Digital Dozen Does Countries and Cultures; Day 5

I had an epic post planned today to round out Digit-al Dozen Countries and Cultures week featuring Canada.  EPIC!  Then got side tracked a little with a polish auction last night which tied up more time than I wanted; well, lo and behold, I didn't quite get all the mani's I wanted to do for this post.  Yes, that was mani'S.  It was going to be epic!  Instead, I'll leave you with this.  You probably have to be Canadian to get it; if you're not familiar with the rant, there a video at the bottom to watch if you aren't too familiar with this and are interested enough to know about it!  

Started with a base of two coats each of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Duri Taming of the Shrew, topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Stamped using red and white Konad special polishes using image from Nailways Back to Basics 123-ABC. (these are the middle size letters, fyi).  Added dots with same stamping polish.  Flag on thumb is from fauxnad m56.  Placement of the letters wasn't the best and I'm sure with more practise, it would get better.  Even these, there were some letters I did several times! 

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I have have the nails finished from the post that was to be epic but is this instead.  I'm sure they will show up at some point here!  

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Hopefully you've enjoyed all the Countries and Culture's mani's; I had a lot of fun doing them, and thanks to so many available plates now, I probably could have done Countries and Culture month!  Great to have so many options!

Have a great weekend!

Another Canada Day Mani!

As I mentioned in the last Canada Day mani post a few days ago, there aren't too many Canada Day appropriate images but as I was going through my plate stash the night before July 1st, I seen a cluster of maple leaves on one of the Lesly plates and thought it would be a good image for another Canada Day mani. These were the nails I was wearing on Canada Day...nothing says Canada more than red, white and maple leaves!

Started with a base of two coats each of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Nicole by OPI Please Red-Cycle, topped with HKGirl quick dry topcoat.  

Stamped with maple leaves from LS20 using red and white Konad special polishes.  Added Canada to thumb from fauxnad m56.

Topped with HKGirl topcoat to finish.

Digit-al Dozen challenge week is around the corner and these Canada Day nails are an appropriate introduction to the theme challenge which is Countries and Cultures.....but I'm sure another Canada related mani will show up at some point during the week!

Thanks for looking!

Canada Day Nails

I did a couple of Canada Day mani's for the occasion and while I shared on IG, unfortunately, didn't get around to sharing on the blog til now.  I still wish there was a plate that says "Happy Canada Day!"   Maybe in time for next year (crosses fingers and toes!)  Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of plates to create Canada Day nails but I do try to come up with something a little different each year.  This is one of the mani's I was sporting the weekend before Canada Day at some local Canada Day festivities.  

Started with a base of three coats of OPI All Girls Love Diamonds, no topcoat. 

Decided to matte using Essie Matte About You.

Added assortment of images using red Konad special polish using plates fauxnad m56 (Canada Flag and large maple leaves and random placed Canada works, which are both part of the flag image) and Mash 26 (small maple leaves).

(all pix taken in natural light; either sun or shade as I did these while I was away for the weekend and no lighting set up!)

I had planned on leaving this matte but decided to topcoat using HKGirl to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Olympic Nails...Men's Hockey Takes Gold!

These were the nails I did last night in anticipation of Canada men's team playing in the gold/silver game this morning.  They must have been good luck charms because Canada took the gold medal against Sweden this morning!  Yea, Canada!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and American Apparel Downtown LA, topped with SV.

Stamped using black and white Konad special polish using Nail Art Diva WB08-4 (middle play and hockey sticks on thumb), LO 06 (go on thumb), fauxnad m56 (Canada on thumb), MJ XVIII (shirt on pinky) and OB-M (ring and index).  Touched up a bit of mistamping on the maple leafs with polish and brush.

Added red polish to the hockey player using a brush as well as a few random maple leafs from Mash26. 

Topped with SV to finish.  While not that noticeable IRL, but enough to bother me, I seen some missing red on the middle finger on the maple leaf as well as minor polish drag.  

Fixed the SV drag with acetone and a brush after it had dried, then added a dot of polish to the missing area. Topped again with SV.

