Along Came A Spider Nail Art

Hey there!  So who doesn't sit around on their Friday night writing a blog post in between loads of laundry?  I'm such a party animal!  But since it's the last day of the month, and my day was hella busy, that's what I'm doing in order to share what I came up with for this month's The Polished Bookworms book of the month-inspired mani.  Along Came a Spider by James Patterson was what we picked for the crime genre.  I'm not usually into crime books but I have to say I really enjoyed reading this book.  It was a quick pace thanks to the short chapters which I liked and I ate it up.  I must not be alone since it spawned a series of 22 books centered around the detective protagonist, Alex Cross (22 is a lot!).  There was one thing that drove me crazy in this book but it's not worth ranting about.  I'm hoping it was an ancient relic though the book was published in 1993 which seems fairly recent to me.  Keep reading to see the details and an explanation for this seemingly random mani.

UberChic Beauty Out of Africa -01 Stamping Plate Review

Hey there!  I'm continuing today with my review of some of UberChic Beauty's latest stamping plates.  Today I have a plate called Out of Africa -01.  I adore African-themed images and thought today would be an appropriate time to post a plate celebrating some amazing African imagery (in particular, its majestic animals).

Negative Space Stamping over Neon Gradient

Hey there!  Today's post is a leftover mani that I did for The Digit-al Dozen's Neon week.  I was sooooo tempted to use this one because I love how it turned out but I picked my sunset gradient instead of this stamping mani.  I actually like this one more despite the less-than-stellar stamping.  Personally, I believe you can never have enough gradients.  Do you guys agree?

UberChic Beauty Love and Marriage -01 Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  What with summer being wedding season it's appropriate that UberChic Beauty has come out with a new "Love and Marriage" stamping plate.  I was sent this plate to review and it's way more versatile than just being a wedding-appropriate plate.  I used it to do three separate manis, only one of which was a typical bridal look.  Keep reading to see all the details on how I used it.

Taped Gradient over Glitter

Hey there!  I'm home from the lake (until the weekend at least) and it is nice to be back online.  I'm all for being disconnected for awhile but a week without TV or decent internet service had me going into withdrawal!  Today's post is this week's instalment of the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Challenge.  This one combined two things that I generally don't love...green and tape mani's.  Green doesn't generally cooperate with my skin and I'm impatient so taping and me aren't best buds (though we're slowly becoming closer).  I chose to do a gradient over a greenish glitter and didn't end up completely hating these so that's a win.

Sunday Stamping - Using Plate Number 43

Hey there!  Wow, I managed to get enough internet service to write a post from my little vacation at the cabin.  I've been struggling to get online all week but I did get online enough to see that this week's Sunday stamping challenge theme was to use a plate numbered 43.  Well, that made my choice easy since I only brought one set of plate up with me.  So I used Born Pretty Store's BP-43 and one of my newest ILNP polishes and did a bit of easy double stamping.  Please excuse my lighting quality...I'm not hardcore enough to bring my light box up with me :-P

HPB Presents Summer Night Sky Nail Art

Hey there!  I'm in quite a few nail polish Facebook groups (in case you can't tell from the number of challenges I try to do).  There's one called Hobby Polish Bloggers full of other nail bloggers that are always a wealth of information.  Every month they do a themed link up for swatches/nail art but I always forget to make note of what it is and end up skipping it.  But this month I remembered!  The theme for July is Starry Night Sky so I chose to do a swatch with some stamping.  Keep reading to see all the details.

Summer Nail Art Twinsies with Lady Maid Nails

Hey there!  A few weeks ago one of my fellow Digit-al Dozen-ers, Mandy from Lady Maid Nails, asked if any of us wanted to do some twinsie nails with her.  I adore her nail art so much that I jumped at the chance to do something with her, even though my freehand skills are nowhere close to as good as hers.  She's amazing!  But we picked the image you'll see below and I went to work on trying to get a fun summer beach scene onto my nails.  With any luck, this is what my life will look like when this gets posted as I spend a week at the lake.

Uberchic Beauty The Wild West 01 Review

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Hey there!  It's not exactly news that I love UberChic Beauty's stamping plates.  They recently came out with a few new specialty plates and I was lucky enough to be sent them for review.  As always the quality is superb - an absolute joy to play with.  I came up with the following two mani's to test out this plate.  Keep reading to see all the details.

Orange Swirl Watermarble

Hey there!  I'm actually on holidays this week but I thought I'd schedule at least a few posts so you guys didn't think I disappeared off the face of the earth.  Today's post is for The 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.  The themes for this week are Swirls and 3 Shades of Orange/Red.  I knew I wanted to do a swirly water marble but didn't count on how hard it was going to be!  This was the second one I did after the first one was a complete failure.

Sunday Stamping - Over Pink Glitter

Hey there!  I have a quick post today for today's Sunday stamping challenge.  This week we picked "Over Pink Glitter"...a relatively easy one for me since my sister is obsessed with pink glitter polishes.  But I ended up using one of my own glitters, Gloss 'n Sparkle Strawberry Spring with some name-appropriate strawberry stamping.

