Friday, January 27, 2012

Love is in the Air, #3 - Filigree

Moving away from crudely-formed aliens, and on to filigree fineness. I've always liked the baby blue & brown color combination, and I think they work beautifully with just a touch of gold.



I think this might be my favorite design to date.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Love is in the Air, #2

Cute little creatures like bunnies and kittens get all the attention, but monsters need love, too!


Pinks & Pastels seem a bit too cutesy for monsters, though. So we'll celebrate their monstrous love with purples, greens, and deep blood red instead.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Love is in the Air

... Either it's an early celebration of love, or I'm just dying for chocolate. Either way, this Valentine's design in pinks was a cute, fun change of pace.

Easy as pie to create, too... just put a blob of polish on your surface of choice, and grab a toothpick.

A pair of dots side-by-side give you the rounded top of a heart, then just drag the tip of your toothpick down through the polish to make the pointy base.


From there, your options are almost endless. One single heart on the corner of a pinky? One great big lace-edged expression of love? Or even just a montage of little guys in all the shades of pink vying for center stage. I'm going to try and get at least three Valentine's-themed manicures posted in time to provide ideas for your perfect holiday look :)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Accidental Ghost Flowers

It's mid-January, and in southern Texas we're having spring. This is really the least-chilly winter I think I've ever experienced. Joy.

So influenced by the spring weather, I found a cute little daisy design, offset the full-nail flowers with a ring-finger design, and topped some of the flowers off with gold micro-beads. Cute, huh?


 And then, I top-coated. What the heck happened, I have no idea. I used Seche Vite on my left hand, saw the change, and was utterly confused. I don't remember ever having a problem stamping and using Seche Vite as a topcoat before. To double check that the top coat was the culprit, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails on my right hand.


You can see the difference in the fading level. Much less, but still a heck of a lot paler than it was to start! I'll have to see if I can figure out what's causing this. Maybe if I can reproduce it at will, I'll find some great things to do with the faded effect. But for this? I think it's a bust :(

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is coming, and in honor of the fantastic festivities, I decided to have fun with a Chinese dragon pattern. Usually they look grumpy, though, and that's no fun, so this little guy has a goofy happy grin. 

Welcome to 2012, the year of the Dragon!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Skull and Crossbo(w)nes

House hunting is apparently always a nightmare. You get excited, then disappointed, then hopeful, then frustrated and just overall go crazy. I'm crazy to start, so I have a leg-up on everybody else. I think I'm getting the idea of what I'm going to be in for, though. Shoot me now.

With that in mind, aren't these adorable? Yet again a design with influence by Robin Moses, but I threw in a bit of a change to the color scheme as a tribute to our women soldiers. Go Get 'em, Girls!


What says Army Girl better than Skulls & Crossbones, in camouflage?

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

2011 was not a good year for a lot of people. Look on the bright side: It's over!

And there's always a reason to celebrate at New Year's. I did so by giving my BFF a manicure to celebrate the night. Which is good, 'cause she'll have taken it off by now. Some people can be crazy, but just not be able to deal with having crazy nails. Who knew??

But, as always, if I'm looking for a crazy design, something by Robin Moses will always fit the bill.



I've gotta say, I came out with a bandit this Christmas. An iPhone from my hubby, a bottle of 'my' new perfume (Burberry Body) from my mom. A counter-top herb garden from my cousin with a variety of growing delicious plants to keep in the house since my apartment has no place to put anything outside...

And then last and late, but certainly not least, my best friend and I had our exchange of hand-made items for the first time. She deems herself not creative and stressed over it for weeks, and was just sure I wouldn't like her gift to me -- then I open up this personalized album full of pages & pages of all the art designs I've posted for the last year. From this blog, from my Facebook account... everywhere. There are over a hundred pictures in here, all laid out for perusal. It's awesome and I love it. Best Christmas haul EVER!
  

And a green cover! Love it! :D


Seriously. How cool is that?!?