Lotsa Dotsa!!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy glorious weekend to you!  The theme this week in the advanced nail stamping group is dotticures.  Let me just start off by saying this--unlike my fab friend Debbie aka The Crumpet I am not a fan of the dotticure.  Oh don't get me wrong, I love looking at dotticures.  I love seeing what everyone else can come up with when it comes to dotticures, as for me actually doing them--I am a huge failure.  

Everyone always comes up with these great ideas and these amazing color combinations but not me.  While I definitely have the "bad picker" gene I certainly do lack the "good dotter" gene.

Here's what makes the dotticure theme this week all the more horrible--I'm the one who picked the theme! OMG yes how was I this stupid?  

Everyone else in the group pretty much knocked this week out of the ball park.  I'll share my pretty tame dotting mani's with you and you can be the judge of whether or not my "good dotter" gene is missing.

First up a dotted gradient I did with a bunch of oranges sitting next to me.  This one was born basically out of being too lazy to get up and look for other colors

It just didn't move it, so the next day I stamped over it with the Pueen Encore set

Naturally I like it much better with the stamping over it but i also think it's because the colors look great with black.

From a distance you can't even tell there are dots under the stamping

So this one was okay after I stamped on it

Next since I decided how much I liked stamping over dots I did another one with full on stamping over them in mind

I wish I knew how to make my camera take pics of blurple's but it just does happen.  But how cute is this?!!!

I dotted with some fun colors and then put on Sally Hansen Pacific Blue to go along with them

Some CiCi & SiSi stamping makes it pretty great I think.

I do find I enjoy a stamped look over my dots.  I'm going to play around with this look more often I think.

The week's not over yet either!  I'm hoping to get a couple more dotticures done before the weekend is over.

What do you guys think?  Do you like your dots straight up--or do you like stamping over them?

When Watermarbling isn't a fail

Hi Everyone!  Happy Saturday!  I'm so thankful for the weekend.  Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting up with one of my best polish/makeup pals to watch the Packer game!  While we both live in Wisconsin we don't exactly live a few minutes away so we decided to pick a half way point! Woot!!! I am really excited to finally meet her in person.  Even better is the fact we are both playing against each other in our Fantasy Football League.

I need to try to come up with some Packer nails but in the meantime . . .

This week's challenge in the Advanced Nail Stamping group is stamping over water marbling.  Just marbling alone is often a huge challenge for a lot of people and it's always, always, ALWAYS messy.  Water marbling for me is a hit and miss.  I never used filtered water which is what most say you have to use, instead I used distilled water.  Also room temperature in Wisconsin is definitely not what room temperature in Arizona is so room temperature is a pretty vague term if you ask me.  When I marble I don't heat up my water, I do use truly room temperature which is rather cold.

I find using brand new polishes work a lot better than something you've had in your drawer for a few months or years. It's hard to say which brands work and which brands don't again I really think it has to do with "fresh" polish.  So far it's the only thing that's worked for me.

That being said my newest polishes are the OPI Nordic Collection so I pulled out 2 of my faves, My Dogsled Is A Hybrid and Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm and did some marbling.

This was super easy to do and the colors spread out great

I know alot of people are keen on just sporting a water marble manicure however the challenge this week was stamping over a marble so I had to stamp over it

I think it turned out great!  I love how you can see the base underneath but also see the stamping over it

My thumb turned out great too!

Since I have some time to play around today I think I'm going to try the water marble decal method and see how that works out.  If it does I'll be sure to report back!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Go Pack! Go!!

Caramel Butterscotch Swirls

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Hump Day!!  Today I've got something on good enough to eat!  I got a few Nails Inc's in the other day and I just love them!  Nails Inc polishes especially their cremes are soooooo dreamy.  Since we are definitely into Fall weather here I grabbed up Fenchurch Street and Cadogon Square and did a cool swirly needle drag

These colors look great together and are just perfect for this time of year!

I love how my thumb turned out too!

I first saw this cool needle drag look over on Sveta Sanders Instagram.  Have you seen Sveta's stuff?  It's amazing!  Check her out HERE  I promise you, you will get tons of great ideas from her!

As much as I enjoy the warmer weather of Summer I'm glad we are slipping into Fall.  Dark colors are so much more my thing.  How about you are you neon for life and happy to see the return our the dark vampy colors?

