40 Great Nail Art Ideas - New Year

Hey there!  Looks like I've been taking a bit of a holiday break since I've been quiet for nearly a week.  Luckily I've gotten to do my nails a few times this week after neglecting them for ages.  I've come back with the latest 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt of New Year.  Usually we post on Fridays but with the holidays falling on Fridays this year, we've been given some slack on when we post - thank goodness because I'm not at all ahead on my nail art prompts!  So for the rest of the week I'll continue doing my nails and binge watching Parks and Rec.  How have you guys been spending the holidays?

Simple Christmas Nails

Hey there!  In reality this post should be titled "What I've been wearing on my nails lately".  I've been so lazy when it comes to cropping photos and actually writing up posts that I've worn a ton of holiday manis lately that haven't made it to the blog.  I've worn each of these as full manis for at least a day over the last couple of weeks - one of them is even what I'm wearing right now so I guess they'll be my Christmas nails. I finally edited a couple of photos for each and thought I'd share them on this Christmas Eve.

Girly Bits Stamping Polish and Plate Review

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Hey there!  For those of you who haven't heard yet, a wonderful Canadian indie polish, Girly Bits Cosmetics, has gotten into the stamping game!  I've been a big fan of Girly Bits for a long time so this is great news for me.  So far one stamping plate and thirteen stamping polishes have been released and I was lucky enough to be sent them for review.  Us stamping folk noticed that there is a big lack of 3 or 5-free stamping polishes with a creme finish so that's what Girly Bits has brought us, along with some metallic shades.  Keep reading to see all the details, including many many manis that I've done to test out the polish and the plate.  

HPB/Sunday Stamping Presents Merry Christmas Nails

Hey there!  Today I have another combo theme.  At this time of year, there's so many holiday themes out there that I decided to combine a few of them since I loved wearing this mani this past week.  First, it's time for the joining together of a great group of nail polish bloggers, the Hobby Polish Bloggers, for this month's link up theme of Holiday/Winter.  Second, it's Sunday which means this week's Adventures in Stamping Sunday challenge of Merry Christmas Nails.  I thought this sparkly Santa/Rudolph mani was fitting for both the themes.

The Digit-al Dozen does Traditions Day 5 AND 40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas

Hey there!  Today I'm doubling up on challenges.  I have the final day of The Digit-al Dozens Traditions and 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Christmas prompt.  Yesterday I posted a look with a Christmas tree and presents, my family's Christmas morning tradition.  Following presents, we have breakfast (always bacon and eggs) and THEN we open our stockings.  My mom is an amazing seamstress so, over the years, she has sewn all of our stockings...including many of the family pets, boyfriends, random visitors, etc.  This year she has even sewn my niece's stuffed toy a stocking of its own...

The Digit-al Dozen does Traditions - Day 4 Christmas Tree

Hey there!  It's Day 4 of The Digit-al Dozen's Traditions week and my mani today is a pretty standard tradition I think - a Christmas tree and gifts!  I'm a giant big kid and I still love Christmas morning, though now it's more to give gifts than to receive them.  Maybe it's our consumerist culture but I still get excited seeing the tree at my parents house with the Christmas gifts around it.  So excited that I did a version of it on my nails, albeit a much more neon version than we've ever had in real life.

The Digit-al Dozen does Traditions - Day 3 Misty Mints

Hey there!  It's the middle of The Digit-al Dozen's Traditions week and today's nails look nothing like what you would expect from a holiday mani.  This is my very abstract representation of some cream cheese/coconut cookies that someone in my family makes every year.  Unfortunately these cookies have no name - we call them misty mints but, really, that's just the name of the mints that go on top.  They might be nameless but, trust me, they're delicious.  

The Digit-al Dozen does Traditions - Day 2 Love Actually

Hey there!  It's the second day of The Digit-al Dozen Traditions week.  I'm definitely not proud of these but, if we're talking traditions, I had to include an attempt at some nail art inspired by my favourite Christmas movie, Love Actually.  More specifically, some nail art from my favourite scene, even if there's a lot of haters...but I don't care.  I still love that scene!

