Digit-al Dozen Does Colour Contrasts; Day 3

For Day 3 of the colour contrast challenge, I decided on purple and yellow.  I sooo resisted this colour combination because it is seriously one of my least favourite colour combos...and it always reminded me of high school and the the terrible, terrible school gym clothes we had to wear as these were our school colours....a bright yellow, Big Bird t-shirt and ill fitting, uni-sex purple shorts.  Not pretty, that's for sure!

But, believe it or not, what you are actually seeing is purple and yellow polish for Day 3 of colour contrast; but when you mix purple and yellow you get some shades leaning brown which this mani has hints of lol! That would be called a water marble fail but hey, I tried!  

Just to prove I really was using yellow and purple polishes, I took a pix of my water marble.  But even here, you can see where the purple runs to brown/rust like hues.  

For the water marble, I used Pipe Dream Polish Harlequin, Punch Buggy and Prism Drops.  I was not very successful in my attempt though.

Not one to back down though in the face of a fail, I continued on so topped everything off with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 Stamped using an image from Apipila Super Placa A using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

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

 I actually thought the end result turned OK; stamping always makes the mani better!  There are some hits of a success here in the pinky and thumb but room for improvement, that's for sure!  Someday...hopefully!

Here's the other ladies Day 3 colour contrast mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbows; Day 5

Here I am again super late for Day 5 Digit-al Dozen rainbow challenge so sorry about that; this mani is also doing double duty for 40 Great Nail Art Ideas does summer challenge!  Here's what I came up with!

Started by making a couple stamper decals using an image from Infinity 34 and acrylic paints.  I made two because wasn't sure which one would turn out better on the nail but glad that I did as I ended up cutting them and using them both because the images were too large for one nail.

Did a coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on three fingers then attempted some water marbling using Pipe Dream Polish High Roller, All In, 110 Degrees, Light of Day and Peace Out.

I had planned on using a full stamper decal on the thumb but when the image was too big, decided to cut it down and used half on the thumb and then the other half along with some of the clouds on the middle.  So had to add base polishes to both these nails; the middle is again OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and the thumb is Polish M A Quiet Mind.  

Used both stamper decals.

Stamped index finger using MoYou 408 and MoYou Tourist Collection-17 on ring and pinky.  The birds on the thumb are also from MoYou Tourist 17.  Stamping polish is FunkyFingers Dark Knight.

MoYou Tourist Collection-17

MoYou 408

Added a few more birds to middle and pinky using MoYou Tourist 17.

Added a coat of GirlyBits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Here's the other ladies Day 5 rainbow manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

As well as the 40GNAI summer mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Whimsy; Day 3

This post post should probably be called "50 Tips on How NOT to Water Marble" but Simply Nailogical already did a post here about water marbling fails and I don't think we need another post or video about it! Anyway, here's my dismal water marbling fail for Day 3 of Digit-al Dozen does whimsy!

I've tried water marbling a few times now; the very first time that I tried it was by far the best end result and even then it wasn't that good.  I've tried several times since then using not only Pipe Dream Polishes but others and the only polishes I can get somewhat decent to marble are the Pipe Dreams.  I'm sure this is user error and hopefully one day I'll get better at it, but for now, Pipe Dreams it is.  So started with these Pipe Dreams to create the water marble, which were over a base of two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

No pix of finished water marble as some were really bad and the stamping covered the fails BUT I had this happen to my index finger on my first attempt to stamp on top of the water marbling.  I'm guessing it was from too much wet polish from the water marbling and smudged when I stamped.  So while I was doing cleanup, removed it and redid another water marble design on it.

I had exactly the same thing happen on the index finger again but this time, I just straightened and smooshed it as best I could like it was a decal because by this time, it was 1:30 am last night when I did these and I really needed to be getting to bed; just didn't have time to do it a third time.  Whatever I couldn't smoosh to cover the nail, I filled in with black polish.  So this is Chez Delany Papillons 001 using FunkyFingers Dark Knight stamped over the water marble base, no top coat.  And poor clean up but I was too tired to do better.  Note to self:  I knew it wasn't a good thing to sit down after 11 p.m. to do a water marble.



Delaney Papillons 001





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



I think this mani might be OK to reattempt once I master, or even half master, water marbling.  Until then, sorry you had to see it!

Here's the other ladies Day 3 whimsy nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Spring; Day 4

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This mani is doing double duty for the occasion as well as day 4 of the Digit-al Dozen spring challenge just because I really wanted to post a St. Patrick's Day mani today and had no time to do another mani more in line with spring for the challenge (plus still have to get up my day 3 post as it is; the nails are done but the blog post is not!).  So this will have to do.  It's a little busy, but busy is probably my blogger middle name lol! Here's what I came up with!

For the base, used OPI Don't Mess With OPI (thumb and pinky), Nerd Lacquer Thistledown (ring and index) and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (middle).  All two coats, top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I did the white base for a water marble design that would have been the background for some stamping, but try as I might, the water marble gods were not with me and I had no luck with doing a proper design.  After the third attempt, I just took what was in the water, swirled it around, dipped my finger in and hoped for the best.  It wasn't that bad; in fact, who knows, this might have been better than the real water marbling. Anyway, it was late and I had spent enough time on it so just ran with it.  

