Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas everyone. Christmas day is over, the kids have played all day with their new toys, we all ate way too much turkey and I personally must have eaten about 3/4 of a pavlova!  

I can't believe it's been a whole year since I did my last holly leaves mani like this one.  I used the beautiful OPI Golden Eye for my base (which I received a mini of for my birthday earlier this month - I think I will need a full size of this gold!). I hand painted the holly using a green franken and China Glaze Emerald Sparkle.  The holly is created with red rhinestones.  

I can't believe how long my nails are at the moment. I think I must file them down soon, although it's kinda fun having nails this long when I'm not working.  I got this extra length using the Gelicious hybrid gel nails.  I've not got gel on for this mani, but it certainly has helped my nails grow out without breakages.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

It all ends in a few hours...

Whether it be death by solar storm, death by an unseen comet or death by planetary alignment, I thought I might celebrate with some matching nail art. 

For my apocalyptic nails, I created a galaxy design using a black base and sponging on random bits of light blue, dark blue and purple.  Then I put a thin layer of a  holo silver glitter.

In case you were wondering, the middle finger is the earth blowing up, maybe after the comet impact or the solar storm.  I painted it freehand using Ulta3 Blue Marlin, Frog Prince and Lily white the explosion is with Kleancolor Metallic mango, metallic yellow and Pretty Serious Santas Sunburn. 

On my ring finger I stamped today's iconic date. 21.12.2012.  Here is Australia we always put the day first, then the month - although I know that is back to front for many.  I got the numbers from the plate numbers at the bottom of the Bundle Monster plates.

Lastly, I placed some silver holographic hexes randomly on my nails, they look a bit too big in these photos, but in real life they are just right.

Are you doing anything exciting for the end of the world?

Aussie Christmas Challenge - Elf

Today's theme in the Aussie Christmas Challenge is 'Elf'.  I really hope you can work out what I was trying to do here! In cause you need help, this is an Elf's stripy stockings and green shoes with gold bells on the toes.

The base colour is OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons.  The stockings were done using a a white line down the centre of the nail with Ulta3 Lily White, then stamped with Ozotic 621 using stamping plate QA3 (not sure what brand it is but if you google stamping plate QA3 you'll find them).  I hand painted the shoes with a nail art bush using Picture Polish Kryptonite.  The gold bells were added with a dotting tool using Orly Luxe.

On the thumb I attempted some sort of elf outfit or hat, using Ozotic 621 and Kryptonite.

Canberra Cavalry Season opener

A quick scheduled post for tonight, because I'm currently out at the season opening game of baseball.  My husbands team (yes he is still playing in the national league dispute his very veteran status) the Canberra Cavalry is playing Sydney tonight and tomorrow.  Just like I did last year with my series of Cavalry nail art, here is the different design I have come up with this time.

I used Ulta3 Lily white, Picture Polish Citrus and Ulta3 Black Satin.  I did all the lines free hand using a line striper brush. So just when I thought I was all done wearing orange now that Halloween is over, I have to pull out my orange shades again.

Here's hoping they start the season with a win, and for anyone in Australia that's interested in sports, you can watch a highlights program of baseball, featuring tonight's game, next Thursday 8 November 4-5pm on Fox Sports.  I must remember to IQ the show, cause really how often does ones husband appear on Foxtel (plus I can show the video to the kids to explain why Daddy isn't home again - yes, gumpy baseball wife coming out in me again).

Trick or Treat "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

Ohh look, I did a gradient again, are you getting sick of seeing gradients?  I hope not cause I have another one tomorrow.

Here are my trick or treat candy nails.  I created the gradient using all Picture Polish shades. From the cuticle to the tip is Twinkle, Honey Dew, Mellow Yellow and Tango, all such perfect spring pastel shades and perfect for sweet lollies.  I only just got these polishes so I will show individual swatches soon.

Stamping was done using BM306 on the index finger and DRK-B plate for the cupcakes and lollies.  I wrote trick or treat using a sharpie permanent pen. When I applied top coat it dragged the ink a little, but I actually like the look of the dragged bleeding ink because it kind of goes with the whole Halloween theme.

Graveyard "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

We are in the home stretch now with the nail art challenge, only two more days to go.

I did a very simple graveyard look that really relies on the gradient background to provide the ambiance.  I struggled a bit thinking of something for this design, and when that happens I just jump onto google images and do so searches to see if anything catches my fancy.  That is exactly what happened with this image.

