me!) from A37 on the thumb nail. This image only has one eye and I transferred the eye from the mirror image on the same plate to give the thumb image two eyes (hopefully this makes sense!!); stamped using Konad black special polish.



Added a little greenery using the leaves on IP T41 with Konad special polishes in Green and Apple Green.




Lastly, added some eyeballs for the faces using Konad special polishes in white, yellow and red (these work well for dotting as they are so heavily pigmented).



My DD thought this was the bomb and I ended up doing this mani on her nails as well.

What do you think....do you think its the bomb...or did it bomb? lol! I wore this mani last weekend and while it's probably more age appropriate for my DD, I had a lot of fun wearing it! I think I may do something along these lines for Halloween night when handing out candy as I'm sure the kids trick or treating can relate!

Thanks for looking!

Another Spider Mani with New Plates!

Kudos to all the fabulous bloggers who have been doing some amazing Halloween nail art! It's been great to see so many creative Halloween mani's out there. This is a mani I came up with recently (probably not that terribly creative! lol)



I wanted to come up with a Halloween mani that wasn't the traditional orange, purple, green, black, etc. that I have already done (just not posted the mani's yet) so started with a base of two coats of CND Flashpoint.



Stamped using IP T43 with Konad black special polish. (You may see that the dangling spider is missing from my thumb nail...it didn't stamp clearly so I removed it with acetone and a brush.).



Then I thought I'd try my hand at stamping a french tip to cover up the tips of my nails....my first choice would have been a spider web french tip (which I still want to do), but instead I seen my new Essence plates sitting out on my nail station so decided to give them a try. I was super lucky enough to these in a amazing swap I had with Ivana Thinks Pink. So this is how my french tipped stamping turned out.



Hmmmm, not so good :( As you can see, a couple of them were a super nail fail. My stamping nail nemeses is doing french tips - I can N E V E R get them to line up. So of course, I had to hide the tip stamping and decided to add a spider here and there using Beautiful Scratchers IP S8 using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.



(Here's the Essence plate I just received....so excited to have these as part of my stash...thanks Ivana!!!)



And to be honest, in real life, the nail fail wasn't so obvious - its not like my mani's is blown up in macro for everyone to see like on the blog post! Plus, at the end of the day, its just polish and a bit of time and more reason to do your nails the next day!

Thanks for looking!

Don't Look If Spiders Creep You Out!

Here's my first Halloween mani this year.



Two coats of my new favourite orange for season...Revlon Alluring Amber. I picked this up in the same display as Royal Cloak. Perfect orange for Halloween.



A quick coat of Color Zone glitter (found in a three pack at local Winners) added as an experiment in my ongoing quest in doing layering mani's with stamping. I could easily wear this any day; really liking it even without stamping.



This is what the set looks like. While I bought this in Peterborough a couple weeks ago; I have seen them around the GTA in at least two Winners near me; they also have a couple different sets of three; one with a glow in the dark polish; the other a pink and purple with a hearts in clear glitter.



And a close up of the glitter.



Stamped using Konad black special polish using fauxnad IP S8. This plate is one of the new plates available at Beautiful Scratchers.

The next day before I took the mani off, added a coat of Essie Matte About You. I think this is my favourite....love matte glitter!



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

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Well, it's Wednesday...while I don't participate often by having pink mani's on Wednesday, I thought that I could detract from doing fall and Thanksgiving manis...(and before I go full force into Halloween!!!) for a very worthwhile cause and do a Breast Cancer Awareness mani as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.



Here's mani is progress; started with three coats of OPI Pink-ing of You.



Then stamped using fauxnad D08 (this is the middle image that also includes Michael Jackson's feet; I just didn't polish or scrape that portion of the plate). I can't recall any other ribbon available like this on image plates (I know Sdp plates has a similar ribbon, which I have, but it's not exactly the same and I prefer this ribbon to the other plate); so let's hope that Konad or someone else will do a ribbon stamp (and in different sizes) as there are so many themes that I could think of to use it. Until then, at least this stamp is available. D Series plates can be obtained from Chez Delaney.



I actually didn't do too bad of a job of lining the image up but the middle finger was slightly off so decided to do a second stamp beside it to fill in the gap. The stamping polish I used is from Beautiful Scratchers. I have a sample bottle from when the colour was being developed but believe the colour is Metallic Ice Pink.


Lastly, added a few random dots using CND Raspberry Parfait and OPI Bride's Bouquet.



This pix was taken the next morning in daylight...only shown as you see the stamping a little better.


I don't think I need to go into great details why its necessary to promote the need for Breast Cancer Awareness as I'm sure we all know of at least one person who is or has battled this disease. If you need more information, please go to the Canadian Cancer Society or browse the internet for more information in your area.



Last but not least, I should soon have the post ready that will announce those who had their names drawn for my Birthday Giveaway. I'm terribly sorry that it has taken this long and wish I had a better excuse other than life got in the way but that's the case. Between working incredibly long hours, dealing with the family, closing my weekend place and everything else in between that goes along with life, I just haven't had as much time as I wanted to tabulate everything...but I will do soon!

Thanks for your patience...and thanks for looking!