STAMPING- OPI Chevron for #NAILLINKUP

This is my first Nail Art Ideas Linkup design for the month of March.  I’m excited for the themes we have this month!  Especially AQUA for some reason . 😀

The theme for week 1 is STAMPING so I reached for my new Bundle Monster set!  I finally got the Create Your Own 2013 set that I’ve been lusting after.  I’m so excited to use them all!  For this easy chevron I used plate BM-423.

I’ve never done a traditional chevron using little pieces of zig zaggy tape or anything.  I’ve always felt like if I tried I would screw it up!  Me and tape don’t always get along.  So using a stamping plate instead was the perfect solution for me! I generally have good luck with stamping.

Besides my bundle monster plate, I used three different OPIs for this manicure. I like how the different colors coordinate and clash all at the same time for a cool 80’s vibe.  Here’s what I’m wearing:

♥ Did It On ‘Em ♥ Elephantastic Pink ♥ Haven’t the Foggiest 

Thinking of joining in on the March N.A.I.L. fun?  More info right here- NAILLINKUP.  And don’t forget to check out the other stamping manis >>

Stamping –

French Flowers

It’s the last day of the Nail Art Challenge.  Boohooie!  Before I joined the challenge I was thinking oh no.. will I be able to commit to 30 straight days of nail art!?  It sounded like so much work.  But now that the 30 days are up… I can’t believe how fast it went!  I was able to really immerse myself in nail art and I tried so many cool techniques that I’ve been wanting to try for so long! Julie picked some really cool themes and it was a blast.  One of my own favorite designs is probably my AriZona Iced Tea Nails.  AriZona recently posted it on their facebook page and my blog stats have blown up today!  Pretty cool I think. 🙂

Moving on to my very last mani from the challenge!  Day 30’s theme is RECREATE YOUR FAVORITE MANICURE.  I chose Brijit’s manicure to recreate:  Isn’t hers cute?  Brijit’s mani was in turn inspired by PSHIIIT.  Pshiiit made the cutest little GIF to show you how easy it is to paint these flowers: nail art fleuri.  I named my copycat of their manis FRENCH FLOWERS because both Brijit and Pshiiit are French bloggers!

My base color is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away!  My petals are a light blue by NYC called Skyline Blue.  The silver accents were made with NYC Tribeca Silver.  I like the way it looks in real life- but so hard to photograph!

A final thank you for following me on this challenge!  I loved all the likes and comments- it really kept me going throughout the 30 days!  See you next time when poor Craftynail will have to come up with ideas on her own! lol

Silver Feather Fowl Play

Day 17 of Julie’s April nail art challenge is dedicated to 3D nail art!  I love that this nail art challenge makes me try new things. I don’t have a lot of nail embellishments in my stash so my best bet was to think outside the box!  I have a lot of jewelry findings and beads so surely I’d be able to find something to decorate my nails with.  When sifting through my beads I came cross these lovely silver-plated feather charms from Fire Mountain Gems.  I used to love these things!  I don’t make myself a lot jewelry- usually I give it to family and friends…but I made myself these aqua chandelier earrings with the silver feathers and they turned out to be my absolute faves!  I wore them all the time!  Until I lost them 😦   Here’s a pic of them on the left.  I really should make myself another pair… but first, lemme put these feathers on my nails!  I cut them with my wire cutting tool and secured them to my painted nails with a clear top coat.  They looked really awesome, but I kept scratching myself with them!  So I didn’t get to wear them too long lol.

If you are wondering about my purple base color… it’s called Fowl Play by Orly and it’s part of their Birds of a Feather Collection from 2011 maybe.  It has a dark purple jelly base with a thick suspension type formula… and it’s got all kinds of crazy shimmer, micro glitter and small flakies.  Lotsa colors in here!  I like deep complex colors like this.  In fact, the whole Birds of a feather Collection is beautiful- check out Orly’s promo shot for the collection.  Don’t you love this bright metallic peacock blue polish that the model is wearing?  I know this collection is old news… but this blue is so pretty!  And so is my purple Fowl Play- I hope you like it too!

Copycat: Adele’s Silver Louboutins

I love when celebrities show off their cool nails!  Like Katy Perry, Rhianna, Fergie and of course Adele!  I just love Adele’s Louboutin Nails from last year’s Grammys.  We’ve seen a lot of the black and red Louboutin nails… so I really like how she mixed it up by pairing the red with a glittery silver polish instead.  I will probably never own a pair of Louboutins- so why not try the nails out for a spin? Sure, I’m a year behind…but that won’t stop me.

I found this Adele pic from a seventeen magazine article. You can click on the photo to read the full article.  Seventeen reports that Adele’s nail stylist used Ciaté Paint Pots in “Jewel” and “Mistress” to create this mani.  My stash is not that expansive and I don’t even own one single solitary bottle of Ciaté polish.  So to copycat her look I had to get creative.  Not including top and base coats, I used 6 different polishes for this mani!  I did the red first, and used a few different mini bottles of polish to get the shade right (I loved using the teeny mini brushes for painting the underneath).   I also put some seche vite on top of the red since I wanted to make sure it dried properly.  Then I painted the top of my nails next.  To simulate Ciaté Jewel I did two thin coats of a light purple called Revlon Charming, then a coat of silver holographic polish to make it glow.  Then I topped it off with two different holographic glitters and some seche vite.  I think I have 7 layers of polish on the top of my nails and 5 layers on the underneath!  No one said being beautiful was easy.

I hope the underside of my nails don’t stain too bad.  I used some creamy white Orly Ridge Filler before I painted on the red to help prevent staining.  There was somewhat of a mess with the red, but that was expected.  I used some ‘manicure swabs’ for cleanup which worked pretty well.  Manicure swabs are handy for intricate cleanup because they’re essentially pointed cotton swabs.  So glad I found them at Harmon – they’re perfect for paint jobs like this one.

I’m really enjoying having this mani on!  I think it’s cool to glance down and see my nails painted from every which way!  What do you think of this look?  If you’d like to see my other Louboutin manicure- here’s the link!

Rainbow Polish by AVON

I was digging through my stash of polish and I found this old gem!  I’ve had it forever, but I guess I forgot about it.  It’s from a special AVON collection called Rainbow Nail Enamel and the shade is named Rainbow Silver.

I’m realizing that AVON may have been ahead of their time with this one!  I think this polish is from 2003.  AVON calls this a rainbow shade….but by today’s standards it would be considered a holographic.  I think it’s pretty cool that they carried holos 10 yrs ago! I was under the impression that the holo craze was more of a recent trend…within the last few years or so?  If anyone knows when holographics hit the market, please let me know.  Cuz now I’m curious!

Wish I bought more of these back when AVON carried them!

snakeskin magnet swap-out

This is a follow-up to my snakeskin post from a few days ago! That green Sinfully Magnetic Snakeskin mani came out great! I really love the magnet that came with it. Ever since then I’ve had the urge to test out that snakeskin magnet on other polishes from my stash! Here are the two I chose….

Orly Magnetic FX Paint On Electron: This silver/grey polish was a little meh for me since the snakeskin design came out very subtle.  If you want to see more pics of this polish here’s a nice post by thePolishAholic.

Magnetic Force by Color Club Hipnotic: This magenta polish never disappoints.  I like the bright pink undertones that pop up when the magnet hits this polish!  Just a side note- this color is a dupe of Finger Paints Hipnotic.  Somehow I ended up with both bottles and they are identical!

That was a fun test- those polishes only needed one coat and also dried super quick.  Now I feel like mis-matching my magnets and trying them with all my different polishes!