It's time for another week of Digit-al Dozen art!! This week the challenge was...art!  I based my designs for the week on types of art, rather than recreating famous art work or trying to do anything super intricate.  I'm not a great real life artist!  These nails are based on body art, or tattoo's!  I wanted to choose images that were fairly common in the world of tattoo artistry so I chose flowers, feathers, birds, hearts, tribal, stars, Chinese characters and some swirly designs.  I used a nude color for the base and then matted the whole thing for a more 'skin' like appearance.  :)  I hope you can see the inspiration!  Don't forget to check what the other girls came up with for today's challenge, and stay tuned this week for more art inspired posts!

Colors used:

Zoya Avery

Hard Candy The End

butterLONDON Matte Top Coat

...AND THE GRAND FINALE!! Ok, let's face it; these aren't that exciting.  The colors from yesterday reminded me SO much of poker cards.  The combo got me thinking it might be fun to add some poker type art onto it.  I didn't have a ton of room to do anything super elaborate so I decided to go with just a little dice in the corners.  I think it came out pretty nice actually.  It's not a mani I'd have done otherwise and I don't think I've ever even looked at this dice stamp before.  But I think that's one of the cool things about it.  The challenge really pushed me to go outside my comfort zone and do something different.  That said I'm still not going to be rocking the red nail trend anytime soon. BUT I appreciate the creative process of what I did here. :)  AND I'm super proud of myself for actually completing a five day NO removal challenge.  It was more difficult than I suspected but it was a lot of fun!! I hope you all enjoyed the series!  Thanks for following and check out my fellow red lover's blogs to see some more awesome art work!!!

Enjoy and thanks for following!!

It's day seven of the 31 Days of Christmas Challenge and that means today's challenge is candy canes.  I had a lot of different ideas on where to go with this one.  There are so many varieties of candy cane here.There are gobstoppers, sprees, sweetarts, mint chocolate...I can go on.  I thought of doing some rainbow-y stripes or some actual candy cane shapes on my nail.  But ultimately, I did this.  I LOVE China Glaze Ruby Pumps and I wanted to be able to use it at least once during all this Christmas madness.  So I started my mani with that and then stamped over the top with some konad white.  Easy peasy. :)

December is finally here and that means one thing: Christmas nails!!  Over at The Purple Crumpet Fairy, Debbie was kind enough to make this list of challenges for the month of December.  Emma made the lovely list you see above. :)  I love this 31 Day Challenge because it's not demanding.  We're not asked to participate in everyday, but rather, the rule is that if you participate you post on the day of the challenge you did.  Easy enough for someone who gets SUPER busy this time of year like me!  I'm going to try to do as many as possible, though there are some I know I won't be able to do.  If you'd like to join in and do the challenges, we'd love to have you!! If not, that's OK too. Just sit back and enjoy the nails! :)

What I love most about Christmas is the Christmas spirit and spending time with my friends and family.  I had NO idea how to get that on my nails so I went with the thing I love second most!  Snow! Especially at night.  :)  My stamping on this got a little screwed up so you'll have to forgive the accent nail.  Stamping is still a work in progress for me and it seems like when I don't use it often my skills only decrease!  But I think overall it came out pretty nice. 

Enjoy and thanks for following! What's your favorite thing about Christmas?

Base is: Barry M Navy

Glitter is: China Glaze Snow Globe

Don't forget to check out what Debbie, Claire, Kerrie, and Emma came up with for their Christmas mani's!

So these are my second (and final) Halloween design this year.  Hopefully next year I'll have more time and motivation to do more but it seems all I had was trouble with them this year!!  This was my second attempt at these as well although I was smart this round and tested my designs on a nail wheel before I started on my nails.  The first round was nice but the colors were all wrong.  So I started again with these murky greens.  I did kind of like the end result but the haunted house looked a bit more busy than I wanted.  Oh well. Next year! :P

Enjoy and thanks for following! Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Base coat is: OPI Stranger Tides with reverse french in Essie Sew Psyched.

Swirls on all nails but accent are Models Own Moody Grey

Ghost is Konad White

About a month ago I did my first BIG international swap. And by big, I mean more than two or three polishes. This particular trade was for 6 I believe and these two were among them.  I'm really excited about this swap because it earned me my very first GOSH polish.  :)  Metallic Green.  I follow a lot of blogs and there is one girl in particular, Sam, who always posts the most AMAZING stamped nails.  Stamping is an art let me tell you and while you can create really awesome things with minimal effort if you're good at it, it can also be a real pain.  She uses GOSH metallics frequently for stamping so when I got a chance to snag one I wasn't passing it up.  This is over Catrice Dirty Berry, a gorgeous dusty purple with tiny holographic shimmer that lights up in the sun.  It didn't pick up on film well but it's sort of a purple versin of butterLONDON All Hail The Queen which is one of my favorites! 

Enjoy and thanks for following! :)

Catrice: Dirty Berry

GOSH: Metallic Green

This Monday's challenge in my Facebook group was pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.  This month being Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought it would be a good one to participate in.  Don't forget this month (and every month) to get regularly screened by your doctor and to remind the men and women in your life to do so as well.  You can find information on how to do a self check, what to do if you find something, and even how to get support if someone you know is suffering at The National Breast Cancer Awareness website. This is a serious disease that I've personally lost someone to.  If found and treated early, the chance for survival is very good. The check is very easy, doesn't take much time, and can really save your life. If you have a minute, visit the website to see what you can do to help promote awareness in your area.  If you even tell one person you love you can make a difference.  Don't forget there are also TONS of cool products this month that are going Pink for the Cure so just by doing some regular shopping you can contribute to the cause! I hope you enjoy the nails and thanks again for following.  :)

Base: Catrice Miss Piggy Reloaded

Glitter coat: Deborah Lippmann Bring on the Bling

Bow: Konad White

Bow center: Barry M Shocking Pink

Base: OPI Katy Perry in The One that Got Away

Feathers: Orly Luxe

So I got this konad plate for little flowers that looked sewn on forever ago.  I thought it was so cute and then for some reason when I got it I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to use it.  I hate it when that happens.  But then I chipped a nail and needed a quick mani that wouldn't require a ton of effort or dry time and...voila!  The stamp came to good use.  I actually do like the effect though it would probably have been better in a different color.  Oh well. Next time!!