I had made some decals last weekend; the rainbow is freehand using acrylic paints.  The decal was topped with Sally Hansen Hard As Nails and it was pretty dry and brittle by the time I used it last night, so it cracked and ripped in a few places when I peeled it off the stamper.  I smooshed it onto the nail with my finger as best as I could and quickly top coated to try to get the cracks to fill.  Its ok but not the best.  There's actually rainbow stamps out there; don't ask me why I decided to free hand it lol.  I thought it would be simple enough to do but am sure stamps would have been neater.  The other two decals are using images from Messy Mansion MM04 and assortment of paints and polishes.  Stamped image on the pinky is from MoYou Festive 21 using Funky Fingers Gesso.

(I actually kinda dig this look without all the extra stamping.)

MoYou Festive Collection 21

(Love, love, love the 17 image; I really wanted to use it for this mani if only I had six fingers!  I did next best thing by putting it on Cindy.)

Stamped image on the middle using another image from Messy Mansion MM04 using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.  The words on the thumb are from Moyra Stamping Plate 09-Celebration.  Added a few random shamrocks for filler using another image from Messy Mansion MM04. Placed with clear jelly stamper.

Moyra Stamping Plate 09-Celebration

After some touch ups, finished with a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.  In hindsight, I should have put the sparkly hat on the dark green cream base and the pot of gold on the lighter green which would have made both stand out a little more but I guess I didn't plan it out well.  Next time!

I did my other hand a little different; base is two coats of OPI I'm Soooo Swamped with images from MoYou Festive Collection-21. 

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes!

Today I attended a 75th Birthday brunch; these were the nails I did for the occasion!



Started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls; while I initially planned on doing a pink, purple and white water marble for the base, I could not get the polishes to spread in the water so ended up doing an alcohol spray using Pipe Dream Polish Masquerades with CND Gold Chrome on top.  Shown with no top coat.



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



Stamped using Funky Fingers Dark Knight using Uber Chic 6-01 on all fingers except ring finger.  The accent numbers are Nailways Back to Basics 123ABC and FUN 4.



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



Hope you had a great weekend; thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Nail Heroes; Day 4

Continuing with the theme of nail heroes, today I am honouring all the nail art plate makers!  When I started stamping years ago, at the time, there was only Konad plates and few fauxnads.  Some of the very first "indie" if you will plate makers were Chez Delaney with the D plates, Dashica with the A-D series, and FAB/early MJ plates (which were the combined work of the ladies now behind FAB UR Nails {who now has FUN plates} and MyOnLineShop {who has MJ plates} if I recall correctly).  Since then, we have BundleMonster, Wistonia, Cheeky, FAB UR NAILS, MyOnLineShop, Creative, Moyra, Girly Bits, It Girl, Delush, NailMatinee, Nail Art Diva, Nailways, Hot Topic, Betina, BFF, Apipila, Lily Anna, Messy Mansion, Cheeky Beauty, Marinanne Nails, Lilic, NailzCraze, Sugar Bubbles, Vivid Lacquer, MoYou, MoYou London, Born Pretty, Essense, Mango, UberChic, Pueen, CICI & SISI, DRK, Emily de Molly, B. Loves, Red Angel, Mash, LLC, Pueen, Mundo de Unas, Rica, Wistonia.....did I forget anyone?  Some of these makers are companies; some are just one person who does it all.  Some are no longer around or are no longer making plates and others are brand new on the market.  And don't forget that if there's an image you can't find, there's always Fig Tree Stamps who will make you your own plate!  We stampers have never had so many options!  As a long time stamper, I thank all of you!   You collectively are my nail heroes as otherwise we'd all be using Konad plates and the A, T, H, XL plates, etc. that were only available back in the day!  I can't pick a favourite brand; it would be like picking which one of my children is my favourite and that's just not right! I do find that I may go through ebbs and flows of using a plate brand; I may use a lot of a makers plates for a period of time, then might not use them again for months; it isn't that I don't love them any less, just that they may not have the images that I'm looking for at the moment.  

For my nail hero mani, I've put my spin on a mani from the last blog post from FAB UR Nails blog, simply because she is one of the few makers who actually actively does mani's.  Here's what I came up with!

Here's my mani inspiration from FAB UR NAILS, photo credit to FAB UR NAILS

For the base, I thought I'd attempt a water marble; in fact, this mani was my very first time! (Although I shared one a few days ago, this mani was done first and the Valentine's Day one was my second).  This is two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and what I thought was sufficient Girly Bits Border Patrol but it wasn't as I had polish much further down my fingers as well as on the backside of my fingers.  I still need to figure this part out.

Used polishes from Pipe Dream A Night In Vegas collection for the water marble.

The water marble mess!  I don't know why the water marble has the little bubble looking drops on it in places (see index finger) or why it bubbled and broke (see middle finger) as not experienced enough in this nor did I do a lot of online research for tips and tricks, but if anyone happens to know, I'd love the answer! Overall though, I was pretty happy how this turned out for my first attempt!  I also think some of the better parts of the design went on my skin but I hope with more practise, placing it on the nail will get better, just like with stamping.

After clean up.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

Stamped using Funky Fingers Dark Knight using an image from MJ III.

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

I look forward to how far this nail stamping journey will go and the continued release of some amazing nail art images from all the plate makers!  

Here are the other ladies Day 4 nail heroes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!