Greetings from the Great White North!

I hope everybody has had a wonderful holiday! I'm still on vacation in the Yukon, but doing manicures like crazy on all the gals in my family. I will have a few big posts when I get back in mid January!

I just wanted to pop in and do a "Woooopeee!!!" because I noticed this evening that I have reached 100 followers! Yay!! Thank you everybody for your support and for the comments. I REALLY appreciate them all! I have a few little things put away for my very first giveaway, which I will host as soon as I get back into the groove at home.

So exciting!

Happy New Year everybody!

<3
JQ

2 Christmas Manicures before I catch my flight!

Joyeux Noel!

This was last week's festive manicure! My take on Christmas holly and wreaths. I painted a white base, then stamped using my new Apple Green Konad special polish, then painted around it all with Essie's Lacquered Up. A few red dots for the holly berries!



My new friend Alikat came over for a manicure Monday and we had a nice evening visiting and painting and stamping. :) This is the Chrismtas mani I'll be wearing for the trip home! Hopefully it will get the gals in my family inspired for their own manicures! There are a few slumber parties in the works. :)


I was inspired by PHD 's red manicure with snowflake so I used it on my ring fingers. :)

Merry Christmas everybody! I'll be back again with blog posts in mid-January!
<3
JQ

Poinsettias with Rhinestones

Hello Jellos! I'm back before the holidays with another mani that I did yesterday.

I filed down my nails and squared them off again and I remembered how much I love them like this. Sure there's not much space but I can get through the days without chipping/breaking a nail and they look fairly cute.

I probably should have used bullion beads again because I was going for the poinsettia look, but I was staring forlornly at my rhinestone wheel wanting to use them so I caved. You can't really tell in the photos but the ring finger is actually darker green rhinestones.


I used 2 coats of Claire's Snow Ball for the base colour, then stamped using image plate # BM06 and Wet n' Wild Precious Metals Red Graphite. Then rhinestones and a topcoat!


My rhinestones didn't last much longer than a day before a few came off and I obsessively picked the rest off. *sigh* I have this love/hate thing going on. But I used a dotting tool and some emerald green polish to fill in the centers this morning and that got me through the day.

I just went out and picked up three new Konad stamping polishes in Yellow, Apple Green and Chocolate and I CAN'T wait to use them. I also caved and picked up Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Rockstar Pink along with another Wet N' Wild French White Creme (base white and black are so essential for me). Eee!

Again Merry Christmas and if I have my way I'll be posting another manicure tomorrow afternoon!
<3
JQ

Two Christmas Manis!

Feeling the Christmas spirit yet? I know I am. I've been having more fun with sponges and Konad. :)

This first one I used 2 coats of Claire's Snow Ball for the base color, then sponged some Revlon Emerald City matte suede polish onto 3/4 of the nail towards the tip. Then I went over the whole nail using the plaid pattern from image plate plate m60 and Konad special polish in white. This made it look like the white at the base of the nail turned plaid over the green. Then I made little poinsettia flowers with Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar and I used some of my new gold bullion beads for the first time! When the topcoat went on all the hidden shimmer in the matte green polish popped up under the white plaid. Too bad I couldn't take a good picture of the glimmer on the nail but the macro on my camera is seriously lacking.



This is the mani I am currently sporting. I used 2 coats of Claire's Rain drops as a base color, then sponged on Sinful Colors Show Me The Way (pretty grassy green shimmer) 3/4 of the way up the nail. Then sponged Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar onto the tip of each nail, so the nail fades from grey at the base to grassy green to deep red. After this was dry I stamped using Konad image plate m60 with a plaid pattern. I used Sally Hansen Chrome Crystal so it pops. The photo doesn't do it nearly enough justice.




I wanted to leave everyone a note to say that I am getting ready to fly home to the Yukon for Christmas and won't be back until mid January. I hope to be in with at least one more post before the New Year but things might get too busy. I do hope to be doing a bunch of guest manicures while I am home for the holidays so I promise I will take photos for posts in the new year. Wishing you all the very best during the holidays and all year round. Merry Christmas! Peace be with you.

<3
JQ

Dusky Rose Paisley

Hi everyone!

