Hi Everyone! Happy Monday! I did some neon water marbling this weekend and they turned out pretty cool. I wasn't ready to ditch it just yet as yesterday and today we have some nice sunny weather so I did what I always do and stamped over it LOL!
I hauled out some of my new China Glaze Electric Nights--Daisy Know My Name, Glow With The Flow, Home Sweet House Music & Treble Maker. Naturally when I did this it was rainy and cold but here's a pic of the water marble before I stamped over it.
I've haven't water marbled in a long time as I've been doing dry marbles lately but I thought I'd give this a go
Indoor shot naturally as Saturday it was cold and rainy
Both yesterday and today though it's nice and sunny. I went out to snap a few pics without looking crazy as neighbors were out and here's what I did over it
I used one of my new Born Pretty Store plates BP-L010. I love everything ab out this plate!!!! It's all tribal images!
My index and pinkie are from MoYou Explorer 23 I barely got them on there LOL. I matted it then for my African Tribal look. I really like it!
What do you think? Do you like it better before or after the stamping?
Hope you are all having a great day! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Everyone! Happy Friday! I've got a lot of pep in my step today mostly because Messy Mansion has some new plates!!! I love Messy Mansion plates, they are always very original and they stamp like a boss! Julia and LilyAnna asked if I wouldn't mind doing quality assurance and then reviewing these babies and I said ABSOLUTELY!
First up quality check every single plate I was sent stamped just great! I really love how they do check them first before releasing them. Not all plate makers do that and they often rely on customers being their quality assurance which isn't always the best route to go especially when there are issues. Before Messy Mansion opened these up in the shop for sale they made sure they stamped well.
I received 10 plates in total for this new release and today I have manicures done with 3 of them. I will be showing off more mani's tomorrow and Sunday though as well. Naturally I'm anxious to use them and see what I can come up with.
First up I did my first ever blobbicure and paired it with the Dino Skeleton plate MM47
I used Rescue Beauty Lounge Footpath for my basecoat and the blobbed with OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest
This is a fun plate! The Dinosaur skeletons are soooooo cool!
Here's a quick collage
I love how my thumb turned out!
Here's the plate!
I can't wait to try something with the full images on the bottom! That's next up for my what I want to do with this plate.
Next I have a super cute cat manicure! Woot! You can't go wrong with cats. And the best thing about MM50 is it has skelly fish on it! Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely LOVE skelly fish!
This time I did some water marbling with some of the China Glaze Electric Nights neons. I did love how they turned out because I used a base of yellow instead of white, so stamping over them made it perfect!
How freaking cute is this??!
I water marbled with Daisy Know My Name, Treble Maker and DJ Blue My Mind
I really love this cat plate! It has a ton of cute cat images on it. Cat lovers NEED this plate!
My final mani to show off gave me a lot of trouble! I was trying to do a radial gradient and here's some things I learned about them. First off I suck at them and second they are NOT easy! I know many people think I have nice and wide nail beds but the reality is my nail beds and not that wide. I'd say they are medium or normal which honestly makes for trying a radial gradient hard for me. I tried for three colors--again from the China Glaze Electric Nights collection and in the end it only looks like purple and orange came out to plate when in fact yellow is supposed to be in there too LOL!
I went with the lovely MM46 which is a beautiful flower plate over my radial gradient of China Glaze Daisy Know My Name, Home Sweet House Music and Violet Vibes
Of course it rained all day yesterday when I did this so these are all indoor in the shade but still sort of need some light to be able to get good pics of freaking neons!
Honestly stamping over this gradient saved it I think
I absolutely adore this plate though and now I will use it a zillion times!
Here's the plate isn't is awesome??!
So where can you get these awesome plates? Well you have a couple of choices you can find them through Amazon.com or you can find them on Messy Mansion's site http://www.messymansion.com.au/. In all there are 10 new plates added to the MM series and believe me when I say there is something for everyone!
