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!

Matte to order!

Hi Everyone!  Coming to you all on a super stormy morning!  Thunderstorms this morning and it's still dark out at 6 am.  This might officially be the start of Fall around here.

Last year my super cool friend Kim got me some W7 suede polishes.  I absolutely love a suede finish--it's matte, it's shimmery and it's just gorgeous.  I wonder why no one feels the need to bring back some more suedes???!!

I threw together this lovely little mani last night and stamped with my new VL 2 plate

I love these colors together don't you?!

The funny thing about this mani is I was trying to recreate something I had seen on Pinterest and fell in love with but could not find the image to recreate it.  After giving up and just doing this I found out from a couple friends the image I was looking for was on a CiCi & SiSi plate and I had it all along LOL!

 Looks like I'm back to rocking the 2 accent nails again LOL! Creature of habit what can I say??

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

Fun with foils!

Hi Everyone!  This week in my advanced nail stamping group our theme is foils.  Stamping over foils or decal method with foils.  Foils are gorgeous BUT topcoat just kills them!  It's the saddest thing in the world.  I feel like I have a pretty good method for using them and it's true that a uv gel topcoat doesn't do nearly as much damage with wrinkling and cracking but man getting off soak off gel is a pain in the keester!

I am lucky enough to own a couple foils that are holo though! So win win for the mani today!

I put on my Elven Gold from Dollar Nail Art.  It's a gorgeous green and gold foil with no holo.  Then I stamped over it with an image from Daschica's SdP I plate.  It's a very celtic look!

Isn't it gorgeous?!

The trick I learned with foils is to have the smoothest surface you can.  I do two layers of foils over basecoat and ridge filler and I think it makes a world of difference

I've heard there are water based varnishes you can find in the craft stores that won't wreck a holo foil.  I might be on the hunt for some and see if it works.  This is our theme all week long so I'm sure I'll be doing some more foils again this week.

I'm definitely going to have to haul this one out again for St Patrick's Day too!

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