Is it just me or is Christmas approaching at nearly the speed of light? Well this manicure wouldn't reflect that at all. I'm not sure why I didn't try a nice Christmas mani using this stamp, because I think it would look pretty stellar, but I have this addiction to Sinful Colors Vacation Time right now. There's probably all kinds of similar pinks out there but that's the only one of it's kind in my collection currently and I just adore it. It's my dirty dirty pink. :P


For this mani I used Sinful Colors Vacation Time as the base and sponged on a couple layers of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl at the tips.


I used Konad image plate #m60 for the paisley pattern, stamped using Konad special polish in Black pearl. I apologize for the blur in some of these photos.


Once I was done stamping I used Sally Hansen Intsa-Dri Anti-Chip top Coat to seal it up, and I didn't experience any smudging fo the stamped polish. Awhile ago I switched my Insta-Dri polish into a different empty polish bottle because the brush was wider and softer and I hoped this might help with the blur. Either I had magic touch this time or the brush is actually working. Any blur you do see is because I wasn't careful enough with my stamping and it moved a little before I drew away or because my stinkin' camera wasn't stable enough when I took the shot.


You might be able to see from some of the photos a hint of what the Tokyo Pearl does at the tips. It really got some depth when the top coat went on and it shimmers beautifully under the stamp. I can't wait to try this again with steadier hands! I really have to lay off the java.

Cheers!
JQ

A Giveaway I'm Entering

I can't say no and I wanted to let you know about it too!
TIRNAKLAR FORA is having a super awesome Booty Holographic giveaway. Check it out and enter here!
ENDS DEC 20 2010
Here is one of the photos:


Super cool! I'm making a Christmas wish to win! :P

Snowflakes

Happy Sunday! I'm a day late and it's more like a general winter themed mani rather than a Christmas themed one, but I'm diggin' it. :) When I go to my Christmas happy place it's almost always blue first.



Base colour: Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau
Sponge tips: Sinful Colors Love Nails and Revlon Top Speed Royal
Stamp polish: Sally Hansen Chrome Crystal
Image plate: BM14
Accents: I placed royal blue hex sparkles in the center of each snowflake and Cover Girl City Lights on areas around snowflakes for a little subtle glimmer.

Thanks for stopping by!
<3
JQ

80s Kisses

Hiya!

I'm sorry this post is very brief. It seems like things just won't calm down for us until after Christmas vacation. I had hoped to be able to set aside more time for the nail blogging, but as it is I spent a few hours on this mani yesterday and it was a bit too much time. I wound up botching my nails on my right hand because I thought it was dry enough. Oops. These were just taken this morning and even my left hand is a bit gummed. But I really like the effect and it reminded me how much I miss sponging. I think there'll be more of that through the holidays. As you can see winter is still having a drastic effect on my skin and cuticles. Ick.


I used Sinful Colors Cream Pink base colour, then sponged on SC Bali Mist at the tips. I stamped the kisses using BM02. The stamping polishes were Sally Hansen Chrome in Crystal and Konad Black Pearl.



Hopefully I'll have a new Christmas themed manicure on Saturday!

<3
JQ

Back from the crafting vortex...

Good morning/afternoon everyone!

The past two weeks have been crazy busy crafting up a storm, and between manipulating threads on my loom, using a fine steel crochet hook my nails bit the dust a week ago. The nasty turn our winter weather is taking had rendered my cuticles RAGGED. The hands are a total disaster. I spent yesterday giving them some TLC, and celebrated all my hard work with a pretty manicure last night.

I used my 'hospital green' franken for the base colour. Then I made my flower petal dots using my larger dotting tool and NYC Flat Iron Green. I then placed a slightly smaller dot of Sinful Colors Vacation Time (the all-time favorite pink in my current collection) on top of each dark green dot, then went in with the toothpick and dragged the center of each dot towards the center. One more dot of Flat Iron green in the center of each flower, and finish off with a dot of Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat to seal it all up.


Ewe cuticle yucks! Yay for macro. I don't think they look that apparent IRL. I hope not. :P


Thanks for looking! I hope I'll be back again full force over the next few weeks with a new manis! I've really missed doing them!

