Digit-al Dozen, Books; Day 4

Another mani based upon a book I finished not too long ago....can you guess which book this mani is based upon?

It's a book I've had for a while even thought I just finished reading it recently.  I also have the DVD that was based upon the book too, but haven't watched it yet.  I'm kinda funny when it comes to movies that have been based upon books in that I won't watch the movie until I've read the book.  This is for a couple reasons but mainly because I find the book more entertaining than the movie so I want to read the book first so I'm not privy to any spoilers by watching the movie first.  Another reason is there are so many times I've watched a movie and then read the book only to find so many liberties have been taken in the movie that I'm disappointed when I read the book because I'm expecting something else to happen...or maybe this means I'm disappointed in the movie.....if that makes sense!  Sometimes too I have great expectations in the movie as I loved the book and then, the movie is a let down.....looking at you, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown...loved the book...the movie was just so so.  So if I know that a book has a movie based upon it, I generally always read the book first and then watch the movie/DVD.  So this means that I've never watched the Twilight movies (I have the books, just haven't read them yet), Harry Potter series (same...but I have to admit I've seen snippets of the movies here and there while my kids have watched the DVD's), I just finished Time Traveler's Wife last month and while I've had the DVD for ages, just haven't watched it...as I wanted to read the book first!!! lol (makes me sound nuts even typing this!).  In the case of the Time Traveler's Wife; I hope the movie is better than the book! 

So....did you guess......

Started with a base of OPI Bride's Bouquet (two coats) and FingerPaints Black Expressionism (one coat); topped with SV.

Stamped using black and white Konad special polishes using Apipila 03 (ring and thumb) MJ II (pinky), FUN2 (index) and MJ VI (middle).

Topped with SV.

I plan on watching the DVD of The Help over the weekend now that I've finished the book...I hear its pretty good!

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Apipila, Apipila 03, Digit-al Dozen, FingerPaints, FUN 2, MJ II, MJ VI, OPI

Digit-al Dozen, Bling; Day 4

Does this look blingy?  Struggling with the theme of bling, I googled bling to see the definition and to make sure I'm following the theme; in the process, seen bling means flashy too; I think the holo in this mani is pretty flashy...so decided to post this mani as part of bling week!

Started with a base of Jade Holografico Uau! two coats, no topcoat.  This is a polish I lemmed for so long!  I missed a couple restocks on llarowe and I thought I'd never have it in my stash but was able to snag it eventually one of them!  I adore this polish; can't wait to do some Halloween/fall mani's with it several months from now too! I've since picked up a few other orange holo polishes; I could do a comparison some time but don't think I'd have anything to add from what The Crumpet mentioned/compared here.

The first mani that came to mind when I had this polish on was the stamped butterfly wing design.  I'd never used this design before and going over my stamping plates, there are a few different butterfly wing options. 

Apipila 03

NailCraze 01

Vivid Lacquer 002 and 004.

I looked at them all and was trying to figure out what plate(s) would work best for my nails as well as trying to figure out how best they should be placed.  It was a bit of a challenge to be honest; some of the large designs looked too big even for my largest nails but the smaller images, too small for the larger nails like the thumb and middle. After some analysis, I ultimately decided to use the NailCraze plate.  Even when it was stamped, it seemed a little on the large size for my nails or I lined it up wrong, who knows.  Anyway, here's what it looked like after stamping.

Not perfect by any means.  But no worries!  Grabbed a fine brush and just painted in the lines and filled where I thought it should be!

Another pix with different lighting.

Added assortment of white dots with a dotting tool using white Konad special polish. 

I had been given a bottle of HongKong Girl topcoat by one of my local supply places.  It was mentioned by a gal on one of the boards that it dries pretty fast, has high gloss finish, no shrinkage or image smear issues with stamping, so I thought I'd try it.  I must say that I've been sampling it for a few mani's since and haven't had any smear issues nor any shrinkage that I can recall.  But I rarely do anymore with SV either.  I don't think it dries quite as fast as SV but any difference was minimal.

I wore this mani for a few days; here's a pix later when I was outside. These pix look a little better as less black stamping polish at the cuticles lol!

A rare pix of my right hand; for this hand, I used the Apipila plate.

I must say that this mani was very eye catching and flashy; I got a lot of compliments during the time I was sporting these butterfly wings.  This is sure to be a mani I'll be doing again; and maybe then, I'll have figured out how to place the wing stamping a little better...or I'll be filling in with a brush again!

