Sunday Stamping - Bling It Up

Hey there!  I know it's late to be blogging but I've been busy all day playing with nail polish - working on this month's Digit-al Dozen manis AND playing with the newest UberChic plates so you can expect to see those soon.  So I'm finding time now to post this week's Sunday Stamping theme - Bling It Up!  How fun is that?!  I took that to mean that I should see how many sparkles I could get onto my nails, while still including stamping.  Here's what I came up with...

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Films

Hey there!  This week's our 40 Great Nail Art Ideas theme is Films.  Oh geez, once again I have done this theme in the most general of way, just like I did for Comics, TV and Books.  I will fully admit that I have a TV addict.  I'll binge watch entire series in record time BUT I rarely watch movies.  I like TV because I can get more involved with the characters.  2 hours just isn't enough for me to bond, I guess.  So my Film mani is more about the film industry imagery than one movie in particular, though if I had to label this as a single movie I think it would have to be Gone With The Wind.

HPB Presents Northern Lights Gradient

Hey there!  For those of you who don't know, the Hobby Polish Bloggers is a Facebook group of amazing folks who, unsurprisingly, all love nail polish enough that we post pictures of our fingers on the internet.  Every month this group does a link up and this month our theme is my absolute favourite nail look - gradients.  I'd been wanting to do a northern lights style mani for awhile but wasn't sure what technique to use.  I'm lucky enough that I get to see the northern lights fairly often (I even posted this pic on Instagram in the summer) but I've never done nails inspired by it.  Then I saw this post from Cathy of More Nail Polish and immediately fell in love and wanted to copy it which fell in line perfectly with our gradient theme.

Sunday Stamping - Chevrons and Zig Zags

Hey there!  This week the Adventures in Stamping Sunday challenge that was voted in is Chevrons and Zig Zags.  I used it as an opportunity to do another untried technique for the base (to stay with my theme of the last couple of weeks) - Sharpie nails!  I'm officially in love with this technique and want to use it every time I do my nail now.  Keep reading to see how the base looked on its own.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - 3 Shades of Purple

Hey there!  This week 40 Great Nail Art Ideas is bringing you 3 Shades of Purple.  My personal prompt was negative space, one I'm not usually too fond of since my nails are pretty stained however the coat of Girly Bits Ridge Filling Base Coat that I used as a base seemed make my nails look a bit pink which is a nice change.  For my negative space mani I wanted to do a dotted gradient so that's what I did, using three purple cremes from KBShimmer.

More New & Improved Nails - Quilted Nails and Foiled Stamping

Hey there!  Today I have my final leftover Digit-al Dozen manis.  Here are two more "New & Improved" looks that I did for last week's theme.  These definitely weren't my favourite as neither of them really worked out and they both took two or three tries to even get them to work this well.  Needless to say, I haven't mastered either of these techniques quite yet!

Swarovski Crystal Nails - Inspired by Pinterest

Hey there!  To continue my week of past Digit-al Dozen themes, today I have a mani that was inspired by Pinterest (our November theme) but that I didn't get done in time for it (because I didn't have the all crystals in time).  As soon as I found out how much blingy-er Swarovski crystals are then regular old rhinestones, I knew I wanted to do a full nail of them.  So I channeled my inner Glowstars (our bling queen) and got to work on these that I ended up wearing for days!

More Digit-al Dozen Autumn Manis (in January)

Hey there!  As I mentioned yesterday, I want to finally share some older Digit-al Dozen manis that I did but never posted starting with the Autumn leftovers from October.  One of these I liked, one makes me question my sanity.  See which is which by reading below...

Sunday Stamping - Feeling Fruity

Hey there!  Sunday stamping is back!  This week "Feeling Fruity" was picked for the theme.  Unfortunately I haven't had time to do my nails in the last few days but luckily I had a fruit mani in the vault that was leftover from The Digit-al Dozen's Inspired by Pinterest week.  Proof that it sometimes comes in handy that I tend to do too many manis for the DD weeks!

