Christmas Nails #3

Hey everyone and Happy Friday!!  How many of you are done work for the Christmas season?  Yesterday was my last day of work for the year, and I don't go back until January 6th!!  WOOHOO!!!

I figured with it being less than 5 days till Christmas Day, I should probably post another Christmas mani!  I did this a while ago, because as you know I have been losing my polishing mojo :(  But, let's take a look!

H is for HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN!

Happy Sunday!!  Today is my baby boy's 3rd Birthday!  I can't believe that he is 3 already.. they grow up so fast!  Today is going to be filled with lots of R&R for us as a little family, and we will be headed to Tyler's house for a BBQ, which we have told Owen it's his birthday party ;)

If you are fairly new here, Owen is mine and my fiancé Tyler's furbaby.  He is a Chow/Jack Russell cross, and the love of our lives :D  We treat him as if he is our own flesh and blood, and a birthday is no different!  He got some presents from his Aunt Sarah (my sister) this morning, and I made him some homemade dog treats as well.  I will put pictures up of those at the end, but you came here for the nails!

Now, I didn't time it so that Owen's birthday would fall on the first day for "H" week, that's just how it worked out, and it couldn't have been more appropriate!  If you want to jump in on the ABC Challenge, you're more than welcome to at any time!

H is for Happy Birthday Owen!

Christmas Sweater Nails

Merry Christmas Eve everybody!!  I am so excited that Christmas is (finally) here!  This is my favourite time of the year :D

Today I have my "official" Christmas nails for you - these are going to have to last over the next few days because I will be spending time at family get togethers and I think that I will get some funny looks if I whip out a bottle of polish and all my tools :P

I'm pretty proud of this mani if I do say so myself.  This is mostly for my cousins who love having "ugly Christmas sweater parties".

Pretty sweet, eh?!  For this I used Julep Delaunay as my base colour and then with Konad Special Polish in White and stamping plates M69 (snowflake) and M71 (lace patterns).  Then, to make it more "sweatery" I topped it off with Essie Matte About You top coat.

I am of proud of these, and unfortunately they took longer than I was anticipating (and a lot of q-tips) so I really hope they last until at least the 27th.

What is your favourite Christmas mani you have done this year?  Mine is this one, and my "Santa's Sleigh" nails from yesterday.

I also want to take this time to wish all my readers a Very Merry Christmas!  I will be away from the computer until the 27th at the earliest.  I do have a scheduled post for you tomorrow though, in case any of you have a couple minutes to log on ;)  I hope Santa's good to everybody, and be safe!

XOXO

Christmas Wreath Half Moons

Well, looks like we all survived December 21, 2012!  Who wants to make t-shirts?!  ;)  And to top it off, we got some snow last night so *breaks into song* it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today I have for you a Christmas twist on half moon nails - I have turned them into Christmas wreathes :D  I can't believe we are only 4 days away from Christmas day!  This month has gone by way too fast!  I remember when I was younger, December would always drag by so slowly because I was so excited for Christmas!  Christmas Day and Boxing Day also seemed to last forever too, but now it seems you do all these preparations for Christmas and then before you know it, it's all over.  Maybe we should do Christmas nails all through the year :D

Anywho, onto my wreathes...

For this I used 2 coats of Julep Alyson as my base colour.  Then with hole reinforcements, I created my half moon curve a little further down the nail than you normally would with a half moon and painted Avon Ruby Slippers on the tip.  After removing the reinforcements, I used Zoya Logan and my dotting tool to create the bottom of a wreath along the half moon line.  You probably could just do your nails half and half because the bottom of the wreath is what creates the half moon look in the end anyways.

Then using Julep Delaunay and my dotting tool again, I created little berries on the wreath :)  After all that, using Julep Felicity and Konad M71 I stamped bows on the bottom of the wreath.  It didn't stand out as much as I had pictured in my mind, so if you want it to stand out more, it would probably be best to freehand a bow rather than stamping.

I love the way this turned out!  Except for the bow not standing out as much as I hoped, it looks exactly how I pictured it in my head :D

Are you excited that we are so close to Christmas?  What is the favourite Christmas mani you have done so far?

Snowflake French Tip

Thank goodness it's Friday!  There are only 11 days left before Christmas, and it doesn't feel like it because we are missing lots of snow, and this year has gone way too fast!  I also just realized that I have been blogging for almost 6 months!  Sure doesn't feel like it!

I have another Christmas mani for you guys today!  I found this while browsing Google for stamped Christmas manis and found this design by Meliney, but altered it slightly to make it more Christmasy and I don't have the stamping plate she was using :)

Source (screenshot from the tutorial video)

Here is what I came up with:

For this design, I used Avon Ruby Slippers for my red tips, Bundle Monster stamping plate BM-319 for the snowflakes and Konad Special Polish in White.  I topped it with Jordana Crystal Glitter.

This is so Christmasy and I love it so much!  You could do this with any colour on the tips and it will look great!  I was debating on whether to do red or green and decided on red :)

Do you like it?  Have you ever watched any of Meliney's tutorial videos for nail designs?  Which one is your favourite?

Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge Week 2

YAY!!!  It's December!  Time to bust out the Christmas manis for a whole month!  And what better way to do that than to do a "present mani" for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge??

