November Nail Art Challenge Day 10

Good evening lovely ladies!  I hope everyone has had a good week so far.  I'm really tired so I'm planning on going to bed tonight, we'll see what time I actually go to bed.

Can you believe that we are already wrapping up the November Nail Art Challenge??  Where has November gone?  Before you know it, Christmas is going to be here and gone, and the countdown will have to start all over again!

I want to say congratulations to all of the ladies who made it through the whole month with me!  We've had our "challenges", but what's the fun of a Nail Art Challenge without learning something new and trying things in the world of nail art :)  Make sure to keep an eye open for a new Nail Art Challenge in either January or February.

Day 10 of the Challenge is Recreate Your Favourite.  This could be a design you want to do again because it's a favourite, re-try because you want to improve it, or re-create a design created by another participant of the Challenge.  I decided on the last option.

I chose to re-create Amber's Day 3 Inspired by a Tutorial mani.  As soon as I saw this I HAD to try it!  So I stopped on over to my local dollar store to see if they had some loose eyeshadow.  I don't wear a lot of makeup, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it.  I found some LA COLORS loose eyeshadow, they had about 20 colours, so I got a goldy coloured one in case I decide to try it as an eyeshadow sometime.

For this I used Julep Keira and then LA COLORS loose eyeshadow in Honeysuckle.  This was so easy to do, and I am absolutely in love with it.  Let's just say I want to polish tonight but I don't want to take this off!

I love my nails at this length, I think I will try to keep them this long from now on.  It's a really good length for typing, texting, etc. but still looks long and beautiful :)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 9

Good afternoon lovely readers!  I can't believe it's the end of November, and the 2nd last day of the Challenge :(  Not sure what I'm going to do when all this is over.. though I'm sure I will come up with something to fill in my free time in December :)

Day 9 is Water Marble.  This is the one that I have the most fun with, I love water marbling, I just wish I had more time to do them more often.  I'm sorry for all the girls that have had a hard time with this design :(  I promise that once you get the hang of it, it's fun!

For this, I didn't know what colour combination to do, so I posted a question on the Facebook page and Patricia suggested navy and pastel pink.  I love this idea, so here's what I did.

Alright, so this wasn't my best water marble to date, but I will definitely be doing this colour combination again!  If I had time I would definitely redo it for the Challenge, but today's the last day to link up for Day 9, so I will just be happy with this one :)

I knicked my middle finger off the edge of the table I was working on when I was applying my top coat .. whoops! >.<  Note to self - work at a thinner table top.  Our kitchen table is about 1-1/2" thick and with the lighting it's tricky to see what you're doing, so I put the finger I'm working on on the table surface and the rest under the table top.

Looks like there was a water bubble on my pinky too.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On as my base colour, I was going to include white in the design but decided against it after I got my nails painted, so that's why the white is showing through the design in some places.  Then I used Julep Carrie (pink) and Eloise (blue) in my marble.  Next time I will definitely paint my nails with Carrie and then do my water marble, that way the white won't show through the pink :)  Plus, then I think that Carrie would be a little bolder in the design as well :)

My favourite nail is my index, just because there is nothing wrong with the design -- no thin polish in the marble causing white to show through, no water bubbles, no knicks, no smears :)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 8

Good morning ladies!  Thank God it's my last day of work for the week!  I need to be able to sleep in tomorrow, haha!

So I know that most of my US readers are going to be stuffing their faces with turkey dinner, and believe me, I wish I was there to join you!  I love turkey dinner, it's my favourite meal right behind a big feed of spaghetti!  However, the radio stations around here are starting to play Christmas music, so today I have started to wear my Christmas earrings!  I love wearing Christmas earrings, and if I could get away with it without looking like a complete fool, I would wear them year-round ;D

Today I have for you my nails for Day 8 of the November Nail Art Challenge... can you believe it's almost over :'(  This month has flown, I can't believe it's almost December, almost the end of the year!

