Butterflies and Dragonflies...and Guessing the SH Prism!

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was Butterflies and Dragonflies.  I must confess; I did this mani back in April, just hadn't gotten around to posting it.  As luck would have it, it fit the theme of Butterflies and Dragonflies so it was the mani I shared for the challenge....which worked out well all around!

Started with a base of two coats of two coats of Sally Hansen Prism unnamed polish that says 06 on the cap. 

These polishes may be old but have some very pretty holo!

Added a funky french gradient at the tips using Emily de Molly Super Vixen.

Stamped using a variety of images from unnamed OMG XL plate using white Konad special polish.

Topped with SV.

It was kind of bugging me that I didn't know the name of this Sally Hansen polish.  It had a number on the back label, x224674000, which I Googled, but unfortunately, it didn't really help pinpoint which polish it was as its a generic number on a few of these old Prisms.  So I thought I would check through my stash of SH Prisms to see if I have one that has an actual name on it, that it matched.

These were the ones that were the closest; the bottle on the left is Blush Diamond; no. 6 is middle, and on the right is Ruby Presents, which is no. 5399-08.

I also know from Googling, that 4674-06 on various Sally Hansen Prism guides is Ruby Sapphire; however, I do know that this one isn't it Ruby Sapphire as I have a bottle of it and they aren't even close. 

I'm saying these two are prettyyyyy close; the unnamed SH 06 and SH Ruby Presents...I don't know why it dawned on me until now that I should have swatched these two to see how close they are on the nail rather than just a bottle comparisons as sometimes that is more telling...d'oh! But these two look pretty close in the bottle comparison, maybe even the same, none the less.  

What do you think?  Do you think they a match or do you think it's another Prism?  And if another one, which one do you think it may be?

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Animal Week; Day 1

The challenge this month for the Digit-al Dozen is animals; this is the first mani I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Essie Jazz. 

Now, this next pix will make no sense at all because I messed up the mani (this whole mani was a mess and to be honest, I almost didn't post it...)  because I did a sponge gradient but when I did, I did it upside down!  So the blue was at the tips and the brown was at the cuticles, which wasn't in the plan. And I had all five fingers done before I realized my mistake believe it or not! So I took both colours and sponged them on again; the blue is Essie Borrowed and Blue.  A couple fails here; there are big ol' fibres in both the middle and index finger and the sponging turned out all lumpy and gritty looking on a couple fingers.  I didn't mind the gritty look so much as I thought it would add to the look of sand which was my intention, but I still don't know if the lumps were part of my sponge, or from over sponging and not waiting for the base to dry fully.

Topped with SV.

Added in mountains from fauxnad m50 using Konad black gold special polish. I messed up the middle stamping so drew it in with a brush but ultimately removed some of it because it didn't make sense what I did! I had a really hard time stamping in these mountains straight...you may or may not be able to see the behind the mountain on the middle finger where the base is thin from me removing it and taking some base off in the process.  I was pretty fed up by this point and all I could think of was I sure hope I have another mani in archives to use for the challenge as this one is a disaster!  And the mountains have lots of stamping fails in general. *sigh*

Stamped in dinosaurs.  Plates used were hot topic (thumb), SdP 46 (brown one on index), unnamed OMG XL (middle) SdP 49 (ring) and VL 002 (small on pinky and black one on index).  The stamping polishes used where Konad black and brown and I mixed them for a custom one on the thumb.  Really messed up the placement of the dinosaur on the thumb but couldn't correct it easily so by default, it was left in.

Added sun using Konad yellow special polish from fauxnad m50.  Also added a couple birds from H18 using black Konad special polish.

Zoya Pixie Dust in Godiva was added at tips to mimic sand then did some free hand grass using green and apple green Konad special polishes.

Decided to add snow to the peaks of the mountains so free handed white caps to them using white Konad special polish.  Also added some random grass to the mountains using apple green Konad special polish too.

 My fave digit; I think because I like the look of the mountains the best! Too bad about mis-stamping the dinosaur is right into the mountains; not very good placement at all.  It was just part and parcel of this whole mani which was one fail after another! 

Topped with SV.  I prefer the look of the mani without SV as I think it gives it more character, but its very odd to me not to topcoat a mani, so did it.

Despite so many fails along the way with this mani, it didn't turn out too badly! 

Thanks for looking....and don't forget to check out the other ladies mani's which are spectacular!

Scooby Doo and Shaggy, Too!

Isn't it great that there are so many stamping image options nowadays?  So cool that we have more than flowers and butterflies to stamp, right?  (Lol, ironically, my next post is going to be flowers and butterflies for the AiS FB spring challenge!)  Anyhooo, a fairly new plate that I picked up not too long ago has a bunch of cartoon characters; this is a mani I came up with!

