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.  

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 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 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 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 

Cala Lily from D & R Apothecary

Have I told you yet how much I love the polishes from D & R Apothecary.  Well, let me tell you.  They are gorgeous! I now own eight of them.....three of which I won from their giveaway! YEAH for giveaways! Because I have been so busy I have only had the chance to try out two of them.  The first one I did was Champagne (which I blogged about a few days ago)  Today's color is called Cala Lily.  It is a shimmery white base with white, yellow, and green glitter flakes.  It really makes you think of spring flowers, Cala Lily's to be exact! It looks just lovely in the bottle and even greater on the nail.  

I've discovered that my favorite type of mani has one accent nail.  I find I have been doing this more and more.  What is your favorite style of mani?

Cala Lily is to the right

Yellow Base-Sinful Colors unicorn
Glitter Base-Kleancolor Holo Green
Indie Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cala Lily
Striping-It's So Easy Green, Yellow, White

I love how some of the white glitter made little flower patterns :-)

Did I mention that I also love the Kleancolor polishes?  I bought a bunch of new ones from Beauty Joint.  They are quite pretty.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate all of your comments!

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!