Digit-al Dozen, Geek Week; Day 4

Another mani for the gaming geeks! 

Base polishes, starting at thumb, are Zoya Dea, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Red My Fortune Cookie; OPI Bride's Bouquet and Essie Shelter Island; two coats each; topped with SV.

Stamped using various plates; DRK-C (thumb), MJ VII (ring); Sugar Bubbles 007 (pinky) as well as added two stamping decals made with Sugar Bubbles 004 (brief tutorial on this to follow).  Stamping polishes used were all Konad special polishes; black, white, red, green and yellow.

Added Mario and Luigi to thumb from XXL Big SdP 2 using black Konad; as well as the moustache from Winstonia W109.

For some filler, added a few clouds on the middle finger using Sugar Bubbles 007 as well as a few random dots using yellow and red Konad special polish.

Topped with SV.

For those who may be wanting to do some stamping decals, I've taken a few pix as I went along for the one decal I used here.

Stamp your image onto your stamper.

With a fine tipped brush, fill in the leaves with your polish.  I've used Konad special polishes, here but you can use regular polishes too.  (Please excuse my messy workstation in the background!)

Do more filling in of the image; this time I added white in the areas used a dotting tool for the dots.

Further fill in the main part; I used a brush and filled in the red.

Apply coat of SV around the image.  I've found one coat is good; and try not to go too far past the stamped image.  If you do apply too much topcoat and then there is too much of a free edge when you place it on your nail, it's easy to remove with remover with a light hand.

Once the SV is dry, it's ready to apply.  I took it off with a toothpick and applied on my nail after my nail had been coated with a coat of clear, and after the base was good and dry.  Its important that the the clear coat be applied as otherwise, it won't stick that well plus it helps it to lay down that flat. I also use my fingers and push the decal down fairly hard onto the nail as it has a tendency to want to curl up (which is why it's important to make sure base is good and dry).  When the image is placed on the nail and as smooth as possible, add a coat of SV to seal.  When you are placing the decal onto your nail, a little bit of decal wrinkling may happen but usually not too noticeable once the coat of SV is placed to adhere the decal.  I found that there was less decal wrinkling on the nail with one coat of SV onto the stamper versus two, which was called for in the original tutorial I was following; I found two coats made it thicker and then it wrinkled more on the nail.

Thanks again goes to Julia, the creator of Messy Mansion, who originally posted the tutorial of the stamper decal here!  There are so many possibilities now with stamped images; just a little time and preplanning...it really takes stamping to a whole new level!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown china glaze, Digit-al Dozen, DRK-C, Essie, Fauxnad, Konad, MJ VII, OPI, SdP, skittles, Stamper Decal, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles 004, Sugar Bubbles 007, XXL Big SdP-02, zoya

Digit-al Dozen, Geek Week; Day 3

There's been a few Star Wars mani's posted already this week in the Digit-al Dozen gallery; I had one planned too....this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet, Sinful Colors Cool Gray and one coat of FingerPaints Black Expressionism; topped with SV. (Please excuse the little SV bubble on the middle finger!)

Stamped using Ch45 (thumb) and Sugar Bubbles 004 (ring, middle and index) using black Konad special polish; used MJ VIII on pinky using Nicole By OPI Give Me The First Dance.

I remember lots of space craft fighting and big explosions in the Star Wars movies; I tried to recreate some exploding ship/space debris, so added Apipila P.02 on thumb; then Sugar Bubbles 003 star french tips on the other fingers.  While the space ship on the thumb isn't true to Star Wars, it was the closest space craft type of image I had (other than a rocket).

Topped with SV.

Star Wars isn't a typical theme that I would normally do, so I'm glad that there are themes like this as part of the Digit-al Dozen, which is taking me out of my stamping comfort zone...I now wish there was a C3PO and R2D2 image...and Chewy....and the rest of the characters on image plates.....including a proper Star Wars type of space craft! 

Thanks for looking!

 

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Unknown CH45, Digit-al Dozen, FingerPaints, MJ VIII, Nicole by OPI, OPI, sinful colors, skittles, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles 003, Sugar Bubbles 004

Digit-al Dozen, Geek Week; Day 1

I had a bit of a challenge over the weekend...due to lack of time to do my nails, I was trying to come up with a mani that could fit a dual purpose; one that could used in the FB Adventures in Stamping Sunday challenge of using a plate ending in 6.....AND fit the Digit-al Dozen Geek Week Challenge..... here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of one coat of FingerPaints Black Expressionism (no pix as have shown before).  I didn't put a coat of SV on top of my base as I thought one coat would dry fairly fast and while my nails were drying, I was looking through my plate stash for images to use for more Geek Week mani's....a decision that haunted me during the whole mani process for a variety of reasons. 

Once base was dry, added tips Sugar Bubbles 004 plate, with an assortment of FUN stamping polishes (Mango Shake, Cotton Candy, Bubble Blue and Avocado Green).  This is where the haunting began!  I'm not sure why, but I had inconsistent stamping results with the Sugar Bubbles plate and the images didn't stamp 100%.  So I used a brush with acetone and removed the misstamped image on the middle and index finger and restamped...but didn't line it up too well.  You can see in these pix where I removed them...I wouldn't have had so much of an issue with removing the misstamp if I had have put SV on my nails.  Also stamped the accent finger, used full size image from Apipila P.02, stamped using FUN Mango Shake.

