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 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 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 7-Ebony and Ivory (aka Black and White)

This manicure was really a no brainer for me as far as coming up with an idea.  I play the piano, and a piano is black and white.  So there you have it. I play classical music and have two tattoos that are music inspired.  My favorite composer is Frederick Chopin....the Fantaisie Impromptu is my arch nemesis. It is such a beautiful song but sooo hard. Some day I will get it right :-P
So, the question was which stamps to use since I have a bunch of music inspired stamps.  In the end I chose to go with my newest ones.  Not much more to say...it actually went pretty smoothly and quick.  I just need to get better at putting the stamp on straight.  I think I may have figured out the trick by the end of this manicure.  I will have to do some more testing and then I will let you know the technique (if I can explain it)

Black Base-Milani Black Swift with Orly Androgynie on top
White Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Stamps- sheet music is m73 using Black Swift & the piano is m58 using Spoiled Correction Tape

My lovely piano 

I have included the Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu played by the uncomparable Rubenstein if you want to listen to a beautiful piece of music.  I just listened to it for the umpteenth time and it still brings me to tears. I'm a dork, I know. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all comments you leave!

Don't forget to check out the other ladies that are participating too

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! 

Day 2-Orange You Glad you joined the Coast Guard?

Happy day! I was able once again to fit two challenges into one mani! Day 2 of the 31 day challenge is Orange.  And today is the Coast Guard Challenge for my 52 week challenge.  How convenient she says.  The Coast Guard colors are orange and white.  Some might argue that it is more of a red but I know the truth since my husband was in the Coast Guard (keep reading and you get to see pictures of him in uniform!) I had put the Coast Guard on my schedule since the 4th is their birthday! Take a moment to sing Happy birthday to the Coast Guard.  I'll wait.  This year, they celebrate their 222nd birthday.  If you want to know a little more about the history you can check it out at the official U.S Coast Guard website. Just so you know, the Coasties are a crazy bunch of people.  My husband and his Coast Guard friends always have stories to tell that would make a sailor blush.  A Navy sailor, not a coastie.  Did you know that the Navy calls them the Hooligan Navy? Not very flattering, but true.  A fun bunch of folks!

Orange Base & Stripe-Spoiled Orange you Glad
White Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Blue Stripe-Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue
Stamp-QA5 with Maybeline Bold Gold

Why, so serious Stuart?  I mean Sir Cooke.

This was all before I knew him! 

HeHe. Look how cute he is....and how young!!

Well, thanks again for stopping by! I appreciate all your comments.  Come back tomorrow to see yellow nails! I have no idea what I am going to do yet, so I will be surprised too :-P

Before you leave check out the other lovely ladies participating.  Have a wonderful day!

An Apple a Day

First of all, I had to switch up my 52 week calendar.  Today's post is supposed to be Coast Guard and Thursday's is supposed to be fruit. I switched them because the Coast Guard's birthday is next Saturday and that just made more sense. So, today you will get fruit and like it! :-P

Secondly, I now love Kleancolor! More importantly I love Kleancolor Black for stamping.  It is so nice and thick and stamps so dark! YEAH! 

Thirdly, Seche Vite top coat is my new best friend.  OMGEEEE are my nails shiny and thick.  Who knew? I mean, I guess a lot of people knew.  But I didn't know.  Now I know. Double YEAH!

Fourthly, I did some serious nail care today.  After looking at my last post, my cuticles were in complete disarray.  

And lastly, these nails turned out way better than I had planned.  It was a simple idea based around the new China Glaze Jamaican Out that just came yesterday in the mail and it just went from there.  I love it when that happens.  I also love when I am able to match my 52 week challenge schedule up with the Sunday Stamping for Adventures in Stamping.  So, what do you get when you take fruit from my challenge and  red and black from the Sunday Challenge? Strawberries you say? Watermelon?  No, apples of course!  And here they are....

Glitter Base-Spoiled Pirates Booty
Red Base-China Glaze Jamaican Out
Black-Kleancolor Black
Stripe-It's So Easy Gold
Stamps-QA18 using Kleancolor Black & SE18 using Wet N Wild Red Red

Thanks for looking! Hope you had a great weekend and I appreciate all comments!