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Boo Monday!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Monday!  I'm not sure if you are a Halloween person or not but now is the time of year all the stores start cropping out that specialize in Halloween stuff.  Some people are already plotting their decoration theme and I've seen lots of friends on Pinterest pinning away for costume ideas.  The best part of this upcoming season are the cool mani's you can do and even better the indie makers come out with their Halloween Collections!

Today I have on Boo-You from SoFlaJo's Happy Howl-A Ween collection to show you. 

OOOOH SCARY SPIDER! 

As you can see Boo You is a lovely teal blue but it's got some lovely added micro glitters and shimmers to it as well

There is some lovely sparkle in this polish.  It's a bit sheer so I layered it over Zoya Rocky and they are a match made in Spookyville!

The color compliments my skin tone perfectly!!!

Here's the deal on the Boo You and the other 2 polishes from the Howl- A Ween collection--Haint Night and Hell Fire--each one only has a total of 50 bottles made. When they are gone they are gone!  Make sure to order yours early so you don't miss out.  Here's some easy access to SoFlaJo's Howl-A Ween Collection   I linked you right up!

I did some cute stamping over it and because it's not quite Halloween yet didn't get too crazy

Nice and simple but really cool!  I got a little silly though and added some mustaches to it!

This is SO cute!

Don't forget if you're wanting to snag this pretty teal to get yours early!!! When they are gone they are gone!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!

The Digit-al Dozen Does 2--Double Stamping

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Friday!  Today for the last day of our special 2 year anniversary week we had a choice of things having to do with twos' cotton or sapphire.  Well I fell in love with my double stamped blue mani so I just had to try it again with red!

I hauled out OPI Skyfall from the James Bond collection and double stamped with Mundo's Old Pink and Papyrus with Pueen Buffet (yes these plates are growing on me especially for double stamping!)

This almost reminds me of a china pattern too!

As much as I'm not a fan of the colder weather I am a fan of dark vampy colors so yay Fall!

I must admit the Pueen Buffet set is starting to grow on me especially for double stamping

I'm not sure which one I like the best this one or the blue!

Let's check out what everyone else did for their last day!  Was anyone crazy enough to do cotton again????!!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does 2--China!

Hi Everyone!  Holy cow it's cold here!  Our temperatures dropped down into the 40's!  And were we prepared?  Heck no!  I stupidly wore sandals to work today!  Crazy town!  It's supposed to be cold and windy again tomorrow.  We might be straight into Fall after our short Summer.  But that's okay because our Falls are very beautiful and so short lived.

Today in our September Anniversary our theme is china as in fine china.  There have been a lot of china pattern nails done but I wanted to do something like the beautiful I grew up with of my .  My grandmother was an AMAZING cook.  Every Sunday after church we had fried chicken and the best mashed potatoes in the world.  Not only did she cook but she also baked!  She was a cake decorator for Lehman's bakery all the years I had her in my life. I had not only the most delicious Danish Layer cake's for my birthday but also the best decorated cakes!  I miss her.  She was very special to me.

One of my favorite memories of her was sitting around the table with all my family for Thanksgiving and eating off of the beautiful china.

My favorite thing was the gold rim around the plates and coffee cups.  Even the kids got coffee cups LOL!

Pretty white and gold china was underneath the mound of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes and gravy.

When you were a kid and you got to eat off of the fine china you felt like a princess! Come to think of it whenever I was with my grandma I felt like a princess.

Check out what everyone else has done for their china pattern mani's!

The Digit-al Dozen Does 2--Sapphire!

Happy Birthday September babies!  Today's post from The Digit-al Dozen is all about September's birthstone--the sapphire.  Today I decided to try and recreate a look I had seen my friend Michelle from Manic Talons do with her Pueen Encore set.  She did an amazing gorgeous look with all blues.  I was lucky enough to get my Nails Inc Raphael St in so I immediately thought of double stamping some blue over it!

I really love how this turned out and the sapphire blue base of Raphael Street is simply stunning

I don't stamp in color enough.  This is something I need to work on for sure

Thumby is soooooo pretty!

I don't have the Pueen Encore set yet so I had to settle for my Pueen Buffet set which I find does work well for double stamping images!

Be sure to stop by and check out what everyone else did for their Sapphire nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does 2--Cotton!

