Playing Card Inspired Mani

Hello everyone!

I've just been enjoying my parents' company while they are down visiting. They drove all the way down from the Yukon to see us! We've been busy running all over town, doing some shopping, and checking out the sights so I haven't had much time to make a post. Everyone is sleeping in this morning so I thought I'd toss a couple of photos of my current mani up!

I used my Claire's Black Hole and Snow Ball, and my Essie Lacquered Up to paint the base colours on all my nails (thumb to pinky= white, black, white, red, white). Then I stamped using my Konad special polishes alternating black and white. For my thumbs I painted a half circle of red at the base of the nail. I used my Kiss black striper polish to draw the outline and pinstripe it. I stamped the crown so it just sat atop the moon. I drew a heart atop the queen's crown and a spade atop the king's. Then it was more fun with rhinestones. :)




Top coat and voila! My version of a playing card mani. :)

My family is all about cribbage so it's a groovy naildo to be rocking while the folks are visiting.
I've since changed all fingers but my thumbs to an alternate matching mani, because I suffered a few chips yesterday. Just diagonal white/red with a defining black line across. It was something quick and easy since everything's been so busy. :) I got to keep my royal thumbs which is awesome. :)


Hope everyone is having a great week so far! I'll be back again Sunday with a new post!
Cheers!
<3
JQ

Fun with dots and pink/purple dinosaur inspired tootsies.

I've seen a few variations of this design the most recent being at Deez Nailz and I wanted to give my new "embossing stylus" a try. :)



The paler colour is one of two gold-ish olive green frankens that I globbed together from a bunch of random bottles a few days back. Sorry I can't really give a recipe. It was basically a bunch of bottom of the bottle salvages. The darker colour is NYC Flat Iron Green. I painted two coats of the franken, then once that was dry, went in with my black Kiss nail art striper polish and drew a fine, curved, diagonal line across the tips of each nail. This was basically a guide for when I applied the Flat Iron Green. It also provides just a slightly darker definition where the two colors meet. Then I took the larger side of my embossing stylus and went to town dotting up either side of the line with opposite colours.

Seche Vite top coat and voila!



Okay TOE SHOT guys. I tried to take a pretty picture but somehow there just isn't a pretty picture of toes for me. The sun was nice and bright this morning which is lovely. I think I'll have to go for a walk with the pooch and the boy.

Anyway here goes...



I used my Claire's Tiger Lily for the base color, then painted on the spots using my white Kiss nail striper, and outlined them with my fuchsia Art Deco striper. One coat of Revlon Grapefruit Glimmer Gloss followed by one coat of Seche Vite! You can't really see the glimmer gloss much. Nobody will be inspecting my toes closely enough to notice that. I hope. :p



I was thinking about dinosaurs for some reason or another as I did these. Possibly because of Dino from The Flintstones? I think yes. Except it looks like he had black spots. There is something else I am thinking of too...that book called Serendipity?

Anyways that's it for today. I have to get cleaning! My parents arrive from the Yukon tomorrow! I'll try and make one more post before they get here with my mani for next week, but if I'm not around it's because I'm hanging with the pack. :)

Later Gaters!
JQ

A rose by any other name...

I know I really like my naildo when:

I wear it for longer than 48 hours and still love it

I'll actually do that layer of top coat every other day thing to prevent chipping.

I have to patch at least three chips before I finally resign myself to removing it, and even then I grit my teeth.

It has pet names

Meet "Sealed with a Kiss" aka My Shakespeare Nails/Love Letter:



I used three coats of Wet n Wild French White Creme for the base, then stamped the black quills using Bundle Monster plate # 15 and Konad special polish in black. I stamped Love,rose, kiss and heart images in red off BM plate #'s 02, 03, 09 and 14 using Wet n Wild Red Graphite from the Precious Metals series. OMG love. I wonder if I can still find those, and if the others would work for stamping just as well. The special polishes are just too expensive for me right now. I was so thrilled to find out that most metallic polishes lend themselves well to it. So this will curb me for now.

I used my black Kiss nail art striper for the ink lines and blotches. Top coat and voila! Romance tips!



So I stayed up ultra late a few nights ago in a polymer clay frenzy. I was learning the basics for making these Fimo logs I've been hearing about. I chose the citrus one for a start. I totally feel a new craze coming on. My craftysense is tingling. :)



The lemons were the last ones and they look the most pristine. I'm getting the hang of it and having all kinds of ideas for my own special looks!

Okay that's all for today. I'm off to fix chip #2 on my mani, because parting with them so soon would be such sweet sorrow.

:P
JQ

Dollarama/Michaels Haul and a Mani of Course! (PICS!)

