It's a Boy!

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy yesterday!  Here's the mani I came up with for the joyous event!

Starting at the thumb and going clockwise, the polishes used are SpaRitual Circle of Life, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, Essie Avenue Maintain, L'Oreal Royally Yours (how appropriate!!) and OPI No Room for the Blues; two coats each; topped with SV.

Stamped with various images from plates MJ VIII (full size image on index finger); OB39 (thumb), SdP 66 (crown on pinky - on further down pix), MJ II (hands and wording It's a Boy on index, rattle on pinky), and Big SdP K (full size image on ring finger).  Polishes used were white, royal purple and red Konad special polishes and turquoise Mundo de Unas stamping polish.



I did such a terrible job of lining up the double stamping needed to create the flag on the thumb using the OB39 plate, so had to hand paint in some of the lines....but did better than I thought considering it was my first attempt! Hopefully with a bit of practise, I can eventually do some double stamping better!

Added a few random dots using China Glaze Bahamian Escape and L'Oreal Royally Yours.



Topped with SV.



Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Big SdP K, blue, china glaze, Essie, l'oreal, MJ II, MJ VIII, Mundo de Unas, OB39, OPI, SdP, SdP 66, skittles, SpaRitual

3, 2, 1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year! These are the nails I'm wearing tonight for the countdown to the New Year!



Started with a base of two coats of SpaRitual Cassiterite, no topcoat.



Stamped using black Konad special polish using Dash 16 (streamers on pinky), fauxnad D (couple on ring), MM02 (middle), Nailways Snowwhite-New Years (clock on index), fauxnad m47 (numbers on thumb) and Sugar Bubbles special 01 (fireworks on index).



Added more fireworks above the couple and a few random stars using Cheeky 26.



Topped with topcoat.



Have a fun and safe New Year's....and all the best to you and yours in 2013!!

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Unknown Dash 16, fauxnad D, fauxnad m47, gold, Messy Mansion, MM02, Nailways, SdP, SpaRitual, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 01

Digit-al Dozen: Festiveness Day 4

I got a couple new plates in the mail yesterday, which happen to be fulllll of holiday images, so I thought I'd try them out for Day 4 of the challenge.  Here's what I came up with.

Started with a base of three coats of Spa Ritual Marble; this pix has topcoat.  I had bought Marble as I was looking for a different white base other than my usual white creme...forgetting I already own Nicole By OPI It's All About The Glam!  Well, now I have two sparkle/shimmery whites to use as stamping bases!

Stamped using FUN green, red and blue metallic stamping polishes, using SdP 83 (ring), HD07 (middle), Nailways 0002 (pinky), Sugar Bubbles Special 01 (thumb) and SdP 59 (index).

Topped with SV (I applied a little too much on the middle finger and it wrinkled when it was wet but it did dry flat).

A pix of after it dried ....the middle finger wrinkles dried pretty well.  (This pix was taken a few hours after I had finished...and after I had broken the middle nail.)

Here's a couple pix of the Sugar Bubbles special plates.  Oodles of holiday images on them!

Sugar Bubbles can be found on Facebook here.

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's if you'd like to check them out...so much creativity in the group!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Christmas, Digit-al Dozen, Fauxnad, FUN stamping polish, HD07, Nailways, SdP, SdP 59, SdP 83, SpaRitual, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 01, white

Finally Getting Around to Posting My Father's Day Mani

These are the nails I was wearing on Sunday, which was Father's Day.  Unfortunately, I'm late in publishing this post because I don't have reliable internet service on the weekends and by the time I got home on Sunday night to do the post and had reliable internet, I was was terribly ill.  Sicker than I've been in a long, long time.  Eye infection in both eyes, sore throat, dry hacky cough along with a  fever. I quickly posted a pix to FB AiS for the Sunday challenge being glitter (hence the small amount of glitter under Dad to make it challenge appropriate!) then headed off to bed to try to rest.  Four days later, I'm still not feeling the best, but did want to get this posted before it's so long after Father's Day it's not appropriate! 

This is the tribute mani I did for my dear ol' Dad.