Hi Everyone!! Sooooo day 2 for the Digit-al Dozen's 2nd Anniversary theme is cotton! OMG cotton people!  Who wants cotton for a 2nd anniversary present?  Better yet who in their right mind wants to do something "cottony" on their nails?

Well you asked for it so you got it.  I give you fuzzy socks!

This was by far one of the hardest mani's I've ever done!  My stamping did not go well at all over the pink!  UG then I had to free hand AND put matte over it so it some what matched the rest of the nails.  

These might not be for everyone!! That's for sure!

If you want to get crazy and try this is just flocking powder or the same color nail polish.  Since I had pink, orange and green flocking powder I pulled out matching polishes.  I applied the polish in a line on my nail each color at a time, let it dry.  Then one color at a time I applied the polish then sprinkled on the flocking powder so pink then flocking powder, I did all the nails with pink then went back and did the orange and then flocking powder then green then flocking powder.

Here's a tip DO NOT use acetone to clean up any excess stamping on your skin.  You have to pull up with tape.  If you don't the acetone will settle into your flocking powder and completely smear your stamping.  Trust me I found this out the hard way!

Let's go check out what cottony thing everyone else did!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does 2--- Pairs!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Monday!!!  This week we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary.  This awesome group has been around for 2 years and man have we seen some excellent nail art in various forms.  Whether you are someone who loves free hand or stamping, whether you follow blogs, instagram or Facebook, the Digit-al Dozen has been an excellent source for all things nail art!

This week we have an interesting them.  It's all about the 2's!  Each day we will be doing a theme that can be associated with 2.

Today also happens to the be the wedding anniversary of my parents--Alan and Sandra Lutze.  It would have been 52 years for them today however my father died just short of their 50'th wedding anniversary 2 years ago.  This day will always mean something to me for it is the day my parents joined together in holy matrimony and raised 3 daughters in a loving and supportive home. Not everyone is lucky enough to have this in their life.  Not a day goes by that I don't realize how very lucky I am.

To support both my wonderful Digit-al Dozen group and my parents my message today pertaining to 2 is a couple is also a pair.  53 years ago today my father proposed to my mother and she said yes.  And the rest was history

To get this look I did a gradient with Sinful Colors Pull Over, Zoya Shelby and Zoya Rocky.  I stamped using MoYou Mother Nature 01

My thumb looks pretty good too!

In the case my parents two people who joined together to make three beautiful daughters one family was formed--pretty neat if you ask me!

Be sure to check out how everyone else is kicking off this week!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen 2nd Anniversary MEGA Giveaway!

Hi Everyone!

OMG welcome to the Digit-al Dozen 2nd Anniversary EPIC giveaway!  Just like last year we are doing a really great giveaway to celebrate the second Anniversary of The Digital Dozen.  It's huge!!! It's EPIC!!  Check out all the details on it below!!

It’s been 2 years since the Digit-al Dozen first got together, and although we’ve had a few different line-ups in that time, one thing has remained constant  - our love of nail polish and nail art.

To celebrate, we are holding a legendary Giveaway featuring 51 prizes.  To all our brilliant sponsors, we can’t thank you enough for helping us set this up for you, our amazing readers.

Because we have a large amount of sponsors, they all have different shipping policies.   When you start the Rafflecopter, you will be asked which country you live in, because some prizes are only available in certain places.  Ready?  Here’s the list –

INTERNATIONAL PRIZES

·         Above The Curve - Summer Destinations 2014 – 4 polishes

·         ALiquidLacquer - 5 polishes

·         Alter Ego Nail Enamel - 4 bottles

·         Black Dahlia Lacquer – 4 bottles

·         Celestial Lacquers - 6 bottles

·         Cupcake Polish - $25 gift card

·         Delush - 3 bottles

·         EllaGee - 4 bottles

·         Lacquistry - 4 bottles

·         Literary Lacquers - 6 bottles

·         Indigo Bananas – 6 bottles

·         Serum No 5 - 4 bottles

·         Vivid Lacquer - 4 stamping plates

·         Girly Bits - 2 bottles

·         Jindie Nails - 6 bottles

·         Superficially Colorful - $25  GC

·         Darling Diva Polish - 4 bottles

·         Llarowe - $50 GC -

·         Amazing Chic Lacquer - 2 bottles

·         Mrs. P's Nail Potions - $15 gift

·         Black Sheep Lacquer - 2 polishes

·         Renaissance Cosmetics - 3 full size bottles (in stock items only) and mini cuticle oil

·         Laquerlicious Nail Polish - 3 neon toppers. Beat The Heat, At The Lake and Lemon Limeade.

