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.


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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!
:)

Pretty in Pink!

Ola!

I tried a different mani on each hand just after my folks left and this was what I came up with.
Yet another spat-like manicure:



And this one I was going for a chevron look using a toothpick to marble the white and black. Close on my thumb and pointer but fail on the other three fingers. Also you might notice that this pic is seriously photoshopped (But not the nails/polish part just the skin). I apologize for that, but I am currently battling pretty hard core with my eczema as fall sets in, especially on my dominant hand. I have been trying to take proper care of my cuticles but a lot of products really irritate my skin, so I am always on the lookout for a better solution.



I'm already almost at 60 followers and I just am so thrilled I can't even tell ya! :) Thanks everyone! I'd better start collecting more goodies for my 100+ giveaway! Woot!

Thanks for stopping by. I'm heading off to the inlaw's for Thanksgiving weekend, so I won't be posting again until after Monday. Hope you all have a nice weekend. :)

Cheers!
JQ

Black and White FNA Challenge Entry

Hi all! This is my entry for last weeks "Black and White" Fab Nail Art challenge. The FNA Challenge is being hosted by the ladies at Fab ur Nails and Art of Nail . Thank you gals for hosting these neat challenges!


I painted two coats of Claire's Snow Ball, then used my Kiss black striper polish to draw a curving diagonal across each nail. I filled in the tips with Claire's Black Hole. I then used my Kiss white nail striper for the white diagonal stripe. I used Konad special polish in Black Pearl and BM IP #09 for the heart image (using a Q-tip with acetone to remove the splashes for all nails but my thumb. I used Claire's Black Hole and my embossing stylus to make the dots.


Top coat and voila! My "Black Black Heart" mani. Oh. This must mean I'm diggin' it. It has a pet name already!


I experienced Shrinkage with my Seche Vite this time around, so today I'll be switching up my naildo. I picked up some cool new Kiss Art colors for striping so maybe I'll play with those!

Once again, thank you all so much for stopping by and for your comments! I see that I am already almost at 50 followers! Oh my GOSH! CHEERS! Just to let everyone know I am putting thought into ideas and keeping my eyes open for neat things to stick in a box for the big 100 Giveaway. :)

Hearts off the Charts!
JQ

Rose Mani

Hello everyone! I'm back after a wonderful week visiting with my parents. I never got online much during that time, and I didn't get a chance to really sit and play with polish either! But I have a few pictures of a recent manicure I did for a floral nail art challenge that the gals at Fab ur Nails and Art of Nail put on.

I think challenges are a ton of fun! They are a great way to get inspired. :)


I wanted to do a blue rose manicure inspired by some old wallpaper/fabrics. Hooray for turquoise and olive green!

To do them I painted two coats of Wet N Wild French White Creme for my base. Then I placed a few large dots of my Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Blue Me Away! and smaller dots (slightly off center) of Revlon Royal on each nail. While they were tacky I used a toothpick to spiral the polish into a rose. I found a YouTube demo shortly after I finished this mani that would have made the process even neater. If you want to see how dot roses are made click here.


I used the same kind of technique with the leaves using an elongated dot for each leaf, and while it was tacky drawing down from the outside edge at an angle towards the center (twice on each side). Then I went in with my Art Deco royal blue sparkle and jazzed up the roses a little before applying my topcoat.


Thanks for dropping in! I have another post for the next Fab Nail Art challenge that I'll put up tomorrow, and then I should be caught up!

Cheers!
JQ