What do you think of these new plates? I would have to say as much as I love the cat plate my favorite mani I did with these three is actually what I thought was the biggest failure at first--my radial gradient. It just goes to show that stamping DOES make everything better!
Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Hi Everyone! Happy Sunday to all. About a week ago I got the entire collection of China Glaze's Electric Nights. I don't know what's wrong with me these are neon and I got ALL of them. I mean seriously what is going on? Where's the pod I clearly have been body snatched!
I've seen tons of super cool mani's done by Opal over on YouTube with this collection so I'm totally blaming her. Here's her channel check out all the cool stuff she does especially with these polishes!
So I decided I wanted to try the water marble decal method where you draw your design in the water but let it sit out over night to dry so you can cut and then apply as decals the next day because it's less messy.
So here's what I found out about the water marble decal method. You don't have to wait over night for it to dry, it's dry in about 30 minutes to an hour. You have to use it right away after drying the water off of it otherwise it becomes very brittle and cracks. While it is less messy OMG it's very time consuming to cut out to the right size and then apply like decals.
Here's the water marble I did. I didn't totally love it but I didn't hate it.
These are neon colors and I had to take indoor pics so really not as bright as they should be.
Also my yellow came out looking a golden orange because of the order I did my polish! What the what?!
So I did this all on Friday and then Saturday night I stamped over them and guess what?! I absolutely love the stamping over them!
I used one of my My Online Shop MJ plates for this isn't it cool?!
This image is from plate XXXIV I love how it looks over this water marble base
It's really hard to get pics of neons! It's like you HAVE to use the shade instead of a light and then your skin looks so wonky!
ahhh the things we do in the name of great manicures LOL!
So what do you think do you like it better with or without the stamping over it? I guess as a stamper I just naturally believe everything looks better with stamping!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Hi Everyone! Happy Saturday! I'm so thankful for the weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting up with one of my best polish/makeup pals to watch the Packer game! While we both live in Wisconsin we don't exactly live a few minutes away so we decided to pick a half way point! Woot!!! I am really excited to finally meet her in person. Even better is the fact we are both playing against each other in our Fantasy Football League.
I need to try to come up with some Packer nails but in the meantime . . .
This week's challenge in the Advanced Nail Stamping group is stamping over water marbling. Just marbling alone is often a huge challenge for a lot of people and it's always, always, ALWAYS messy. Water marbling for me is a hit and miss. I never used filtered water which is what most say you have to use, instead I used distilled water. Also room temperature in Wisconsin is definitely not what room temperature in Arizona is so room temperature is a pretty vague term if you ask me. When I marble I don't heat up my water, I do use truly room temperature which is rather cold.
I find using brand new polishes work a lot better than something you've had in your drawer for a few months or years. It's hard to say which brands work and which brands don't again I really think it has to do with "fresh" polish. So far it's the only thing that's worked for me.
That being said my newest polishes are the OPI Nordic Collection so I pulled out 2 of my faves, My Dogsled Is A Hybrid and Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm and did some marbling.
This was super easy to do and the colors spread out great
I know alot of people are keen on just sporting a water marble manicure however the challenge this week was stamping over a marble so I had to stamp over it
I think it turned out great! I love how you can see the base underneath but also see the stamping over it
My thumb turned out great too!
Since I have some time to play around today I think I'm going to try the water marble decal method and see how that works out. If it does I'll be sure to report back!
I hope you all have a great weekend! Go Pack! Go!!
Hi Everyone! Still pretty bitter cold out there this morning. Starting my day off at -14 with a wind chill of -35 BUT we are supposed to get to positive temps today. We have a heat wave coming as this weekend we will be in the 30's. And don't you just know some fool is going to come out in shorts when that happens! I'll be sure to report back if I see anyone doing it.