Polishes starting with thumb and working clockwise are SpaRitual Indigo, Billie Electric Blue, Essence Walk on Air, Maybelline Color Show Shocking Seas, and GOSH Limited Edition Attitude. While these aren't necessarily the colours I would have chosen if I was at home as they don't really go together that well, they are an assortment of blues I happen to have with my on the weekend and had to do.  I now keep a supply of random polishes, plates and nail supply stuff at my weekend place versus hauling everything back and forth every weekend and holiday like I did last year.   

Added a coat of Essence Choose Me! on thumb.  It's more teal/green than the blue as seen in these pix...not sure why its not more colour accurate as the pix were taken in the natural, bright sunlight. 

Stamped using white Konad special polish.  Plates used where CH28 (ties on middle finger), T40 (fish-doublestamped the reeds), SdP D14 (Dad banner), T28 (wolf), SdP 59 (bird), SdP 3 (leaf) and SdP 72 (coffee cup).  In addition to this being for Father's Day, hence the Dad and ties, the rest are tribute to my Dad.  He has love and fascination with nature and wildlife so added the wolf, bird and leaves.  I won't say how many t-shirts and sweat shirts that he has with wolves, loons, etc. on them!  Enjoys nothing better than sitting on his deck watching and listening to the birds around all the feeders he has placed.  Loves to fish and also has his scuba diving license.  (If only there was a scuba diver stamp!  Would be so cool on the thumb along with this stamping! ) And like me, has a love of coffee...in fact, the family joke is that my Dad's vehicle is on autopilot to drive into every Tim Horton's that he passes for a coffee and 10 Timbits. 

Added a few random dots for colour interest and a bit of glitter in the Dad banner just to make it challenge appropriate for the AiS FB glitter mani challenge. 

We took my parents out for brunch and had a great day later just lounging around the deck chatting with them.  In addition to brunch, we gave my Dad a card and a gift card...to Tim Hortons, of course!  My son also gave his grandpa the day off from cutting his grass as he did it for him, which was nice of him too.

Just for something to do, I took a pix of my quasi mani station at my weekend place which I thought I'd share.  Nothing high tech here....just newspaper down on the coffee table.  Looking at it now, it seems like an extraordinary amount of nail stuff so keep on hand just to do the odd mani on the weekend......lol!

My view while I do my nails.  I usually do my nails on the deck but with the humidity over the weekend, decided to stay indoors in an attempt not to have any polish challenges.  Even indoors has air conditioning and fan challenges but they were in the other room so I took my chances.

Thinking back now, I was OK when I seen my Dad on Sunday morning and afternoon and wasn't feeling ill until the evening...looking back, I hope I didn't give him another 'present'....my sickness....I'll have to call him soon to see how he's feeling. (edit:  I did give him a call Wednesday and he's feeling fine, no sickness....thank goodness!)

Thanks for looking! 

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Unknown Billie, blue, CH28, Cheeky, essence, Father's Day, Fauxnad, gosh, Konad, maybelline, SdP, SdP 3, SdP 59, SdP 72, skittles, SpaRitual, T28, T40

Family Day Mani...for Family Day!

Today is Family Day in Ontario...aka...an excuse for a long weekend in February! I thought I'd do a mani about my family; this is what I came up with!



I'm on the thumb...a coffee loving, card playing, nail fanatic!

Next is DH. He loves the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing cards...and eating! That cupcake was suppose to be on my nail as I'm the baker and I had another food image for his nail...just not enough room!

Middle finger is DS1. No, he's not a closet Jason! lol! That's a goalie mask as DS is a goalie for lacrosse....right now, he's playing for a JrA lacrosse team in our area...is was also on Team Ontario, who won the National Championship this past summer for his age group...ya, he lives, eats and breathes lacrosse! He's also a big gamer....but I chose to add a pair of earphones as, typical of most teens...at least any I know of, he has a wire hanging out of at least one of his ears from his ipod most of the time.

Ring finger is DD...the butterfly is for Ms. Social Butterfly...also a makeup loving, shop 'til she drops teen...who has a massive sweet tooth, hence the candy! Too bad that I mumble stamped all these together...she's also loves to sing and dance...I had stamps set aside for her nail for this too...just not enough space on my little nails.