Added images above the tips using Lilic's A06...and my stamping woes continued...when I stamped the image above the french tip on the index finger, it was a major misstamp...it couldn't be fixed so I had to remove the whole base and stamping and do over....which is why you will see the blue tip on the pix below is slightly different than the blue tip on the pix above.  You can see too the re-stamping on the tips of the index finger, the images aren't 100%.  Disappointing.

Topped with SV. 

This didn't turn out too badly all things considering the problems I had...and its not too bad when not in macro!  I'm sure that next time, I won't made the decision not to SV my base coat ...it makes such a difference for removing stamping fails! 

Thanks for looking!

...

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Unknown Apipila P. 02, black, Digit-al Dozen, FingerPaints, FUN stamping polish, Lilic, Lilic's A06, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles 004

Happy 2013!!

After a month of wearing mainly green, white, red and gold, I was feeling like something different for my next mani when I got around to doing my nails on New Year's Day.  So after sorting through my stash, decided on purple; this is what I came up with.....and what I've been wearing the for last three days!



Started with a base of two coats of Ulta Tutu Cute; this pix has no topcoat.



Added NYX Girls Silver Glitter, no topcoat.



Layered a little Maybelline Color Show Sequins Lavender Sparks, no topcoat, then waited about 15 minutes for the various layers to dry before stamping.





Stamped with Konad white special polish using Sugar Bubbles special 01.



Topped with SV.



I wish you a healthy and prosperous 2013...let's hope it's a fantastic year!!!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Fauxnad, glitter, gradient, Konad, layering, maybelline, NYX Girls, purple, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 01, Ulta

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

New Year's Eve Party Nails

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge is New Year's or Party related....this is that I came up with.



Started with a base of FingerPaints Black Expressionism, two coats (no pix as shown before).  Stamped using FUN stamping polishes Bubble Blue, Cotton Candy, Avocado Green and Mango Shake using SdP 76 (hat on pinky), MM02 (Happy New Year wording on index and streamers on middle), Sugar Bubbles special 01 (glasses and champagne and fireworks on thumb).



Added a few random stars using Sugar Bubbles special 01 with the various stamping polishes.



Topped with SV.

 

 I have a few more Christmas nails to show but I guess it will have to wait until after New Year's...or next year because I have a few more New Year's manis to share.

And if you haven't seen it already and you are interested in my latest giveaway, please click on the Gals pix at the top side of the page.

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown black, FingerPaints, FUN stamping polish, Messy Mansion, MM02, SdP, SdP 76, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 01

Challenge Mani

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping Challenge was to do a mani featuring the colours from your Christmas tree.  My tree pretty much has most colours under the rainbow, but has strong gold and red decorative accents, which is also the majority of the colour scheme for the rest of the house decorations, so those were the colours I chose to do for the mani....here's what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of Layla Softouch Effect 02.  I received this polish as a RAOK from KarenD at Frazzle and Aniploish.  After seeing the Layla's in one of her blog posts and then looking for them at Ulta during my last cross border shopping trip but they weren't available, KarenD was good enough to offer to pick them up with a few other pretties....THEN before I have even had a chance to pay, she messaged that they were on their way to me!   Thanks so much again, Karen!

Added a few holiday decorations using red Konad special polish and Sally Hansen Jumpin' Jupiter using D07 (present on pinky), Sugar Bubbles special 01 (wreath on thumb), and fauxnad D (tree on middle, candy cane on ring and mistletoe on index).

I was going to do a few accent dots but then I remembered a newly arrived polish from Candy Lacquer called Rudolph's Treats that is circular (!!!) glitters in green, gold and red in a clear base.  So I fished them out and added red on the tree for ornaments and others to accent the wreath and the other images.  Then I fished out more of the circular dots and used to accent throughout as well as used a star shaped rhinestone for the tree topper.

Bottle pix of Candy Lacquer Rudolph's Treats.

Added SV.

Just before taking it off, I topped the mani with Essie Matte About You (which is the first pix) and this is the version I like the most.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend....thanks for looking!

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Unknown Candy Lacquer, D07, Essie, Fauxnad, fauxnad D07, glitter, gold, Indie Polishes, Konad, layla, matte, sally hansen, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 01

Wrapping It Up

This is the second mani I did with the Sugar Bubbles special holiday plates....and another one of these funky frenches!

I'm going to be honest; this is a mani that I had no intention of showing.  While I love the base, and the glitter added..... I failed so badly with the stamping on so many levels that this was a fail that could do without being posted! 

Started with a base of two coats of Contrary Hayride.  Love the shimmer in these Contrary polishes!  And the shimmer isn't hidden like so many other polishes that its gorgeous in the bottle but hidden on the nail.

Bottle pix. 

Added Orly Halo at tips for some glitter accent.

I couldn't decide which gold stamping polish to use that would compliment the base best.....even though there are a bunch of gold chromes/metallics out there, there are different shades....I ultimately chose CND Gold Chrome which is my go to gold stamping polish most of the time, using Sugar Bubbles special 02 plate.

But...and here's the fail part....I failed miserably on the lining up of the ribbons...the ribbons are crooked, the bows aren't centered and are all over the place and the gold didn't show up very well.  I was ticked at myself at this point....didn't even take many pix/didn't worry particularly too much about doing a great job on cleanup.

BUTTTTT, when I got outside, the mani looked totally different and then I loved it (well, less the stamping fails!).

Contrary Polish is available here or mini size bottles or at Llarowe.  Sugar Bubbles here!

Hope you're having a great weekend...thanks for looking!

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Unknown brown, CND, Contrary Polish, glitter, gold, Indie Polishes, layering, orly, Sugar Bubbles, Sugar Bubbles Special 02