halloween party

Okay, I will admit, I did another paint job yesterday.  One hand was candy corn and the other was glow-in-the-dark.  It was okay but I just didn't like it.  The pink glow was just too pink.  The candy corn looked a bit much on one whole hand.  I didn't even take a picture before peeling/wiping it off.  I did want to keep a subtle Halloween theme but something that would be fun.  Then I stopped in Urban Outfitters this morning.  They had some awesome glitter nail polishes.  I got four different ones and wanted to use at least one of them in this paint job.  I also wanted a little candy corn and one other accent.  I also picked up a holo polish at Sephora last week that I wanted to use.  So that is how this polish job came to be.  And to make it more fun the accent nails are different on each hand.

package

My order from Born Pretty (http://www.bornprettystore.com/) finally arrived!!  It is exciting since it was sitting in the USPS processing center in LA for almost two weeks.  And I am guessing it was not scanned at any other post office because I didn't get any other updates.

Here's what I got -
* rhinestone/stud containters/spindle wheels (2)
* pink metal rhinestones, 2mm
* round gold studs, 2mm
* square gold studs, 2mm
* round silver studs, 1mm & 4mm
* square silver studs, 2mm
* GLOW-N-THE-DARK polish!!! - 2 different colors

* or fireworks

 (left)

 (right)

I Got tired of the dark nails and orange nails just sort of irk me.  I needed to go with a lighter overall paint job and since I am still at home sick but with a little more energy, I went for a stamp job.  I almost did the base in a white pearl but thought it would take too much away from the hex glitter accents.  So basic white it was.

black & orange

Despite the fact that I am stuck at home with a wicked bad cold, I have not been that inspired to do a paint job.  I had to remove the last nail job on Thursday night because I had to make cookies (snickerdoodles, sugar cookie brooms/oak leaves/flowers) so I have been naked for three days.  My nails have liked the break but I felt like I need to paint them.  However, I could not think of anything to paint.  I know I did not want to do stamping, too much work**.

color blocking

I went back to a previous paint job again today.  It is simple to achieve with just a little tape.  However, I had the same problem as last time - the masking tape was picking up some of the base color when I went to peel it off.  Next time I will try painters tape and hopefully wait even longer for the base color to dry.

purple dots

I needed a little break from Halloween themed nails so I went back to a previous paint job.  I am happy with the purple choices except for the light purple dots.  It is really hard to see them both in the photo and real life.  I also made a little accent nails with some rhinestones and beads.  It is very subtle but shines in the light.  It was a quick paint job that is just the right break in paint jobs before going back to Halloween theme.

OPI - A Grape Fit (the base), Care to Danse
Sinful Colors - Amethyst, Mesmerize, Black on Black

Trick or Treat

I am having fun with Halloween.  I created another Halloween themed paint job.  This job was sketched out even more than the last, especially with all the different colors and layers.  The theme/idea for this paint job was 'Trick or Treat'  One hand is all trick and the other treat.

stamping plate holder

I don't have that many stamping plates (26) but it was getting a little hard to just keep them in a pile in a zip lock bag.  Plus, I was worried they would get scratched.  I got some baseball card sheets and a small three pronged folder.  It might have been nice to have them all in their own little pockets but the baseball sheet was just not strong enough.  Plus, I once picked up the folder upside down and a vast majority of the plates fell out.  Not good.  I searched all over my house for another solution.  I had a business card folder that only had a few cards in it.  The plates were about 4 mm to big to fit. ERRR.  To the store it was.  I brought a plate with me to try the fit out at the store.

Guess what I found?  A perfect holder for the stamping plates.  It can hold up to 60 plates (my credit card just yelled a little) and the opening is towards the spine of the folder so it is really hard for the plates to accidentally fall out.  It is also small so it can fit into my tool box.  Each page holds 6 cards, three front, three back.  It also has a great removable spine label, so if you have a lot of plates and want different folders for things, this would be a great way to organize. 

Here is the information for the folder:
Itoya, Art Porfolio, Business Card Mini Photo Album.  I got mine at Container Store and it was less than $10.

How do you organize your stamping plates?  How many plates do you have?  What are your favorites?

