31 Day Challenge 2013: In Review

The 31 Day Challenge 2013 ended a couple of days ago, and I'm already feeling nostalgic. So I gathered together each manicure from the challenge to view them again, or in case you missed any. Click on any of the photos if you want to view the entire post. You can also view them all on my Pinterest board.

     

     

      

    

    

    

    

    

    

Once again, I am so glad I participated in this challenge! I tried so many new techniques, saw my skills improve, and especially enjoyed seeing what everyone else came up with. I hope you enjoyed it along with me! 

Did you have any favorites? Many of mine ended up being the ones that were most meaningful to me, such as the gray and pink leopard print, Starship Enterprise galaxies, Let's Dance song inspired, Phantom of the Opera movie inspired, and the Cath Kidston stationary inspired nails.

Some surprise favorites were the black and white animal close-ups, karma chameleon inspired by a color, aboriginal dot art tribal print, Banksy art inspired, and skull mail glitter nails (most fun ever in a post!).

A lot of "favorites", I know. I'm already looking forward to next year's challenge! Let me know if you have any suggestions.  

31DC2013 Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

Day 31!! I made it through the entire Challenge! Being so new to blogging, I honestly didn't know if I had the stamina to make it to the end. I am so pleased to find that I do, and that I pushed myself not to cop out. What really carried me through was all the support and encouragement I got from everyone. So a big, fat, Thank You! to y'all.
Today is about honoring nails you love. Again, there were way too many options for me to choose from. I wanted to do something both beautiful and achievable, so I chose this manicure by Alice from One Nail To Rule Them All.

Alice always has such cute, playful designs that I love to draw inspiration from. Fortunately for me she has also put much time and effort into making tutorials for many of them. Her tutorial made this pretty straightforward. 

One reason I love this design, besides it being adorable, is that it's Cath Kidston inspired. I love her stationary, and own quite a bit of it. Come to think of it, I actually just received a sweet thank-you card from a friend this week that was on Cath Kidston stationary. She obviously has good taste.

What I used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away- blue
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pink Blink- light pink
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rose Rum- darker pink
Sephora by OPI White Hot- white
Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma- green
Seche Vite top coat

I can't believe that whole month flew by. So what's next? Well, I am still participating in the 33 Day Challenge that started last week. I just need to catch up with the post I missed on Monday. I can't wait for all the fun manicures this second challenge will inspire!

31DC2013 Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

The penultimate day of the Challenge! Woot!

This mani was inspired by a tutorial, made by the very talented Rosie from Little Nails. Please go check it out because it is so good! It will give you a better idea of what I was aiming for here. Also, then I won't have to explain how I did this!

In the tutorial it's suggested to use a disposable paint palette, but I don't own any and forgot to buy it. I thought regular wax paper would work, but the polish never dried, even left over night. So I used a plastic ziplock bag and I got the polish off okay, but I struggled cutting it (the plastic). My scissors are a little dull and I just couldn't get straight lines.
You'll also notice a lot of bubbles. I think that was a result of not having the pieces completely flush on the nail before the top coat? Then the top coat kind of ate away at some of the pieces as I applied it.
This was quite the adventure! I have 100 times more respect for the work and skill that when into her tutorial!

What I used:
Sephora by OPI Pale is the New Tan
Finger Paints A Grape Catch
Finger Paints Sage It Ain't So

What do you think? Was it worth all that work? It was for me because it was a huge learning experience. There are so many different technique I'd never tried going on here. And I love that this is a look that couldn't be achieved by just painting it straight on the nail.

Last day of the challenge tomorrow!!

31DC2013 Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

I wasn't terribly inspired by today's prompt. My plan that I almost went with was the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man. I know. You can see I was starving for good ideas. Who knows though, maybe I'll do it next year! Eventually one train of thought led to another, and then to today's mani. Can you tell what the theme is? I'll spoil it for you, they're tarot cards. Or did you already predict this was what I'd do?

What lucky lady wants her fortune told today? *evil cackle*

What I used:
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Dune- base color
Butter London Tea and Toast- brown
Barielle Banana Drop- yellow
Ulta Roaring to Go- orange
Sephora by OPI Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam- gray
Sephora by OPI Frankly Seriously It's a Naan Issue- purple
Zoya Pepper- brick red
It's So Easy Stripe Rite in black
(and a couple other colors mixed together for the sword)
Seche Vite top coat


I'm not clairvoyant, tell me what you think! ;)

31DC2013 Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

As you learned from my Day 24: Inspired by a Book post, I am a map nerd. I believe it naturally follows that I also love flags. There were a number of viable options I kicked back and forth. Finally I decided on the Gadsden flag because I think it's so cool. According to Wikipedia, it's named after the general who designed it during the American Revolution. I recently read "1776", which gave me so much insight and renewed interest into the War's history. I just love the attitude that this flag represents.

And since we're on the subject, here's a little story for you. When I was little I had a hiding spot on top of our roof. It was like my little kingdom. I gave it a name and drew a flag for it. I seem to recall I even tried creating my own nation anthem. If I still had that drawing I would totally do that for today's prompt. 

I have the diamonds to represent the eastern diamondback rattlesnake. I used striping tape to create the shapes. I filled them in with polish and quickly removed the tape one at I time. I made sure to lay down the tape on each finger in the same order so that I would remember the sequence to remove them. They ended up bleeding when I applied Out The Door top coat (grr..). So on my thumb and ring finger I used big globs of Seche Vite and didn't have any problems with the images smudging.

What I used:

Sephora by OPI Yellow My Name is Betsey- yellow

Sephora by OPI I Come In Peas- green

Sephora by OPI Studs and Stilettos - brown

It's So Easy Stripe Rite in black

The other thing that I like about this flag? The motto is also a title of an awesome Metallica song! It's kinda been stuck in my head this entire time.