Monday, January 28, 2013

Hello!

Well, it's been a while since I regularly posted hasn't it? I have been doing some thinking about this blog. I am tired of only posting about nails. I think I have decided that I will post about whatever lovely crafty project I am currently doing and also my nails. I still enjoy doing them, I just haven't done interesting things with them lately. I am also thinking of starting up an Etsy store to sell my crafty wares. I think I will try and post a picture here and description before I post on Etsy, to give my readers a chance to purchase items at a lower price than they will be there. Here are a few of the things I have done in the past that I will be showing and selling here and on Etsy:

Cutie Patutie Booties

Feather and Fan Beanie

Itty Bitty Mary Janes
I am so excited to show this stuff off! I learned to knit just a couple years ago and basically just do baby things. These items actually went to a good friend of mine, so they specifically are not for sale, however, if you like the color and design, I still have this yarn and can make you a set. The Booties are $15 a pair and the Hats are $10. I also have patterns for a couple different styles of hats and I'll get some prototypes done soon, and I do washcloths as well. The washcloths will not be the same colors as the booty and hat sets but will be a coordinating color, or they are also great for adults as well, being all cotton, I can even do an all natural cotton with no dies or bleach. I can get other baby yarns too, what I currently have is 100% acrylic. The only difference is, if I need to buy specialty yarn, like wool, or cotton, they will cost a little extra. That cost depends on the cost of the yarn. I am also thinking of selling the patterns as well.

So, this is my first entry for crafty things. What do you think?

I will be updating as often as I can with new designs and new crafts, believe me, I make some cool stuff! Stay tuned!

Happy Crafting!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Hey, long time, no post!

So, my loverly fiance got me something wonderful for Christmas...
It is the entire Adventure Time collection from Pretty and Polished!
Since before Christmas he was telling me how he got me something really cool and I was super excited. But, it wasn't here at Christmas. It wasn't here a week after Christmas. Finally, he e-mailed P&P and she said "woolen, totally ran out, here's a refund." Then he turned around and placed another order and lo and behold, it was available. I got it last Friday. Whew, drama.

Anyway, this stuff is so great! I have tried Vampire Sing-Along and My Lumps.
This first pic is Vampire Sing-Along over a base of Rainstorm, a nice medium blue by China Glaze. It went on well, there was a little fishing for the large black circle glitter, the medium purples and whites were a bit sparse too, but there was plenty of mini red glitters.

The second is of My Lumps. This one I love. It's lumpy and squishy and a great shimmery purple base. Generously sprinkled throughout are purple and gold shards. This perfectly represents the lumpy space princess(who is one of my favorite characters).

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Manicures!


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Today I have a very happy fun turkey nails. We celebrate thanksgiving to thank the noble turkey for sacrificing itself for our yearly feast. Nearly 12,000 years ago, we were on the verge of extinction as a species. The generous animals of the world stepped up and said "We will sacrifice our friend, the turkey, so that you may live." The animals brought forth the turkey who selflessly threw himself on the chopping block. It was very moving. Now, we celebrate this act of kindness with a huge feast every year. We make a multitude of side dishes offering the essence of the food up to our turkey god. He continues to offer himself as a sacrifice every year to remind us of how he gave himself to us so many years ago.We also care for his earthly brethren, feeding and caring for them and housing them in huge buildings where they can be as close as possible to eachother. This is the story of Thanksgiving, our holy turkey day. Tomorrow we will continue to show the great turkey how thankful we are by trampling eachother for shit we don't need at ridiculously low prices. Remember to honor the great turkey today, and always keep him in your hearts.



I lovingly emulated this manicure from someone that I cannot find right now. I will update if I find it.

I used an off-white that I created, plus Red (Pure Ice - Siren), Orange (Petite - Mango), and Brown (Orly - Buried Alive).

And with that, I must leave you to go to my turkey god worship ceremony.

Happy Manicures!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

31 Day Challenge, The final days!

Whew! Some free time! I have been working like crazy on school work and I recently got back into cross-stitching. I am making surprises for my friends and just keeping my nails in good condition is about all I have time for. So, here are some designs I did for the rest of the challenge and what I've been up to lately.

First up, Day 20 of the challenge, Watermarble! This is my first successful watermarble.  I realized that I just needed to tweak my technique a little. So, here is the result:





This is what the water looked like before pulling the colors.


Then using a needle, I pulled the colors


Then, dip the finger!


For this one I actually scrubbed my fingers with acetone afterwards. The second time I tried this, (I'll post pics further down.) I coated my finger in white glue. Then, when it's all dry after doing the marble, I just peel it all off. Here's that second watermarble I mentioned.

These are fun cuz they're a few of the duochromes I have over black. I got lots of compliments for this one.







