Crazy ash nails!

I didn’t know what to call these nails.  It’s kinda hard to summize them in a couple words!  So my title kinda rhymes with something.  I like to keep my blog G-rated, ya know? 😉

This is one of those manis that had no plan.  I just went for it.  I started with a basecoat and two coats of AVON Coral Reef.  Coral Reef is one of those coral shades that has a lot of pink in it.  It’s too pink for my mom so she gave it to me!  Shweeeeeet.   Then I stamped a Bundle Monster (BM-403) geometric shape with a silvery AVON shade called Platinum… but it didn’t show up too well.  So I did another stamp from that same plate using black nail polish.  That second stamp kinda looks like cogs inside a machine.  I like it.  I like it a lot.  (imagine Jim Carrey’s voice to get the full effect.)  Then I did a border around each nail in different colors.

Is it me, or does this nail art kinda look Indian somehow?

Also, I just finished my nails for the BIRDS theme of our Nail Art Ideas Linkup.  They came out wicked.  I wanted to post them tonite but I don’t have the energy to make that happen… so you’ll see them this weekend.  In the meantime, here’s some of the other nailarts from this month’s linkup.  For your viewing pleasure:

31st March – 6th April : Rain (April Showers)

7th – 13th April : Birds

 

Love Shields

Hey did you see that nailpolishcanada.com is doing another nail contest?  😀 The last one I entered was for the holiday season… this one is for v-day, of course!  Nail Polish Canada offers up some wicked prizes so if you are in the U.S. or Canada you should hurry up and check it out (ends on feb 10th 2014)!  A big reason I love entering these contests is cuz it’s so fun to link up with others in the nail art community.  Everyone comes up with such cool designs! Wanna see mine??

The idea for this mani was sparked by my fellow blogger Blimbo247.  She thought my China Glaze border mani from last week made my pointy nails look like little shields.  She was right!   I really liked that concept and it inspired me to come up with this valentines version of a border manicure.  Behold my little love shields!  It’s a very simple design… no crazy nail art this time.  But sometimes a simple mani can have just as much wow factor as a complicated one!  All I used was Nicole by OPI Be Ama-zing (rich pink) and a black striper by L.A. Colors.

You should go check out all the other ladies’ awesome valentines nails and vote for your favorite.  If you’d like to cast a vote for my little shields that would be mighty kind of you. 😉  Here’s the contest gallery link: VDAY NAIL CONTEST.  The voting ballot is at the bottom of the page… just enter your first name, your email (they won’t spam you), and then select your fave nails from the list.  Thanks y’all and happy valentines day!  xoxo Craftynail xoxo

china glaze border mani

Here’s my last mani for the January N.A.I.L. linkup!  The week 4 theme is BORDER MANI.

I’m wearing a couple polishes from the China Glaze Happy Holiglaze 2013 collection.  It’s actually a three-pack from that collection called Dash of Dazzle.  I chose the two metallics of the bunch because OMG I love metallics lately!  But also, because the other one called Bells Will Be Blinging has bar glitter, and well, I’m not a huge fan.  Maybe some other time!

First I applied one coat of So Blue Without You.  It’s so bright and vibrant!  Then I applied the gold polish called Mingle With Kringle.  So much gold foil goodness!  When I applied the gold I made sure never to touch the base or sides of my nail.  But I did pull the gold polish all the way to the tips of my nails (which makes the border look like a horseshoe), which isn’t a biggie… because then I just hand paint little strips of blue onto my tips to make the blue border reach all the way around my nails.  It’s actually done in no time at all- with no special tools required.  Just the bottle brushes. 

This manicure is a little crazy-looking, huh?  It didn’t come out quite as expected.  I think the metallic finish blurs it so my border isn’t very crisp.  But it was super quick and it’s very eye-catching, so I can’t complain!

Since January is almost over that means the February Linkup themes will be coming out soon!  Keep your eyes peeled this weekend for the announcement!