Day 8 is Gradient Nails.  I know a lot of girls have trouble with this one, but I believe that practice makes perfect (well as close to perfect as humanly possible ;) ) so the more often we do it, the better we're going to be at it!  Heck, I have problems with it, but I just embrace it :D  Each time I do a gradient I get better at it :D  Gradients take a lot of trial and error and patience :)

I'm pretty darned proud of this gradient :D  For this I used OPI Fiercely Fiona for my base colour, from the Shrek Collection.  Then, with my trusty kitchen sponge (the yellow ones with the green scrubby on the back), I sponged on OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, also from the Shrek Collection :)  I think this turned out pretty awesome!  *pats own back*  Now, although Fiercely Fiona is a diarrhea/pea soup green, with some nail art (like gradients or stamping) it doesn't look so bad.  It would actually make for a really good slime colour for Hallowe'en nail art :)

The Shrek Collection is kinda tricky to find, and it's not normally cheap if you do find it.  So if you happen upon any of the collection for a good/regular OPI price, snag it if you want it! :D  I got these in a mini set from Tara from Kelara Lacquers (blog sale).

November Nail Art Challenge Day 7

Can you believe the Challenge is almost over??  This month has gone by way too fast!  And just think, 5 weeks from today and Santa will be here! :D  Weeeeeeeeeeee!!

Today we have Line/Stripe nails.  This turned out a lot darker than I was hoping and picturing in my mind.  Oh well, you can still see it :)

Ever since I got some polishes from the Zoya Ornate collection last week from Samantha (they don't ship to Canada, so I ordered them through a friend in the US) I have wanted to try Aurora (purple scattered holo) and Storm (black scattered holo).

I did 2 coats of Zoya Storm as my base colour, which should have been a lighter colour.  Then I applied some striping tape in diagonal lines on my nails and painted over them with 1 coat of Zoya Aurora.  You have to do one nail at a time when you are using tape/striping tape as you have to remove the tape right after polishing over it to create a clean line :)

I have one thing to say about these Zoya polishes.... WOW!  I can't wait to show you them on their own :D  And I can't wait to check them out in the sunlight!

Oh, and these pictures are taken in my new light box!  These are so easy to make, I didn't even get hurt when I was making mine, and I'm SUPER accident prone!  I will be doing a blog post about it in the next little while.  I have to make another one to keep and use at Tyler's house as they are pretty fragile to be transporting back and forth every weekend.  Maybe I will be able to do that this weekend so I can show you guys how easy it is :D

Only 3 designs left in the Challenge, then it will be time for some Christmas nails :D

November Nail Art Challenge Day 6

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone has had a good weekend :D  I can't believe that it's time to go back to work tomorrow :(  Sorry I haven't been around much since last Wednesday.  Wednesday night I spent the night at a friend's house and on Thursday we went to The Twilight Saga Marathon for the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2.  All I have to say about that is... it was freaking awesome!!!  I would go and do that every day for the rest of forever if I could.  I want to go again so badly but Tyler doesn't want to come with me and my youngest sister isn't into Twilight so she doesn't want to go :(  Breaking Dawn Part 2 is by far the best movie in the series and Breaking Dawn is my favourite book of the series.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it so I won't say anything more than "you're gonna LOVE it!!"

When I got home Friday, I made my second nail polish shelf so all my polishes are finally put away and are all neat and tidy :)  Now I just can't buy anymore so I don't have to build yet another.  I also don't have room in my bedroom for another.

Then yesterday, Tyler and I went to help some friends move into their new house.  As usual, I came home with some bumps and bruises.  I was drying a dish and it fell apart in my hands, slicing my thumb open :(  And I'm really sore from transporting all the boxes up stairs.  It's a good thing there were lots of people there to help, we had a "fire line" happening so we didn't have to travel very far with each box, but my muscles were giving me crap for all the work I made them do :(

I finally got my Day 6 design for the November Nail Art Challenge done today.  Day 6 is "inspired by another's nails" so I did some searching on Pinterest last night and found a design I loved even though it was so simple :)

Here is my inspiration.  Though I found it on Pinterest, I found the blog post that it came from.

Source

And here is my replication.  I didn't use the same pink and my design is slightly different, but I love the look of this and would love to try it with other colour combinations :)

The colours I used were China Glaze Naked (pink), Jordana Black and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  Though the original design was done with tape, I just used my Jordana Pop Art striping polish in Black Mark to create the lines and then filled in the black.  Then using my homemade dotting tools (pin stuck into a pencil eraser and an unfolded paper clip) I dotted on my dots.

I just realize that the original artist and I have almost the same nail shape and length, haha!