Hope everybody has a nice day even if the weather is getting you down!
JQ

Still here!

Just a quick manicure I did some time last week, before the crunch really set in for my craft stuff. Unfortunately as a result of the weaving, and the 1.5 mm steel crochet hook, my nails died. So after this there'll be nubbins.

For the base colour I used 3 coats of a Claire's pink that I have dubbed "pepto". It was in a set of pink and red minis. Then I used one of the red sparkly minis from the same set and Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl to do the toothpick roses. The leaves are Sinful Colors Show Me the Way.

This mani along with my Aerosmith one are both in the Fab Nail Arts gallery for this week's Pink Challenge. Thanks Mae and Thriszha!

A big thank you to Rina at Simply Rins for giving me a certificate for participating in her nail art competition! I'll keep it at the bottom of my blog as well! :) Thanks I had fun!



Have a great week!
JQ

For Your Nails Only's Christmas Challenge-Voting!

Hi everybody! Sorry I've been so sparse with my entries, but I'm making tons of progress on the crafting front, which is great considering the sale is on the 27th!

Anyways, onto the mani! This is my submission for Tara's Christmas themed nail art contest at For Your Nails Only. We had top pick one of our favorite things about the Christmas season and translate that into a nail design, the stipulation being that some element of the nail art should be hand drawn. :)


I had a lot of fun making these! I just took a gander at all the entries and they are so fantastic! Some people went really all out on the hand drawing and the results are so cool! If you want to vote you have to be a follower of For Your Nails Only, and fill out the voting form. Even if you don't plan to vote I encourage you to head on over and check out the gallery!

Have a great weekend everybody!
<3
JQ

PS: Oh Rins! I LuuuuRV your Christmas Prezzie manicure! :) :)

Rock n' roll Nail Art

Ooops I missed a challenge deadline! That's okay I had tons of fun with this manicure. Who doesn't love playing with pink and black and SPARKLES? :P

The other entries for Lacquerista's Rock n' Roll challenge are pretty awesome. If you have a minute you could go take a peek and vote!


Thanks for stopping by. I'll try and get better photos of this manicure in tomorrow's light and update. Providing it survives another night of weaving!

Cheers,
JQ

Black and Red Reverse French

With rhinestones! :P


Base - Essie Lacquered Up 2 coats
Tips - Claire's Black Hole 1 coat
Detail - Kiss Nail Art striper polish in white plus Claire's Snow Ball with dotting tool for flower and a dot on each tip. I used the toothpick technique to draw down the petals. I finished off with red rhinestones.
Top Coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip



Thanks for stopping by. And thank you for all your comments!
Later gaters!
JQ

Frightfully Late Halloween Manicure

I sported this mani over Halloween weekend but I only just got the photos off my camera to post! Sorry about the blur. These were taken just before heading out the door to go shopping where I was sure I'd wreck at least one tip. Plus camera drama. My little guy got hold of it and busted the screen so it's difficult to see if I'm even in macro mode.

Them bones them bones...


Base colour - Wet n' Wild French White Creme
Black detail - Kiss Nail Art Striper
Orange candle glow - Color Club Turn the Other Chic
Top Coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

I dig the thumb of my left hand. Big meanie superskull followed by all his cute wittle skully minions.

Later Gaters! <3

The Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you Polish and Konad for tagging me for this award!

Rules

• Thank and link back the giver of the award
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Pass it along to 15 other bloggers
• Contact them and let them know you love 'em

7 things about myself!

1) I'm a fibre artist and I also paint and draw.
2) I have a 17 month old son
3) I'm a huge fan of performing arts. I wish I could afford to see more!
4) I have a Blue Heeler/Australian shepherd cross dog named Buddy.
5) Rickman. Walken. Hopkins. Oldman.
6) Stephen King, Anne Rice....and Douglas Adams. :p
7) Scrabble, Cribbage, Yahtzee...Mega Man. :P

I would scroll through all the blogs on my roll and try and find 15 that haven't had this tag, but I have to get down to business and weave some scarves!

Instead I will send you to go check out five Canadian nail blogs!

