Let's go to the CIRCUS!!!

I was sitting at work the other day staring at my computer screen... Like pretty much everybody does when they sit in front a computer at work... and all of the sudden I noticed my screen saver.  I mean I picked it so I knew I liked it but I just all of the sudden NOTICED it.  The thought in my head was that would make a cool nail design. 

So I had some other things to do first and I was hanging on to the Neon water marble that I had done last Sat.  I really didn't want to take that one off.  I was in love. But on to new things.

I started this one with a base coat then with a make up sponge I sponged on Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, China Glaze Seduce Me and I didn't have a darker Gray so I mixed China Glaze Pelican Grey and China Glaze Liquid Leather together.  I used the sponge to try and get that faded look in the back ground of the picture.

Then I just went free hand and drew swirls, dots, lines... what ever idea I could pull out of the picture.  Now I don't really think my nails look like the picture and around nail 8 I was struggling for ideas because I wanted each nail to be different.

 The big daughter said it reminded her of Cirque du Soleil.  She is in band an this will be their 2nd year doing songs from it for their half time show. 
Colors used for the designs :
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away
Wet N Wild On a Trip
Confetti - Banana Bobanna Cream
Tip Top - Pot O Berries
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pretty in Hot Pink

No matter how hard I try I can not gt my right hand to cooperate when I am trying to take a picture with my nails lined up straight.  That little pinky just wants to twist off into lala land.

I am very happy with these. They are very whimsical I think.  Painting the right hand was definitely a challenge and it turned out better then I expected.

Here are just some in natural light just because the colors are so much brighter.  Again.. Had a time trying to get my fingers to cooperate while I trying to take the pictures.  But you get the idea.

 So there are my circus nails haha..
I really enjoyed doing them.  Also don't forget that today is Saturday and that means it is SHOWCASE SATURDAY on MY FACEBOOK PAGE.  So stop by and show me what your wearing.  Last week we had 11 participants so I am hoping for more this week and more then that each week after. :)

As always THANKS for reading
Amy <3

Pink/ Gray Camo with a Hungry Cheetha and Fisty Zebra

FIRST... Welcome to my new readers.  Thank you for following

Today I had so much fun trying out a mani for the first time.  I told my friend that I was wanting to get some practice in on doing art on other peoples nails.  I know how to do mine but I just think that having someone else walk around with my art on their tips is just AWESOME!!  So she graciously volunteered to let me paint her nails.  About a week ago she sent me a picture of a picture where the art was the Browning Logo.  I figured how hard could it be right.  I drew the zumba guy free hand alright.    Then the other day I saw her phone case and it was camo with Pink trim.  So I start rolling ideas around in my head about what can I do for her... UMM..PINK CAMO :)

So she is game.. now I have never done camo before but I figure how hard could it be... Turned out not to hard.

These turned out soooo cute and match her perfect.  I had to draw the Browning logo a couple times.  For as easy as that little deer looks it is kinda tricky. I love ho they line up together though.

Colors I used were Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pretty in Hot Pink and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Gun Metal.  I do not do acrylics so she had them filled earlier in the day. The white was already there from the tips to create a french.  I just  added to it.  I also added a coat of Orly Loe Each Other because a little bit of sparkle just makes every mani better in my eyes.

 And when your having fun why stop at the tips when you can add the toes too

I was happy with how these turned out and my friend seems very happy.  Which just makes me even more tickled ..  Now during our fun her 2 little ones were there and it is always fun to add a little animal print to little digits. 
Little one had on pinkish orange polish with a little glitter so I added some fun teal cheetah with Sinful Colors Savage and China Glaze Liquid Leather

Little Two had on a bright purple polish with some silver glitter so of course we had to do some Black and Silver zebra print.  I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and Strip Rite Silver to add the stripes.

What I loved best about the whole little manis was while I was painting they were talking about how they were the animals and how they were going to chase each other after I was done. Cause Cheetahs chase Zebras.. LOVED IT!!!
Now for my favorite pictures of the whole day

I just love little fingers and toes.

Well I had so much fun doing these and can't wait to do the next ones.
As always THANKS for reading and please check out MY FACEBOOK PAGE.. Currently I am at 146 and plan on having an art contest when I reach 200. :) 

Amy <3

Waterless Flames Tutorial

Welcome new followers I am so glad you decided to follow me.  In looking at my numbers I have over 1000 views which I just think it awesome.

Tonight I am still in love with the mani I did a few days ago which I showed in my last post Fun in the Sun which was a neon water marble that was black light friendly so I am having a hard time taking it off.  I did this mani to match the outfit I wore to a black light charity event and it looked like I had little lights on the tips of my fingers.  I just love it.  So because I am not done wearing it yet it kinda leaves me postless at the moment.

