Cats in Corners on a Colorblock

I knew from the day I started this challenge I knew what I wanted to do for C.  I love a colorblock manicure and I never do them.  The first and the last one I did was for my trip to NYC and I got so many compliments on it.  And this was before I was really any good at doing my nails :-P  I also wanted to throw in another C word into these nails, but wasn't sure what.  Cookies?  Caterpillars? Caligraphy?  Nope, Cats. Plain old cats.  A black cat even....cause it's almost Halloween and I want to do everything Halloweeny right now.  I really wanted to do some orange, green, gold, fall colors, but changed my mind in the end and went with some bold and darker colors.  I think it turned out pretty great. The only thing about color blocking is that with adding so many colors it gets messy and requires a lot of cleanup which in turn dries out my cuticles. Other than that I really like this one.  Its cute and a bit whimsical.  What do you think?

Colors-Hard Candy Frenzy, NYC Manhattan, NYC Sidewalks, Nicole OPI Give Me the First Dance
Stamp-BM04 using Kleancolor Black

So, I am thinking about having naked nails for a while as I fix the dryness around my cuticles.  They just look awful and even with a great manicure, all I can see is the bad cuticles.  Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this one.  I think it's pretty darn cute!!  

Thanks for stopping by and check out all the other Creative and Cute manicures.  

Glamour and Glitter, Fashion and Fame

"Jem is my name. No one else is the same. Jem is my name" Sing it with me ladies.  What 80's girl didn't love her some Jem.  She was the oh so cool answer to Barbie.  On top of it all she had pink hair. Awesome.  So I have for you today a manicure using my new Llama Lacquers polish JEMtastic.  When I set out to make this polish I knew it had to have pink and yellow.  Light pink glitters for her hair, bright pink squares for her eye makeup, and of course some yellow to represent the star in her name.  I just love this polish both in the bottle and on my nails.  I wanted it to stand out so I used it over Orly's Decades of Dysfuntion which is a white polish with an almost lavender/pink tint to it.  I also did an accent nail with stars. Cause JEM was a star!!

Base-Orly Decade of Dysfunction
Glitter-Llama Lacquers JEMtastic
Accent Nail-Wet N Wild Tickled Pink
Stamp-BM15 using Sally Hansen Lightening & Speedy Sunburst

If you like it and have to have it you can purchase it at my etsy shop, Llama Lacquers. There are four more polishes based on 80's cartoon females and of course my Princess Bride collection.  Also, two Halloween themed polishes that are a little unusual.   

Thanks for stopping by!!  I appreciate all of your comments.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway too! It ends on October 13th :-)

Girly Girl Challenge Elegant Print

I feel like I haven't been around much! It started with football partying last Sunday, then the cocktail flu on monday, and then both of my children were down with strep throat the rest of the week plus I opened up my etsy store, Llama Lacquers, on Tuesday. Today was the first day I was actually able to go out of the house and be amongst the living.  I miss blogging every day :-(  But I think I miss reading everyone else's blogs and commenting on the beautiful manicures that my ladies do the most.  I feel like I'm neglecting other bloggers.  Sorry ladies....I love you!!!

On a good note, Llama Nails (my new group on facebook) had a great first challenge day! So many people posted and we are up to 62 members. I really never expected so many people to join.  Thank you to all of the lovely ladies who have joined and are participating! Oh, and saving the drama for the llama <3

Onto the nails.  This week's girly girl challenge was Delicate/Elegant print.  I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw this.  I have been waiting to use my bundle monster paisley stamp since I got it, and I was finally able to! I also used two new Sinful Colors I got from the $.99 sale from Walgreens.  I chose two different bases Leap Fog which I stamped with a metallic purple, and then I used a metallic SC called Hot Wired which I stamped with white.  I love the Leap Fog.  It went on completely opaque in two coats.  You could almost get away with one coat but it left a few bald spots. Overall I like this manicure.  I think the stamping could have been a little bit better (especially on the middle finger).  I do love the two color stamping on the accent nail! What do you think?

Base Coats-Sinful Colors Hot Wired & Leap Fog
Stamp-BM 315 using Maybeline Amethyst Ablaze & Spoiled Correction Tape

On another note, I love my new light box.  It makes all the colors look so life like.  But it sure does show every imperfection! I gotta work on that ;-)  

Thanks for stopping by.  And check out the other girls beautiful delicate manicures! 

