ABC Challenge-W & X

I cannot say that these are my most creative or unique manicures, but I do like the colors on both.  I was both in a hurry to get two done in one sitting as well as I am so ready for the next challenge that my imaginative juices were not really flowing for these.                       

So W is for White Dots. Like I said, nothing too creative.  I do love this color though. Sinful Colors Have a Latte.  It kind of reminds me of bowling pins :-)

X is for well.....X.  I used one of my favorite colors Mossy Britches by Ultra Pro.  I then striped on black X's and added a rhinestone to the middle of each.

  

Hope you enjoyed these two posts.  Y will be up tomorrow......unfortunately my nails broke and are down to tiny little stumps.  They are cute and tiny and each time I look at them I tell them to grow faster! 

Have a wonderful Tuesday all!

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!

Day 20-Water Marble

I need to know what I am doing wrong.  This manicure is officially become my nemesis.  arrrggggghhhh!!  I have tried it oh so many times and I was only minorly successful once. If you know, please help me!  Is it the water? the particular polishes I am choosing? how I take my finger out of the water? I don't know.  I just can't seem to get it right.  I was really excited about this one because I had picked some pretty fall colors and thought it was going to look so nice. uh, no. Not so much.  But here it is anyway....

Ultra Pro Mossy Britches
China Glaze Jamaican Out
Sinful Colors Nirvana

So if you have any suggestions, I am all ears!!

Do you have any manicures that you just can't perfect?

This brings us to the end of the second 10 days, patterns! Tomorrow we start manicures that are inspired by certain things.  This is going to be much more challenging on the creative aspect of things.  I mostly can't wait to see what all the other girls will be doing!  Thanks for stopping by :-)

Go and check  the other ladies out!

Day 19-Space. The Final Frontier

Bum. BaBa Bum. BaBa Bum Bum. Anyone? Yes, it is star trek.  I know, nerd alert.  But if you have been with me long enough, you probably know that already :-P  Friday was my dad's birthday (which is the day I actually did these nails) and he is a big Star Trek fan. He watched all of the series of the show even.  I think he was even had a little crush on Captain Janeway. I think of my dad when I think of Star Trek.  I even have the Star Trek ringtone programmed into my phone for when he calls. My dad's a big nerd himself. We love all of those science fiction movies and books and it's super awesome that we can talk about that stuff together. He's a lot smarter than me though! He understands most of it....I can even remember him reading Stephen Hawking's books when I was little.
 Anyway, today's challenge was Galaxy nails.  This is a challenge that I really do like.  I have done them once before and they turned out alright.  I decided to be inspired by looking at pictures of nebulas this time though instead of watching a tutorial.  They look pretty cool if you ask me!

I started with a black base and then sponged on white, teal, purple, and pink.  I then added a coat of sparkle and dotted in some more stars.  I used a small paint brush to paint the spiral nebula on the accent nail with white and teal.  (If you want more details let me know) So what do you think? Do they look spacey to you?

Base-Milani Black Swift
Sponged on colors in order-Sally Hansen Hard to Get, Spoiled Toad-ally Amazing, SH No Hard Feelings, Wet n Wild Tickled Pink
Sparkle Coat-Ultra Pro Opal Elegance

So what's your favorite space show, movie, or book?  

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

And please stop by all the other ladies who participated 

Day 4-Mossy Britches

So yesterday's mani was difficult when it should have been easy.  Today's mani went off without a hitch! I just love the color green.  It is my favorite color....it goes with purple, pink, brown, coppers, black, yellow...you get the picture.  I also love it because it is the color of Ireland, the country of my ancestors. ( A little fact: My maiden name is Kelly Michelle Finn.  Doesn't get much more Irish than that. Well, unless you added O'Connell) Green is the color of trees and grass and nature.  It is a beautifully natural color.  I have A LOT of green nail polish, so it was hard to choose this time.  I decided to go with one I recently purchased by Ultra Pro called Mossy Britches.  Don't you just love that name?  It really is a great mossy color.  I also used another of my D & R Apothecary indie polishes called High Tech.  It is a clear base with black glitter and green, yellow, and black hexagon glitters.  Of course, I also did an accent nail because I can't stop myself.

Base-Ultra Pro Mossy Britches
Glitter-D & R Apothecary High Tech
Accent-Gradient using Essence High Spirits
Stamp-BM210 using Kleancolor Black

I would like to know your opinion on using the accent nail.  This is one of my favorite things to do, but what do you think?  Should I do more with all nails the same? or do you like the accent nail?  

Thanks for stopping by and having a look! I appreciate all of your comments. 

Check out the other lovely ladies participating below :-)

Go for the Gold

I have Olympic medals planned for next week on my 52 week challenge, but the Summer Challenge was having the same challenge today so I decided to do it early.  Or, I may do it again next week. Who knows.  Anyway, I recently bought this gorgeous Ultra Pro called Gladiator and just had to use it for today's challenge. Yes, I know Gladiators are from Rome and the Olympics originated in Greece.  Still, they both competed in an arena.  Potato, Potato. :-P
Once again, I went into this with one plan and ended with something completely different.  I actually wanted to show silver, gold, and bronze but just couldn't make it work.  So instead I chose to go with the design of this years medal, which looks like this....

I love the off patterned lines and thought this was a great idea to put on my nails.  How do I put gold on gold was the tricky part.  Thankfully I have an It's So Easy Gold striper that is only a few shades off of my base color and it worked great!  Just different enough to stand out but not so different that you can't tell it is gold! 

I feel a bit guilty as I have not watched any of the Olympics this year.  I love the Olympics, I just haven't had time.  I am more of a fan of the Winter Olympics but still I love watching them...especially the swimming.  I did watch a snippet on the Today show about Race Walking.  Who knew this was a sport?  It looks a lot like a deranged form of mall walking.  I am sure it is exhilirating and hard. But it looks weird.  

Well, thanks for stopping by and checking me out.  I appreciate all of your comments!  

Owl love you forever

My Bundle Monster third set came yesterday!! WOOHOO! Or should I say WHOO WHOO.  I couldn't wait til they came so I could use the adorable owl designs.  And they turned out soooo cute!  So cute that I may actually keep them on for a few days.  Crazy, I know.  I also got to use my new essence color which I originally planned on making zombie nails with as it looks a bit like zombie flesh in the bottle.  It looks so pretty on the nails.  So I did a gradient for the base and stamped in white.  My mother is going to love these :)

Base Essence High Spirits
Gradient with Nina Ultra Bronze
Stamp BM 309 using Spoiled Correction Tape

Of course I can't do a manicure without doing some kind of damage....so the pinkie finger owl has a broken wing 

 

I hope you like these as much as I do!