31DC2013 Day 27: Inspired by Art

Today's post is a day late, but for a good reason. This one was really hard! Coming up with an idea wasn't a problem because I already knew what I wanted to do. It was the execution that was so difficult. I had to start over a couple times, and just ran out of time last night. Now that it's finally done, I really don't want to take it off!

A couple of months ago when I did my manicure, My Yacht is Yar, I started thinking of other white manicures I could do. I loved how simple and clean it was. I realized it made a perfect canvas for practically anything. I began to imagine images that would work against a white background. One of the images that came to mind was this Banksy piece, one of his most iconic. Brilliant idea! After googling "Banksy girl with balloon", I quickly found I wasn't the first to have this idea. I've found that is usually the case when I think I've come up with something "original". Not that there's a rule that says it's only cool if you're the first to think of it. It was helpful to see other people's approach, specifically Smashley Sparkles', and see how they chose their placement of the images.

The challenge with photographing my thumb is its curve. I can't capture the entire image in just one photo. So these photos are all the same pose, just with varying angles.

Usually I would finish with a top coat to smooth out the brush strokes. In this case I wanted to keep the texture to make it look more lifelike. I began with two coats of white polish, and one coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying time. Then I sponged a gray polish on top to give it more texture, like a concrete wall. I started free handing the balloon first. I needed a success under my belt to make me more confident that I could paint the girl! For the girl I alternated between using the white and black Stripe Rite polishes. Back and forth, a million times, until I finally had to force myself to call it finished.

Here is a pin-able combo for you:

What I used:
Sephora by OPI White Hot
OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts
OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in black
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in white


What do you think? I'm so glad I tried it! I am so proud of it, that I decided it was finally time to watermark my photos!

p.s. If you like this, please take a second to "like" it. Thanks! :)

31DC2013 Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

I patterned (haha!) my nails today after the Douglas tartan. That is the clan that my husband's maternal side descended from. So this is a little shout out to them. Holla.

So.. free-handing this many lines is REALLY hard. Maybe I should have practiced more. Ah, if only I had more time! I tried thinning out the green with some acetone on my paint pallet. I've never tried it before and I guess I need a lot more acetone? I'll have to experiment more to find out. 

Straight lines are not easy when you are deliriously tired. 

With my husband's kilt. That brighter blue color is more of a purple-blue in real life. I don't have a polish in that shade (yet), so I left it out. When I do this again, because I'm determined to make it look awesome, I will try to incorporate that color. Then I will have the rockin'est nails at the Highland Games next year!

What I used:

OPI Dating a Royal- blue

Sephora by OPI I Come in Peas-green

It's So Easy Stripe Rite in white

China Glaze Matte Magic top coat

The Douglas clan's crest has a flaming salamander on it. How cool is that? I had hoped to have time to work it into the mani... maybe next time!

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow's nails should be pretty cool!

31DC2013 Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

To be honest, I wasn't super excited about today. I guess it's hard to get excited about fashion when you hang out in your sweatpants all day. Every day. I mean, I do change into my jeans when I leave the house, but that's about it.
Once I started searching for my fashion inspiration I suddenly found a TON of designs I wanted to do. Before I made it any harder to choose I made myself stop browsing, and went with the one that stood out the most. Rest assured, I will be doing more fashion inspired manicures in the future!

I love the pastel colors paired with black. It's sweet and sexy.

I started off with a yellow base color and topped it with Seche Vite to speed up the drying time. Then I put a couple pieces of striping tape on each nail. I applied the blue between the cuticles and tape, removing the tape immediately. Repeating the process, I applied black polish from the tape to tip. I finished it off with another coat of Seche Vite. I loved the glossy look, especially on the black. To be more true to the dress I added a matte top coat to mimic its duller color of black.

Here's what it looked like before the matte coat:

What I used:
Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams- blue
Jenna Hipp Tweet Me- yellow
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
Seche Vite top coat
China Glaze Matte Magic top coat

Only six more days of the Challenge left! I've been so inspired by everyone else participating. Thanks everyone for reading!