Deez Nailz
Alikat
Polish Obsessed
Canadian Nail Fanatic
Dees Polish Endeavours


Love and hugs!
JQ

My submission for Fab Nail Art Halloween challenge

POE NAILS! <3

Base colour= 2 coats of Claire's Snow Ball
Raven and Text= Kiss Nail Art striper polish in black
Red/pink detail= Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Chocolate Kiss
Topcoat= Sally Hansen Insta Dry

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I actually had one more mani to show before the holiday passed by but the days all melted together and I never seemed to have a minute to myself for posting.

You can view the Halloween Nail Art gallery on Facebook. As always I send a big thank you to Mae and Thrishza for hosting these challenges. It's a lot of work!

Later Gaters!
JQ

All Tied Up...

Hi everyone!

I hope to be back later today or tomorrow to post my entry for the FabNailArt Challenge, but for now I'm just leaving a note to say I'm still here! For anyone who doesn't know I am also big into the fibre art/craft scene. Anything handwork and I'm hooked. Knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, felting, tapestry, rug hooking. Basically I'm all over the place with it. :p But the local guild I am a part of is having a sale at the end of November and I am currently preoccupied trying to work up a selection of product. Between Halloween and Christmas the posts might dwindle a little. 'Tis the Season yaknow? Requests are coming in from friends and family for handmade presents! :)

When my husband and I lived out in the country we had 7 alpacas. I learned so much about taking good care of my fluffy buddies. They were oodles of cute. And as an added bonus once a year I got all this fluffy fibre to spin into wool. Below is some of my hand spun alpaca (from Airo). The outside ones are dyed after spinning using Indigo.


My fibre blog is in need of some serious TLC. I've been neglecting it! I want to spend some quality time making it over and uploading some photos of current projects. I have my big floor loom in commission for the very first time. It looks so amazing out in the middle of my studio laden with colourful thread. I'm doing a line of crocheted sculptural jewelry which I hope to be showcasing very soon as well.

So in a nutshell? I'm COMPLETELY STRUNG OUT. :P

Love Yas!
JQ

Apothica 25$ Gift Certificate Giveaway

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post to tell you about an international giveaway by Apothica. Apothica sells Essie Polish and Nail treatments, and that's what really gets me excited! Here's a link to Essie at Apothica

You can fill out the entry form at Concrete and Nail Polish! You get seven extra entries for blogging a 100 word post with a link! There are other ways to ear extra entries as well, like tweeting, following on facebook, signing up for the Apothecary Newsletter etc.

I'm stoked about this giveaway because I really want to get my paws on the Good To Go topcoat,Matte About You, and Fill the Gap.

So far I only have two Essie polishes Vermillionaire and Lacquered Up. I want Mint Candy Apple, Sew Psyched, and Pretty Edgy!

Okay Onward to more manicures!

<3
JQ

Let's Rock With Numbers Entry

Greetings Jellybeans!

Well this month seems to be filled with manicures for challenges and competitions. It's been a lot of fun! Here is my entry for Parokeet's Let's Rock With Numbers challenge (for the Essence goodies).

I always find that any time I use rhinestones for my mani I spend so much time just running my fingertips over the bumps and eventually I just pick them right off. I thought it would be neat to do a rhinestone manicure based on the numbers 0-9 (the same as letters a-j) in the braille alphabet.


I used Claire's Snow Ball and Balck Hole for the base colours. Then I used my dotting tool to make six large dots in opposite colours on each nail. With a smaller tool I placed dots the same colour as the base on the "empty" braille spaces, then used rhinestones in the opposite colour as the base to create the raised braille.

Topcoat and voila!

I spent so much time running my fingertips over these. For the first time I could actually handle the sensation of all the rhinestones because they had a purpose. :) I didn't pick any off.

If you want to check out the other entries and possibly vote (There's a bit of a process involved. If you scroll down past the photo entries there's a link to the instructions) please click here!

Thanks again for stopping by. And thank you everyone for all the comments you leave. I've been trying to respond to each one!

Hearts off the charts,
JQ

Don't Go Around Tonight

Well, it's bound to take your life!