Pinky is DS2...a massive gamer too, hence Pikachu! In addition to gaming (when he's not eating, sleeping or breathing), he also likes to swim as well play with his pal Spike...who's right on the tip of the nail!



Base colours, two coats, starting at thumb, are Duri Taming of the Shrew, SpaRitual Circle of Life, China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (3 coats), CND Sweet (this could be a one coater but I did two), and LA Girl Disco Brites Psychedelic (3 coats).



Stamped using white Konad special polish using unnamed/unmarked fauxnad for coffee, fauxnad m56 (leaf), NailArt Diva WBO8-4 (mask and hockey stick), Lilic A02 (shoe), CH17 (lipstick), CH6 (candy), Lilic A01 (cupcake), SdP 57 (nail polish bottle and butterfly) and m48(cards), CH27 (headphones), and XXL Big SdP-01(doggy).

Added a few hearts and stars by isolating them from the full size plate images on KD3.


Lastly, added a few random dots and topped with SV.



Hope you had a good weekend...its going to be tough going back after three days off though!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown CH17, CH27, CH6, Cheeky, china glaze, CND, duri, Fauxnad, fauxnad m56, KD3, LA Girl, Lilic, Lilic A01, Lilic A02, m48, Nail Art Diva, SdP 57, skittles, SpaRitual, XXL Big SdP-01

How's Your Weather? This is What I'm Seeing...

We're had some nasty weather over the last few days; in fact, its snowing right now as I type this post. The snowy conditions was the inspiration for this mani.



Started with two coats of Spa Ritual Circle of Life and OPI Bride's Bouquet on accent finger; all two coats.



Added Color Club Starry Temptress topcoat; one coat on most nails but two on the accent nail.



Stamped with Konad white special polish using Big SdP K on thumb and assortment of snowflake images from XL K on rest of the fingers....except the pinky; on it, I used a couple of the snowflakes from the full size image from SdP K on it. I adore the snowflakes from XL K....a couple of these snowflake images are very cool!



For the stamping accent finger, used the same Big SdP K design with Konad special blue polish.



What?!! Based on the bottles, I expected the blue special polish to stamp pretty close to Spa Ritual Circle of Life, but it stamped much lighter. See bottle comparisons here:



What can you do? I wish it would have stamped closer to the colour of Circle of Life but it is what it is. *sigh*

Added a few more of the smaller flakes from Big SdP K here and there to fill in some bare spots.



Topcoat of SV to finish it off.



I'm not looking forward to my commute to work in the morning due to the snow we're having right now....in fact, I'd say its the most we've had all at once all season....and it's suppose to turn to freezing rain in the early hours of the morning. Maybe I'll call in sick (cough, cough!!) lol!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Big SdP K, blue, color club, layering, OPI, SdP, SpaRitual, XL K

Giveaway Winner Revealed...Plus New Plates!

Did you enjoy the Christmas Eve post? This was the little project that I was working on that I alluded to a few posts back....I did a theme or two every time I changed my nails for most of the month of December and I think I did three on the day of Christmas Eve to finish it off...and still had more thoughts in my head of mani's I wanted to post for more of the poem but just ran out of time! I had plans of doing posts for each of the manis shown but chances are, it may not happen, so if anyone is reallllyyyy wanting to know a plate used in one of the images, or a base colour or anything, leave a comment in this post, or the Christmas Eve post or shoot me an email, and I'll be glad to let you know!



I know some of you are anxiously awaiting the results of my giveaway which ended last week but first I wanted to show you my Christmas gift to me that arrived a few days before Christmas.


Some of you may know that Shirley over at Dashica Beauty Shop ** released a bunch of new image plates a few weeks ago; my order arrived December 22nd. I was thrilled when I got to looking at them when I seen a bunch of the full size images are perfect for allowing the base coat of the polish to show through which is right up my alley right now...this was one of my many, many suggestions to her...I'm sure she got tired of hearing from me with all my image plate suggestions!


As I'm getting more and more into layering and different polish finishes but am a stamper at heart...these full size images allow the best of both worlds! I love to use full image plates when stamping as they are so simple and quick to stamp onto your nail especially when you don't have much time to do your nails.....which is my life most of the time to be honest!