The Digit-al Dozen does Traditions - Day 1 Christmas Music

Hey there!  Hooray, it's time for a new Digit-al Dozen theme!  This month we're doing Traditions.  This was kind of a weird theme for me since I wanted to be honest and only do traditions I personally have.  Turns out, I love the holidays but have very few actual traditions.  But one tradition I do have is that, every year, I listen to the exact same Christmas music.  I made myself a mixed CD years ago, which has since been transferred onto my computer.  I'm very particular about my holiday music and mostly like the sad stuff, hence this mani includes a broken heart.  It might not be festive but it's what I like.

Sunday Stamping - Ugly Christmas Sweater Nails

Hey there!  I hope everyone's Sunday (or whatever day it is when you read this) is going well.  My day has been fantastic so far.  I just got home from my friend's where we had a beer in his outdoor hot tub...hot tubbing in the snow is a blast!  But now I'm back home on my couch and thought it'd be a good time to write up today's blog post.  Since it is Sunday, I have this week's Sunday stamping theme...ugly Christmas sweaters.  These are always a fun nail design at this time of year.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Winter

Hey there!  This week our 40 Great Nail Art Ideas theme is Winter.  As a Canadian, I'm well versed in all things winter.  I know, I know, I'm propagating the stereotype that Canada is a frozen wasteland...I promise it isn't winter all the time but winter can feel very long some years.  In fact, this year has been really mild so far.  I was going to do a snowflake design for today's theme but, since I've done snowflakes a couple of times already this year (with more to come, I'm sure) I decided to do a mani that represents another part of winter, especially here in Canada...hockey!  The NHL season starts in October, a surefire way to know that winter is coming.  So here's a hockey mani using the Edmonton Oiler's colors.  They're even on a bit of a winning streak right now, which is fantastic because they're not exactly the best team in the league.

Bundle Monster Review including Christmas/NYE Stamping Plate and Stamping Accessories

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Hey there!  I have a big review today of some of the products that Bundle Monster offer.  Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how to organize it.  All of these products can be used with stamping nail art so I used them all in conjunction with each other for the three manis you see below. Today I'll be discussing one of the newest stamping plate sets, the Christmas/NYE set, their latex barrier called Poli-Peel, a set of metal template stamping guides and the Lotus Mat (Bundle Monster's answer to the silicone mats that are all the rage, rightfully so).  Keep reading for lots of picture of how I used everything.

UberChic Beauty Nail Art Brush Review

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Hey there!  Recently UberChic Beauty released a group of four nail art brushes and I've been trying them out for the last week or so.  I won't claim to be an expert on nail art brushes but, in the time I've  been using them, I've come to the conclusion that these are definitely some luxe brushes.  They are absolutely gorgeous and a dream to work with.  There is a detail brush, a liner, a striper and a clean up brush.  Keep reading to find out my other thoughts on these brushes, and to see a couple manis I've done with them.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Glitter/Flakie Topper

Hey there!  Wow, I'm a terrible blogger.  I've been gone for a whole week for no reason other than wanting to take a little break.  But I'm back today with this week's edition of Crumpet's Nail Tarts 40 Great Nail Art Ideas.  This week's prompt was a tough one for some of us see as how glitter/flakie toppers don't go particularly well with some of the designs.  I was given the mosaic/stained glass design prompt which I decided to achieve by sponging on the flakie topper to opacity.  That still counts...right???

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Comics/Cartoons

Hey there!  This week's Crumpet's Nail Tarts theme is Comics and Cartoons.  I thought this was a really fun theme since we could do specific characters that we liked or do something more general.  I decided I wanted to do a general comic mani because it gave me the perfect opportunity to use this Comics-03 plate that I bought from MoYou London ages ago.  I love collecting stamping plates but too many of them sit unused while I use the same plates over and over again!  

Wolf Nail Stamping

Hey there!  Okay these were supposed to be my post for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Halloween week a month ago but at last second I decided that they really weren't Halloween-y enough and did something new.  BUT I did really love these but I didn't know when would be a half decent time to post them.  Well, guess what...tonight's a full moon which seems like a good enough time to post a wolf mani.