This is my submission to Polish Freshie's Halloween Contest & Giveaway

Every Halloween I get CCR's "Bad Moon" stuck in my head for days. :)

I don't know If I really achieved my desired effect, but it was fun to try it out. I painted my base colour using Claire's BlackHole, then took my white Kiss nail art polish and outlined the moons. Filled in using Claire's Snowball, and then took the very tip of the brush of my Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Chocolate Kiss to speckle on some pinkish-red. Since the moon was still quite soft and tacky I used a toothpick to swirl around the red and white and bring some of the black up from beneath. I placed different sized stars using a toothpick and my SH X-Treme Wear Strobe Light, and CG Disco Dazzle. Topcoat and voila!

More Halloween Manis coming!
Cheers!
JQ

Hey guys! I just found out I am in the top four finalists for Freshie's competition! I'm totally thrilled! Eee! So if anyone would like to vote on their favorite just bounce on over to view the finalists!

Woohoo!

Mummy Manicure

EDIT! Please everyone, I had to come back here and let your know that I have unintentionally duplicated (or very nearly) a mani already done by PimpMyNailz I had been daydreaming about making this mani for awhile, but had no idea if it had been done before. I did Google it in case I might spot another mani, but I didn't get too thorough. Then I went ahead and submitted it to Chez-Delaney. I had also made a submission of a different mani to Polish Freshie's competition, but when I went in to check out her gallery there I found PimpMyNailz's awesome Mummy mani. She definitely made this mani first. PROPS. Great minds think alike for sure!

Actually it was one of several halloween manis I had been considering to submit for Freshie's challenge. I am soso glad I didn't! This way PimpMyNailz can showcase hers without mine being all like 'hey mine's the same-ish. neener neener'.

I wish everyone in both competitions best of luck, and I hope no hard feelings are had.

<3 <3


Below is my original post.


---------------------------------------



Greetings Ghoulies! In celebration of my new forays into Halloween with my son, here is my mummy mani:


This is my entry for Chez-Delaney's Halloween nail Stamp Art Competition. For more info click here. The stipulation is that you have to use stamp art for your manicure.

I used three coats of Claire's Snow Ball for the base colour, then stamped the design with Konad Special Polish Black Pearl and Konad Plate #S6. The first time I saw that image I thought "mummy wrappers!" With Kiss Nail Art black I blacked out a stripe using the stamped lines as guides. I then placed two red rhinestone eyes on each mummy face.

Topcoat and that's all!

The contest runs until Oct 31st and the prize is one of those really large image plates. Go check it out! There are so many neat manicures posted in the gallery.

Later gaters!
JQ

Parokeets "Lets Rock With Numbers" Nail and Makeup Art Competition

Parokeets is having a nail/makeup art competition called "Lets Rock with Numbers". I have here a photo of the prize from their site:



A whole heap of Essence products! I'm entering! I came to it fairly late so I'm sorry I'm not giving everyone a bigger heads up. the deadline is tomorrow!
If you think you want to do a numbers manicure today and send off your entry click here!

I'll be back soon with some Halloween manicures!

JQ

FAB Nail Art Animal Print entry!

This was last weeks entry fro the FAB Nail Art Challenge hosted by the ladies at Fab Ur Nails and Art of Nail!

I used Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl for the base and stamped using Konad special polish in Black Pearl, and BM plate #16. The Tokyo Pearl really took on a metallic effect.

I imagine it is a lot of work to organize these weekly challenges and I really appreciate it. Thank You Mae and Thrishza! You can check out the gallery here.

<3

JQ

Autumn Breeze Manicure

Greetings jellybeans!

I recently entered a competition on Konad Addict's blog. The theme was Autumn.

This is what I came up with:


I used Color Club Take Me to Your Chateau, Sally Hansen Chrome in Sizzlin' Bronze, Kiss gold sparkle striper polish. I always think of the cool winds that come with fall and make the leaves dance. :)

If anyone would like to take a look at the entries and possibly vote please click on Konad Addict's link above the pic. You would have to follow her publicly in order for your vote to count. I'm just floored by the amount of talent these ladies possess!

Hearts off the charts!
JQ

Haul!

Hi!

Just a quick post of the latest goodies. :) I received a gift card for London Drug from my super awesome sister in law for my birthday and lo and behold London Drug had a sale on Sinful Colors! Score! :)


Using the gift card I also got a Sally Hansen nail strengthener and a bottle of polish thinner. Thanks so much to my sis! <3 Funtastic colors! I feel thoroughly spoiled!