I got everything in the below except the dotting tool and the polymer clay at one of the local Dollaramas. A buck a piece! Pretty good deal. :) (all prices are CAD):


The dotting tool was a $2.50 purchase at Michaels. Oh Michaels! How I wish I was full of dough so I could buy more of the WAY COOL stuff in your scrapbook/card making section and use it all for my nails. :P The stickers are fairly small and sticky, so I'm hopeful that they will work, especially the ones that don't have a lot of fine pointy bits. Oh well for a dollar each these two sheets were worth it just to try.


The polymer was the cheaper variety from Michaels as well. I am very curious about these Fimo logs and since I love a crafty project I want to start making my own unique ones. If I can generate enough interest I might even sell some (OR have a giveaway of my very own?), although Bundle Monster has a pretty sweet deal on them. :D


And these groovy little sticky rhinestone sets are probably meant for scrapbooking or something, but I think I could use them on my nails. They provide a bit of variation in size so I can combine them with the stones in the wheels I bought. They are on sale at Michaels for I think $1.50 but I was glad I passed them up, because I found them for 1$ a piece at Dollarama, and there were like a bazillion colours, plus several colours of pearls which you can see to the right. I only got two neutral ones. I made a real mess going through the rack! :P But I'm a tidy gal. I cleaned it all up.


last but not least I got a few more wheels for a dollar each. I can't tell ya how much I am in love with that store right now! OOOh RETAIL THERAPY !


Phew!

FINALLY time for the mani.

I was inspired by Blue Tape and Nail Tips' ND6: Shooting Star (I just found her blog recently and I like it there!) so this was my mani project from a few days ago:


I used two coats of an olive green franken that has a wee bit of gold shimmer in it for the base. I didn't use tape as I wanted my shooting star tails to curve around my tips. It was a good excuse to break out the Art Deco and play. :)

I outlined where I wanted the tail of the shooting star to curve in the Art Deco fuchsia sparkle, then filled it in using my Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Strobe Light. I finished it off with an iridescent star sticker (from above haul. Worked quite well, although I had a bit of trouble getting all the little tippie-bits to stick down) and a couple coats of Seche Vite.



Thanks Blue Tape & nail Tips for a lovely inspiration. Her Shooting stars are pretty full of awesome so you should definitely check them out!

Okay Okay I'm signing off! I'll be posting today's mani plus a pic of my first polymer clay project-- citrus fimo logs--either tonight or tomorrow morning!

Thank you all so much for popping by! I scrolled down and realized that I have 29 followers already! WOW! Thanks for all the support. <3 <3

Hugs,
JQ!

Polish Haul & Floral Mani

Hello all!

Yesterday the hubby treated me some great polishes! We went to the mall and I found a Claire's (first time in forever I've been in one and back then I wasn't really polish hunting). It took me a lot of humming and hawing before I finally picked four polishes. I wound up with Black Hole, and Snowball because I use black and white so much and am almost out of my Wet n' Wilds. While I was at it I got a grey one called Rain Drops, and a lavender colour called Tiger Lily--is that a weird name for purple to anyone else?



We also hit up the London Drugs, because Alikat was kind enough to point me in the direction of a sale on Seche Restore. Thank you Alikat! I have never had a polish thinner before so this will be fun. I also picked up a bottle of Seche Vite--YAY! and found just one colour of Essie called Lacquered Up on sale for 99cents (CAD). Woot! It's a pretty nice red for me. My pictures don't do these any justice.



And so yesterday I was compelled to take off my Jealous Hearts mani and use as many of my new polishes as possible. I decided I would try the toothpick flower technique for the first time. Love it!


I began with a base coat then applied two thin coats of Rain Drops. I placed several dots of each colour (Black Hole, Snowball, and Lacquered Up) in a circle/semi-circle on my nail, then waited for them to get tacky. I used a toothpick to draw lines from the center of each dot towards the middle of the flower. Then I placed rhinestones in the center of each one.



Topcoat (Seche Vite this time!) and Voila! Black/red/grey/white floral mani!

Happy Sunday!

<3

JQ

Givaways I'm entering

Jeweled Tips is having a Confetti giveaway:



and Konad-licious has a pick your own 2 Glitter Gal polishes giveaway:

Beautiful Blogger Award

Thank you to Banana at Nail Corner for tagging me for the Beautiful blogger award.

Now I will write 7 things that nobody knows about me! This is going to be hard because there's very little that my friends don't know about me. I'm kind of a "too much information" gal. But here goes:

1) I'm afraid of bees and wasps.
2) I collect blankets. Especially homemade ones.
3) My favorite way to eat an orange is in a sandwich. Toasted white bread, a smear of Miracle Whip and sunshine orange slices.
4) I'm seriously considering getting a very big tattoo. Designing it myself.
5) I'd totally found and live in an art colony.
6) I have thought about dropping everything and taking off on foot into the wilderness. Sink or swim.
7) I have pretty dead aim. In at least one other dimension I'm a sniper. :P

And there are some people who do know these things. Best I could do!