·         Nayll – 4 bottles of custom made polishes – you get to make your own!

·         JORD Watch; $129 voucher

·         $85 GC from The Digit-al Dozen, to a nail e-tailer of your choice

·         tube of Liquid Palisade from Kiesque

·         Nailed Kit decals set

US ONLY

·         Daphine Polish - 5 bottle Summer holo collex

·         GlitterDaze - 4 bottles

·         Gothic Gala Lacquers - 5 bottles

·         Karma's Kiss Lacquer - 4 bottles

·         Love Angeline – 2 Gemstone polishes

·         LynnBDesigns - 5 bottles

·         Majestic Lacquer - 3 bottles

·         Philly Loves Lacquer - 4 bottles

·         Savoie - 4 bottles

·         KBShimmer - $35 electronic CG

·         6 Harts Polish - 2 polishes

·         Overall Beauty - nail art tape sets (with different colors nail tape) with nail wheels and nail art decals plus a bottle nail polish (mystery color ), and a set of Overall Beauty Minerals ( 6 colors)

·         BKD - Space Sauce Teardrop Shaped Nail Polish Pendant Necklace - Nail Polish Jewelry

·         Shimmer – 5 bottles

US & Canada Only

·         Smokey Mountain Lacquers - 4 bottles

·         The Polish Bar - 4 bottles

·         Canadian Nail Fanatic – mystery package of 6 bottles

UK ONLY 

·         Quirk Polish - 3 bottles one of kind unreleased polishes 

·         All one prize – 1 x Freckles polish, and  Freckles Polish Necklace, and 1 x bottle from Laquerdaisical

·         All one prize - Stellar Polish -  1x polish and ring, 1 x bottle from Little Lost Ones

·         Pretty Quirky 2 x full size bottles 'Stole the Bouquet" and "Deva' , PLUS 1 x bottle from R+ R Lacquers

·         a voucher for a personalised planner from Personal Planner UK

·         a zip up pouch with set of brushes and dotters plus a selection of nail art: nail stickers, flat gems and rhinestones from Nailtopia

That’s an enormous list, isn’t it!!  How exciting – ok, so you know what you need to do, enter the rafflecopter and we’ll let you know on September 25^th (or thereabouts) if you’re a winner.

  

The Giveaway will close at 11.59pm GMT on Tuesday September 24^th.  If you are a winner, we will let you know which prize you have won, and then we will then put you in touch with your sponsor to claim / choose your prize (some sponsors have provided specific prizes; some will let you choose your own polishes).

  

Good luck !!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Curses! Foiled Again!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I wanted to do another foil mani since the advanced group runs their themes all week instead of just for a day but man oh man oh man foils and topcoat together just plain suck!  I don't know if it's my body's chemical makeup or what but what seems to work for everyone else just does not work for me.

I hauled out my foils and used Dollar Nail Art's Fiber Optics this time which is pretty damn kick ass!

They went on pretty good.  I learned a trick from my friend Kerrie who said she always does 2 layers of foil so that's what I did here instead of trying to paint my nails a matching color.  I was able to apply my Rejuvacote without too much crackling and wrinkling.

So this all looks pretty cool but the challenge is stamping over the foils and that's where the huge fail comes in!

Once I stamped and put Seche Vite on the prismatic colors are just gone.  All Im left with is some silver.  What a bummer!

It's still cool but it's just not the same!

Oh my kingdom for a topcoat that works over foils!  I've tried the trick of using the glue over the foil and then top coating and it doesn't work for me.  While it's definitely true a slow drying top coat is better than a fast dry, I still cannot get a perfect top coat with no cracks and no dulling of the foil.

I guess I shouldn't complain to much.  We all know I change my mani everyday so I could go out with a foil without topcoat and just have the thing rub off by the end of the day LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!  Tomorrow kicks off the Digit-al Dozen week and it's going to be EPIC!  EPIC I TELL YOU!  Make sure you stop in to check out what we've all got cooked up!