The Digit-al Dozen does New & Improved/40 Great Nail Art Ideas Things That Fly - Advanced Stamping Bees

Hey there!  Today is the final day of The Digit-al Dozen's New & Improved week which has been super inspirational for me.  It's been one of my favourite themes in quite awhile.  I've decided to combine my last new technique with 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt of Thing That Fly.  I knew I wanted to do a cute bumblebee for Things That Fly and thought it'd be a good time to try Advanced Stamping.  I get a bit confused about whether there's a difference between Advanced Stamping/Stamping Decals/Reverse Stamping but I can tell you that I have never filled in a stamp image on the stamper and directly stamped it onto my nail so that's my new technique for today (even though it's only on one nail).

The Digit-al Dozen does New & Improved - Day 4 Outlined Lace Nails

Hey there!  Today's New & Improved mani isn't the most original but it is a new style for me.  I love doing lace stamping and I've done it a lot but I've never tried an outlined nail before, mostly because the idea of trying to freehand black that close to my skin made me cringe a little.  It didn't end up being too bad so today's post is a simple one.

The Digit-al Dozen does New & Improved - Day 3 Sugar Spun Nails

Hey there!  For day 3 of The Digit-al Dozen's New & Improved week, I thought I came up with the cleverest idea.  I knew I wanted to try the sugar spun technique and thought it'd be cute on chocolate dipped strawberries.  Then I googled and found that I certainly wasn't the first one but I went for it anyway.  Sugar spun is a brand new technique for me so it definitely fits with the theme of New & Improved. 

The Digit-al Dozen does New & Improved - Day 2 3D Metallic Nail Art

Hey there!  It's Day 2 of The Digit-al Dozen's New & Improved week.  My design today is definitely something I've never tried before...3D nails using gel under metallic polish.  I've seen quite a few bloggers do this, though of course I didn't bookmark a single one so I can't even show you my inspirations.  Trust me, there's some gorgeous ones out there!  This is mine.  It's not as pretty as others but I still really liked it.  I think it's my favourite of the week!   

The Digit-al Dozen does New & Improved - Day 1 Fishtail Braid Nails

Hey there!  The Digit-al Dozen is starting 2016 with a fun theme of New & Improved so we'll be doing new things or improving on old manis.  Personally, I've gone with all new techniques - a lot of which I avoided in last year's 52 Week Pick 'n Mix Challenge.  I would just pick to not to do the technique prompts!  For example, today I have a fishtail braid mani...a brand new technique to me. Also, to go with the theme of new, The Digit-al Dozen has a few new girls to welcome to the group and I'm seriously fangirling here because I LOVE these bloggers - Cathy of More Nail Polish, Cheyenne of CDB Nails, Marisa of Polish Those Nails, Michaela of The Mani Cafe and RoseLynn of Manicured and Marvelous.  I hope you like them as much as we do!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Pale Blue Base

Hey there!  Hooray, we're back on a regular schedule for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge after a couple of messed up holiday weeks.  It's our first color prompt in awhile and we're starting off 2016's colors with a pale blue base.  I was given needle drag *shudder* as my design prompt and here's what I came up with - some crazy looking fantasy fire nails!

Hit The Bottle Top Coats Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Today I have a top coat review for you.  Hit The Bottle has been on the stamping polish scene for awhile and I happily accepted when Michelle asked if I wanted to test out her top coats.   I was sent all three of her top coats: ASAP Fast Drying, Shining Armour and Satin Finish.  These are all 5-free - a rare quality amongst quick dry top coats.  I've tested them all out for dry time, wear and stamping-compatibility so keep reading for my complete review.

It Girl Nail Art IG104 and IG106

Hey there!  I guess this is my first post of 2016 so Happy New Year!  I'm starting off the year with a review of two of It Girl Nail Art's latest plates, IG104 and IG106.  It Girl is an indie plate designer from Tacoma, Washington and she currently has three new plates available for pre-sale.  These will begin shipping mid-January but I was lucky enough to get to try them early.  This is It Girl's second release of stamping plates and I daresay these plates are even better than her first release (you can read my review of them here and here) which were awesome themselves.  Keep reading to check out all the details on the manis I've done to test out IG104 and 106.