So today for following a tutorial week I have the bane of almost all nail art lover's existence. The dreaded water marble. You know how it starts out, you see pics all of the internet of these super cool water marbles and you go wow just put some nail polish drops into water, swirl, stick your fingers and BAM! you have a great mani! Then you try it and it is a MAJOR fail. And you sit back and shake your head and wonder why didn't this work. So then you Google "hey why didn't my water marble mani work--what are some tips and tricks to water marbling" and the internet Gods direct you to Colette--aka My Simple Little Pleasures YouTube Channel.
Oh my stars it's like a gift from heaven when you find yourself there. You watch every single water marble she does completely mesmerized. But then you actually try some of her designs and low and behold you start to get one or two that work. So you practice, practice, practice and suddenly you got this!
Today I just did a simple little water marble, that totally worked out and I didn't have to redo a single finger. Just two colors China Glaze's Don't Make Me Wine and WetnWild Black
it's simple but still looks so pretty!
So if you haven't checked out Colette--you need too! If you haven't tried to water marble yet--you need too!
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all have a great day!
Hi Everyone! The weekend is almost here! Oh YAY! I cannot wait. I'm tired and would like a couple days break AND my niece's birthday is on Saturday AND both she and my nephew are coming home from college so we can celebrate. You know what that means???!!!! Ice cream sundaes and family game night! Woot!
You might not be able to tell but I actually have a really hard time with skittles. I don't know what it is but perhaps I'm just not random enough to come up with great ideas for them! I tried to throw something together the other night and it's actually not too bad AND I water marbled!
I pulled out Zoya Caitlin, Pepper and Farah and added a bit of OPI Germanicure which you can't really see dang it!
To me these colors are all neutral even Pepper LOL! I just don't "do" nudes!
Marbling just two fingers for me is quite enough!
The week is almost over!! It's been a lot of fun and once again I'm blown away by all the mani's my friends have done!
Hi Everyone!!! Happy Monday!! I'm so honored to announce I was asked to join the Digit-al Dozen! There's lots of great talent in this group and I certainly hope I can hold a candle to all the wonderful ladies in the group! This month the theme is books. Ooooh something so right up my alley. I am an avid book reader and no lie I try to read a book a day. I used to always be able to complete this task however since I've started doing my nails I don't always get a whole book in now. I just really like to read to start to finish because it's too stressful going to bed not knowing what happened to the characters LOL! I read mostly romance, and I read all genres of romance--romantic suspense, contemporary, paranormal and erotica. For this weeks challenge I do plan on switching it up though I just hope I can justice to all the great books I'm planning no doing.
My first book I'm featuring is Smart Mouth by Erin McCarthy. It's one of my favorite books. I'm a big re-reader and I've read it probably a 100 times and still love it each time I read it!
FBI agent Derek Knight finds himself squaring off with a cub reporter by the name of Reese Hamilton. Reese ends up with a top secret envelope of Derek's in her rental car and from there they are on a helluva adventure full of sass, spark, and undercover (as well as under THE covers) work. It's a super funny and sexy story.
I did some water marbling with Zoya Wednesday, Lara, and some black and white.
I never thought I would ever use BM303 yet it worked out perfectly for this mani! And I used the decal technique for the first time ever so I could get some pink lipstick!
Now here's my book cover
How'd I do?
Smart Mouth was published in 2004 and it's available in ebook format. If you like contemporary romance this one is funny as all get out, super sexy, and has a fantastic cast of characters.
I can't wait to check out and see what the rest of my friends have come up with!
Hi Everyone! Today I'm helping raise some awareness about Celiac's Disease. It took the medical field a long, long, LONG time to figure out what this disease was all about and what needed to be done to help those who suffer from it. My friend Michelle of Ehmkay Nails asked if we could help her out and show our support for Celiac's Disease Awareness in the month of May.
The colors are green and yellow. I should be shot because my first thought was green and yellow??? Those colors don't go well together. OMG and I'm a Packer fan and I said that! I can't believe it, don't tell anyone ok??? After I pulled myself together I came up with a darn freaking fantastic green and yellow mani!!
I did a water marble accent with Sinful Colors Pull Over and Nails Inc Emerald Park and man they look good together!