Anyways, thanks again Banana.

Here are the seven blogs I tag for this award:

Oooh, Shinies!
Polish Obsessed
Glaze Craze
Glammed Up
Enamel Girl
For Your Nails Only
and Alikat!

Cheers!

Jealous Hearts (Spats n' Spangles variation)

Happy Friday everybody!

I really loved my Neon Spats n' Spangles mani, so I thought I'd do another version of it last night using my Sally Hansen X-treme Wear greens.

I like this striped tips mani better on my square nails, but it still looks pretty. The first one is my left hand and the second shot is my right. For the first time I actually had equal success with both hands. I think I am beginning to feel more comfortable with the striper brushes.



I used Wet n' wild French White Creme for the base, then painted 3/4 of the nail with alternating Sally Hansen greens. The dark one is called "Going Green" and the lighter one is called "Green with Envy". Pinstripes and -I'm going to call it the smile line but plse correct me if I'm mis-using it- were accomplished using Art Deco black striper polish. I used a bundle monster stamp for the hearts using Konad special polish in Black Pearl.

Again with the blurry! I'm convinced I'm missing something with this little camera.



Rhinestones in two different greens (light on the dark and vice versa) complete the Spats n' Spangles effect! Topcoat and Voila. Jealous Hearts. :)

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend despite the fact that fall is closing in. Hey. Winter isn't all bad. At least not until January. :P

Cheers!
<3
JQ

Sparkly Spacegirl & Alice in Wonderland Manis

A long time ago in a disco far far away...

I have been falling in cosmic love with all the dark polishes layered with sparkle I've been seeing. Especially those with holo-glitter. I'm lusting after polishes like NfuOh GS-14. Here's what I did last night. Please forgive me once again for the blurry photos! My camera and I are on the rocks again.

I painted my nails with Wet n' Wild Black Creme, then painted on triangles of Sally Hansen Chrome in Sizzlin' Roze at my cuticles. I outline the triangles with my Art Deco sparkly fuchsia striper.


Added a few fuchsia triangle rhinestones at the cuticle for added glam.



And went in for the kill with my Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Strobe Light.



Topcoat and Voila! Disco Space Girl nails. :)


Onto the nail fail...

These are an attempt at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland nails. Each nail has a bit from the backgrounds of the posters. Red hearts for the Queen, green top hats for the Mad Hatter, and blue keyholes for Alice.

HOWEVER. After all that work brushing on the craft paints (especially when it came to painting my right hand) I went ahead and ruined it with a sparkle topcoat! Without taking a few pics first! AGH! I have learned my lesson!


I used 2 coats of Wet n' Wild French White Creme for the base colour, then played with the craft paint.

These didn't sty on last night. I took a few quick pictures under the yellow light and then cried "Off with their heads!"




Cheers!
JQ

Art Deco Mani

This manicure was inspired by the first image. I associate teals with that style. :P I did use craft paint for the teal, but you could do this mani equally as easy with polish. I'm just on a mission to experiment with the craft paint as much as possible.

Anyways onto the pictures. There are a few of them!






Base color Wet n' Wild French White Creme
Craft paint for the teal half moons
Kiss white striper polish for the line work on top of the half moon.
Emerald green rhinestones.
Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Going Green along the outside of each teal half moon.




My best nail is my left thumb of course! There's more room and I'm painting with the right hand.



Okay that's all for today. I'm not sure what's next on my list. I have a few ideas bubbling. :P

Cheers!
JQ

Craft Paint as Polish?

I read somewhere that you can use craft paint as long as you use a base coat and seal it after with a topcoat. If you don't seal it after then the paint will wash off when you get your hands wet. Also it was recommended that a topcoat be re-applied every other day to preserve the artwork. My manis never last that long before I wig out and change it up. :)

Owls have been popping up in various communications I've had recently. Also I watched the new Clash of the Titans, but I'm an old school clash fan. I noticed they brought back the clockwork owl for all of five seconds in the new one. It made me giggle. A friend tweeted a picture of fake fluffy white owls all lined up on a store shelf and began referencing our all time favorite movie ever: Labyrinth. :) So I thought I'd try painting owl inspired nail art.



I was impressed with the craft paint. It has me super excited because I have like umpty-billion colours of it down in my basement. Yay hours more fun with my nails and I don't have to spend another dime! Here's a slightly blurry photo of the owl on my thumb. I apologize but both the weather and my camera were uncooperative today.