A few weeks ago I did a waterless marble for the Neverland Nails Summer Fun Challenge Grill Masters which to me looks like flames.  I love this look and in doing that mani I took pictures to do a tutorial on it. Until now I just haven't had the time.  So I am going to use "wanting to keep this awesome neon mani around" for a few more days as an excuse to show you how I did these flames.

I have watched several video tutorials on how to do several different ideas that I see and think "I would love to try that but I just can't figure out how they do it." and I have noticed everyone does something that is completely their own and some things work for some and other things work for others that don't work for me. So this is just how I do this and I love the way it turns out.  I hope this helps you achieve this look. :)

Here I am using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet and China Glaze Smoke and Ash.  I started with a base coat because this red polish stains like crazy. After the base coat I add a thick coat of Red Carpet. When I say thick, I mean thick enough  to draw in it and not mess up the smooth surface of the polish.

 The second step is to add a thick tip of the Smoke and ash.  Again you want to add a thick enough coat that when you draw your flames the polish fills in your lines.  Your polish will be so thick and even be pooling on the edges of your nails.  This is ok and we will fix this in a moment.

Next, you are going to draw your flames.  I use a toothpick.  I have seen others use a small dotting tool, small paint brush and even a sewing needle.  I like the tooth pick.  Personal preference I guess, feel free to use what you want .  Start in the Black and make a wavy line with the tooth pick pulling the black up into the red.  You have to do this quickly and I recommend doing this one nail at a time. Make a few lines and then if there are spots that need a little tweeking you can fix them by pulling the red down a little into the black.

You then want to get rid of some of that pooling polish on the edges.  If you don't the paint will stay wet forever and when you think it is dry and go to tie those shoes that is when you get your smudge. That just drives me crazy. So here you are going to take your first finger on the non painted hand.  GENTLY!! touch the paint with your finger and pull it away dragging the excess paint with it and just wipe it off on a paper towel.  Do this on both sides and the tip. This will pull all that excess polish away and give you mani that will dry relatively quick.

I had to use an example from a different finger. :) The little daughter was helping take pictures and not all of them turned out.  This gets MESSY! but don't worry we are gonna clean that up too. After you get all of those digits done and you have put a nice clear coat.  I like Seche Vite.  Dries fast and with it being thick coat of polish that quick dry helps. Pour a little bit of acetone into a little dish (or the cap) and a stiff brush for clean up.  Dip the brush in the acetone and clean up any polish that has found its way on to your skin. With the Red that I chose it makes clean up HARD.  That Red paint never wants to come off.  Even if you don't get all of the paint off it is fine.  The rest will come off as you wash your hands.

 So there you have it.. How I do flames.  I recommend if you try this to use the lighter color as your base.  Example: If you wanted to do Black and Hot Pink.  If you use the Black as your base the pink will not show up very well. If you use the pink as your base the black will show up wonderfully. Like this :)

 I hope you try this... and if you do please share a picture on MY FACEBOOK PAGE I would love to see your interpretation.
As always THANKS for reading.
Amy <3

Neverland Nails Last Challenge - Fun in the sun

Today I am using Neverland Nails last challenge to pull double duty. The theme for today is FUN IN THE SUN and I pulled out all my neons for this one. Along with all of my stuff to do a fun water marble. but this mani is serving to purposes for me this weekend.

As some may know our community was flooded 2 weeks ago with Tropical Storm Debby.  So many people lost everything and so far the water in some places is just hanging out.  My friend who is a zumba instructor (some may remember her mani that I did last month ZUMBA WHAT??!!?) has decided to put on a Zumba Blacklight Charity event.  So of course everything has to glow in the black light.

Now I purchased a bottle of Warrior Paint Blacklight polish a few months ago for a "GLOW PARTY" we did for a friend of ours. They are SO MUCH FUN!! If you have never been to one.  Things glow in the black light that you would have never even thought... that is when you have grown adults running around attacking each other with silly string because it glows too. :)
Ok got side tracked... The black light polish is a clear over lay so you it only shows up when it is under the light. So I got out all of my stuff intending on using it to do some design and I had my black light near by so I could see what I was doing and along with the challenge I figured I what ever it was I decided would be NEON of course... It was then that I realized all of my neon polishes glowed in the light with out the over lay.  Pretty cool.

I decided to keep it simple with 3 colors.  I used Claires SunShine, Claires True Blue and Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Pretty in Hot Pink
Here is what I got

I am very happy with the result.  I think I am getting this water marble thing down.

And here is what this looked like under the Black light.. which I might add matches my outfit for Sat night perfect :) Not crazy about how old the black light makes my fingers look... it really makes my freckles look crazy. haha.

