Larry Nail Art

So in the world of radio, it is not uncommon to work with someone for years and never meet them face to face. One of my colleagues works out of San Francisco, and I have worked with him for probably 6 years. We finally met today. He knows about my nail art and I promised I would do something fun for him. Here you go, Larry!

I painted Larry on my ring finger. I also added a bit of stamping with the mug of beer from a MoYou London plate, but I could have left it plain and I probably would have liked it more. The base color is China Glaze Electric Pineapple. I used acrylic paints to do the portrait.

I used Larry's Facebook profile as my model. He's a bit of a weirdo, but then, so am I. And after I painted this, I realized that I chose one of my sister-in-law's favorite colors for the base. It wasn't a conscious decision. She passed away two years ago today, and she would probably have busted up laughing at this. :)

This is the third time I have painted the face of someone I know on my nails. Here is the first one of Sarah from Chalkboard Nails, and here is the second one of my little nephew (Erin's son) Will. 

Eggshell Nails

I wanted to make a delicate nail design that would reflect the gorgeous colors of egg shells. We are so lucky to have lots of farmers markets in Sonoma County selling farm fresh eggs. They are not only beautiful on the outside, they are also gorgeous on the inside, with richly colored yolks.

I painted each nail with a different egg shell hue, then used MoYou London Explorer plate 03 with Konad White. The base colors are OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle, OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh?, Orly Decades of Dysfunction, and Color Club Factory Girl.

Stamping Better than Jamberry

The recent challenge on Adventures in Stamping was to create a design that is better than Jamberry, or other similar nail wraps. Here is my interpretation:

 

Base coat is OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? stamped with Konad white. I used the decal method on my ring finger with acrylic paints. Image is from MoYou London Pro 06.

31 Day Challenge: Delicate

My challenge nails today are somewhat similar to the ones I did in 2011. They are also done with a wallpaper-like background done with stamping. But I think these are a bit scarier. I painted the horrifying little girl from The Ring. (Spoiler alert: if you haven't see The Ring, or don't want to scare the crap out of yourself, don't click on that link.)

I started with a base of OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? Then I used a combination of the same polish and Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris to stamp the pattern from MoYou London Sailor Plate 05. I wanted a more muted color for the 'wallpaper' so that is why I toned down the black a bit. 

Then I used acrylic paints to paint the evil girl. Here she is partway done. I used a mixture of white, blue, and black to paint her since the movie is really blue toned. 

Then it was time to paint her creepy hair. I should have made her head a bit taller but my nail was not long enough. If you look at pictures of her, her head seems abnormally far from her shoulders. Perhaps that adds to the creepiness of this character. Also, I don't suggest looking at images of her for a long time. It's freaky. bleh. (On a side note, when I moved to California from Washington State, my brother told me about this film as we were driving down I-5. He was so scared by retelling the plot of this movie that he started to cry a little. And it also helped me remember when to close my eyes when I eventually watched The Ring.)

Another super creepy part of this manicure is that I had a really hard time photographing it. Normally there are one or two images that are blurry, but with this manicure at least half of the images were blurry. Ok, freak out time. 

And did you notice I painted her image on my ring finger? See what I did there...

Click here to see my delicate challenge nails from 2011. 

I Sh@t On The Cat In The Hat

Okay, so this mani made me LOL. It's Grumpy Cat with some Cat In The Hat inspired stripes (albeit a little curvy). I did this for my art show happy hour tonight! And I did give it a rather rude name, perhaps something that Grumpy Cat might say herself: I Shat On The Cat In The Hat.

I painted my nails using Wet n Wild French White Creme, except the ring finger which is painted with a base of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. Then I used Konad Red and MoYou London Sailor Plate 05 for the stripes. I hand painted the Grumpy Cat on my ring finger using acrylic paints. Everything is topped with Seche Vite topcoat.

My art show is tonight from 5pm to 7pm (a special happy hour) and also this Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm. I'll have wine tonight, otherwise you can have a Capri Sun juice pouch. Oh and candy! And you can see my artwork. The Studio Santa Rosa is located at 3840 Finley Avenue in Santa Rosa, CA. 

MoYou London Stamping

I am having SO MUCH FUN with my MoYou London stamping plates. The quality of these plates is far superior to any other stamping plates I have used. The etching is perfect, and the images are unique and well thought out for use on the nail. The landscape style of plates are beautiful and seem like little pieces of art on their own. I have been posting a few manicures on my Instagram account for the MoYou 10K challenge. Here are my manis so far:

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 1: Art 

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 2: Nature

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 4: Fantasy

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 5: Shadows

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 7: Red

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 8: Food

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 12: OOTD (I chose to go nudie for this challenge, ha ha!)

MoYou 10K Challenge Day 14: TV Show

As you can see, I am having a blast with this challenge. Please follow my Instagram account for more challenges this month. Also, I am sure you noticed a new color in my Kermit manicure! Yup, my new collection is out and available in my etsy shop. Click here to view the collection and pick up a few bottles. They are Muppet inspired colors, yaaaaaay! *Kermit arm flail*

Goldfish Nail Art

Today's manicure is for the Adventures in Stamping challenge: Under the Sea. I sadly found that I don't really own many aquatic stamping plates. Note to self: remedy that! I do however have this gorgeous stamping plate from MoYou London which has a pair of goldfish swimming around each other. An infinite circle of koi. So I combined that stamp with a water technique that I have used previously on another manicure.

I started with a base of Color Club Factory Girl, then used a cosmetic sponge to dab on some OPI Fly in areas. After that I used acrylic paints to add little veins of blue-grey, and light blue to indicate little waves. I used a stamping decal technique and MoYou London plate Suki 09 and Konad Black stamping polish. I filled in the fish with orange and yellow acrylic paints. The stamp decal was a little messy, but I like the effect. It feels lived in, like it's been there a while.

Enjoy!

Adorable Rice Bowl

Today's manicure is something I came up with for two different challenges. One is The Lacquer Legion "Adoration Challenge" - I am super in love with Japanese food (bento boxes RULE) and love all things kawaii, so this mani fits perfectly within that theme. And it also works for the AIS stamping challenge this week, which is purple and orange together.

I used OPI Tangerine Scene as the base color, then used MoYou London Suki 03 Stamping Plate with Konad Black for the stamp decal. I filled in the stamped decal with acrylic paints. If you like bento too, be sure to check out my bento blog.

Have a great week!