12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge ~ Holiday Song!

Hello Dahlings!

We're on day 2 of the 12 DCNAC and we'll be posting manis featuring a holiday song. Originally I thought about doing something with bells i.e. Jingle Bells, Silver Bells or Carol of the Bells. Then while chatting with some of the others in this challenge Swishie Nail's stated that her nail art would look like road kill...BAM! I particular holiday fav started playing in my head & I knew what I was going to do for this challenge theme.

Tonight's line up part 1: Finger Paint Are You Blue?, Stripe Rite red, Orly Buried Alive, L.A. Colors Bright Green, & Finger Paints Take It or Leaf It.

Followed by the line up part 2: Milani White On The Spot, Orly Winter Wonderland, Wet N' Wild Fergie Going Platinum, & Milani Black Magic.

I started with 2 coats of Are You Blue? It's a nice frosty metallic that goes on a bit streaky but levels out nicely under top coat.

Can you guess what song this mani represents?

 

Thanks to Kristine & Lorene for hosting this challenge & to YOU for stopping by! 

Please visit the other challenge participants for more wonderful holiday nail art!

~ Inky

 

 

2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Tonight's mani design was inspired by Fitzy at Lacquer Lad. You can see his version HERE. The colors for tonight's mani were supposed to be inspired by my hair, but I picked my polish colors while my hair was still a bit wet & well...2 out of 3 ain't bad. lol

 

Tonight's line up: OPI Pepe's Purple Passion, China Glaze 108 Degrees & Orly Velvet Rope. PPP has pink glass flecks hidden in it's plumy goodness that alas, do not show up on the nail or in photos. 108 Degrees has a hot pink glass fleck that flaunts itself but is rather sheer. Velvet Rope has a silver glass fleck that also shows in the bottle, but not on the nail.

 

Pepe's Purple Passion, 2 coats on pinky & thumb; 108 Degrees, 3 coats on ring & index; & Velvet Rope, 2 coats on my middle finger. You can see how 108 Degrees needs either a 4th coat or white/nude undies. I was going to do a braided accent nail, but the sheerness of 108 Degrees put me off that idea.

 

So I CASE'd Fitzy's braided French tip using my colors. I had to do a 2nd coat of 108 Degrees to make it show up against the darker purple & plum, but it works.

 

Can you guess which polish color was a wee bit off? lol The colors in my hair are so much more vibrant than my phone camera can capture. The long hair in the back is a soft plum that you can just see in this pic. Mr Inky offered to take pics for me when I grumbled about hating to take pics of myself, but I had to say no thanks cuz I'd still be ugly no matter who's holding da camera. LMBBOLOL It was sweet of him to offer tho.

 

Just to shown you that cats & dogs can get along, this is my neighbor's dog, Rosie. I'm watching the neighbor's daughter after school this week & as a bonus I get to hangout with da dog too. She's a spaniel/dalmation mix & I just LOVE her polka dot stockings & fluffy toes! I've dog & kid sat for this lovely family for years & taking Rosie for long walks is lots of fun. She really loves her walkies!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky 

 

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge ~ Christmas Tree!

Happy Holidays, Dahlings!

Surprised to see me in the daylight? LOL I've joined the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge & today is the 1st posting day! Kristine & Lorene have done a fantabulous job of putting this holiday cheer nail art fest together for us! I hope you enjoy the ride & here's the map of our upcoming adventures:

A lot of us doing this challange are virgins in the nail blogosphere & some have trepidations about the quality of their art. I'm a life long crafter with an education & work history in the arts. For the last 10 years I have taught others how to make greeting cards using rubber stamps, paper, ink & asst embellishments. One of the challenges I face at work is when somebody new joins us & feels that they won't be able to make something nice cuz they think they have no talent. The point of art, whether you're using paint, clay, nail polish or whatever, is to express yourself, evoke emotion & enjoy the process! Not every attempt will result in success, but most attempts will be good enfu for what they are intended for. Most peeps have an idea in mind when they create something. If what they get in the end doesn't match what they see in their mind's eye or look like the project of the person next to them, they think they've failed. WRONG! Just because it isn't what you expected, doesn't mean it isn't any good! Learning to be objective about your artistic endeavors takes time & so does learning the skills needed to support your creativity. So to my follow 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge participants: RELAX! Have FUN with this! We're all friends here & it's all about the polish!

Christmas Tree line up: Santee Gold Bright, Milani White on the Spot, Wet N' Wild Red Red, Milani Gold Glitz & Sinful Colors San Fransisco.

This is 2 coats of Red Red. This polish is my go to red. It's opaque in 2 coats plus being bright without falling over the edge into neon.