This design is so simple and it was really fun to do :D  And the colour combination options are endless!  I think this would also look great with a neon like China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

PS - China Glaze Naked is one of my new favourite pinks.  It's definitely a Barbie pink and has a great shimmer to it :D  It's so feminine and girly :)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 5

Good morning!! :D  I am SO excited to show you what I have for you today!  Today's post is for Day 5 of the November Nail Art Challenge -- Half Moons.  Now, when I first got into nail art I wasn't too keen on the half moon look, but I think they are pretty OK now :)  It depends how they are done and the colours used.

So, as most of you may know, Big Bang Theory is my favourite TV show of all time.  I have purchased the polish collection from different DIMENSION and decided that it was time to use one :)

My favourite episode is "The Einstein Approximation" from Season 3.  In this episode, Sheldon is trying to figure out the Einstein Approximation and is trying all different ways to get it.  My favourite part is when Leonard gets called to come and get him out of the ball pit.  Here is a link to a YouTube video of this scene.. LMAO OMG I love this show! :D  (I would have embedded the clip here so you wouldn't have to open the link, but it wouldn't let me.)

Without further adieu, here are my Half Moon Nails.

BAZINGA!!! Hehehehe!

For this I used Julep Mystery Yellow for my base colour.  Then, using a small paint brush I used Julep Deluanay to create my half moons.  I didn't have any hole reinforcements to create a smooth line :(  I filled in the bottom part with Deluanay, and then topped with different DIMENSION Bazinga! from the Big Bang Theory polish collection.  This is a clear based glitter with small yellow and red glitters, small yellow and red hexes, medium yellow hexes and large red hexes.  I meant to do red moons with Bazinga over the yellow to show the glitter better but didn't realize my error until I had painted 2 coats of Mystery Yellow on my nails, haha!  Oh well :)

So then to even out my wobbly lines I stuck some rhinestones on the line to bedazzle it up a little more :)

What do you guys think??  Do you love Big Bang Theory too?  What's your favourite episode and who is your favourite character?

Want to get your own polish from the Big Bang Theory collection?  Visit different DIMENSION's shop and pick yourself up a bottle :)  She also has Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock, PENNY!!!, and Soft Kitty Warm Kitty.

November Nail Art Challenge Day 4

Happy Sunday everyone, and hopefully everyone is taking the time today to remember the fallen who fought for our freedom, whether you are celebrating Remembrance Day in Canada or Veteran's Day in the States, they are the ones that allow us to be able to do the things we do on a day-to-day basis.  I don't know about you guys, but I remember being in school and standing for The Last Post and it would always bring a tear to my eye, even though I don't personally know anyone who fought in the wars or lost their lives.  I am a pretty emotional person though, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Thinking now, I probably should have done some poppy nails for Day 4's design -- delicate print, but I didn't even think of it, to be honest.

For my delicate design, I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos as my base colour and then using Bundle Monster's stamping plate BM-317 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Snappy Sorbet, came up with this design.  I apologize for them, in the pictures they kinda make you feel dizzy looking at them, they aren't quite as bad in person, lol!  I think it's just the colour combo that makes it like that.

First, I would like to note that Essie Turquoise & Caicos is a BEAUTIFUL colour!  This is 3 coats, but you could probably get away with 2 that are a little thicker.  If you don't have an aqua colour in your collection, I highly recommend this one.  It also turns out that, after I got this in the mail from Nail Polish Canada, my mom said "that looks a lot like the one that I have".. sure enough, we have the exact same polish, hahaha!  Of all the colours of polish out there, we both picked the same one, haha!

This was also my first time using the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes for stamping and I have to say that it turned out pretty great!  There are a few spots that are missing polish, but the places it's missing polish actually looks like it's supposed to be missing, lol!

Also, when I was filtering through the pictures I took, I also noticed that I did the stamping in alternating directions.  This was not intentional, but it's funny how things just work out, lol!

While this stamping job isn't the best, I have to say that I prefer the Bundle Monster plates to the Konad ones I have because the full nail designs on the Bundle Monster plates are bigger and are easier to fit onto the entire nail.  Usually with the Konad designs I always miss and have a big gap on the one side of my nails, lol!

I hope you enjoyed this design as much as I do.  It's so fun to look at :)  And I think that the heart design could be used as "showing my love for those who fought for my freedom" even though the poppy is the traditional symbol for that.