A is for Autumn

In case you don't know I have recently started a new group on facebook called Llama Nails. We are a group of fun loving nail girls who just want to have fun with nails and keep the drama for the llama :-)  If you haven't seen....here is our adorable little mascot llama.  You know she wants you to do her nails, right?

So we have started a new challenge today called the ABC of Nails.  We will be going through the alphabet one week at a time! Each week we will post a manicure that contains something from the letter of the week.  It can be a polish name, a polish brand, an item on your nails, or even a technique.  These posts will come to you on Wednesdays! 

Obviously to begin with we are starting with A.  I wanted to do something different, but had a hard time coming up with something. The weather here yesterday was so beautiful.....almost fall like, so I decided to do an 'A'utumn manicure.  I love Autumn, don't you?  The smell of pumkin spice, crisp leaves, apple cider.  The sound of rustling leaves and kids playing outside.   Even the gorgeous colors of Autumn.  They have to be some of my favorite color combinations.  Russet oranges, dark reds, golden browns, and coppery colors.  I recently purchased an indie polish from Hit Polish called Autumn Harvest which is a gorgeous combination of sparkly fall colors.  I used this over gold and then did a gradient using some colors found in the polish with a leaf stamp on top.  I really like this gradient and I think it looks just beautiful next to Autumn Harvest and the gold stamp! I am so glad I get to keep this on for a couple of days!! Doesn't it make you want to take a walk in the brisk fall air and step on lots of leaves :-) 

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-Hit Polish Autumn Harvest
Accent Gradient-Ultra Pro Mossy Britches, Ultra Pro Burnished Bronze, & Finger Paints Picasso's Puce
Stamp-BM04 using Maybelline Bold Gold

Sorry if my cuticles aren't quite up to par :-(  Alas, so many other things going on!!

So, what's your favorite thing about Autumn??  

And hey....I have opened my polish store on Etsy, so please stop by and check out some of my Princess Bride inspired polishes! It's called Llama Lacquers :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate all of your comments! Please check out the other ladies participating in this fun challenge.  Lots of really cool 'A' manicures!

Girly Girl Challenge-Day 1

Spur of the moment thing.....doing another challenge.  Thankfully I am only doing it once a week.  It looks like a lot of fun and gives me an excuse to be girly :-P  This challenge was created by Lindsey at the Neverland Nail Blog

Day 1 (or week one) is Think Pink.  My favorite pink that I own is Milani Pink Out Loud.  It is such a bright and shimmery dark pink that always looks great! I also decided to use one of my own polishes from the Princess Bride Collection called As You Wish.  I'm glad that I did this, because it gave me a chance to see what I need to change about the polish....it needs more concentration of glitter! I was having a hard time picking it up as you will see.  The glitter is a little sparse.  Even still, I think the mani is pretty and oh so girly!

Base- As You Wish by ME
Accent and diagonal french-Milani Pink Out Loud
Striper-It's So Easy white
Stamp-BM317 using Spoiled Correction Tape

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think :)

There are other ladies participating, but I do not have the linky's code yet.  I promise to get it soon! I do know that The Cute-icle Chronicles is participating so you can check her out to start with!

Captain Jack turns One

I cannot believe that my baby boy is one years old today! It seems like just yesterday that I was holding in my arms feeling so unbelievably lucky to be blessed with another sweet child.  And being amazed that I could love this one as much as I loved my daughter.  Jack was an angel from the day he was born.  He has always been a smiler and brings joy to everyone who sees him! I am so going to miss the baby stage in my life. And yes, we are done.  Two is plenty! So here is to hoping Jack's second year of life is just as enjoyable as his first :-)

For the manicure I got to use a new indie polish from 365 Days of Color.  It is called birthday bash and it has a lovely white jelly base with fine blue glitter and multi-colored confetti like glitter.  It really reminds me of icing.  I wasn't too sure about it when I first put it on, but after the second coat I fell in love with it. I almost ate my fingers....but I took pictures first!