HPB Presents Monochromatic Blobbicure

Hey there!  It's time for another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up.  Hobby Polish Bloggers is a great group of folks who love blogging about nail polish.  Each month we have the option of posting manis with a specific theme, which is always really fun for me.  For November we're bringing you monochromatic manis - monochromatic, in this case, can mean various hues of the same color or the classic monochromatic black and white.  I tried one of each but this A England blobbicure, all in shades of purple, turned out better so this is the one that I've decided to share today.

UberChic Beauty Christmas Plate Review

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Hey there!  Okay I don't try to hide my love of UberChic Beauty's products and I'm lucky enough to be able to review her products sometimes, including her first Christmas plate that I'm sharing here today.  I know it's not quite Thanksgiving for those of you in the US but, here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October so I can totally rock the holiday manis already.  I must not be alone because this plate has already proven very popular!  I've done three manis with it that I'm posting today (and plan on doing another one tonight).  This plate is going to be high rotation for me for the next month, that's for sure.  Keep reading to find out all the details.      

Sunday Stamping - Something Cute or Fluffy

Hey there!  Wow I've been nail-lazy this week.  So much so that I didn't even do a new mani for this week's Sunday stamping theme.  So I'm cheating today and posting something that I did a couple weeks ago that happens to fit with today's theme.  Today our challenge is "something fluffy or cute nails".  I thought this owl stamping was pretty darn cute so I think it's theme-worthy.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Grey + Color

Hey there!  This week is a color week for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge. The prompt was "Grey + Color" and the pattern I was designated was scales/mermaid.  If there's a color that isn't remotely mermaid like, I think it's grey.  At first I wanted to try to do Greyscale (from Game of Thrones) but what I tried turned out terribly.  So I paired grey with pink and did these scaled stamping decals that I ended up really liking.

ILNP Overnight Bag and Glory

Hey there!  It snowed again last night...yuck!  Even though this fall has been unseasonably dry (we normally do have snow on the ground this time of year), I guess I need to accept that winter in Canada is inevitable and it's starting now.  So I thought I better post this mani that I wore before it's full blown winter here.  I usually wear some sort of nail art but sometimes it's nice to just wear a plain polish or two.  I saw some awesome swatches of ILNP Glory stating that it's fall in a bottle so I snatched it up as soon as I could.  Here's Glory over ILNP Overnight Bag.

UberChic Beauty 6-03 Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Today I'm finishing up my review of UberChic's latest collection of stamping plates, Collection 6.  On Monday I showed 6-01, Tuesday I showed 6-02 and today, you guessed it, I have 6-03.  If you've checked out the other two posts on this collection you've seen me pretty much ranting and raving about how much I like it so I won't pester you with that yet again (though I do REALLY like it).  Instead I'll just get to the nails...

UberChic Beauty 6-02 Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Today I'm continuing my review of UberChic Beauty's newest collection of stamping plates.  Collection 6 came out just over a week ago and, as I said yesterday, it could be my favourite collection to date.  The designs are lovely and, as always, the quality is top notch.  I've done two designs with plate 6-02 to share today.  All the details are below.  

UberChic Beauty 6-01 Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  UberChic Beauty is really exploding these days.  There's a new Facebook group devoted to UberChic products AND the UberMat is now available on Amazon!  So I'm really excited to be showing you part of the latest UberChic stamping plate collection, Collection 6 today.  I received these and the new Christmas plate last week and I haven't stopped playing with them since.  I'm always amazed at the quality of plates and the creativity of the images that UberChic puts out; this collection is definitely no exception.  I do believe it might be my favourite collection to date.  I'm going to post manis done with each plate separately this week so, logically, today I'm starting with the first plate, 6-01.

Sunday Stamping - Abstract

Hey there!  So this week for the Adventures In Stamping Sunday challenge we were told to "unleash our inner Picasso's" and show it on our nails with some abstract art.   I scoured all my stamping plates looking for images I thought would work well for abstract nail art and I think I found the perfect one!  Keep reading to find out all the details...