31DC2013 Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Right about the time I was thinking about starting this blog I read a book called "Maphead". It's written by the Jeopardy! superstar Ken Jennings. It was written for and about map nerds. I love maps and geography. It has a wide range of topics such as: map history, map libraries, map collecting, geocaching (want to try it so badly!), politics of maps, National Geographic Bee, etc. The thing that was so great about this book was not only was I educated, but it was so entertaining as well. He has the best humor in his writing. I was laughing out loud throughout the whole thing (just ask my husband).

I would like to tell you more about it, but that's the best I can muster up right now. I would have written my synopsis a little more eloquently if this weren't day 24 of the challenge, and I wasn't so completely exhausted! I swear it's more interesting than I made it sound!

So after I finished the book and was looking for fun ways to do my nails, I really wanted to do a mani related to maps. Practically the next day I was scoping out the polish selection at Walmart when I noticed a nail art kit with map tattoos! I've been saving them for the appropriate time, and today was it. 

Well I have never used nail tattoos before and they weren't the easiest thing to work with. I got a little tear on my thumb. Other places I couldn't get it to straighten out. It was pretty frustrating.
To add to my frustration I meant to do them right side up, but did them upside down instead. I also was going to do a cool rose compass for an accent nail. When I went to put the tattoo on my middle finger, somehow it ended up on my ring finger instead. Arg! I thought I cleaned up pretty well from what I could see. Not only is my brain not working but apparently neither are my eyes, because the photos show all that got left behind.

What I used:
Fing'rs EDGE Nail Tattoos
(I used the cream polish that came in the kit as my base color.)
topped with Seche Vite

The map nerd in me is drawing me in to stare at all the details.  I already figured out it's of New York. I can see Penn Station and Chelsea. Now I want to find out if it's accurate.

Have you used nail tattoos? Any helpful tips?

31DC2013 Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

Once again, I had multiple ideas for today's movie prompt. What I have been trying to do is find a design where the images are strong and can speak on their own, while still representing the movie (song, etc). So while thinking about my favorite movies, one strong and immediately identifiable image came to mind.

The Phantom of the Opera is one of my all time favorite movies. It's one that I could probably watch every day. I haven't, I'm not that crazy, but I could. There are many movie versions out there. Of course the 2004 version starring Gerald Butler (drool) and Emmy Rossum is heads above the rest. When this came out I was very hesitant to see it and afraid it I would be disappointed. I'm so glad I did see it though because, well, it's amazing!

I thought about doing this manicure for my "inspired by a book" day. I haven't actually read the Gaston Leroux book. I did though, read one called "Phantom" by Susan Kay, recommended to me by a dear friend. It's a prequel to Erik's story. It is heart-wrenching and beautiful. I recommend it to anyone who likes the book/movies/musical. Phantom of the Opera is also the only show I've seen on Broadway. I loved every second and look toward the day I can go back to see it again!

What I used:

Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
China Glaze Pelican Gray
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in white
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in black
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in gold
Finger Paints Art Hue Serious?- green (mixed in with a little white for the lighter green)
American Apparel Downtown LA
Sally Hansen Insta Dri Wined Up
Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rose Rum
(and a couple more colors, sorry I'm too tired!)

Are you a Phantom fan? Do you have a thing for masked men like I do? I think it's a syndrome I have or something..

31DC2013 Day 22: Inspired by a Song

I kept coming up with ideas for today's Challenge prompt, but I wasn't crazy about any of them. So I spent some time scrolling through my library, hoping I would finding something I was excited about. Anyone who knows me will have assumed I would pick a David Bowie song. We all know what happens when you assume...you're often correct. Ah, but which one? As soon as I saw "Let's Dance" in my library I got a mental picture of dance diagrams. I knew that I could make a fun design out of the dance steps. Here's what I came up with!

Let's dance

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues

I started with a gray polish for my base color. Then I sponged on a blue polish to create a gradient. Then I added a moon to my thumb using my striping brush. Next it was on to the the dance steps, which I also created with my striping brush. They were the biggest pain in the butt! I don't know why I thought they'd be easier than they were. But I think they finally turned out okay. I added the dashes with my Stripe Rite polish. It was completed with some top coat.

Let's sway 

Under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

What I used:
Essie Bikini So Teeny- blue
China Glaze Pelican Gray
OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls- white
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- black
Seche Vite top coat


Does it make you want to dance? If you want to watch some delicious vintage Bowie, check out the video!

