Following A Tutorial Week--Stamped Decals from Messy Mansion

Hi Everyone!! Happy Friday!  Our polar vortex has finally vacated and now we have rain!  OIY we just are not winning here LOL!  I'm all for the warmer weather but rain brings sleet, slush and ice.  Here we are at the end of the tutorial week and I decided to do a stamping decal.  Julia posted a really cute idea for a leprechaun last March.  It's a pretty simple tutorial although if you're new to stamping this is definitely an advanced technique.  Do check out the tutorial for it over at Messy Mansion.  Because I chose a plate that needed a lot of detailing on the decal I decided to just go for an accent instead of the decal on every nail.  Good thing too because it was a bit labor intensive!
I chose one of my new Messy Mansion plates MM29 and then stamped with China Glaze Passion--my favorite gold.  Then I filled in ALL the little holes with my jewel tone Illamasqua's--Viridian, Scarab, Phallic and Baptiste

I think it almost has a stained glass look!

I sure you enjoyed the tutorial week!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Following A Tutorial Week--Distressed Grunge

Hi Everyone!  The week is starting to wind down and I hope you are all looking forward to the weekend.  I am looking forward to it for sure--we are supposed to be in the 30's so a veritable heat wave for us dontcha know?!

Just like yesterday where I followed a tutorial by the fab Jacki from Adventures In Acetone today I followed one by the super talented Sarah of Chalkboard Nails.  I know I have told you all before I knew Sarah way back when she was just starting out!  Her freehand is amazeballs and it isn't too often at all I can copy one of her mani's.  Thankfully this tutorial made it pretty easy for me to create this cool looking distressed grunge mani!

It's a totally new look to me and I think I love it so much because it reminds me of shatter/crackle polish.  And if there's one thing Sarah knows about me it's how much I love Crackle!

Here's the mani I did.  I used a base of white and then China Glaze For Audrey, Zoya Mira and Reagan and then Sinful Colors Black On Black

I wish a bit more of the For Audrey showed up, but since this was first time trying this cool technique I wasn't sure how much was too much LOL!

This is a wicked cool base!

I really like my thumb

I think stamping might be totally awesome over this.  We'll see if I do it again and stamp something over it!

If you like this look and haven't done it check out Sarah's tutorial I linked at the top of the page, it's easy!  If I can do it, you can do it!

Following A Tutorial Week--textured gradient!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Hump Day!  I have a lovely mani to show you today and it's from a tutorial I followed from one of my favorite bloggers--Adventures In Acetone.  Jacki did this AHmazing criss cross textured striping tape mani awhile ago and I've been doing them ever since!  I love it when I can copy something of hers because she is crazy talented and really too hard to copy lol!  But a striping tape mani, now we're talking!

I started with a base of Nails Inc Victoria Street and then did my criss cross striping tape and sponged on Zoya Vespa and Kiko 646

I super love, love, LOVE this mani!

Some of you might be tired of the textured nail polishes but not me!  I cannot get enough of these babies!

Jacki does a lot of tutorials!  She has a Tutorial Tuesday where I first found this tutorial.  Make sure you check the link at the top to check it out and look into all her other fab tutorials!!

Following A Tutorial Week--Water Marble

Hi Everyone!  Still pretty bitter cold out there this morning.  Starting my day off at -14 with a wind chill of -35 BUT we are supposed to get to positive temps today.  We have a heat wave coming as this weekend we will be in the 30's.  And don't you just know some fool is going to come out in shorts when that happens!  I'll be sure to report back if I see anyone doing it.

So today for following a tutorial week I have the bane of almost all nail art lover's existence.  The dreaded water marble.  You know how it starts out, you see pics all of the internet of these super cool water marbles and you go wow just put some nail polish drops into water, swirl, stick your fingers and BAM! you have a great mani!  Then you try it and it is a MAJOR fail.  And you sit back and shake your head and wonder why didn't this work.  So then you Google "hey why didn't my water marble mani work--what are some tips and tricks to water marbling" and the internet Gods direct you to Colette--aka My Simple Little Pleasures YouTube Channel.  

Oh my stars it's like a gift from heaven when you find yourself there.  You watch every single water marble she does completely mesmerized.  But then you actually try some of her designs and low and behold you start to get one or two that work.  So you practice, practice, practice and suddenly you got this!

Today I just did a simple little water marble, that totally worked out and I didn't have to redo a single finger.  Just two colors China Glaze's Don't Make Me Wine and WetnWild Black

it's simple but still looks so pretty!

So if you haven't checked out Colette--you need too!  If you haven't tried to water marble yet--you need too!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a great day!

Following A Tutorial Week

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  This week my friends and I are doing mani's inspired by a tutorial.  When I first started stamping my nails I was pretty voracious in following tutorials and searching the internet for pics of mani ideas.  Tutorials are so helpful when it comes to mani's especially when it's a new to you technique.

But sometimes a tutorial is just about an incredibly beautiful manicure and that's why I've chosen this tutorial from Ashley at Ashley Is Polish Addicted 

She did a great mani with the Zoya Summer Pixie Dusts.  I didn't have all of them so I had to switch out the light purple I got from Forever 21.  This really does look like a snow cone!

I really love the textured polishes and love gradienting with them!

I tried to mimic Ashley's hand pose but I can't quite get it LOL!

Thanks for such a great tutorial on this AWESOME mani you did Ash!!