Started with a base of Spa Ritual Solitude.



Added one coat of KleanColor Holo Chrome. Hello holo! Wowzers!



Stamped using Konad black special polish using image plate SdP 47.


Added random dot of L.A. Girl Disco Brite Platforms for colour interest. Topped with SV. This image is perfect for layering, don't you think? To me, the polish and layering possibilities just using this image are endless...never mind the numerous other images that there are on these plates. Fantastic!


Now onto the giveaway winner.....thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway and for checking out my blog! There were 234 comments left on the giveaway post...there was the odd duplicate and some gals commented several times with updates...but once everything was tallied, there were 435 *ballots*. I used random.org to pick a winner...unfortunately, I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out quickly how to take a screen shot of the results, cut, paste and post it, but I did take a pix and this is who was chosen:




Congrats rock-or-not!

An email has gone out to rock-or-not and hopefully she will reply in the 72 hours or this post will be updated. Thanks again to Beautiful Scratchers who donated some of the image plates for the giveaway...the rest of the plates and polish were paid and supplied by me!

Edit: I did hear back from rock-or-not and her package will be mailed out soon!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! It's a very busy time of year for my family but hopefully, New Years long weekend will be a little more relaxing!

Thanks for looking!

Edit: Feb 27 2012: rock or not emailed that her package has been received!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

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Unknown Fauxnad, kleancolor, Konad, LA Girl, layering, SdP, SdP 47, SpaRitual

Birthday Giveaway Winners Revealed!

Thank you to everyone who entered my Birthday Giveaway...and thank you to everyone who has waited oh so patiently for the results (or maybe impatiently and were just to polite to say anything!! lol) The votes were reviewed, tabulated, and then entered into the appropriate giveaway of your choice...or choices as in the case of a lot of gals.

Here's the results: Giveaway #1 (Nicole by OPI - Biebers) - Precious Pearl

Giveway #2 (Icing Sheen Polishes) - Kejal

Giveway #3 (LA Girls Glitter Addict) - Riikka

Giveway #4 (Oops! Jealous Polishes) - Olivia Nobody

Giveway #5 (Oops! Jealous Polishes) - Oana

Congrats!!!! Emails have been sent out and those who had their names drawn will have 48 hours to reply or another draw will occur for that applicable number(s).

Thanks too for everyone who took the time to comment....this was an easy extra vote and it was interesting to see that only about 50% added a comment...and some gals really put some thought into it....I thank you for taking the time to do this if you did. There were a lot of requests for posts and whatnot along with suggestions; I'll probably address in a future post.

And here's a mani I did recently....while I've been chomping at the bit to start Halloween mani's, I had a funeral visitation to attend recently and couldn't very well go with ghosts and goblins on my nails, but my next mani should be Halloween related (I hope!). In real life, the flaky isn't so obvious and this was actually pretty subdued; it just looks so glowy because of the intentional angle of my hand pose.

Started with two coats of SpaRitual Spirit Child.


And ended with a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.

Another look.


Congrats again to Precious Pearl, Kejal, Riikka, Olivia Nobody and Oana!!!

And as always, here's my super sophisticated selection process!





*for some reason, I can't get it to load, so will edit post or repost another time but don't want to delay any more on posting this...so at this point, you'll just have to trust that those were the names drawn!*

Edit: October 24, 2011: Unfortunately, I did not hear back from Riikka and its been well over 48 hours and she hasn't replied to my email; I hope she's doing something fabulous like being on holiday to miss out on the prize! Anyway, I did double check I sent email to the address she had requested and I had, so the bad news for Riikka is I had to draw another name for Prize 3; the good news is that Lulu (@ greeklulu) has had her name drawn and will have 48 hours to reply. The other 4 gals contacted me within the 48 hours as required.

Welcome if you are a new follower-I had a few of you start to following after the giveway ended so thanks for checking out my blog! Please don't be disappointed if you didn't enter this giveaway....another one is in the works thanks to a generous etailer! Details to follow soon!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown flaky, giveaway, layering, sally hansen, SpaRitual