MSMD-Pink Gradient

I always want to do a MSMD but something always happens on Mondays and never get to.  There is so much great art out there I want to try it all!!!  I do find that when I try to replicate someone else's nails it often ends in a fail.  Today that was not the case.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do today but I knew I wanted pink.  Some days I just feel pink.  I even put on a pink dress this morning.  If you knew me in the past this is pretty funny.  When I was in high school I was anti-pink, pretty much anti-girly things. I was a bit of a feminist and believed that people (boys) should like me for who I was on the inside and that being a girly would take away from my personality.  I also thought that I didn't need to learn how to cook, sew, be a domestic diva.  These things were what girls were stereotyped to do and this was not going to be me.  I look back at this and laugh at my idealistic and naive beliefs.  Plus, look at me now.  I'm a stay at home mom who loves to cook, do my nails, and dress is pink.  Who knew?  Anyways, onto the nails.  I got my inspiration from Colores de Carol who I happened across on pinterest today.  I do not have the same stamp, which I am totally bummed about cause it's gorgeous.  And the one that I had originally picked out, which was similar, just would not stamp. booo.  So I chose one with flowers.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I still am not very good at gradient.  But when you stamp over it it doesn't look too bad. So, what do you think?

Thanks for looking! Have a great week

P.S.  I am very excited to have a fellow awesome nail blogger join me in my 52 week challenge starting this week.  Her name is Courtney and her blog is The Cute-icle Chronicles so go check her out! She is very talented. Plus, we used the same freakin stamp today.  How funny is that :-P

Glittery Girl Skulls

Today's Sunday Challenge was new favorite stamp.  Ummmmm, this is like asking me what my favorite book or song is.  They are all impossibilities.  I simply can't answer that question.  So instead I chose my newest stamp.  I was on vacation when they came, so coming home to new stamps was pretty exciting! I really like this mani.  I hope you do too!

Base-Sally Hansen Gunmetal
Glitter-Milani Silver
Stamp QA5 using Spoiled Correction Tape & Sally Hansen Wined Up

Thanks for looking! I appreciate all comments :)

My Babies Birthstones

This week's Sunday Summer Challenge is Precious Gems.  I thought, ooooo girly stuff!  I wanted to do something with the gem amber but couldn't quite figure it out.  There are a lot of gorgeous gems out there, I even learned a little about gems through a Colored Gem Tutorial that was suggested to us by Emily Esqueleta Blasphemy who happens to be a gemologist. Check out her blog here :-) After a lot of thought I decided to go the birthstones route.  I don't talk a lot about my children on here because doing nail art is something that is for me, and it's good to have interests outside of your children.  But there is no doubt that my children are great inspirations to me.  My daughter is 4 and was born in April and my son is 10 1/2 months and was born in August.  Both have beautiful birthsto
nes.  April is Diamond and August is Peridot, a beautiful greenish yellow gem.  How lucky that those colors look so good together! I used a lot of polishes for this mani and I am still not sure how much I like it.  It has a lot of texture which I am not a big fan of.  But I think it looks pretty.  What do you think? 

as a base coat I used Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush and on the ring finger Sally Hansen Ivy League
For the tips I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and Spoiled Show Me the Money and striped with the Ivy League
I then globbed on glitter flakes from Studio M called Covered in Diamonds (how appropo)
I stamped with BM-315 using the Silver Shimmer and BM-317 using Milani Black Swift
I then added a small rhinestone

I love the little bows and I love my children :-)

If you want to know your birthstones....or someone you love, here is  a chart

 Thanks for looking!

A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Shoes or Purses

Just a warning, this post is a bit picture heavy! I love the color of these nails and couldn't stop taking pictures.  This is Day 5 of the 52 week nail challenge.  If  you haven't seen my schedule check out the post in my blog roll.  Today's challenge was shoes and fashion. I like these stamps, especially the shoes, but really my favorite thing is the color! I found a new brand called Chameleon at Rite Aid in Michigan.  It really is like a chameleon...changing colors.  I plan on going back and getting some different colors! I took pictures of my nails at the three different stages of this manicure.  One with the base coat, one with the gradient, and then with the stamping.  What do you think of this color?

Chameleon-Nucleus

Just the base coat. What pretty shine!

Base coat from a different angle

I then added this Pettites Color Fever called Banish

I thought it gave another extra sparkle :)



Outside in the sun after stamping plates BM-307 & BM-213 using Spoiled Correction Tape

In the Shade....you can see the gradient better here

Thanks again for looking! Let me know what you think, I love to hear all of your comments!