The Last of 2018's Christmas Nail Art

Hey there!  Like I've been saying lately, I have worn too many holiday manis in the last couple weeks to be able to blog them all separately so for today, I have four designs to share.  One was a bit more intricate, turning a regular image into a negative space image.  There's also one that I wanted to looks like Northern Lights but ended up as a scary Halloween Christmas mani.  There's a simple one that I wore from Thursday to Sunday (partly because I liked them and partly because I was too busy/lazy to change them).  And lastly there's one that I saw yesterday and loved so much that I copied last night so I could wear this as my actual Christmas morning nails.  Hope you like them!

The Digit-al Dozen does Tropical - Rainforest

Hey there!  I'm home from vacation and obviously already falling behind on my responsibilities.  It's the first day of our new Digit-al Dozen week (with a fun Tropical theme) and it's not even Monday anymore!  I was late to work, then late to my chiropractor appointment, then late making dinner.  And then I helped my sister pack for her big move.  And now it's 12:30 am and I'm blogging instead of sleeping.  So forgive me for any typos you might see...

Anyway, I decided to start Tropical week with a rainy scene.  I don't know why I'm starting with this instead of sunsets and birds and flowers but it's just speaking to me.  Maybe because I'm in a rainy mood after leaving the lake :-(  Oh maybe it's because I really like this mani which turned out as a mix of stamping with a few freehand touches.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Stars

Hey there!  Today's 26 Great Nail Art Ideas theme is one I love...Stars!  However, the star mani I planned to post for this ended up looking like crap...booooo!!  Luckily I had a mani that I did over a year ago that I never posted for some reason that fits the theme perfectly.  So here we have some almost-ancient star stamping over a KBShimmer gradient.  You all know how much I love my KBShimmer cremes, partially because they make such good gradients!

3D Snow Globe Nail Art

Hey there!  Since it's the last day of February and some of you lovely folks may live in places that actually get spring weather in March, I thought I should post a mani I did a couple months ago before snow is forgotten about for the year.  I was partially inspired by Simply Nailogical's 3D snow globe nails.  She made something more like a real snowglobe while mine are fully solid.  I originally did these for the 3D/embellished prompt for the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt but went with some blinged out nails instead.  But I did enjoy wearing these (yup, I did both hands though my right hand was VERY messy) so I wanted to share them anyway.

The Digit-al Dozen does Mythical Creatures - Fairies

Hey there!  It's the fourth day of The Digit-al Dozen's Mythical Creatures week and today is one I attempted twice and I'm still shaking my head at it.  Maybe it's because I think fairies are so cute and magical but I really only have a couple stamping plates with fairy images.  Unfortunately neither of my goes at this, turned out nearly as whimsical as I was hoping.  After these, I gave up.  It's as good a fairy mani as we're going to get from me this month.

The Digit-al Dozen does Mythical Creatures - Flying Pigs

Hey there!  For the third day of The Digit-al Dozen I have some nail art I never would've imagined doing - flying pigs.  Frequently when I'm trying to come up with ideas, I ask my sister to start listing off the first things she thinks of for a theme.  For this one, I already had my own list but I asked her anyway and amazingly we both thought of flying pigs.  What are the chances?  So of course I had to do it.  Thank goodness there is actually a flying pig image on one of the plates I have!

My Recent Valentine's Day Nail Stamping

Hey there!  Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovely folks out there!  I'm a single lady so I'm not celebrating, except to go out for beer and wings with one of my friends right away.  But I wanted to stop in and quickly post the Valentine's Day nail art I've been wearing over the last week or so, including my current mani (the first one I'm posting here).  It also happens to be the Nail Challenge Collaborative's Love month so there should be lots of love-themed mani in the links at the end of this for you to browse.  If you're curious about any of the products I used for mine, it's all down below.

The Digit-al Dozen does Throwback - Throwback Thanksgiving Nails

Hey there!  It's time for this month's Digit-al Dozen theme...hooray!  This month our theme is "Throwback".  I had a blast with it since I felt like it could be interpreted in so many different ways.  I started by doing a throwback mani.  Since today is Canadian Thanksgiving, I thought I could redo the Thanksgiving nails I posted the very first year of my blog.  I think this year's turned out better.

The Digit-al Dozen does Paper - Books

Hey there!  Probably one of my favourite things involving paper is reading, especially in summer.  I think it stems from the fact that my parents would let me stay up late when I was little, as long as I was reading.  I believe I've always been a night owl so I loved (and still love) anything that lets me stay awake until all hours.  Nowadays, more often than not, it's doing my nails that keeps me up late but when I'm out at the cabin, it's still reading.  So how could I not do a book mani for The Digit-al Dozen's week of paper.  Plus I got to use another one of my new Moyra plates.  These images are so pretty!