Witch's Kitchen

This polish job is a little crazy.  I heard about a nail art contest through a couple other blogs.  I decided to come up with an idea and enter.  Here is the contest - http://www.bundlemonster.com/frightnight.  I don't think I will win at all, I just want to get some feedback for the paint job.

Why is it called 'Witch's Kitchen'?  I'm a chef and wanted to incorporate a bubbling witch's cauldron.  I also wanted to try sponging.  Over the past couple of days I flushed out my idea and sketched and planed each individual nail.  Sounds a bit odd, but it really helped in the painting.

ufo in space

I made a nail polish!  Well, I added stuff to clear polish to create a color.  I bought a bunch of glitter a while ago at the craft store.  Some of it bleeds (aka the color leaks from the polish and flows around the clear top coat).  I went through all my glitters and put the bleeding glitters aside.  But then I thought of jelly polishes.  To me a jelly polish is one that has some color but is also somewhat transparent.  I took a half empty bottle of clear polish and added some of the bleeding glitters (hex, fine, rough and the long skinny kind, is that called confetti?).  I mixed and mixed and the final color is this great grape purple with A LOT of glitter.  Some of the glitter has lost the purple/blue color and is just now silver.  But with the jelly effect of the polish it still works.  I layered this polish (I have named it Grape Jelly) over a deep purple.  It had this space/night sky quality to it so I added some silver stars from a plate.  But then, when flipping through my plates to find the mini stars I found a UFO!!  So I added the UFO to the thumb.

The next day I was wondering what some of my other glitter jelly polishes look like so I added a coat to my nails...

One simple blue jelly glitter to the left and this awesome green/blue glitter to the right.  To be honest, I only bought the green/blue glitter for marking my kitchen tools.  I have a bright sparkly pink to mark my knives.  Why mark your tools like this?  It makes it very very clear what tools/knives are yours so people are less likely to steal them.

I'm not a fan of the way the blue jelly polish turned out with all the other stuff under.  I do however love the green/blue glitter.  I think it would look awesome on top of just a black polish.

Sinful Colors - Mesmerize, Green Ocean, Nail Junkie
mine - Grape Jelly
Plate - Cheeky CH4

Has anyone made their own polish before?  Do you use jelly polishes?

elegant blocking

After seeing some pretty cool color blocking nails on the web, I decided to give it a try.  I need to be more patient next time.  When I started to peel the tape off, some of the base color (grey) started to come off around the cuticle.  After peeling it back, the two colors just looked a little bland by themselves so I jazzed it up a little with some gold glitter polish.

I just found a great site for nail art supplies (bornprettystore.com).  I ordered a bunch of stuff (danger danger) including some nail studs.  These are like rhinestones but flatter and metal.  I also got some glow in the dark nail polish colors!!  I think I might redo this paint job, even with the same colors once the studs come.  This would look good with either the silver or gold studs.  But I have even more selection than that, because I got both square and circle.  This package is coming from Hong Kong, so I just hope to get it in time for Halloween.

Sinful Colors - Mesmerize, Jungle Trail, All About You, Why Not

Has anyone done any color blocking with tape?  Do you have metal studs for your nails?  Any tips and tricks before my package comes?

ocean in the 70s

I had no idea where I was going with this paint job but I love the end result.  It is a little bit 70s and a little bit ocean.  I knew I wanted to use that stamping plate and the new teal color polish.  I also knew I wanted an accent nail but no clue what to do.  I used this color hex glitter before.  It is AWESOME.  It looks like fish scales (side note - I hate de-scaling fish, you think glitter is messy but it has nothing on fish scales, those things get everywhere, I also have a random fear of touching a whole fish that still has its eyes).  The glitter before was used over a lilac color (sorry, no photo because over all it was an awful paint job) and it turned this golden pinky color.  It looks great on top of this metallic teal.

This paint job makes me want to go swimming.  And now that I look at the photo, it sort of reminds me of a mermaid.  I don't know if the colors on the stamping would work with any other stamp because they are sort of similar but with the circles, they just flow together.

Sinful Colors - Mesmerize, Gorgeous
Plate - Cheeky CH7

Has anyone used this type of hex glitter?  Have you ever done a paint job that reminded you of something but in an abstract way?