And in the "spirit" of Remembrance Day, I leave you with this:

In Flanders Fields

by Leutenient Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

(source)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 3

Wow, we're at day 3 already!  Everyone has done such a good job so far, I can't wait to see what everyone has in store for the rest of the Challenge :D

Today's design is Inspired by a Tutorial.  There are SO many nail art tutorials out there on YouTube, Google, blogs, the ideas are endless!  I like to watch the videos that cutepolish puts up on YouTube, she has such interesting designs and they are SO easy when you see how they are actually done :)

I chose to go with her Walt Disney World nails she did recently.  I love Walt Disney World, I used to go there every other year as a kid while visiting my grandparents at their house in Florida.  I love all the classic Walt Disney fairytales and a lot of the newer ones too.  What's your favourite Disney movie (classic or recent)?

For this design, I used Julep Jessica for my base colour.  This is a perfect light blue for any nail art!  It's just so pretty :D  Then to create my castle I used Essie Mesmerize.  I didn't have a blue striper polish, so I used a striper brush to do this.  I wasn't able to fit as many layers in my castle as cutepolish did, but I'm still pretty proud of it ;D  Then for my glitter tips I used Julep Yumi.  After I got it finished and waiting for the glitter to dry a little before putting my top coat on, I thought "ah man, I should have used my blue Julep glitter pots!"  They would have been perfect for this, so if I do this again, I will definitely try to remember to do that :)

And a funny story about this, I showed both my sister and Tyler this when I was finished and they asked why I has the Michelin Man on my nail... *facepalm*  If it was the Michelin Man, he'd be white, not blue :P

So, what do you guys think?  Did I do cutepolish proud?

November Nail Art Challenge Day 2

Hello my lovely readers.  I survived my visit with my sister this weekend and am home again :)  It's always great visiting with her :)

I was able to do my Day 2 design while visiting, I did it while Tyler was at the gym and after Shannon had left to go to work for the night.

Day 2 is Polka Dots!  I love dotticures, there are so many different designs and combinations :D

For this design I used my new China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy as my base colour (3 coats) and placed large dots of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and then smaller dots of butter LONDON Slapper in between :)  I am absolutely in love with this!  Can I keep this on forever?!

I think that Flip Flop Fantasy is one of my new favourites!  This colour is so awesome, it's even more bright in person than it is in these pictures.  The colour combination is absolutely perfect as well :)

*EDIT*  I just realized (Monday morning) I forgot to tell a story about this one!  I was wearing this yesterday when Tyler and I went out for lunch and the first thing the waitress says is "Oh I love your nails!  Did you do them yourself?"  I said I did and her reply was "Wow!  They are just so perfect!  You should do that for a living!"  :D  Gotta love when that happens!

November Nail Art Challenge Day 1

Good morning my lovely ladies!  Today is the first day of the 10-Day November Nail Art Challenge.  If you are just tuning in, welcome, it's so great to have you here!  You are about to see some pretty exciting nail art over the next month :D

The ladies that have signed up to participate in the November Nail Art Challenge I have designed will be completing the following list of nail art and will be posting their designs on their own blogs.  We will be linking our blog posts using InLinkz so that we all stay on track ;)  A new design is due every 3 days, so they are welcome to post about it in the 3-day time blog for each design.

Here are my Rainbow nails for Day 1.  I had something completely different planned but I ran out of time for what I wanted to do so I came up with something really quickly.  That's a terrible excuse, but I really do love the way this turned out.  It turned out exactly how I pictured it in my head, and that's always a good thing!

For this design I painted stripes of Julep Delaunay (red), Mystery Yellow and Gunta (blue) onto my nails. Then, using my homemade dotting tool, I applied Julep Parker (orange) between the red and yellow, and Avon Electric Green between the yellow and blue to create a rainbow.  I probably should have waited for the red to be dry before applying the yellow as some of the red bled into the yellow, but I still love it :)  Though I would have loved to include purple in my design, my nail beds aren't wide enough to include it :(

November Nail Art Challenge -- Welcome!

LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!  Well it's more just to have fun, but for some there may be days where it's something you have never done before :)  I hope everyone has fun with this Challenge, it's going to be just as great as the one in September!

