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!

Gradient Graveyard

I've been a little bit behind on the Halloween Challenge posts. Sorry about that! I have been covering for coworkers and just did a major broadcast from Napa that required three trips to the site to get it done. I would prefer not to drive to Napa again any time soon, LOL.

Today I am combining two of the challenge topics together: gradient (today's challenge) and graveyard. They really work well together!

Creeeeeepy! It is supposed to look like the mist on a an overcast day in a sinister graveyard. And who is that specter amongst the tombstones?!?! Run! Save yourselves!!!!

I started with Essie Blanc for my base, then did a gradient using Essie Blanc, Zoya Dove, and a franken of Wet n Wild black and white. I searched through my stash to see if I had a dark grey that might work, but realized I only had light greys. And like 5 bottles of basically the same grey color. Don't tell my husband, ha ha.

Then I used white and black acrylic paints to make the graveyard and spooky ghosty guy. Making the items in the background lighter makes them appear to be further away. Be sure to check out the other people who did a Halloween Challenge today too! 

My next etsy sale is coming up this evening in about 2 hours, so if you were looking for my Halloween collection of polishes, this will be your last chance! Here is the link to my store. The sale will be at 6:30pm Pacific Time (9:30pm Eastern) today, October 22nd.

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!

Blue Gradient Dots and WINNERS

WOWEEE! I cannot believe the amount of entries in my 1000 Facebook likes contest! You guys are so cool, thank you for your awesome support. Here are the winners who will each get 1 bottle of "1000 FB Likes" the commemorative polish I made to celebrate my big milestone:

Lori Hill Shadow
Shalon Bell
Molly T
Paulina Mayhem
Nicole Drong

Each of these winners has until Friday to get me their mailing address info, or I will select another person as a winner. Congrats to all the winners, and I can't tell you ALL how much it meant to me to read your awesome comments about where you live. It made me feel really connected and happy about how we are spread all across the globe, but we can all have this great connection. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing with me!!! GROUP HUG!

Here is a manicure I did a while ago as an entry for a Rite Aid contest. I didn't win (click here on the winner tab to see the winning manicure), but I do really like how this turned out. It is fairly simple and works with just stripes and dots. I used mostly Color Club polishes to make this design. Have a great day polish friends!