Ok, I think that's good for today.

Happy Manicures!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

31 Day Challenge, Day 19. Galaxy!


I love Galaxy Nails! I have always kind of been a space nut. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, said I was from Mars for a while and really looked up to my Uncle, Homer Stewart.  He was a huge name in the Jet Propulsion Lab. He was part of the moon landing. He let me borrow Kodak pictures(originals) of the earth from the moon for a science fair project. I love space.
One of the things I love about galaxy nails is that there are so many different ways to do it. My first attempt was with a black base and the water color method of adding the other colors. I have also seen sponge effects, acrylic paint, and splatters(which I can't find the link to at the moment). But recently I found a mani that used powdered eye shadow. This is what I used for this one.
First I laid down 2 coats of Necromorphic, a franken of mine with a black base and tons of holographic glitter. Then I used a dotting tool and put on some sporadic white dots. Then one nail at a time I swiped on a coat of Quick dry top coat and sprinkled one color of eye shadow on the wet polish. Once all the nails were sprinkled, I waited for the polish to dry, tapped off the excess powder and washed my hands. Then, I did the whole process again. I did that for green, blue, gold, and red powder. Then one last coat of top coat and I was done. I found that something I would do differently is to press lightly on places with powder to make it stick better.  Anyways, enough babbling, on to the nails!




And obviously this eye shadow is not for eyes anymore, but don't worry I didn't buy it for my eyes anyways. I used some of this to experiment with pigmenting polish. It's really pretty.  I really like this technique and with different colors you can create all kinds of effects.

Stay Tuned, tomorrow I am attempting a water marble. In my opinion it is the hardest technique to master and I still haven't yet. So let's see what happens.

Happy Manicures!

P.S. Check it out! A review of my polish from the Beautiful Jen at I Like my Polish Black, Just Like My Metal

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

31 Day Challenge, Day 18. Half Moons!


Todays mani, is a total FAIL! I wanted a really cool french tip/half moon mani, using three different colors. My first attempt used Pure Ice-Wild Thing (green) as a base and then alternate top and bottom half with Pure Ice- French Kiss(blue). The green showed through the blue pretty bad and I thought it was because I hadn't waited long enough. I repainted, half and half and then masked off the moons and tips and the green bled through the China Glaze-Gothic Lolita. Blech. I even waited 24 hours before painting the purple. I guess the green is just a bleeder. It looks interesting though.



Blech. Oh well. Tomorrow's is way better! Super excited about it. Stay Tuned!

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Days 15, 16, and 17


I have been busy, sick, and lazy the last few days. I was really looking forward to this challenge but I am so disappointed by what I come up with. I just feel like they are really blah. I have a couple coming up that are fun and that I like, but in this post there is only one.

Day 15 is delicate. If you know me, you know I am anything but delicate. In fact I don't think I own anything that could be considered delicate except a crocheted doily my grandma made me, and that's in a box cuz it would look so weird in my house. I had some great ideas for this mani. I was gonna do toilet paper, but that looked ridiculous.  I thought I would do a dandelion blowing in the wind. I found out that I can't paint a dandelion for crap. It was getting late by this time so I took my light shimmery blue, Essie- Bikini So Teeny and painted the nails. Then I looked through my stamping plates and found one that has barbie on it and some really pretty lace. So I stamped lace and then made the tips french. Meh. It's pretty, don't get me wrong. But my creative muscles definitely weren't flexed.


Day 16 was tribal. I hate what is called a tribal manicure. I am not a fan of those sort of geometric designs. Everyone pretty much does the same thing. Sponging different colors, then a geometric pattern in black. How Boring and generic. I asked Dingus what I should do as I had already looked up Cherokee (I'm 2/64 cherokee) and didn't like those designs, I looked up celtic and gaelic and thought those would be really hard. Dingus said I should look up the local tribes. The Salish. They make beautiful totem poles. I chose four animals from carved oars and used them. I like them a lot. From top to bottom, Killer Whale, Raven stealing the sun, Bear, and Eagle. I got a lot of compliments on these and Sweetpea said they were great!


Finally, Day 17 was glitter. I love glitter now that I have figured out the glue technique. You use white school glue as a basecoat so that when you want to remove it, you just peel it off. I hate trying to get rid of glitter with polish remover. Anyway, I got Saly Hanson Insta-Dri - In A Flurry. Its a really pretty green polish with green glitter and tiny flecks of purple. I thought it would look great with this gorgeous Lavender glitter by Milani. It did. But can my pictures show you that? No. They cannot. I really need a lightbox, but I don't really have a place for it. Poop. So, here are the pics I took in different light and you can see different aspects of it in the pics.
 




So, there are the last few days of the challenge.

Happy Manicures!