If you're just tuning in, sign-up for this particular Challenge is now closed as today is the first day, but I plan to do a Nail Art Challenge every month.  If you want a run-down of what's going on, click here.  If you want to double check all the rules and regulations, here is the link.

So what all do we have to do?  Here is what all the lovely ladies who are participating are required to do over the next 30 days:

So basically, every 3rd day a new design is "due", completing 10 designs in 30 days.  With the Challenge we did in September, we did all designs in 10 consecutive days which a lot of us were finding to be a lot of work, and we weren't able to enjoy our designs.  Therefore, with this Challenges (and for Challenges from here on out) we will have to do a new design every 3 days.
Also with this Challenge, each person will be posting their design on their own blog or Facebook page.  We will be linking up through InLinkz so you will still be able to check out what everyone is doing :)  I will also be posting the pictures on the Facebook page in photo albums :)

I'm sure all the ladies who are participating would love for you to head on over to their blog and/or Facebook page and give them a little love :)  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!  Here are all the links you will need :)

Amber N    Blog     Facebook page

Carrie B     Blog     Facebook page

Cassi P     Blog 

Danette F    Blog

Emma C      Blog     Facebook page

Erin F    Blog

Janet V     Blog     Facebook page

Kara S     Blog     Facebook page

Kari Marie A     Blog

Kelli H     Blog     Facebook page

Melissa M     Blog     Facebook page

Patricia K     Blog     Facebook page

Sam F     Blog     Facebook page

Sam M     Blog     Facebook page

Sammi B     Blog     Facebook page

Sandra B     Blog     Facebook page

Sarah T     Blog     Facebook page

Shea C     Facebook page

Shiella Marie P     Blog     Facebook page

Ladies who are participating, if you have a blog or Facebook page and I don't have the information, please send me an e-mail with your information.

I hope everyone has fun!  Be creative with your nail art!

November Nail Art Challenge

Alrighty, I know how much everyone enjoyed doing the 10-Day Nail Art Challenge back in September, and I was so proud of everyone's designs!  I am addicted to doing Challenges now.  I am currently doing the Nail-aween Nail Art Challenge that is being hosted by datyorkLOVES and it's so much fun!  I decided that every month I would host a new Challenge of my own, and I hope you guys are all in it with me :D

Here is what I have come up with as an outline for the Challenge.

We are going to do things a little differently than the last Challenge though.  Rather than doing the 10 days all in a row, we will do it so that we start on the 1st of the month and end on the 30th of the month, and each design is due every 3 days.  The "due date" is shown for each day of the Challenge, this way you can enjoy your design for more than a few hours ;)  You can still change your nails every day if you want, but make sure you submit your designs by the due-dates shown on the picture above.  

This Challenge will start November 1st and will end November 30th.  Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in, you don't have to be a blogger to take part.

Bloggers, for this Challenge we will be using InLinkz so that we can all link our blog posts together.  What does that mean for you?  It's really simple, and when I have a final list of all confirmed participants, I will send out a mass e-mail with instructions on how to get the link to work.  I hope everyone will bear with me, I have never done anything like this before on my own (I have used InLinkz to link up my Go Pink Wednesday posts, that's all the experience I have with it) and I have no computer programming knowledge whatsoever, lol!  I am still working out some kinks, but I hope to have everything worked out so I can send the e-mail the last weekend of October (27th/28th).  **UPDATE**  I will be taking e-mail addresses of everyone who wants to participate up until Saturday, October 27th and will be senting out the information e-mail on Sunday, October 28th.  If you would like to participate, please e-mail me (ericasnailsandmore@yahoo.ca) or private message me on the Facebook page with your e-mail address so I can send you the e-mail with all the InLinkz information.

I think all of the design requirements of the Challenge are pretty straight forward, the only one that may be questionable is Day 6 -- inspired by another's nails.  Basically I want you to find a nail design on the web and replicate it.  **Make sure to give credit where credit is due!**  Please submit the picture of the design you are replicating and the website for it along with your design picture.

I have outlined all the rules here, and if there are any questions, please either comment below this post, send me a message on the Facebook page or send me an e-mail (ericasnailsandmore@yahoo.ca).

P.S. - if anyone has InLinkz knowledge and has any tips for me, please send me an e-mail (ericasnailsandmore@yahoo.ca) or private message on the Facebook page.  We will be using the text-only links, I don't want to pay to have the thumbnail links (sorry!).