The Olympic games are now over...there were some highs and lows but as usual, they were exciting to watch the last two weeks! Congrats to all Olympians whether or not you medalled...I'm sure it was an amazing experience just being...and getting...there!

Thanks for looking!

Canada Day Nails

Happy Belated Canada Day to all my Canadian nail pals!  Here and abroad...as I know I frequently get messages from gals who are Canadian and for one reason or another, reside in another country.  Here's the nails I was wearing on Canada Day.

Started with a base of OPI Red My Fortune Cookie, two coats.

Added a coat of Glitter Gal Red.  I don't see any other name on my bottle other than red, sorry if I missed it.

Another pix of this gorgeous holo.  Hard to believe its just one coat.

Stamped using fauxnad m56 with white Konad special polish.  To be honest, I'm lucky I had a plate to do Canada Day nails with me at all.  I had another mani in mind for Canada Day using the maple leaf french tip image from the new Mash plates.  But for some reason, when I was getting a few plates together to use for the weekend, I thought the plate I wanted was in the new Bundle Monster set and only grabbed this plate to take in case I wanted to add the Canada Flag image.  Well, thank goodness I did because the only other plates I had with me were Bundle Monster...and the image I wanted was on the Mash set.  I was kinda ticked off at myself but I guess there's always next year! lol!  I was telling my husband how I brought the wrong plates with me and how ticked I was at myself and his response was...believe it or not....why don't you just buy two sets of everything and just keep a set here so you have them on the weekend so you don't forget anything! 

A couple other views, this one in slightly less sunny skies.  The single maple leaf images are the middle of the flag alone polished and scrapped than randomly placed. 

This pix was taken in the shade.

I thought I'd share some pix of part of the Canada Day festivities I attended.  After singing the National Anthem, there's the release of red and white balloons.

Up....

...up.....

...and away!!!

Sorry I didn't get around to posting this earlier but unfortunately, I don't have reliable internet connection on the weekends and didn't get home until late last night.  I probably should get my stuff together and have a mani ready in advance or have schedule posts or something like this when I have unreliable internet service....one of these days I'll get it together!

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

Family Day Mani...for Family Day!

Today is Family Day in Ontario...aka...an excuse for a long weekend in February! I thought I'd do a mani about my family; this is what I came up with!



I'm on the thumb...a coffee loving, card playing, nail fanatic!

Next is DH. He loves the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing cards...and eating! That cupcake was suppose to be on my nail as I'm the baker and I had another food image for his nail...just not enough room!

Middle finger is DS1. No, he's not a closet Jason! lol! That's a goalie mask as DS is a goalie for lacrosse....right now, he's playing for a JrA lacrosse team in our area...is was also on Team Ontario, who won the National Championship this past summer for his age group...ya, he lives, eats and breathes lacrosse! He's also a big gamer....but I chose to add a pair of earphones as, typical of most teens...at least any I know of, he has a wire hanging out of at least one of his ears from his ipod most of the time.

Ring finger is DD...the butterfly is for Ms. Social Butterfly...also a makeup loving, shop 'til she drops teen...who has a massive sweet tooth, hence the candy! Too bad that I mumble stamped all these together...she's also loves to sing and dance...I had stamps set aside for her nail for this too...just not enough space on my little nails.

Pinky is DS2...a massive gamer too, hence Pikachu! In addition to gaming (when he's not eating, sleeping or breathing), he also likes to swim as well play with his pal Spike...who's right on the tip of the nail!



Base colours, two coats, starting at thumb, are Duri Taming of the Shrew, SpaRitual Circle of Life, China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (3 coats), CND Sweet (this could be a one coater but I did two), and LA Girl Disco Brites Psychedelic (3 coats).



Stamped using white Konad special polish using unnamed/unmarked fauxnad for coffee, fauxnad m56 (leaf), NailArt Diva WBO8-4 (mask and hockey stick), Lilic A02 (shoe), CH17 (lipstick), CH6 (candy), Lilic A01 (cupcake), SdP 57 (nail polish bottle and butterfly) and m48(cards), CH27 (headphones), and XXL Big SdP-01(doggy).