Base-365 Days Birthday Bash
Tips-Its So Easy White striper & Maybeline Blue Blowout
Accent-Spoiled Correction Tape
Stamp-BM 307 using Maybeline Blue Blowout

Happy birthday my baby boy! I don't care how old you are, you will always be my baby! 

Days 26-28-Patterns, Art, and Flags

So I fell a little behind :-/ Fortunately I was ahead before I fell behind, so I didn't fall tooo far back. That sounded confusing.  Anyway, it has been busy and then I got sick.  Feeling better today, so you get three manis in one post! Amazing, I know. So, let's get started!

Day 26 was inspired by patterns.  There are so many freakin patterns that I am inspired by that I simply couldn't choose.  So I think I took an easy way out and did a mani using a bunch of geometric patterned stamps I have been wanting to try.  Excuse the messy tips....I didn't have time to photograph them right away and ended up chipping them a little.  Overall, I liked this mani, especially the base color that reminds me of denim.  And it happened to match my dress I was wearing that day :-P

Base-Finger Paints Art You Blue?
Stamps-Bm 203, 322, 319 using Sally Hansen Silver Swift and Spoiled Correction Tape

Day 27 was inspired by art.  I had an idea for what I wanted to do for this for a while, but wasn't sure I could get it right.  I have always loved paintings of birds on a wire.  There are a million of them out there.  All with different backgrounds and different birds.  I especially like the ones where there is a long wire and the two birds are sitting right next to each other <3  I started with a whiteish base coat and then sponged on a pretty purple.  Then I drew the wire across three nails.  I originally wanted to free hand my birds, but I was sure I would screw it up.  So I found a stamp that had a crow sitting in briar bushes.  I simple removed the briar bushes and used the little bird.

Base-Orly Decades of Dysfuntion
Sponging-Sinful Colors Winterberry
Stripe-It's So Easy Black
Stamp-BM 323 using Milani Black Swift

Day 28 was inspired by flags.  Considering the 20 year anniversary of Hurricane Andrew was this past week and hurricane Isaac has reared its head, I thought I would do a mani in honor of all the people affected. I chose the hurricane warning flag.  Nothing real fancy, just simple and to the point. 

Base-Spoiled I Tripped on the Carpet
Box-It's So Easy Black Striper

Thanks for checking out all of the manis today.  I feel like I did them a bit of a disservice by not writing much.  But I figured with three manis no one wanted to hear some long story :-P

Hope everyone is feeling well and don't forget to check out the other ladies manis!  We're almost done!!

Day 25-Bollywood Fashion

Today is inspired by Fashion.  I seriously had no idea what I was going to do for this manicure.  I searched pinterest. I looked at shoes and purses.  I even looked at my kids clothes.  Nothing was coming to me.  Then, while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance and one of the couples did a Bollywood dance and it hit me! I loooove the Bollywood clothes.  The sari is one of the most beautiful pieces of clothing I have ever seen. They use such gorgeous color combinations. All so bright and vibrant. Plus, the way they drape over a female figure is a truly unique and mesmerizing design.  I used to dream that I could wear one someday...maybe I still will :-) So, I went back to pinterest and the internet and started searching for a bollywood fashion design that I could recreate on my nails.  And let me say, I think I nailed it!!  (pun completely intended)  First, here is the design that I was inspired by.

I started with a purple base then striped in some teal.  I then stamped a similar pattern as the tear drops with gold and drew lines using magenta and gold.  For the accent nail I used magenta as my base, stamped flowers in gold and dotted the centers with teal. I am in love with them...and so was the Sally Beauty Supply check out girl (when I went to take advantage of their 50% off already reduced clearance stuff!)

Colors- NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost, Sinful Colors Rise and Shine, S.C Dream On
Stamp-BM223 & 211 using Maybelline Bold Gold

As I look at these I want to get up and shimmy my hips and put my fingers in the lotus pose.  What do you think of Bollywood? 

Thanks for dropping in! I appreciate all of your comments. 