In the meantime, here are the galleries of January nails…

6 – 12 January – Health and Wellness :

13 – 19 January – Inspired by Pinterest :

20 – 26 January – Opposite Day :

27 January – 2nd February – Border Manis :

Dotted and stamped! Another holiday manicure…

I love nail stamping with my Konad, Cheeky and MoYou plates… but sometimes a solid-colored stamp is just too boring for me.  I’m always looking for fun ways to complicate a simple stamp manicure.  Then it hit me: why not do a dotticure, then stamp over top of it!?

I like the end result!  It has a sorta country-appeal to it.  Kinda like shabby chic wall-paper or something.  It didn’t take long to do, especially since my MoYou XL stamper is soft and squishy so I don’t need to press very hard.  Which means my underneath layers of polish don’t have to be dry when I stamp.  That saves me a lot of waiting/dry-time.  I hafta say, since I got my MoYou stamper- I haven’t even touched my old Konad one at all!

Here’s what I’m wearing:

♥ Sally Hansen Maximum Growth – as my basecoat

♥ OPI My Vampire is Buff – three coats

♥ AVON Ruby Slipper & AVON Garden Green w/a dotting tool – for the dots

♥ Black Konad polish and my MoYou London Festive 03 plate – for the stamping

♥ Seche Vite – as my topcoat

When I topcoated my thumb it seemed very prone to smudging.  So I had to really slather the seche vite on super thick as to not drag the brush across my design.  I hate how stamping smudges so easy.  I’m wondering if different polishes smudge differently?  I dunno, but Konad polish surely smudges!  I SHOULD DO A SMUDGING EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT BRANDS!  I’ll put that on my blog to-do list.

Only two days left til Christmas!!  You ready for it???  Tonight we just need to make a big batch of cookies and then we are all set for the festivities!

spooky eyes nail art for #naillinkup

One of our NAIL themes for October is THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT.  I was really drawing a blank on this one.  Which is kind of ironic considering I suggested this theme when Brijit and Eeeek and I were corroborating about the October NAIL prompts!   I just had too many ideas swimming in my head- bats, vampires, creepy crawlies….so I turned to google for some inspiration.  I found an artist named Vicky Scott who created this illustration called..

wait for it..

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT!  How appropriate.  You can see her cute print here on Hire an Illustrator.   I really liked the image she created- especially her spooky eyes floating in the darkness.  Eyeballs seemed liked they’d be easy to paint on a small nail canvas so here’s what I came up with…

I applied Sally Hansen Maximum Growth as my basecoat, two coats of Essence Grey-t To Be Here, and then I hand painted the black accents and eyes using red white and black polishes.   I waited a good 20 minutes before I applied my seche topcoat because I would’ve hated to smear the eyes if they weren’t dry.  I didn’t do too much nail art on this mani so I didn’t want to ruin the little bit that I did do!

The next mani I want to work on is the next October NAIL theme: TREATS AND SWEETS!  Nom nom nom!  Hopefully we’ll see some peanut butter or chocolate.  Or both! 

Breast Cancer Awareness :

Autumn Trees :

Things That Go Bump in the Night :

Treats and Sweets :

Hallow E’en :

Bieber Border Manicure

It’s day 20 of the nail art challenge for April and the theme is border manicure!  When I think about border manis I think, “what two colors work well together?”…  and most times I think out loud.  So my man suggested purple and yellow.  Well, I have a two-pack of Nicole by OPI polishes with those exact two colors!  How perfect is that?

I can think of a lot of young girls that would love this manicure.  WHY? Because these Nicole by OPI shades are inspired by Justin Bieber!  I’m a Belieber is a nice basic purple cream (Bieber’s favorite color is purple) and the yellow is called My Favorite Gold.  I’ve swatched My Favorite Gold before- here’s the post.  It’s a beautiful and bright gold color, but it needs a lot of coats (and preferably some undies too)!!  Next time I try a border mani I will use more opaque colors.  I’m a little embarrassed to say how many coats I’m wearing here!  Even still, I love the final result and how the purple really stands out against the gold.  I think Justin Bieber would be proud! 😀