Wrap it up!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Sunday--I was MIA yesterday due some much needed rest and relaxation.  Working all that over time took a toll on me so I lazed around, watched Discovery ID all day and read some hot romances.  WHEW!  I feel totally refreshed!  I did have a bit of a struggle with today's AIS challenge though!  Usually I have a great idea when a theme is picked however yesterday I was really struggling.

The theme for today is over a saran wrapped base.  There are a lot of cool saran wrap mani's out there, I just wasn't feeling any of them!  I decided to look through my stash and try to work out something with some untrieds I have.  Nothing stood out too much then I hit the brown drawer and I snagged Essie Mink Muffs and Zoya Cheryl (which I've owned for 2 years and never put on once and added a bottle of Zoya Pasha to the mix!

I really love how this non traditional for summer mani turned out!  

I did 2 coats of Essie Mink Muffs first--let it completely dry and then topped it with a coat of Zoya Pasha and dabbed away with the saran wrap.  When that was dry I put a dab of Zoya Cheryl on a metal plate and then dabbed the saran wrap into and splodged it on randomly. 

 Honestly I wish I had a copper metallic to stamp with--but I didn't have anything light enough so I reached for Maybelline Bold Gold and DRK-B and stamped a couple of accent nails because I liked just the base so much I didn't want to completely cover it

I added the matte top coat because it just looks so much better matte!  Check out thumbie!

I should do these saran wrap mani's more often!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!  Mom and I are off today to check out The Wolverine!  Hottie Hugh Jackman to the rescue!!!

Pinkalicious!

Hi Readers!  My friend Amber from The Polished Momma is having a nail art contest featuring her favorites--pink, frogs, stars and cupcakes.  I have seen a few on the entries one of which is Michelle from Sonoma County Nail Art doing a frog licking a cupcake.  A.FROG.LICKING.A.CUPCAKE!  And it's cute as hell so I was saying oh lord I don't stand a chance with this contest. BUT that's not what I'm all about!  I'm about supporting my nail friends just the way they support me so I dusted myself off after hitting the floor when I passed out from Michelle's entry and relied on the cuteness factor to get me in.  A little over a year ago I won Bundle Monster's first contest with a simple cupcake and glitter mani so I decided to do a take on that.  Here's what I came up with

Just a simple cute and sweet pink gradient with some holo bling and stamping!

I don't care how old you are cupcakes are just cute! TOO DANG CUTE!

I have to say too I think DS Signature is really underrated.  I love the light magenta color of it and it's holo goodness!

For this mani I did painted my nails with Mary Kay Lavender Moon but on ring and thumb I used OPI DS Signature.  On the non accent nails I did a gradient of Lavender Moon, Essie Splash Of Grenadine, and then Signature on the tips--you can't sponge with a holo as you lose the color in the sponge.  I stamped using my new favorite white to stamp with White On The Spot from Milani using BM14 and BM21.
Here's a picture of the polishes I used

From left to right OPI DS Signature, Mary Kay Lavender Moon (a super old polish I got from a friend to franken with but the irridescent glitters I tried didn't work), Essie Splash Of Grenadine, China Glaze Tickle My Triangle, and Milani White On The Spot


Have have of you entered Amber's contest??  Check it out here she has some great entries to check out and she's does great nail art!


How do you feel about cupcakes Readers?  Never too old to love them on your nails or do you prefer them in your belly?


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

Best Place You've Ever Been

Hi Readers!  Is there one place in your life you've been that's been the best place ever?  For me it would have to be "Up North"  yes you heard me Readers.  When you live in Wisconsin you can go Up North and for us it was to Couderay and more importantly Tiger Musky Resort on the Chippewa Flowage.  We started out staying in a cabin there for a week in August.  My family and my parents best friends family.  Get this Readers--my dad's best friend married my mom's best friend!!!!  Anyway the Lutze's and the Eber's spent a week every summer in August for a few years at Tiger Musky Resort.  Those vacations were the best vacations of my life.  Fishing, swimming, riding on the boat, going out at night on bear hunts--being with the great group of summer friends on the planet--it was good times.  My friend Deb sent me some Model's Own in a swap for my Exclusive and Glamour Dupes and she had one unexpected nail polish in there.  Nails Inc Wilton Row--it's gorgeous a vamp magenta--has my name ALL OVER IT!  I saw a fantastic gradient and design by Nevys here  and when I saw this Wilton Row I knew I could do a gradient similar to Neys.  Here's the gorgeous gradient I came up with

This is a gradient of Essie Sexy Divide, Nails Inc Wilton Row and Essie Splash Of Grenadine

It was one of the smoothest gradients I think I've done!
BUT getting back to my favorite place in the planet--Up North.  I did this gradient in mind to use the trees like Neys did but also wanted to use the stag image from the 2nd bundle monster set.  Here is my mani--Sunset Up North

I love it and am so happy to finally have something to use the stag with!  I really enjoy doing these scenery type designs but here's something I don't like

UPSIDE DOWN THUMB SYNDROME!  Poor Thumbie
Here he is right side up

Here's a shot of the gorgeous Nails Inc Wilton Row

Here's a nice collage shot of the gradient with and without stamping

And last but not least a picture of the polishes I used Essie Sexy Divide, Nails Inc Wilton Row, Essie Splash Of Grenadine

I even but my sponge in the pic so you can see how I applied it to create the gradient.  Before the gradient I started with 2 coats of Essie Splash of Grenadine.  For the stamped image I used the tree from RA115 and the stag is from BM214.