I created the gradient using Kleancolor Metallic Black, Picture Polish Kryptonite, Layla Ceramic Effects 61 and Kleancolor Metallic Green.  And finally, following quite a few requests over the last few months from you guys, I created a how-to video of how I create my gradients.  In fact I just filmed it while I was doing this exact manicure.

For the graveyard I hand painted a few tomb stones and stamped some curly trees from the pumpkin design on Bundle Monster plate BM224. This one is another easy peasy design.

Here is my how to create a gradient video.

I'm wearing my Trick or Treat mani today, so I will by changing my mani tonight and selecting my favourite design from another challenger. 

Witches "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

The theme for today in the 'This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge' is Witches, or in my case the singular - Witch.

Here she is leaving her house for the evening, the bats flying in the approaching dark sky.

I started with a base of Ulta3 Lily White, then did a gradient using OPI DS Fantasy, Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire and Ulta 3 Razzle.  I added the moon with a dot from the back of one of my nail art brushes and made it a little bigger with the brush.  

For the stamping, I used BM13 for the witch, BM305 for the house with little bats and BM213 for the other bats - wow I used a plate from each on the Bundle Monster sets for this mani. 

For the final little touch, I added some little gold highlights using Kleancolor Metallic Yellow to the house windows.

Which witch is which :)

Gradient "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

Yay - it's Halloween Challenge day again.  I've really begun to look forward to these posts, and today's is no exception.

For today's gradient theme I chose to do a sunset colour combination with black silhouetted cats. 

I started with a base of Ulta3 Lily white to get a nice blank canvas to work with.  I then used Kleancolor polishes to create the gradient, Metallic Sapphire, Metallic Purple, Metallic Mango and Metallic Yellow.  

To create my gradients, I paint my polish directly onto the makeup sponge in small lines.  I then dab that on my nail and do two nails with the polish on the sponge.  I work my way through my nails doing two at at time.  When I do the second coat, I dab the sponge onto the second finger first and then back onto the first finger, that way they get an even amount of polish. 

I cheated for the cats and made some home made water decals. The black ink on my printer is a little transparent and I probably should have gone over the ink with a black marker to get it blacker, but never mind, I still love the effect and LOVE the kitties on my nails.

Here is what my gradient looked like before I added the black cats.

Bats - "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

Bats - when we say bats at our house it means only one thing - these sorts of bats!  Did I nail the brief for today's challenge? (and yes, the pun was totally intended).

For my real Bat Halloween Challenge mani, I created a swarm of bats flying closer to you.

I used Kleancolor Metallic Orange for the base and then sponged on a black tip and ensured I left the spongey edge rough to give the effect of tiny bats.  I then used various sized bat stamps from the Bundle Monster plates. BM305 for the littlest ones and  BM213 for the larger ones, making the bats get bigger and bigger up the nail.

I based this design off a tutorial on YouTube, although her's are done completely free-hand where I have used stamps.

I was really happy with this design, although I'm not entirely sure why I chose to do an orange background again - I should have done some sort of night sky.  Sometimes its hard to get away from the traditional Halloween colours when doing nail art.

Gradient nails are up next, and while I love doing gradients, I have absolutely no idea what to create to make it halloween themed.

Zombies "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

This was fun!

I spotted this image on google images and knew exactly what I wanted to do for todays theme in the challenge. Here are my zombie nails. 

I starting with cutting jaggered rough edges into my tips, then I used OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons as the base. Using a nail art brush I painted on various lines and shading using Ulta3 Chocolate Cake.  The red is Ulta3 Firetruck and finished with a layer of Essie Matte About You. 

The matte top coat dried a little strange with some white dots, but for this mani I didn't mind at all, just it just ended up looking like some funky nail fungus or something.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no these are not my real nails - these are falsies that I stuck on.

First up - grabbing my victims arm!

I love how creepy this shot is.  My lovely mum took on the role of victim for me, but I feel my fingers are posed a little too pretty. So it's not a scary zombie 'grab you' kind of feel, it's more of a creepy cold zombie hand touching you vibe!

Lastly - I just love these photos.  I never ever thought I would pose my nails with a raw piece of meat as my prop, but it just works so well.  Never say never ladies.

I'm really loving doing this Halloween Challenge, I love having something to inspire me each few days.