Make sure and stop by the other girls' blogs to see what fashion has inspired them today :-)

Day 16-Tribal

I think that when most people think of tribal they think of Africa.  While the word does conjure up images of men and women living off the land in remote areas of Africa, I mostly think of the Native Americans. There is something so appealing to the history of my own country and I have always loved learning (and teaching) about the different native tribes that once inhabited our lands.  This is especially true of the natives from the Northwest Pacific coast.  Those that lived off the spoils of the ocean and carved totem poles to tell stories of their families and to explain natural phenomenons.  Tribes like the Haida and the Chinook.  I have always loved the intricate art of the Northwest tribes. Especially the simple but detailed black and white pictures of ravens, whales, turtles, salmon, and many other animals.You often see these designs replicated in tattoos.  A few years ago I was able to go on a trip to Alaska and see much of this art up close and in some places watch native artists create them with wood and ink.  Best vacation of my life :-)

So, I chose for my tribal nails three colors that were prevalent throughout much of the art that I saw...red, blue, and black.  I then used a stamp that had tribal like prints on them.  I was disappointed that the stamp was a little too small for all of my nails and the french tip that I used didn't line up straight.  So although I like this manicure, it could have been better.  What do you think of when you see these nails?

Base-Confetti Blue Bayou
Red Base-Sally Hansen Rapid Red
Stamp-BM 221 using Kleancolor Black & SH Rapid Red
French tip-BM219 using Kleancolor black 

Thanks for stopping by! Tell me what do you picture when you think of the word tribal?

Come back tomorrow for what I am sure is to be a very glamorous mani! GLITTER!!

Check out the other ladies wonderful manis too!

Day 15-Delicate Print

This theme always confuses me a little.  I think I know what it means, but then I start planning and I'm never sure it is right.  Anyway, this is not my favorite mani by any means but its alright. I started with a base coat by Sinful Colors called Winterberry (which is just gorgeous!) It is a thick purple grey that is just lovely.  I didn't want to cover it with anything.  I then added some China Glaze Marry a Millionaire to the accent nail. This is just AMAZING! It's purple and silver and gold, and well....millionaire material! You want me to marry one you say? Well ok....just don't tell my husband ;-)

Base-Sinful Colors Winterberry
Glitter-China Glaze Marry a Millionaire
Stamp-BM321 using Spoiled Correction Tape

For some reason the accent nail polish shifted down when I stamped it.  You can see that the the tip is bare. Has this ever happened to you?

Thanks for checking in! I appreciate all of your comments. 

And as always check out the other ladies!

Day 12-Where does Strawberry Milk come from?

A pink cow of course!!  I know, you are rolling in your seats laughing because you have never heard that before!

Today's theme was animal print.  I had a lot of ideas for this one. I wanted to do snake skin, then peacocks, then a clown fish.  I looked on the internet for inspiration, thought about animals that I thought were cool, and then I started browsing my stamps. Lo and Behold I saw a poor unused cow stamp! Now we just did black and white, so it couldn't be just an ordinary cow. Noooo. It had to be a PINK cow!!  There isn't much more to say than mooooove on down and take a look :-P

Base-Sinful colors Oasis
White-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Stamp-BM 222 using Kleancolor Black

I love this cutesy manicure! I can just picture sweet little Pink Elsie Cow with all her sass roaming the field eating grass with style ;-)  

Thanks for stopping by! I love and appreciate all of your comments :-)

Check out some more beaoooooootiful mani's from the ladies below

Day 9-Rainbow Puzzles

So today was another first in my nail polish world.  I used two colors on one stamp! ooooooo, crazy right?! I was quite nervous about it because I wasn't sure I could do it right, but it turned out to be quite easy.  Some nails didn't turn out perfect, but all in all it was pretty cool! I also used the cute puzzle stamp from the 3rd bundle monster set for the first time today.  I have seen a lot of cute manis done with it and i have been wanting to use it.

I really had a hard time deciding what to do with the rainbow mani because I have seen so many out there that I want to try.....skittles with animal print, a rainbow dotticure, rainbow french tips. But in the end, this is what I decided to go with! Hope you like it.

Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Stamp-BM 319
Stamp Colors- Sally Hansen Rapid Red, Spoiled Jail Bait, SH Lightening, SH Lickety Split Lime, SH Co-Bolt Blue, Maybelline Amethyst Ablaze

I love the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polishes for stamping.  They all work so well!!  I also love the Maybeline Color Show Metallics. It's awesome that there are good polishes out there for stamping that don't cost an arm and a leg.  