Base polishes used, starting at thumb and going clockwise, are L'Oreal New Money, Color Club Pink Flame, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, Sally Hansen Insta-dri Orange Impulse and OPI Funky Dunkey.  All two coats, topped with SV.

I've had Scooby and Shaggy stamper decals sitting for a while now; since before St. Patrick's Day but haven't had a chance to use them as I was doing St. Paddy's Day and various challenge mani's.  So I finally decided to do a mani using them.  These are the stamper decals I had made using 12-56S.

When I went to take them off, I guess they have been sitting too long and had over dried.  While I was able to salvage Shaggy, Scooby Doo fell apart and was unusable (maybe I should have posted this in my last fail post!)

Seeing how I already had the mani planned,  I went ahead with the mani anyway.  Applied the stamper decal to the thumb (and didn't do a great job of painting it, I see!) and just stamped in Scooby Doo using 12-56S with black Konad special polish.  The other plates used were OMG unnamed XL (peace symbol) and fauxnad AT06 (flowers).  Stamping polishes used were FUN stamping polishes in Bubble Blue, Mango Shake and Cotton Candy and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lickity Split Lime and Orange Impulse.

Topped with SV.

I had only done the two stamper decals so only had them to use; decided to do my right hand slightly different using same stamping polishes, but used SdP 67 for the image. (Please excuse horrible cleanup, hangnails and terribly dry cuticles!)

Topped with SV.  I really like the colour combinations on the thumb and index finger; I'll have to come up with a mani to put these colours to use sometime soon!

The 12-56S plate is available here via Chocolate Vanity's Etsy shop.  Please note that 12-56 has larger images than the 12-56S. (I have the 12-56 plate too; most of the images are too large to fit entirely on a nail, I guess unless you have terribly large/wide or long nails, which I don't!).  The 12-56S plate is slightly different; a lot of the images are the same but smaller in size but some of the images are different from the 12-56 plate.  Some of the images on my 12-56 plate don't stamp 100%, I seem to think there was a couple on the 12-56S plate that didn't stamp clearly, but the quality was better than the original 12-56.  I have read mixed results on FB groups of the quality on these plates; I can say mine are generally OK, recognizing that all don't stamp well on the 12-56 plus there is the size issue, but not everyone has received stampable plates.  I did contact the owner of the Etsy shop and worked out an agreeable arrangement regarding the 12-56 plate.

When I received my 12-56S plate, I did some sample testing on scrap paper (I've edited some of the words, phone numbers, etc. on the paper), which is below.

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

Digit-al Dozen: Art, Day 2

Did I mention that I'm not too much into art?  For a little inspiration, I did some Googling and a few of the images that were found in the search results were related to Egyptian art, so I thought, why not?  Here's what I came up with.



A lot of the Egyptian art that I seen is on a beige/sand coloured base but when I went looking through my stash, I decided I wanted to jazz it up a little, yet at least be in the beige/sand family (somewhat!), so started with a base of China Glaze It's My Turn; this is three coats, no topcoat. 



Added images using D23 (both images on thumb), H25 (top image on index) VL 006 (bottom line image on index), FUN 2 (ring), OMG Nails unnamed XL plate (pinky) and Blink H43 (middle) using black Konad special polish.



When I was browsing Egyptian art pix, I noticed that occasionally there were bright turquoise and orange-ish accents so I chose these colours for a few accent dots; Color Blast by Orly Ablazing Aqua and Konad Gold/Brown special polish.



Topped with SV to finish.



I thought this turned out pretty cool!  I wished there were more Egyptian images available like King Tut's mask and a few others....but was happy that at least there were enough to squeak out a mani with some improvising and artistic liberties!

Thanks for looking!

Here's the other ladies art! These gals are so creative!!

Digit-al Dozen-Festiveness; Day 3

Am I the only one that thinks Festivus when I see Festiveness?  I type it every time I type Festivus  Festiveness.  Too much Seinfield back in the day, I suppose....anyhoo, this is my mani for Day 3 of the challenge (my second mani as I missed first day!)

I was trying to come up with something a little different just to mix it up instead of the more typical greens, reds, whites and blues that are more seasonal right now! 

Started with a base of two coats of China Glaze Let's Do It In 3-D, no topcoat.  It dried fairly fast and after about 5 minutes, I was able to do the stamping.

Stamped with black Konad special polish using an assortment of images (BM222, large g-men on thumb; Nailways0002, small g-men on thumb as well as pinky; OMG XL, ring finger g-man; HD08-middle finger g-man; and AT01 on index). 

Added a few randomly placed stars from T37 using red Konad special polish.

Topped with Sally Hansen quick dry.

When I was out and about this morning doing some Christmas shopping, the sun came out so I snapped a few pix (when I was parked, of course!). 

I urge you to check out the other Digit-al Dozen bloggers are are participating in Day 3 of Festivus Festiveness! Another day of awesomeness!!

Thanks for looking!