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 5 Neon Paint Drips

Hey there!  I think I should have called this week nail vinyl week because for the fifth (and final) day of The Digit-al Dozen's I have another look I did with vinyls from Twinkled T (the third one with vinyls in a week, including the striped ones I posted on Monday).  And the second mani in the week with China Glaze neons...what can I say, once I find something I like, I just keep using them!

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 4 Neon Sign

Hey there!  For Day 4 of the Digit-al Dozen neon week I wanted to do something to show how much I love being in the group by giving them their own neon sign.  I haven't been in the group that long but I already adore all the girls that I get to interact with.  They're a really supportive, fun group...and we all have at least one major hobby in common..nail polish!  

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 3 Sunset Nail Vinyls

Hey there!  It's the middle of The Digit-al Dozen's Neon Week and for today I have a double gradient that I did with B Squared Lacquer's EDM Collex and some sun nail vinyls from Twinkled T.  I thought, it's summer so why not do something hot and sunny?  Keep reading to see all the details...

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 2 Water Marble Nails with Stamping

Hey there!  For Day 2 of The Digit-al Dozen's Neon Week, I couldn't resist doing a neon water marble.  Since Pipedream's Polish ANIVC collection turned out to water marble perfectly, everyone seems to be trying water marbles with every new neon collection.  I hadn't managed to snag the ANIVC's before doing these so I used China Glaze Electric Nights collection to marble as soon as I got my hands on them.

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 1 Neon Stripes

Hey there!  Guess what....it's a new Digit-al Dozen week and I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the theme!  I love neons...like a disturbing amount.  Neons are pretty much the only polishes I frequently buy full collections of so this week was a blast for me because I got to use a whole bunch of them.  For today's post, I'm combining Neon Week with the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge themes of Stripes and Pastels by using KBShimmer's Summer 2015 neons which are sort of pastel neons.

Sunday Stamping - Circles

Hey there!  This week's Sunday Stamping challenge theme is "Circles" so I did these quickly earlier this week.  Stamping circles can be challenging if you use a squishy stamper like I do because the stamping can distort the circles into weird oblong shapes.  I apparently had that issue and a naked spot issue...grrrr!

Orly On The Edge with Gold Stamping

Hey there!  Happy Friday friends!  I tend to get so caught up doing challenge-related nails that sometimes I forget that it's fun to just do something without a set theme.  I love doing things like the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge and the Sunday Stamping themes, not to mention the fun Digit-al Dozen themes but it's great to do things just for me too.  That what these are...just something I wore a couple weeks ago to the lake.

Girly Bits Triangle Nail Art

Hey there!  I wanted to wear something fairly simple and sort of sparkly last week so I pulled out some nail vinyls from Vinyl Boutique and a couple of polishes from Girly Bits and did these.  I've been loving vinyls lately.  Don't get me wrong, I'll always love stamping for the intricacy of the designs you can make but you can't stamp sparkle so that's where vinyls come in!  

Shark Week Nail Stamping

Hey there!  It's the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.  Before this year, I'd never paid any attention to shark week because I figured it'd just be a lot of gory violence but my sister likes it so I've watched a few shows this week and turns out it's really quite informative.  So I was inspired to do a Shark Week mani last night which is currently making me laugh/cringe overtime I look at my nails today.

Aqua Splatter Nails

Hey there!  Today I have this week's edition of the 52 Week Pick 'n Mix Challenge.  This week's themes were Aqua and Splatter, so that's what I did.  I've mentioned before that I do these way before the theme's week (currently I'm up to mid-August) and these ones I did back in May, clearly after the beginning of ultimate started.  Frisbees are still wreaking havoc on my middle nails, but not as bad as it did here.  Despite the broken middle nail, I still liked how these turned out.  When I had them on one my male teammates even said "cool nails"...that's the true test for if something is good or not, right?

Sunday Stamping - Plate Ending in A-M

Hey there!  I missed last week's Sunday Stamping theme because I was out of town so I had to make sure I didn't miss it again this week.  Sadly this was one tough theme (Plate ending in A-M) for me since I realized almost every plate I have ends in a number, not a letter.  Luckily I remembered that the Pueen Encore set of stamping plates all end in A or B so I grabbed Pueen SE02B and had my way with it with this faded leadlighting mani.

4th of July Nail Stamping

Hey there!  I thought I'd do a quick 4th of July mani to celebrate the national holiday of our neighbours to the south.  I love that Canada has such a good relationship with the US, just like neighbours should so why not celebrate it on my nails?  Plus, I like having a good excuse to use sparkly red nail polish.

Bundle Monster Around The World BM-XL155 Review

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Hey there!  I'm back today with my final review of the Bundle Monster Around the World stamping plates.  BM-XL155, the final plate from this collection so far, is inspired by Japanese imagery, including these adorable koi fish.  Keep reading for all the details.