 Ta Da! I decided to not make myself nuts on the 1st challenge by trying to do lil trees on every finger (the insanity will come later), I opted for an accent finger tree with the garland of gold balls trailing across the other nails to tie it all together. I did the gold bits with a small dotting tool in the Gold Bright 1st then went back & added the Gold Glitz on top. Gold Glitz is a lovely fine gold glitter with a prinkling of fine red glitter in a clear base. It needed the Gold Bright undies to show up better. The tree was 1st painted in White on the Spot using a small detail brush. San Fransisco is a gorgeous green, but it needs 3 coats for opacity. I didn't want to layer that much polish over the red only to have a brown tree if the red still showed thru. Wearing white or nude polish undies with sheer polish is an easy way to lessen the coats needed to cover VNL.

 

Whew! One challenge done, 11 more to go. LOL Please go visit the other challengers to see what wonderfulness they've created!

Thanks for Stopping by!

~ Inky

Splatter Nails...Inky Style!

Hello Dahlings!

Tonight I tried an experiment & other than being a wee bit messy it worked very well! Some of you may know that I'm a crafter & Stampin' Up! demonstrator and have been both for many years. My crafting adventures have lead to an array of art supplies being at hand. I've seen Splatter nails done by various bloggers & had the idea to use some of my art stuff on my nails.

I started with 2 coats of NYC Blackula. This inexpensive polish dries FAST...so fast that when I tried to smooth a spot a few seconds after I polished it, I left brush studder marks. Ugh!

 

I then suited up for the ride. I took a pair of Dollar store rubber gloves & cut the tips off all of the fingers. I then placed tape over the tip of each finger & ran it down the sides to the glove. A 2nd piece of tape across the base of each nail finished the job. If you decide to try this technique, covering up the skin of not only your fingers, but your hands too, is important. The ink is non-toxic & cleans up with acetone, but it takes what seems like forever. The less you get on your skin, the happier you will be with the results.

My 'brilliant' innovation was to take shimmer ink in misting bottles & spray them on my nails! These inks have a lovely iridecent shimmer to them & are smudge proof when dry & used on paper. The 2 brands I used are available in craft stores & on line where they sell the rubber stamping ink pads & other paper crafting inks. They come in lots of sparkly colors.

When I said 'wee bit messy' earlier, I may have understated it. lol The instructions on the bottles say hold the misting bottle 8 - 12" from the paper. This creates a wide mist zone that needs to be protected or it will have lil sparkly spots for eternity. In addition to rubberizing my hands & taping my fingers, I placed sheets of recycled packing paper over the table & did the actual misting inside of a box. I use the box for all of my small misting or spray painting projects so there's a lot of colors in there. lol You can use any box that is wide enough to fit your hand & deep enough to contain the mist. I think mine is 8" x 10" x 7"ish. After everything was protected I placed my hand inside of the box & aimed the nozzle at my nails. Some got more than others, but that was fine as I used 3 colors & nobody went without getting a color shower. I let the paint dry for about 5 minutes then cut the tape from the back & peeled it off. I then started my clean up. HOLY FREAKIN GUACAMOLE! It took longer to clean up than to do this technique. Once I got most of it off I added a coat of Seche Vite to seal it, let that cure, then scrubed my hands in hot soapy water & cleaned my skin again with acetone. This got most of it off. The rest should go away today in the shower when I wash my hair. I tested the SV earlier on samples I spritzed & let dry completely to make sure the TC didn't erase the color. If you've ever lost the color when applying TC to a fish egg mani or nail art gems, you know why I pre-tested the paint. Arrgh! moment averted by planning. Imagine that! LOL

It took a lot of set up & clean up, but I think it was worth the effort! I can't wait to see my nails in day light & I want to try this again using white as the polish base color with other colors & do the black again but use metallics like silver & gold together. Think of this technique as finger painting for grown ups!

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Inky

Too much of a good thing? Nah!

Hello Dahlings!

Tonight I have something a lil different to share with you! I admit I may have a slight fondness for purple neon polish. It's not quite an obsession as I only have 5! Five is the perfect number to do a comparison mani & show you that not all purple neons are the same.

Tonight's line up: Santee Power Play, American Apparel Neon Violet, Ruby Kisses Electric Purple, Nina Pro Punky Purple & Orly Purple Crush. In the bottle the Santee, American Apparel & Nina Pro look very similar. The Ruby Kisses & Orly look more fuschia & magenta.

