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 23-JAWS!!!!!

I am going to be honest up front. I have never seen Jaws all the way through. Crazy, I know.  I have seen parts here and there, but to be quite frank....I'm scared.  Giant man eating shark. Enough said.  But I wanted to so something fun and a little bit dark so I chose to be inspired by this movie anyway.  I also have fallen waaaay behind on my 52 week challenge (I figure I have done a manicure every single day, the nail gods will forgive me) and yesterdays theme for that was Under the Sea.  Voila, I combined the two and you get Jaws nails.  I really am loving these 'inspired by' themes as I get to do fun free hand nail art.  It is really helping me get better and learn techniques to a steady hand.  I still suck at free hand on my right hand, but I'll get there.

For these nails, I used NYC Cashmere Creme for my ocean/sky base.  I then used Orly Grave Mistake to draw in the letters and the dripping blood. This is a PERFECT color for blood.  I can't wait to use it for all of my halloween manis in October!  The thumb is Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost.  Jaws himself is NYC Sidewalk and I used It's So Easy black and white stripers to do the details.  For my swimmer, I first used the white striper and then went over it in Sally Hansen Sorbet to give them a more natural skin color. On my right hand I got lazy and decided to stamp a shark on my thumb.  I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep with plate m27.  

My thumb was giving me trouble....the polish shifted :-(

Do you have a favorite ocean themed movie? Since Jaws is not my favorite I would have to say that U-571 is the best ocean movie....plus it's a WWII movie. Double score.

Come back tomorrow for a book themed mani that I haven't decided on yet. :-P It will probably have trees though!

Thanks for stopping by, and go check out the other lovely ladies who are participating

Day 21-Inspired by a color

This is going to be short and sweet as my carpal tunnel has been really bad the last few days :-) I actually chose two colors for my inspiration, green and purple. It is probably one of my favorite color combinations and my daughter's room are these colors.  Sorry so short, heres the pictures

 I started with China Glaze Unpredictable. It is quite beautiful, but very hard to photograph

stamped with Maybelline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze plate m64

Pardon my lovely wrist brace :-P I photographed the last two the following morning. 

Hope you like them! What is your favorite color combination?

Come back tomorrow to see a manicure inspired by a song....I'll give you a hint, it is a song from a musical about a green lady :-)

As always, go check out the other lovely ladies participating!

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 10-Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye

Did you know that Hawaii became a U.S State in 1950 in the month of August? Me neither! So, I chose to do Hawaiian nails for my 52 week challenge for today.  Plus, today is gradient day in the 31 day challenge, so I combined the two. Gradient Hawaiian nails! I have seen numerous GORGEOUS Hawaiian gradient nails that depict the Hawaiian sunset and the shadow of the trees.  I just love these nails, but I wanted to do something different since I'm a bit of a non-conformist :-P  So, I chose a pink and purple gradient and used yellow and black to stamp Hawaiian symbols, there is a konad stamp that is all Hawaiian symbols! YEAH!

I tell ya, I have come a long way in the gradient department. You should see my first attempt :-P BAAAAAD!! I have a love hate relationship with it because it is so pretty but I can never do it quite right.  Today's is not too bad, plus I covered it up with some stamping.  I still need to learn how to do it better! Tell me what you think.

Base-Sinful Colors Purple Diamonds
Gradient-Sally Hansen Love Rocks
Stamp-m29 using SH Lightening & Kleancolor Black

Left Hand.....I couldn't get my watermark to stay on this. weird :-P

Well, I was bummed to take off my puzzle pieces from yesterday, but I am quite pleased with these.  Now who wants to take me to Hawaii?? Anyone? Anyone?

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all your comments. 

Now go check out the other ladies participating!

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 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 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! 

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 :-)

Day 3-Yellow Buzzz

This mani was supposed to be easy.  I had planned for it to take about 20 minutes.  Color, stamp, stripe, done.  HA! Of course everything that can go wrong with a simple mani, did.  The base coat went on great, but the humidity just wouldn't allow it to dry.  Painting the tips with the striper went alright, but my accent nail still wasn't dry.  So, I decided to put a coat of fast dry on to move things along.  Needless to say I ended up smudging that so I had to start all over.  This happened twice. GRRRRRR.  I finally got all that done and wanted to do one little bee stamp and it kept drying so fast that I had to stamp twice. So my bee looks all janktified (spelling?)  All in all it turned out alright and I sure do like this bright color.  The bee is so cute....he just looks like he's been chopped in half. :-P Buzz Buzz

Base-Sally Hansen HD Lite
Stripers- Kiss Black & It's So Easy Yellow
Stamp-BM301 using Kleancolor Black

Have a wonderful day! Thanks for looking and I appreciate all your comments.

Please check out the other ladies participating before you go 

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!