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainforest - Panda Nails

Hey there!  So when I was thinking up rainforest nail ideas for this month's Digit-al Dozen theme I thought that there must be rainforests all over the world that we don't think about as such.  Which somehow made me think of pandas which do indeed live in rainforests - rainforests with lots of bamboo to help them get all rolly polly and adorable.  And, since there's so much green in this mani it's also my first Nail Challenge Collaborative mani for this month since the May theme is just Green (which works very well with the rainforest theme).

Nail Challenge Collaborative: Black & White #2

Hey there!  It's so Monday that my brain has refused to turn on all day so today I decided to blog some super simple stamping - one base color, one stamping color.  This easy peasy look is the second design I did for this month's Nail Challenge Collaborative theme of Black & White.  The simple color scheme mixes with the simple look pretty nicely, in my opinion.

The Digit-al Dozen does Decades/Nail Crazies Unite does Gold & Silver - The 70's

Hey there!  We have come to the end of another Digit-al Dozen theme.  This week's theme of Decades has been an absolute blast for me.  If you ask me, it's been one of our best week's in awhile.  The girls absolutely killed it.  As for me, I had a couple good, a complete fail and some meh ones.  I'm disappointed that every one of mine was stamping based since I want to try to start mixing more techniques into my Digit-al Dozen manis but I'm a stamping junkie so it tends to win.  My final mani does include the glitter placement technique...that I then stamped!  I wanted to combine my final design with the Nail Crazies Unite prompt of Gold and Silver - sounds like the disco of the 70's to me!

Nail Crazies Unite - Ugly Sweater

Hey there!  This week the Nail Crazies Unite prompt is Ugly Sweaters.  Since Christmas is officially over I wanted to do a sweater pattern in something other than Christmas colors.  A couple weeks ago I saw @loveslacquer do a sweater pattern with some bright Picture Polish colors and I fell in love.  I was so inspired that I did my own pastel nordic pattern.  Is it still considered an ugly sweater when I think it's pretty darn cute?

The Digit-al Dozen does Birthdays - December 2016

Hey there!  In December, 3 of the Digit-al Dozen ladies have their birthdays so, as a group, we celebrate by doing nail art inspired by a picture they've chosen.  This month, Cathy of More Nail Polish, Kerry of Painted Fingertips and Kristi from Let's Begin Nails have picked a wild photo of a rainbow computer chip that you can see after the jump.

Winstonia Christmas Stamping Plates Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  It's exactly one week until Christmas and I still have a few festive designs to share with you guys, starting with these that were done using this year's Winstonia Christmas Special plates.  I've been using Winstonia's plates since I first heard about them around 2013.  Since then I've purchased every set and quite a few of their individual plates because I've always enjoyed the quality and the images that they come up with.  So when they asked if I'd review a few of their holidays plates, I certainly couldn't say no.  Even if you don't think you could receive these plates in time for the big day, fear not, there's plenty of images that can (and will) be used throughout the entire winter season...which, where I am, is pretty darn long!  Here's the manis I've done using these plates and the jumbo clear stamper.  At the end of this post, there will be a coupon code to use on any regular priced items in the Winstonia shop so keep reading...

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Books

Hey there!  This week our 40 Great Nail Art Ideas group (which has sadly dropped to much fewer than 40) has the theme of "Books".  Usually I'd go with a general book look but for today's post I wanted to do something inspired by the book I just finished last week - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  I won't say anything about the plot except to say that a painting of the same name by Carel Fabritius is involved.  I'm so uncultured I knew nothing about this painting but after looking it up, I really like it so I used it as my inspiration.  Obviously I can't do anything so spectacular on my nails so I used stamping as best I could.  

Mrs. P's Potions ONEders Swatches & Stamping

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Today I have a really exciting collection set to be released this Saturday called ONEders.  It's exciting to me because it's from a local indie brand, Mrs. P's Potions, AND they're one-coater cremes that are formulated to stamp beautifully.  Bree (aka Mrs. P) asked me to swatch them as an avid stamper who just happens to live less than 10 minutes from her and I jumped at the chance.  I was so excited to use them that I even did all this testing while I was on vacation at the cabin.  Let me tell you, these are fantastic.  I'm accustomed to using stamping-specific polish that would never be able to be worn alone but these definitely rival them in terms of vibrance and ease of use.  But, word to the wise, do use a base coat with these.  They're so packed full of pigment that they do pose the risk of staining.

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).

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.

Sunday Stamping - Holo-ween

Hey there!  This week's Sunday challenge theme is a fun one...holo-ween (as in using a holographic base or images).  I opted for a holo base for this vampire-themed stamped and I absolutely love how it turned out.  It has red, sparkle and vampires...three of my favourite things!