Cherry Gingham Nails

Hi girls, I saw this design and just HAD to recreate it on my nails!

For this mani, I started with a base of Essie French Affair. I might need to repurchase this soon, I use it so often...

I then stamped over it with Konad plate m64 and a pink chrome Sally Hansen pen. The only bad thing about these pens is they give me all these little stamping wispies that I have to flatten out on my nail. I don't really know what else to call them, so I hope you know what I'm talking about. Hahah.

I made the cherries with acrylic paint and a small paintbrush. I think they turned out nicely, I only wish I had stamped with a lighter background color because I think it makes the cherries a bit difficult to see. But oh well! I'm a little out of practice, so hopefully these weekly nail nights with Mama will get me back into the routine :)

Just a brief post tonight because I'm on my way to visit the manfriend. And I am a little buzzed. Ok Bye!

Happy Birthday Sweetpeas!

On this day 23 years ago my life was forever changed with the birth of my darling daughter.  She is the light of my life and shares this blog with me.  I can think of no better day to tell the world  how special she is and how much I love her.  So Sweetpea, today's mani is just for you...

Today's birthday manicure is a base of China Glaze For Audrey with freehanded sweetpeas in pink, white and red acrylic paint.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Green stripes

Today's mani is just a simple green stripe pattern for St. Patrick's Day.  I started with one of my favorite greens - Sally Hansen Grass Slipper.   I like the formula on this one.  It flows and levels well and the pigmentation is good with no streaking or dragging.  But it stains your nails REALLY badly so you might want to double up on your base coat before wearing this.

The stripes are done with a striping brush and Zoya Verushka and acrylic paint.  Looks kind of a like a watermelon doesn't it?

Oh, and some exciting news!   I got a job!!!  I've been looking since I relocated to Boston 3 months ago and am really happy with the place I found.  It's going to be SO nice to have money again!  Bye bye no buy!!! :-))))

Orly Orange Punch leopard

Any one that knows me knows I'm a big football fan.  And since my team unfortunately had a dreadful year, I had to go with a surrogate team for the playoffs.  :)  I know that the Denver Broncos have been in the news a lot because of Tim Tebow, but I find it refreshing to have a good positive role model for kids; not some gun toting, girlfriend beating thug.  So here's my nod to the NFL playoffs with my Denver Broncos leopard print.

The base is Orly Orange Punch, which applied like an absolute dream.  Smooth with good opacity for a creme/jelly.  One coat gave pretty good coverage, but I am a creature of habit and applied a second.  Then i stamped over it with konad plate 57 and special polish in blue, and dotted the spots with white acrylic paint.

As Amanda says... "Rawr"

I'll always be a Colts fan though.  You can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can't take Indiana out of the girl :)

Simple snowman nailart

Admittedly, my nail art skills pale in comparison to Amanda's.  These old(er) hands can't hold the paintbrush as steady as a 20something.  ;-)   But here is a cute design I saw on some holiday plates that I wanted to recreate on my nails.

I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow matte.  As usual with white polish, I had some minor issues with streakiness and patchiness necessitating 3-4 coats.

Then after the base was completely dry, I painted a stripe of black acrylic paint at the base of my nails for the hat then used a dotting tool for the eyes and a thin striper for the smile.  The carrot nose is made with orange acrylic paint and a small nail art brush. 

I first attempted this nail art with actual black polish, but found that it was too streaky and didn't cover well so I switched to acrylic paint.

The ring finger snowman's smile has turned into a grimace.  It looks like he has something to say...