Added a few hearts and stars by isolating them from the full size plate images on KD3.


Lastly, added a few random dots and topped with SV.



Hope you had a good weekend...its going to be tough going back after three days off though!

Thanks for looking!

Fall Leaf Nails

Have the leaves started turning in your area yet? Just this past week or so, they started to turn where I live. So fall was the inspiration for this mani.



A little different eh?

Started with a base of Orly Iron Butterfly, which was from their Matte Metallic collex. This is one coat....I was just too tired to do a second as it was 1 am when I was doing this mani, which is around my usual time for finally getting time in my day (or night?) to do them lately.


Stamped using CND chrome polishes in Copper, Silver and Gold. All of these chromes work really well for stamping.



I really liked this combination of using a matte base with the chrome polishes and have already thought of a few different manis that I could recycle this look, using other plates and themes.



Used fauxnad image plates T41, D03 (not chez d plates, another D series), fauxnad m56 (Canada flag image but just used the maple leaf portion) and SdP D-14.


Unfortunately, matte polishes tend to chip. By 10 am the next morning, I already had chips and lots of tip wear so this mani was short lived.


Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Thanks for looking!

Happy Canada Day!!!

I know everyone who may see this may not be from Canada, but I'm a very proud Canadian and involved in lots of festivities and celebrations so HAD to do Canada Day mani!!

Here's what I came up with:



Base coats is two coats of OPI Alpine Snow, stamped using Konad red special polish and fauxnad image plate m56. I know the base isn't special but thought I'd share if you are looking for a good white base coat. Two coats of Alpine Snow had great coverage for a crisp, white base...too bad the pix aren't that great :(




This mani actually took me a FOREVER to do as I had to carefully try to paint and scrape the leaf image from middle of the full flag image so just it was visible...lots of polish and attempts just to get a few good images.

I wish the pix were better but I just don't have good lighting when I'm away on the weekend. (The first one, I took this morning!)



I also thought I'd share this....when Konad had a clear stamper available (I think that's what its called; clear or white) as soon as I found out, I ordered a couple as, when I'm stamping using pink or red polishes, I have a hard time seeing the image well for placement purposes (well, sometimes it doesn't even matter if I see it or not as my placement still gets off...lol!!) but at least it helps. These pix will show you what I'm talking about....






Thanks for your patience in my lack of posts this week....I had two followers drop off which pains me greatly as I don't know why and wonder is it something I did; or didn't do.....or did I offend someone somehow...don't know if it was lack of posts or the fact the giveaway over.....I'll never know...anyway, work was extremely busy, especially with it being a short work week, plus it was the end of school and I had two kids graduation ceremonies to attend, plus getting ready to head to cottage country for the long weekend etc etc. My DD did very well....not only did she graduate with honours, she also was the recipient of the overall student award for good academics, volunteer work, attitude....my husband called it the "Spunky Award"! LOL! And last but not least, my oldest son, who is heavily into rep sports, is spending a *bonding* weekend with his teammates at a 100 acre camp this weekend, so on top of everything I had to do, had to get him ready for this! I honestly couldn't wait for this long weekend to arrive fast enough to get some relaxing time....and still will be busy with stuff I'm involved in with Canada Day celebrations over the weekend!




My last mani, the bright green one, I wore from last Saturday until I took it off last night. Here's what it looked like last night just before I took it off:



Pretty good wear for six days if I do so say myself! Other than minor tip wear, no chipping or fading at all! China Glaze (and OPI) wear well for me....Chanel, which is 6x the cost, and Zoya, not so well. I still wear them as Chanel and Zoya have so many great colours and finishes and I usually only wear polish for a day or two anyway, but glad that this mani stood up so well as I just had no time to change it!

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! And if you're not Canadian and you still checked out the post, thx for your understanding in my patriotic mani!

Thanks for looking!