Sorry for 'the claw', it was the easiest way to show all 5 nails at once without giving myself a cramp. On the nail they aren't much different than they are in the bottle. This is 2 coats of each polish by finger: pinky ~ Power Play; ring ~ Neon Violet; middle ~ Electric Purple; index ~ Punky Purple; thumb ~ Purple Crush. Most went on rather well, except for Neon Violet. That polish has one of those skinny brushes & a runny formula, making good coverage difficult & cuticle flooding easy. All could have used a 3rd coat for full opacity tho 2 is doable. If you have the Santee, American Apparel or Nina Pro version of this fav color of mine, you don't really need the other 2. (Since when is polish collecting about need? LMBBOLOL) The Ruby Kisses & Orly are different enuf from the other 3 & each other that I'm glad to have them. (Who ever at the Orly home office thot this polish looked like a purple anything needs their eyes examined! That one is definitely a pink, not a purple.) Now what? Well, I couldn't just leave my nails like this, now could I? Maybe? Nah!

To finish this mani off I added 2 coats of Wet N' Wild Take the Stage from the Fergie line & a coat of Seche Vite. This isn't the most spectacular fuschia glitter I have or have ever seen (the pic makes it look more purple) but the medium size chunky silver hexes add interest & the color worked for all 5 neons & made them look enuf alike that I can live with this mani for a day or two. I was going to add a silver French tip, but I'm enjoying the purple sparklies & (gasp!) decided this was good enuf.

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Inky

Green Sparkle

Hello Dahlings!

Tonight's mani is an effort at some holiday cheer. It sorta works? LOL The real holiday art will be seen in the 12 Days of Holiday Nail Art Challenge hosted by Pink & Polished & Over Polished that starts posting next Sunday, December 2nd. Interested in joining the fun? Head to either blog & sign up! I will be participating & hopefully won't blind anybody with my holiday nail art attempts.

Tonight's line up: Sinful Colors San Fransisco, Finger Paints LE Sparkle Top Coat & Santee Gold Bright. Sparkle has a hidden beauty that doesn't show in the bottle!

This is 2 coats of San Fransisco. It needs 3 for full opacity, but I didn't worry about it knowing I'd be putting glitter over it. It also stains the skin a bit, so clean up took a lil longer than usual. Still, it's a nice Christmasy green.

This 2 coats of Sparkle Top Coat with large dots in Gold Bright to break up all that green space. I should have picked a different gold or left them off altogether, but the Gold Bright was handy & I just can't leave my nails with out any attempt at nail art. You can see some of the glitz of Sparkle in this pic, but my camera was not willing to capture the full glory of this Limited Edition holiday polish on my nails.

Fortunately, it did come thru in this pic off the swatch wheel! This is 2 coats of Sparkle over black & the natural wheel color. Sparkle has a Flakey quality of not looking like much in the bottle or over light colors, but put it over a dark color & LOOK OUT! It has micro glitter in green, blue & gold and the shiney bar glitter flits between gold, pink & orange. Holiday cheer in a bottle! Finger Paints polishes are only available at Sally's Beauty Supply, so get to your Sally's ASAP or you'll miss out on this hidden beauty!

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Inky

Chrome Clouds

Hello Dahlings!

Tonight I have 2 polishes from one of my all time favorite lines. About a decade or so ago Sally Hansen offered a wide variety of really yummy satin finish metallics called chromes. I bought Titanium & by the time I decided I wanted more...they were gone from the stores. Waaaa! Recently, I discovered a company called Cassie Cosmetics on eBay & they also sell thru Amazon. They specialize in discontinued make up & accessories that had been sold in drug stores. Everything is new & unused, just retired & offered at great prices! Some of the rarer polishes are at collector pricing, but the majority are offered at below their retiring retail price. Their customer service is excellent & I highly recommend them! On to the nails...

Tonight's line up: Sally Hansen Baby Blue Crystal & Aquamarine Chrome. For some reason, Sally Hansen decided painting the bottles the color of the polish was a good marketing idea. Alas, the bottle paint has a tendency to chip & scratch. This in no way effects the polish, it just looks odd. The polish covering part of the bottle volume info on the label is a swatch of what's inside. The painted bottles aren't always an exact match for the polish within.

This is 3 coats of Baby Blue Crystal with 1 coat of Seche Vite FDTC. Look at that shine! Being a chrome, it does show every nail imperfection in the 1st & even 2nd coats, but a 3rd will usually smooth most, if not all, of this all out. It also goes on a bit streaky, but if you're careful with your brush strokes, it will dry to a fairly smooth satin finish. Where is the blue? The Crystal Chromes are ultra pale versions of the color they are labeled. So pale that they tend to appear a very bright metallic white unless the light hits them just right.

I used the cloud full nail design from Bundle Monster plate 312 & Aquamarine Chrome to stamp the clouds I then used Aquamarine Chrome with my short striper brush to mark off French tips & my short detail brush to fill them in. Another coat of Seche Vite to finish it off. The skies in the Great North Wet may be cloudy more often than not these days, but my clouds have a silver lining for sure!

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Inky