Grimace Nails

This is a manicure I did for a challenge in a stamping group. It uses 3 (well, actually 4) different shades of purple polish. And since I love hand painting art, I added a fun little character. Who is more purple than Grimace? Well, maybe a certain dinosaur, but we don't need to bring him up, do we?!

Here are my Grimace Nails! What the heck is Grimace anyway?! Scary giant triangle who likes milkshakes. Thanks for the heebie jeebies, McDonalds!

First I painted my nails with OPI Rumples Wiggin'. Then I used a gradient technique (see the Nailasaurus for a great tutorial on this technique) to add two more shades of purple (Essie DJ Play That Song, and Lime Crime Lavendairy). My base color was not quite dry, so I kind of messed up my index finger. Oops.

Then I used Nailz Craze plate NC02 to add the fun swirlies. I stamped with OPI Funky Dunkey. So if you are counting along at home, that is the 4th purple. And I used acrylic paints to hand paint the Grimace on my ring finger. 

I hope to do a lot more stamping as I have an event coming up soon that I can't wait to share with you! I've got to get my skills back up! 

And this is my 140th post, so that means another donation to Women's Recovery Services. Every twenty posts, I like to make a donation to help my community. Women's Recovery Services helps women get back on their feet after dealing with addiction. I encourage you to find ways to give back with your blog!

See you again soon!

Hello Kitty Nerd

Sorry about the gap between posts, I was covering for a coworker and I also had a polish sale, so sadly I did not have time for fun manicure. But I am making up for it with this cutie patootie mani! Hello Kitty Nerd!!  I was able to use a new technique I have never tried in this manicure, and I am thrilled with how it turned out.

This is a combination of an amazing gradient technique which I learned from The Nailasaurus, some hand painted nail art with acrylic paints, and my very own glitter topcoat called "My Three Glitters!"

I started by painting my nails light pink with Butter London Teddy Girl. It was a little bare in spots with two coats, but I didn't mind since I was going to do a gradient over it anyway. Click here to see a great tutorial by The Nailasaurus on how to accomplish this easy gradient technique. I was able to do this on my very first try!

Here are the colors I used for my gradient, and oops, they are in the wrong order. Butter London Teddy Girl, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Speedy Sunburst, and OPI Elephantastic Pink. I actually used them in this order: Teddy Girl, Elephantastic Pink, Speedy Sunburst. This made for a very gradual gradient with lots of oomph!

Then I started on HK herself. Here you can see the white and black parts filled in on her head and body. Using acrylic paints makes it much easier to get smooth lines and to fix errors. 

Next I added facial features (the few she actually has), whiskers, and her little buttons on her dress. Then I turned her into an adorable little NERD!

This is a sticker of nerdy/1950s era Hello Kitty. She's got big ol glasses on and cute tenny runners. I found this sticker at the Sanrio store in San Francisco's Japantown. I LOVE that store, and I have to be careful when I go there or else I come home with an empty bank account, LOL.

Finally, to add dimension and fun to this mani, I topped all of my other nails with my Sonoma Nail Art glitter topcoat called "My Three Glitters". It is a black and white topcoat with white squares and black diamonds and has a fun retro feel to it. Then I topped everything with Seche Vite. 

My Three Glitter is inspired by one-time Sonoma County resident Fred MacMurray who had a ranch here. One of his most popular roles was the dad in the television series My Three Sons. My friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails helped me design this label and I really love it! I do have more bottles of this polish available from my last etsy sale. You can buy them here if you haven't picked up this color yet. I like the way the fun squares and diamonds in this mix make the polish a little different than the other black and white topcoats out there. Have a great week polish friends!