And this is a quick shot of my piggies. Tim Burton Style. :P



I'll be back again tomorrow to post further explorations with craft paint.

Hearts off the charts!
JQ

PS: "You remind me of the babe." :P

Thank You Alikat789 for tagging me for the following award:

The Happy 101 award and here are the rules:

1. Post who gave you this award.

2. State 10 things you like.

3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers.

Ten things I like (besides NAIL ART!) in no particular order:

1) COFFEE :)
2) Drawing/painting
3) Crafty stuff like knitting, weaving and felting, tapestry...
4) Music (I have a soundtrack for just about everything)
5) Sushi
6) Cribbage
7) BIG purses :)
8) Shopping especially if I am on a mission for something specific at a bargain price.
9) Creative writing
10) My little boy who is 15 months old today!

My husband should be in there too! I like him lots! He thinks I'm crazy but he loves me anyway.

I'll have to put some thought into who I would nominate, besides Alikat :) I look at a lot of other blogs but am also relatively new at this. :) A lot of the blogs I would nominate have already received this!

Thanks again for the nomination Alikat!

I had a not so lazy daisy..

I was changing some laundry over this morning and when my hand came out of the washer I had busted a corner right off my ring finger. :( That made three corners lost (my two pointers have been gibbled fora while now I was just stubbornly hanging on). So I decided I had to round them all off and start again.

A pretty blue daisy mani...



Used my new Sally Hansen X-treme wear Blue Me Away for the base colour. Then I stamped on the daisy image from bundle monster #16, turning it sideways and trying for straight across my nail. I used my new Kiss White Striper polish to draw a line across where the stamp meets the solid colour. Then I mirrored that line using my Art Deco royal blue sparkle striper.




To finish I added a few yellow rhinestones to the center of one daisy on each nail and two on each thumb. I took my Cover Girl Disco Dazzle sparkle topcoat, and picked out the hex glitter, placing one in the center of every remaining daisy on each nail.



Top coat and voila! Blue but not so lazy daisies!

I was so thrilled at how the photos turned out considering the dreary rainy weather outside. This mani really cheered me up. :)


Hearts off the charts!
JQ

Neon Spats N' Spangles Mani...

After my pretty peach mani I just had the urge to BUST OUT with some colours. So I had fun with my new Art Deco striper polishes!

I got a haul of them from a small town bargain store. :) Fuchsia, yellow and lime green for this mani. I also got a royal blue sparkle and a fuchsia sparkle, but I'll save those for another day.




I painted my nails with 2 coats of Wet N Wild French White Creme, then striped on the colours, finishing with black across the...smile?




I then stamped some different sizes of stars on my nail using Konad special polish in Black Pearl and various Bundle Monster plates. Sorry this next one is a bit blurry. :(




I found rhinestones to match the tip of each nail and placed a corresponding one in each of the larger stars (one per nail). Then I did little rows of rhinestone "spat" buttons up the side of each tip, following one of the colour stripes.




A good top coat and voila! My Neon Spats n' Spangles mani.

Hope you like!
Cheers!
JQ

Show a little skin...

My fingertips are pulling on their lacies...


This is a peachy franken I made with like a billion mostly used up old nail polishes. Seriously the mutt of polishes. In fact. I dub it Mutt. :D

I then used Konad special polish in White and BM#16 to make the stamp. I stamped diagonally across the each nail because although they seem to be meant to cover the whole nail the Bundle Monster images are a fair bit smaller than the Konad ones, which are still practically too small for my big fat nails! :)


I took my new Kiss white striper polish and drew the lines across where the pattern meets the solid polish. I Randomly placed a clear rhinestone on each nail and finished with a top coat! Voila!



Hope everyone is having a splendiferous labor day weekend. :)

<3 JQ

My First Franken Polish

It's totally dubbed Hospital Green. :p


Bear with me the photo is terrible of these polishes, but I will list them in order from most used to least(left to right): Rimmel Lycra Nail Tip Whitener (was getting really thick and gooey), CG Nailslicks Jolted Jade, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails w/Nylon Silver Bells, Sally Hansen Chrome Sizzlin' Gold, Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Green With Envy, Nicol by OPI One Voice, Ardene Fluorescent Yellow, Wet N' Wild 415A (this didn't have a colour name).


And this is my new BundleMonster mani. I used BM plate #11 with Konad Special Polish Black Pearl. I took some of my CG Boundless Color Sparkle Topcoat Disco Dazzle and dabbed some out onto a palette, picking out the larger holo-sparkles with a toothpick and placing them up the center. Topcoat and Voila!


This is a shot I took indoors last night under the yellow light:



and a few close ups:




Cheers n Beers!
<3JQ