My glitter nails are none other than . . .
Mustard Fields!!!!! My favorite ever of all time green and yellow glitter!!!!
I'm definitely going to haul this design out again for Packer season!
Who said yellow and green don't go together anyway????!!!!
Celiac's disease in a digestive condition triggered by the consumption of gluten which is a protein primarily found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust, and many other food which contain wheat, barley or rye
People with Celiac's disease who eat foods containing gluten experience an immune reaction to their small intestine and in turn this causes damage to their small intestine and it's left without the ability to absorb certain nutrients.
It's a painful disease that can cause stomach pain and diarrhea, headaches and fatigue, joint pain, and acid reflux and heartburn. Without the ability of the body to absorb certain vitamins and nutrients your brain, nervous system, liver, bones and other organs are often affected.
There is currently no cure for Celiac's disease, however it can be controlled with a change in a diet, one that excludes gluten from everyday life.
I'm sure you've noticed many grocery stores carrying gluten free products these days, which is great news for the many individuals who suffer from it.
Often times we take for granted the ability to eat whatever we want whenever we want, but for some people that's simply not possible.
Hi Everyone, today is National Ovarian Cancer Day. It's day dedicated to raising awareness of Ovarian Cancer--a cancer with a very low survival rate and currently no cure. Unlike Breast Cancer Awareness that get's a whole month, Ovarian Cancer has been sadly delegated to one day. It's another one of those "awareness" things--can it really be true the world has to be made aware of a cancer that kills more women than any other gynecological cancer? Do we honestly need to be made aware 20,000 women a year are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and less than half will survive? We shouldn't have to be made aware of this, we should all know this and wish for continued research to find the cure for this horrible disease.
I lost a grandmother to Ovarian Cancer. Her name was Mary Shaw. She died on my mother's 18 birthday. Can you imagine? Your own mother dying on the very day she gave life to you? Honestly don't try to imagine it, it's pretty awful. My Grandma Shaw was a beautiful, vibrant woman cut down in the prime of her life at age 42. Despite a 20 year age difference between them, my grandfather long outlived his young wife.
Sadly they aren't further along in curing this cancer that took my grandmother's life 54 years ago.
This is the poster for May 8th Ovarian Cancer Day
You can be a part of helping to spread awareness by sharing this via facebook, twitter, instagram--you name it! Wherever you can share it!
My mani today is in honor of the beautiful woman I have yet to meet--I know she is waiting for me and someday I'll feel her arms around me
There is currently no cure for Ovarian Cancer. Early detection is virtually non-existent. But you can help yourself by making sure you see your OB-Gyn annually.
You are at a greater risk for Ovarian Cancer if you are 50 or older. If you have a family history of Ovarian, Breast, or Colon Cancer you are at a greater risk. If you or someone in your family carries the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations you are at a greater risk. If you suffer from infertility or have never been pregnant you are at a great risk
The signs and symptoms of Ovarian Cancer can be:
Gastrointestinal complaints that are persistent and unexplained such as gas, nausea or constant indigestion
Pelvic and/or abdominal swelling and/or pain; a feeling of fullness or bloat
Unexplained change in bowel habits
Unexplained weight loss or gain
Frequent urination
Abnormal post menopausal bleeding
Prevention of Ovarian Cancer is such things as
Taking an oral contraceptive for more than 5 years can help reduce your risk of up to 50%
Multiple pregnancies and breast feeding
Removal of the ovaries can help to reduce your risk
As the color for Ovarian Cancer Awareness is Teal, I chose the lovely Illamasqua Muse and paired her with Illamasqua Poke and China Glaze For Audrey
Please keep yourself informed of the many gynecological cancers that can affect your life. WHENEVER you feel something is off in your body call your doctor--it can save your life.
If you or someone you know has been affected by this terrible cancer my thoughts are with you. If you are a survivor many happy blessings to you.
I hope someday there is a cure for all cancer