Do you have a place you've been that's been the place ever Readers??  Anyone ever gone Up North to a resort on a lake?

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

Do two halves make a whole??

Hi Readers!  I have another half moon mani!  Actually this mani is on my right hand and I sported it the same time as my mani from yesterday! So YES I had on two completely different mani's readers!  I've been doing that a bit lately as I did with my snakeskin mani from Animalistic Week.  So far no one has looked at me like I'm a wacko so I guess it's okay.  So what's exciting about today's mani--wellllllllll it features one of my frankens!  I named this one Fury after a story in the New Species series by Laurann Dohner.  I'm not a huge fan of science fiction romance yet I LoVED this series!
Here's a bottle shot of Fury.  My wonderful friend Claude (Claudia) sent me this bottle of MNY that I HAD to have because of the handcuffs on the cap!  I added some Nfu-Oh 63 to it in the hope I was making a dark vampy scattered holo.  Not really what I intended as it seems deep magenta to me but I super love it none the less!

I wish I would have done a better bottle shot--can you see the little handcuffs on the bottle? OMG that is why I HAD to have some of this polish.  Claude sent me a black one too which I adore and good thing as she informed me they are being discontinued.  FYI readers I love handcuffs for some reason!
Here's what Fury looks likes--pretty dang gorgeous if you ask me!

It looks great here and I could have stopped here but come on who are we kidding readers????? You know I don't "do" plain polish lol!  I decided to do another half moon mani with Fury and topped him with Essie Spash of Grenadine

Just like yesterday's mani I added some dots to this one.  I really like the color combinations together

And here's how it looks right side up!

I got some assistance from the camera man to try to get pics of both hands together.  

Don't worry readers there's nothing wrong with your eye sight.  It's not you it's the pic lol!  As I've said before the camera man shakes likes he's 124 instead of 24 lol!
After I finished this mani I was looking at Fury and thinking oh oh don't I already have this color?  I recently acquired OPI DS Extravagance and I was worried I had duped it!

Hmmm they look close BUT mine is darker and the the holo pigments is much smaller THEREFORE I need these both LOL!  Do you see those little handcuffs on the MNY bottle readers? OMG seriously I love it!  I wish they would make hand cuffs on a stamping plate.  I would be all over that plate!


What do you think readers--am I crazy to wear two different colors on each hand?  How are you liking this one compared to yesterday's?  And what do you think of my franken Fury?
OOOH speaking of Fury here's the cover from the book!

I should have done the chain image!!


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

Opposites Attract!

Hi Readers!  I'm sure you've heard this one before--opposites attract.  This is something people like to say when they are dating someone and none of their friends can understand why so they say "Oh well!! Opposites attract!"  I'm not really sure about that in love BUT in this mani yes, opposites DO attract!
Remember my jeweled ruffian from couple weeks ago?  I loved it so much I stamped on it??? Well I am still loving the Ruffian mani's so I did another one. This time I took really affordable polishes---LA Color Craze Live--a dollar store polish and WetnWild Craze Nocturnal--a $1.99 polish and turned them into a million bucks!!! Check this out readers!

As you can see after I did the Nocturnal I mattefied it!  I know it looks black here but really Nocturnal is a super dark blue--one coat would have kept it blue I think but I wanted at least 2 coats!  I love the contrast of the shiny metallic and the matte effect!
You can really see the "bling" of Live in the crescent here

I love looking at it like this!

Here it is with flash!

Here are the polishes I used for this mani--LA Colors Live, WetnWild Morbid and Essie's Matte About You

And one more!! Side by Side non flash and flash comparison!

I really love this mani readers!  I'm not sure what I'll do next--will I stamp on it or just do something new???? Stay tuned!!!


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

Throw Back Thursday--Snakeskin

Hi Readers!  Welcome to Throwback Thursday!  Today I'm showcasing a mani I did in 2011 and one I'm quite proud of.  Even though I'm sort of afraid of them and they tend to creep me out, I find myself quite enamored with all things reptile!  As soon as I got my 2nd Bundle Monster set and saw the snakeskin image I new I had to try it!  
For this mani I used the gorgeous Essie Sew Psyched and then stamped with NYC Flat Iron Green using BM215.  To give it that shimmery reptile skin look I finished it off with a very thin coat of gLORIous which is topcoat of spectraflair pigment in clear.


Ssssssssssssssss

Man I loved this mani!  As I'm looking at these pictures now I'm feeling like I need to do another snakeskin mani again!


And just for some added kicks here's a picture of the snakeskin ring I made for my wonderful friend, Rachael

How do you feel about reptiles--are you okay with them or would you rather "wear" them on your nails and fingers????!