little blue bird

I based this paint job off the little blue bird vinyl decal.  Nothing fancy, just add a polka dot nail.  Easy and quick.  Very preppy.  I didn't let the pearl polish dry long enough under the vinyl decal so it is peeling up a bit at the edges (I have curved nails).  The top coat helped hold it down a bit, but I just need to take my time when doing certain paint jobs.

Nicole - Stand By Your Manny
Essie - Room with a View
Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
Sally Hansen - White On

elephants

The elephants are some of the water decals I order a long time ago.  I wasn't that happy with them, especially since I got the awesome vinyl decals right after.  But, these elephant water decals I have been wanting to use for a while.  So I picked out two different colors (there are five colors) and matched them with a basic red polish.  I love the blue elephant but the red elephant turned out a lot more pink than I was hoping.

OPI - Malaga Wine
Essie - Room With A View

valentine's day

Valentine's Day is one of the easier holidays to figure out a paint job for.  Five different pink polishes and a glitter heart sticker - done.  Super easy and really fun.  Bonus - I finally got the heart sticker on straight and center.  I went with a matte top coat to give the already busy paint job a bit more of a mellow feeling.  Plus, the polish on the ring finger has a bit of a glitter undertone to it.  With a gloss top coat it really stands out.  With the matte - nothing.

OPI - Kola Beary, Short's Story
Sinful Colors - Dream On, Easy Going
Sally Hansen - Fuchsia Power

new ring

I got a new ring.  It's a bit odd but I love it.  It doesn't go all the way down at finger, it goes between the middle knuckles.  Strange - yes, but fun - definitely.  It is also really comfortable.  So I wanted to do a paint job that goes with the ring.  Simple gold-ish paint with a heart decal.  Easy and quick but still lets the ring stand out.

Morgan Taylor - Give Me Gold

anchor

When you try and do quick nail art, things get wonky.  Like the anchor is no where near center.  Oh well.  I wanted to do all red nails but I changed my mind when pulling out the red polish.  I wasn't feeling a solid color paint job so I added two accent nails.  A sticker and some dots.  Quick and easy but still fun.  It would look better with stripes instead of dots but I didn't feel like using a stamp and my hands are way too unsteady to do free hand lines (thank you double espresso).

OPI - Got the Blues for Red
Wet & Wild - French White Creme
LA Girls - Flash Freeze

happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope everyone has a great day with family and/or friends.

Hope that all your turkeys turn out perfectly and there are no accidents with a deep fryer.

And that no marshmallows catch fire when trying to heat up the sweet potatoes.

China Glaze - Sugar Plums
Sinful Colors - Lets Meet, Exotic Green

little blue bird

Another great decal from www.makeitstickdesign.com.  This was a decal in the variety pack.  I love it.  Nothing too complicated about it, plus it is in a great color.  I am going to have fun playing with the few bird decals I got (on a same hue pink? or a branch?).

please ignore the air bubbles,

i'm getting towards the bottom of my top coat

I went with a simple white background for the blue bird.  Then a gradient and polka dot nail for the other accent nails.  A solid blue for the 'regular' nails.  Can it still be called an accent nail when there are three of them?  More like a skittlette paint job.

Sinful Colors - Why Not
Sally Hansen - White On

random

Sometimes a random paint job is nice.  I wanted something fresh and fun but had no direction.  I used two more of the great vinyl decals from www.makeitstickdesign.com.  They are so easy to apply.  They are even pretty easy to get off the sheets, at least with tweezers.

I went with a simple contrast for the vinyl decal nails.  Then (it's hard to see) a glitter gradient on the blue nails.  Nothing fancy at all and very quick.  Yes, I had a little issue with the sea horse above, but I just trimmed off the edge and it still works.  I am loving the palm trees.  So much detail in the palm fronds.

Sally Hansen - White On
Wet & Wild - Hallucinate
OPI - Kola Beary
Sinful Colors - Why Not

nautical

I went a bit crazy on Etsy a couple of weeks ago.  Not only did I get those water decals (the owls) but I got a bunch of vinyl nail decals from another seller (www.makeitstickdesign.com).  THEY ARE AWESOME!  Yes, all caps because I am so happy with them.