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Apipila, Apipila 03, Digit-al Dozen, Fauxnad, Holographic, Jade, Konad, NailCraze 01, orange, VL002, VL004

Digit-al Dozen: Art, Day 5

Day 5 of the art challenge is here and I made it!  I actually did better than I thought I would with the challenges mainly because of my lack of knowledge regarding art so it was a real challenge coming up with some mani's around the theme.  It also expanded my mani horizons if you will....I'm definitely sure I never would have done a Pollock inspired mani otherwise, or even the Warhol one...and I think the Warhol mani was one of the more interesting mani's I've done in a while....anyhoo, here's the mani I came up with for the last day!



Cartoons are art, aren't they?  I've had a note to do a Sponge Bob mani for a while now (I have an ongoing list of mani ideas as I think of them, or while I'm searching through my plate stash, I may get an idea but it's not appropriate to do the mani I'm thinking of doing, like Sponge Bob at Christmas or whatnot, so I keep an ongoing list of mani ideas on my notepad on my iphone for future use in case I'm lacking inspiration some day!).  The challenge, combined with the newly purchased bottle of Hit the Lights moved the mani idea to reality. 

Here's two coats of Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, part of the Selena Gomez collex.  This is two coats, topped with SV.  I know this isn't an accurate colour for Sponge Bob but I had picked this bright yellow up as I had read out there on the blogesphere that it applied well, was non streaky for a yellow and wanted to try it out for myself.....and I have to agree!  No complaints here!  I'm sure this will be a colour I'll be wearing for many summer mani's!



Added images using Konad black special polish being XXL Big SdP 2 (pinky), 12-56 (thumb), Apipila 03 (index), and QA2 (middle and ring).



Using Konad pastel blue special polish, added a few dots as well as blue irises for Bob.  Also stamped in the flower on the ring finger using another image from QA2.



Added a few more dots using Nicole by OPI Selena, another polish from the Selena Gomez collex. I chose this colour to mimic Patrick's skin tone (hopefully).



Gave Bob some pupils with black Konad special polish.



Topped with SV.



Here's the other ladies posts for Day 5 of the challenge.

Well, I survived the art challenge!  I actually expanded my horizons and learned some interesting facts in the the process as I did a lot of googling of art, did reading on certain topics like Egyptian history, loads about Andy Warhol's life, etc. so the challenge was fairly successful to me personally even if it wasn't translated onto the blog....but to the ladies in the Digit-al Dozen who may be reading this....let's make art a challenge in 2016 next, k? lol!

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!!!

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Unknown Apipila 03, Digit-al Dozen, Fauxnad, fauxnad 12-56, Konad, Nicole by OPI, QA 2, SdP, XXL Big SdP-02, yellow

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

....we've had rain since last Friday as a result of Hurricane Sandy and I've had enough!   But I thought it would be a good time to use some new plates and polishes and turn them into a little rain themed mani!

Started with a base of two coats of Essie Where's my Chauffeur?  This is from the Essie 2012 Winter collex.  The pix below does not have topcoat.

Added a coat of Elevation Polish Catch a Wave, then topped with SV.

 

Loving this polish!! Do you notice the round glitters?  Click on the images for a better look.  I chose this polish as part of the rain theme as the round glitters represented water droplets (well, in my head anyway!), not to mention the water reference in the name. 

Bottle pix.

Elevation Polish is available via Big Cartel and the shop opens on the 7th and 22nd of the month.  I was able to snag this awesome polish on eBay for $12, which I thought was a pretty good price considering sometimes the eBay auctions for some of the polishes get pretty high!  But this obviously was an unknown gem and I lucked out! 

Did some rain-themed stamping using new plates received from Nailways.  All images used are from Snowwhite-Weather Forecast, using black Konad special polish, except the umbrella on the thumb, which is Apipila 03.

A couple pix of the packaging as received from Nailways.

Information regarding where to order Nailways has been updated in my 'Where I Get My Stuff' tab on the home page.

Topped with a coat of SV to finish (first pix shown).

As much as I'm griping about the rain during the past week, I can only stress that we were relatively unscathed by Hurricane Sandy while many were not as fortunate.  While we've had rain for days, the night the storm hit, the rain was hard and the winds fierce; we had some light flickering but our hydro stayed on and there was no flooding or substantial property damage.  Unfortunately, many other areas were horrifically affected.  My thoughts are with you if you are in an area ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. 

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Apipila, Apipila 03, blue, Elevation Polish, Essie, Fauxnad, glitter, Indie Polishes, Konad, layering, Nailways