Thanks for stopping by. I love all of your comments.

Don't forget to stop by the other ladies blogs to check out what they are doing too!

Day 8-Metallic

Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all.  These were the words that my husband said when I showed him my nails for today.  Funny thing is....they are not tiger nor golf nails.  I guess the metallic orange and the black stamping threw him.  Alas, all I can see when I look at them now are a tigers strips. Totally not what I had intended.  I used a barbed wire stamp for goodness sake.  I tried to stay away from the accent nail, but I just couldn't help myself.  I added a little glitter to it, nothing too flashy or stand-outy (yes, that is a word) Just enough to say, 'hey look at me, I'm super more awesome than the other nails'.  Because your nails talk to you too right:? :-P

I used two Kleancolor polishes for this manicure and I gotta tell ya, I just love the Kleancolor polishes.  They go on so nicely, and the glitters are ever so cool.  My only thing is that I notice a weird smell with each of them.  It's not a very pleasant or unpleasant smell, just weird.  Does anyone else notice this?

My whole idea behind the Metallic nails and the barbed wire was to make it all edgy and a little dark like Heavy Metal music....then I added the glitter and I think all my badassness went away.

Base-Kleancolor Metallic Mango
Accent Nail-Kleancolor Fireworks
Stamping-BM323 using Milani Black Swift

Hope you liked these 'metal' nails.  Please feel free to leave any comments....I love them all!  

And don't forget to check out all the other lovely ladies participating in the 31 day challenge. 

Day 6-Candied Violets

Two things I am in love with today:

1.  The new shape and equal length of my nails
2.  Another D & R Apothecary polish

It only took me 8 months :-P but i finally was able to get my nails to be pretty much the same length and figured out how to shape them correctly.  It sounds like it would be a simple thing, but it wasn't.  I don't know why, it just wasn't.  I love the rounded square nails, but was never able to get it right.  I finally figured it out.  I may be an idiot for it taking this long, but that's alright.  I think I was afraid to cut my longer nails even though they weren't the shape I wanted them to be.

So, today was day 6-violet.  I love purple.  (Because yes, purple is violet.  Potato, potatoe). It's almost up there with green.  I especially love purple and green together! But today, I stuck with just purple. It's so pretty that I almost want to eat my nails.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Candied Violets for my base.  I tried to go with the name of this polish for my inspiration....candy! yum.  I even used a candy stamp on my accent nail, although it is really hard to see. I really love this manicure....almost enough to not want to take it off tomorrow! Naaah

Such a pretty glitter with purples and whites....even some color changing glitters

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush then D & R Apothecary Candied Violets
Tips- It's So Easy Striper purple
Accent Nail Base-Milani Hi Res
Stamp-BM 306 using Maybeline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze

Here you can actually see the detail of the candy stamp :-)

Thanks again for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed today's mani :-)

As always, check out the other ladies who are participating in the 31 day challenge!

Day 5-Blue Mash

I have been eyeing this manicure on pinterest for some time now.  I have no idea who it belongs to as the link takes me to a social networking page that I don't have an account for.  But I have been wanting to do something similar and decided to do it for this mani.  I really like it.  I have so many blues and in so many different shades that I couldn't decide what to do.  I literally sat my blues out in front of me and stared at them until one of them told me which one to use. :-P I kid. No, my polishes don't talk to me, I'm not THAT crazy.  I did sit there for a long time trying to decide though.  Eventually, I decided to go with a metallic Maybeline and a glitter Finger Paints.  The Maybeline was called Blue Blowout, which I have only ever used for stamping.  I was a little disappointed in the application of it as it was very streaky.  I know this happens with metallics, but this was unusually so.  The Glitter was called Art you Wondering and took three coats to cover, which is also pretty typical.  Well, onto the pictures.

Metallic Blue- Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout
Glitter Base- is Finger Paints Art You Wondering?
Teal Base-Sinful Colors Rise & Shine
Striper-Kiss White
Stamps-BM317 & m59 using Spoiled Correction Tape

This was my inspiration mani....if you want to see it on pinterest  click on the picture

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all of your comments :-)

Check out the other ladies that are participating below.  It is a great way to see so many different and fabulous interpretations of one color!