31DC2013 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

If there were one vague prompt in the 31 Day Challenge, this would be it. What does inspired by a color mean? Whatever the heck you want it to, apparently. Some people do manicures based around a color. I've seen Sarah from Chalkboard Nails draw inspiration from the name of a polish, and that's where I ended up. Originally I was thinking of just focusing on a favorite color. But when I was going through my polishes I came across Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma, and I knew I had it.

I originally wanted to make it very colorful but then decided it would make the design less readable. So I ended up with a very green manicure (so unlike me!). I do like how bold it is.

I feel like some imaginary person has been twisting my arm, forcing me to try things that are beyond my capabilities. Obviously, there is no such person. It's just that this challenge makes me come up with these ideas that I don't want to let go of. So I try something ridiculous that I've never tried before. I have to tell you though, I had fun wearing these. It's like I felt they would help good things come to me :)

What I used:
Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in black
Seche Vite top coat

Did you feel the good vibes from this post?

I won't be posting Sunday, so I will have Day 22 and 23 for you on Monday!

31DC2013 Day 20: Water Marble

Today is the dreaded water marble day. Ug. I think these colors look fantastic. The rest.. didn't turn out so well. I have a number of complaints here. Before we get into that, let's just look at the pretty colors. Oooooo..

Once again, this is another first for me. Typically when I have been trying new techniques, I sort of just jump right in. This time I knew I had to depend on a tutorial to help me out. To prepare, I watched a couple of videos from the Queen of water marbling. Apparently I did not watch enough videos to have a good idea of how to do it.

Once I choose my colors I was pretty dead set on using them together. After not being able to get them to expand well in the water, I just decided to work with them best I could. It was too late at night to be changing the game plan. Some polishes started drying faster than the others. So I have broken gaps especially noticeable on my ring finger.

I'm not happy with how this turned out, but I'm not discouraged. There are way too many successful water marbles out there for me to give up. I want to try again! I need to figure out what polishes work well, and a few other questions I had.
 Even with how sloppy and broken this is, I love that water marbles still always look unique. No one else has one that looks just like this! Want to know my favorite part about this? It was the quickest manicure I've done this whole Challenge!

What I used:
OPI Live and Let Die-deep green
Zoya Bevin- sage
A England Holy Grail-gold

Have you done successful water marbling? What polishes have worked for you?

31DC2013 Day 19: Galaxies

What comes to mind when you think about "Space"? The final frontier, naturally. And what are you most likely to come across while voyaging through the stars?  The USS Starship Enterprise, of course. That is how I arrived in this strange new world of galaxy nails. As I began this manicure, boldly going where loads have gone before, I knew I had to include it!

Can you hear the theme music?

This is my first galaxy manicure. I have seen so many beautiful representations, and I've been excited to try one! I want to do this more, trying different approaches, and see the variety I come up with.

Would you believe I used 18 polishes here?! I'm not lying! It would be completely ridiculous to list them all here, so I'm not even going to try!
What you need to know is that I started with a base of Zoya Storm (one of my new favorites!). It's a beautiful black with holographic glitter flecks.  For the extra sparkly bits I used Out The Door Northern Lights holographic top coat. Then in between I sponged a few more polishes.

As far as the process went, I just kept sponging on colors until I achieved a look I was satisfied with. I tore off little pieces of a makeup sponge and used tweezers to hold them. I made little pools of polish on wax paper to dip the sponges in, and sponged off excess polish. I endlessly layered the colors, trying to fix areas where I got too much color. I added some larger white stars with a dotting tool. Then I freehanded the Enterprise with a striping brush and dotting tool.

I know, lot of photos..

Okay, now for the important part. Calling all Trekkies/Trekkers:
Who is you favorite captain? Which is your favorite series/movie? What would you rather have, Geordi's blindness or Data's inability to love? In episode 142... okay, I'll stop there. :)

So what do you think? Do you like the galaxy look? It's not my favorite thing I've done, but I still really, really like it! I don't want to take it off! Boo hoo.

Bonus photo!

 Me with Data at Salt Lake Comic Con!

Don't forget to come back to see my continuing mission of the 31 Day Challenge, as I seek out new techniques and new designs!