In the above shot is a Nubar grapefruit cuticle oil, which I picked up along with the "Pardon My French" Color Club collection at Winners! Thank you to Danielle at Polish Obsessed for giving me a heads up about this sweet deal. The package of seven polishes was only $12.99 Canadian!


I usually paint my nails all up, then stamp them up and wear it for a day or so. Because of my eczema I don't like to swatch and remove and swatch etc. Too much pain ensues. :) However I'll be taking a picture of the plain polished nails each time before I stamp them, and compiling them in a folder. Then I'll do a couple swatch posts.

Cheers everyone!
JQ

Autumn inspired mani for FNA Challenge.

For this mani I used two coats of my Sally Hansen Chrome Copper as a base colour. Then I went ovber every other tip with my reddest Calire's glass fleck polish, and the rest with the yellow Calire's glass fleck. This changed the look of the metallic to more bronze one and more gold on the other, while adding the bit of reflective rainbow flecks. It was a ton of happy and I am excited to go over more of my metallic polishes with these and see what happens!


Next I took a charcoal grey franken and stamped using BM image plate #19. I actually tried my hand at stamping the image twice on each nail. I think this pattern lent itself to the seam better than some others might. On the nail the charcoal grey turned a deep black brown. After I stamped I finished with a coat of Seche Vite top coat. I have been experiencing a lot of shrinkage with my SV lately, despite trying to wrap my polish around the free edge of my nail. By morning I have little white slivers of my tips showing at the edge of the polish.


So this was my entry for last week's Autumn inspired Fab Nail Art Challenge that Mae and Thrishza have been hosting for the past several weeks. Hooray for nail art challenges! Big Fan! Thanks gals!

Hello jellos!

I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. Here in Canada it was Thanksgiving so I'm at that place where I think I might never eat again. We have leftover pumpkin pie though, so I doubt that resolution will last too long. :p

I went back to that small town bargain store on the way out to visit family. I was checking for a new display of Art Decos but no luck. At the till my husband pointed and said "What about these other polishes?"

Say hello to my very first Sinful Colors. :)


They were 3 dollars each and I think for Canadian prices that's not bad at all, considering the London drug had one SC polish for sale at $2.99. In order from left to right they are called Fiji, Sugar Sugar, Bali Mist, and Opal Glitter.

I have a quick set of pics of my post Thanksgiving manicure:


I picked Figi for my base colour. It's a blue toned purple with a slight pink shimmer. All you see in these is the blue toned purple though. In RL you can see the pink tones as well, even in the daylight. It's overcast today so I'm sure that has something to do with it.


I stamped with bm image plate#'s 03, 06 and 15 using Sally Hansen Chrome in Crystal. I went in with my Cover Girl Sparkle Topcoat Disco Dazzle, picking up the large hex glitters and placing them int he centers of some of the flowers.


My nails are finally getting some lenth again, and I want to play with a few more halloween inspired manicures before I file them square and try to grow them out like that again. I haven't been having much luck with keeping my nails square but I know that has everything to do with how poorly I care for them. I've never used a strengthener before, and only recently began using base coats and worrying about staining. Now that I know about filing, and strengtheners etc I'm going to give this another shot. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be posting my submission for the autumn inspired FNA Challenge soon!

Cheers!
JQ

Game day tomorrow...

Materials used:

Revlon quick dry base coat
Claire's Snow Ball
Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Going Green
Claire's Rain Drops
Kiss silver sparkle striper
Kiss black striper
Seche Vite top coat


I painted the whole nail with base coat followed by two coats of Snow Ball, then painted 1/3 of the nail at the base with Going Green. Drew on two thin black lines with my Kiss black: one where the green joined the white, and one a little ways up towards the tip. This left a thick white line between them, which I split down the middle with a third black line. I drew my diagonals in with the black striper to create the chevrons (wheat effect). Then I used Rain Drops to pinstripe grey over the green. I spiced it up with my Kiss silver sparkle striper. Topcoat and voila!

GO ROUGHRIDERS!
:)