 I really had fun doing this challenge and I am sad that it is over. Lots of thanks to Neverland Nail Blog for putting it all together and bring all these talented people together.  It is an awesome thing to do.  Looking forward to the next one.

As always THANKS for reading
Amy <3

Summer Fun Challenge - Summer Stylin

Welcome back :) 

We are almost at the end of Neverland Nails Summer Fun challenge.  I have had so much fun doing these designs.  Some were hard to figure out on my part.  When I saw the list so many ideas popped into my head I thought it would be easy.  Come to find out when all of those ideas pop into your head it is 1) hard to remember them all when it comes time to do the design and 2) Hard to pick an idea when yo uhave more then one floating around in your head.

Today the challenge is Summer Stylin.  Basically a design that comes from one of your favortite summer outfits. 

So far this summer this is my favorite summer dress. Though now looking at this picture it does not look as cute hanging on my door as it does on.  Not that this is of any consequence but last year I would not have worn a dress like this.  Last year I was a little over 30 lbs heavier then I am now.  Not completely finished or where I want to be but it has been a long time since I have been able to wear a size 6 and now that I can this dress just makes me feel amazing :)  I think that is why I love it so much.

So here is my mani inspired by my favorite dress.

I have been having a hard time with tape lately.  I do not think that I am patient enough to wait and let the first coat dry so I can apply the tape and move on..  I just want to get it done.  This turned out ok..  I was very happy with the color match and was even more surpised that I had all these colors that matched the dress perfectly.  Some were shimmer and some were cream so I added a top coat of sheer glitter just to give it all the same feel. 

 I forgot to write down a list of the polishes I used I will update with that info later.

Well.. As Always THANKS for reading.
Amy <3

Pink and Black Water Marble

2 posts for today!!!  I got over excited because I have been so behind I guess. :)

I am ADDICTED.  Yes ADDICTED to water marble.  I am sure the fascination will wear off but as for right now just the fact that I figured out how to do it and I love the look has made it one that I love doing.

This marble I did a little different then the last 2 that I did.  I didn't want the pink mixing with the black like on my 4th of July water marble ( A lot of the spaces turned purple where the colors mixed together) and I wanted to do glitter to give it some dimension.
I started out with 2 coats of Savvy Party Pink.  This is one of my go to polishes, Definitely one of my favorites.

Then over that I added 3 coats of Warrior Paint Dirty Pink Glitter polish that I picked up at Hot Topic.  These are little tiny glitters and it it took a few coats to get it where I wanted it.  I think I may have even added another coat after taking this picture.

After that was dry enough... I didn't wait near long enough because I got tape stuck to my nails 3 times and had to start over on those. 
I got out my tape and water ( I used bottle drinking water... I have found it just doesn't work with my tap water and we have a well so I don't know if that has something to do with it)

I used China Glaze Smoke and Ash, which has a green and silver sparkle to it and Orly Bare Rose to marble over top of the pink. 

 

The Bare Rose is a clear so every where that was you can see through and the pink glitter shows up.  I am IN LOVE with this.  So far I would have to say that this is my favorite one that I have done so far.  I want to try this again with a larger glitter polish under the marble. Like the Milan Jewel FX.  I think that would give it a  true 3D effect.  

I took all of these pictures outside in natural light because inside you just couldn't see the glitter

So there you have it.. My new obsession. 

As Always THANKS for reading

Amy <3

Visit me on FaceBook yesterday I had a fan count on 107.  Working to get to 200 and then it is going to be CONTEST TIME!!!   Have a great weekend :)

Summer Fun Challenge - The Big Blue

Soooo Behind in my nail ventures... It makes me sad.

This is the next challenge in Neverland Nail Blogs Summer fun Challenge.  I have had so much fun with this.  I missed the last challenge.  I mean I did a mani for it but I ran out of time and didn't get to post it.. and I was not all that crazy with how it turned out so I think there was a little bit of lacking in time and really not wanting to post it at all going on.

This one I had fun doing though it isn't something I would wear for long.  As soon as I saw the title I wanted to do a scene from Finding Nemo... How is it the BIG BLUE!??!!  It's Big and Blue... :/  haha. But again.. short on time and having another thought in my head I wanted to try as well.  I choose waves.  I love shades of blue and I picked like 4 shades to do this with. Here is my result.

The base coat is Orly Snow Cone, Some of the blues I have had so long I couldn't tell what they were, the darker blue is China Glaze Frost bite, There was 2 others ... for the crashing of the waves I used a small piece of make up sponge and  Orly White Tips then I sponged on a clear Blue glitter over that to give it some depth.

There there is my Big Blue post for Neverland Nails Summer Fun Challenge.  I am looking forward to next weeks.  Match your favorite summer clothing.  I have a fun summer dress that the colors are just so fun I can't wait to do it.

As Always THANKS for reading
Amy <3