I love everything about Christmas -- the food, the family get togethers, the decorations, the snow, the cold, the smells, and of course the PRESENTS!  Although, I love giving presents more than I love getting them, buuuut I don't mind opening one or two ;D  What is your favourite part about Christmas?

For the second week of the Challenge, the theme is Presents.  This could be any way you wanted to interpret it -- whether it be doing a mani showing what gift you wanted to receive most this year, to give a hint to your family and friends ;) or the ways to receive presents.  I chose the way to receive presents -- all wrapped beautifully and of course the main giver of gifts... (in Buddy the Elf voice) SANTA!!!!!! :D

Here are some close-ups:

Thumb -- Santa Suit Nail

Butter London Pillar Box Red base colour with two vertical rows of dots in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, a stripe of Jordana Pop Art Black Mark and Butter London West End Wonderland for the belt!

This nail was inspired by Mary at Swatch and Learn's Santa Nails nail art design.

Index -- Wrapping Paper Nail

Butter London West End Wonderland base colour with Butter London Pillar Box Red, Zoya Irene and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On lines drawn using a toothpick to create a plaid look to represent wrapping paper :)

Middle -- Wrapped Gift Nail

Zoya Blaze base colour with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On stamped with Konad plate M67 and striped on for a wrapped gift, just for you! ;)

Ring -- Christmas Tree Nail (yes, it's upside down, sorry lol!)

Water marble with Julep Courteney, Avon Electric Green and Zoya Irene.  Topped with Dollish Polish Dino-Mite Yoshi (perfect for "Christmas tree decorations") and cat eye shaped rhinestones for a star.

This is definitely one of my favourites of this mani!  I will be doing this as a full mani for the Christmas season!!

Pinky -- Glitter Nail
Julep Delaunay base colour topped with China Glaze Twinkle Lights.  This is to resemble the meaning of Christmas... GLITTER!  Haha, just kidding.. kinda!  everything during the Christmas season is packed with glitter :)







I hope you love this mani as much as I do!  I don't want to take it off, and I'm actually not looking forward to it with all the glitter that is incorporated into it.. *sigh*

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful present manis of the bloggers participating in the Challenge and vote for your favourite!

NOTD: Stamping and Rhinestones

Hello ladies.  Sorry this post is a little later in the afternoon than you are used to.  Tyler and I went shopping earlier today and I am just getting around to blogging now :)  I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far!

So yesterday I showed you Julep Sienna, a beautiful "white gold" shimmer that I think will be great for the Christmas holiday season.  When I wore it a few weeks ago, I decided that it needed something a little extra.  And I also wanted to do some stamping so I did :)

For this I used Julep Sienna as my base colour.  Then, with Konad Special Polish Black, I stamped on the crisscross design from plate #M79.  Then with Jordana Black I freehanded some French tips :)  Then, because I wanted to try out some rhinestones, and because I only had round ones in green, I applied them to the big dots of the stamp design on my ring and thumb nails.  With a fairly thick layer of top coat, these puppies were NOT coming off!  :)

I found myself petting my nails while wearing the rhinestones :)  It was kinda weird and I'm sure if anyone saw me doing it they thought I was nuts!  I love using the rhinestones and love what they add to nail art :)  Maybe the colour combination isn't the greatest, but I have some clear/silver ones now so I can use those for something like this rather than green ;)

Do you guys use rhinestones?  Do you like the look of them or are they too much for you?

NOTD: Avon Orchid Splash with Konad Stamping

Good morning gang!  I hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend.  Today's my last day in London visiting my sister :(  I don't want to go home, lol!

What has everyone been up to this weekend?  The weather was perfect here in southern Ontario for all sorts of outside activities :D  For me that consisted of... taking Owen outside on a leash to pee, lol!  My sister lives in an apartment, so it's a big change for baby Owen -- he's used to being able to roam where he wants in a backyard without a leash on.

As promised, I did some nail stamping over top of Avon Orchid Splash for you today.  I had a hard time choosing something, but decided on this abstract design :)  I think it's really interesting to look at and it turned out great!

I used Konad's special polish in White to stamp this design onto my nails.  I used plate # M65.  The only thing I don't like about the full-nail designs for nail stamping is that you have to make sure to get it lined up 100% on the edge of your nails so that there are no blank spots, but if you have nail beds that are a little wider, the design doesn't cover your whole nail.

What do you think of this nail art?  Fun and funky or a little too much?

NOTD: Daphne Stamping Nail Art

Happy hump day everybody!  I hope your week has been good so far, we're more than half way done (well, except me, my last day of work for the week is tomorrow :D).

I have some nail art stamping over yesterday's Daphne to show you :)  I just didn't feel right taking Daphne off after spending only one day with her :)  So I got out my nail art stamping kit and went to work.  This is what I came up with :D

I used Konad Special Polish to stamp the designs in White and Pastel Pink.  I used "Kaynig" nail art stamping plates (a knock off of the Konad plates from Amazon.ca) M69 and M78.  These correspond with the Konad plate numbers.  The Kaynig plates aren't as finely detailed as the Konad, but they do the job :)

At first I just stamped on the white design and then thought it would look really cute with little butterflies on my ring finger and thumb nails :)  I was right!  Let me know what you think :D