I got a bunch of different designs and there are so many decals in all different sizes per sheet.  They are true stickers.  And since they are vinyl they hold up after you remove them from the paper (ie the anchor goes on straight, you don't have to adjust it because it is starting to look like it melted).  And each design comes in different sizes (it looks like 5).  This is great because it makes them able to fit all size nails.

I also got the variety pack.  It is totally worth it because there are so many different ones in there.  They aren't complete sheets, but plenty to play around with.  And get to see more of the create colors.  The chevron stripes (paint job coming soon) are single stripes which I find much easier to apply than a full nail sticker.

Back to this paint job.  I used the anchor decal on one finger.  I went with a full stud polka dot nail, stripes and checkered for the others.  The pinky is a solid polish that has some glitter in it.  

Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
MAC - Ming Blue
Sally Hansen - White On, Celeb City

poppies

Another great decal from RLR Creations (www.etsy.com/shop/RLRCreationsNailArt)It is a little big for my short nails but it is still fun.  Again I still need practice with water decals.  It sat in the water a little too long and the red from the poppies started to bleed.

It looks like water color though, so I am okay with it.  I added a polka dot nail and an abstract one.  To finish off the whole look I went with a matte finish.  I like it.  Something very feminine and 1950s about it.  Like I need to be wearing a white dress with a bright red wide belt and some great red wedges. And going to a garden party.

Sally Hansen - White On
Essie - A List
Sinful Colors - Exotic Green

hooo hooo (owls)

I ordered these decals last week and the came rather quickly.  I am so happy.  I got them from RLR Creations (www.etsy.com/shop/RLRCreationsNailArt).  They are great and have so many fresh and fun decals.  They are water decals not just stickers.

My first time using a water decal.  Not quite as easy as a straight sticker but still super easy.  I soaked it a little too long so some of the ink wondered away.  Still love them.  Coming paint jobs will be using these the other decals.

skull

I have been wanting to use these skull nail stickers for a while.  I didn't want a super dark paint job (black nails) so I went with red.  It makes the skull look so girly with the matching bow.

There is nothing fancy or complicated about this paint job but it still fun.  If I were to do this paint job again I would go with a black background for the skull nail.  I didn't bring a black in my mountain kit.  A black base would really make the skull pop.

Sinful Colors - Tokyo Pearl
Nicole - Basking in Gloria

black & red

 I went to the flower mart this morning and am now in the Valentine's mood.  Maybe not totally pink & red, but a little bit of it rubbed off on me.  Side note - I love the flower mart, whole sale flowers sold in large bunches with no fillers.  You can buy the fillers at another stall, but I don't like cabbage in my flowers.  1 dozen spider mums for 5 bucks - yes please.  Plus, so many orchid stores with almost every type and size orchid plant you could dream of.

This was a super easy paint job.  I have been wanting to use this red glitter jelly for a while.  It is in a black jelly that is not quite thick enough alone but looks great over a base of solid black.  Then a deep red on the pinky (I think pinky accent nails should be called high tea accents).
*more after the jump*

simple

Sometimes a simple paint job is all the is required.  Well, adding a little flower sticker is still keeping it simple for me.  The 'skittlette' paint job lasted till yesterday when I had to shovel snow off and away from the wood pile.  Then, brush and de-ice my car.  I don't think there is a single nail polish out there that can survive super cold weather, snow, wood stacking, etc.  I went with a simple paint job because it is suposted to snow for the next five days so it will be more shoveling, wood stacking, car prepping, etc.

MAC - Girl Trouble

What is the hardiest nail polish you use?  What is your opinion of nail stickers?

Rock Star

Stickers!  For some reason I thought stickers would be a good idea on my nails.  Well, they do work in theory but these particular stickers just don't work.  I guess when getting stickers I should go for the cheaper stickers that don't hold their shape.  For the life of me, these stars would not bend to go on the nail.  Will I try again, probably since I have a full sheet of stars.  I think my problem was I put the stars on while the white polish was still a little tacky.  I might even wait until the next morning next time.  And the corner of the stars are wickedly sharp and pointy.  They keep catching on things.  Overall I do like the look of the metallic stars on the white base.  It is sort of punk-rock but very bright and cheery.  The pinky does look a little funny but these were the smallest star stickers I could find.  Till next time...

Sally Hansen - White On

Has anyone else used stickers on their nails?  Any tips or tricks to getting them to stay on your nails?