The Digit-al Dozen Does: Nature - Look 4

For today's look I turned to, what else, Pinterest for some Nature inspiration. I found THIS picture of the formations in Antelope Canyon, Arizona and decided to create a look inspired by it.

My look is a little bit of an abstract interpretation based off of the colors and texture of the rocks, and sort of has a similar vibe. I started with a nude base and used a mix of acrylic paints for the colored rocks. I really liked the feel that this look had when I was done.

Another fun thing when I was doing this was remembering how much I wanted to go on vacation to see the awesome landscapes across the States, we always say we will do sightseeing on our vacations and either never end up going on a vacation or going to the beach, lol. Maybe next year!

Let's see what the other ladies are doing today with their Nature looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

-Stephanie 

Twinsie Tuesday: I keep meaning to...

For this Tuesday's theme, the Twinsies are creating looks that have been on our "to-do" list. Earlier in the year there was a "Bubbles" theme for the ladies which I was unable to participate in, so this week was the perfect time to try bubbles!

Polishes Used:
-Morgan Taylor - Supreme in Green
-IMN Northern Lights
-Acrylic Paints

I was surprised how time consuming this technique really was; but it could have also been because I don't have a lot of acrylic paints or brushes which the technique calls for. I used bright pink, light pink and white paints but I think that the light pink got lost against the other colors. I'll probably try this technique again with different colors and better brushes :)

I can't wait to see what other ladies have been meaning to do!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

   Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

 

 

Guest Post over at Polished to Precision

Today I'm guest posting over at Polished to Precision; here is a sneak peek at my look, but head on over there to see the real pictures and post!

Click the picture to check it out!

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired by Nature

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme is Inspired by Nature. I wasn't 100% sure what to do for this theme, I had a couple ideas but nothing I was in love with, so I turned to the internet, and found this picture:



Source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/61697293/misty-morning-in-pink-art-print?ref=shop_home_active_1

I liked how misty this nature scene was and the pink was definitely calling my name, so here is my look!

Polishes Used:
-OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
-OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons
-OPI - Alpine Snow
-Acrylic Paints

My nails are for sure not an exact re-creation of the photo, but more of an "inspired by". For the most part I like how these turned out but there are some things I would change if I ever re-created them. I think for the most part that I need a thinner brush. The brush that I used for this look is the thinnest that I have and sometimes it still seems too thick.

Overally, I'm happy with this look and I hope you can all see my inspiration; make sure to see the other ladies "Inspired by Nature" looks:

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

 

 

Twinsie Tuesday: One Stroke Flowers

Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme is One Stroke Flowers. I love the artistic look of this technique but also knew I would probably have some issues creating it myself.

Well, I know my limits well. haha. My look turned out OK for my first attempt but not as good as I would like. I'm sure if I keep practicing this a bit they will improve. I was trying to decide which of these flowers I liked the best and couldn't pick; they are all sort of meh to me.

I used acrylic paints for the white and red/orange and used Seche Effortlessly Styled for the base.

Let's see if the other ladies had better luck than I did!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

 

 

Easter Mani

Happy Easter! I hope all who celebrate are having a nice day. As I mentioned yesterday I haven't really done any Easter nail art, but I will show you my "Easter" mani. It's purple and pastel so close enough right? :-P

Polishes Used:
-Precision Nail Lacquer - Walking on Air
-Acrylic Paints

I had the purple base and couldn't decide what to do with it, so I checked out one of my favorite You Tube Tutorial Channels, that of  Jaunty Juli. I really like her channel because she makes all of the manis that she creates, easy to re-create by watching the tutorials. For this look I followed her Ombré Fern Silhouette Nail Art tutorial. Instead of the blue, I decided that this would totally work with the purple that I already had on my nails.

I like how this look turned out although I do wish that I would have mixed my first "fern" color to be a little darker because it is too similar to Walking on Air. When I had this look on, I went to McDonalds and the girl who was working the drive through did a double take on my nails and then asked me to see them and told me how much she liked them; I love when that happens :)

Enjoy the rest of your Easter day!

 

 

 

The Nail Challenge Collaborative Presents - Music/Movies/TV - Week 2

Happy Monday! I am back today with my second April Nail Challenge Collaborative Post. As previously mentioned, this month's theme is Music/Movies/TV and today I will be sharing with you something "Music" inspired.

Earlier this month I went to an Avett Brothers concert. If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen some pictures from the show. The Avett Brothers are one of my favorite bands and I really enjoyed the show. Throughout the show I kept looking at their backdrops and thinking, this would be a good mani, that would be a good mani, etc. And what do you know? Today I turned one into a mani.



This was one of my favorite backdrops!

Polishes Used:
-NYC Nail Glossies - (no name color)
-White Acrylic Paint

For this look I tried to find a similar color to what the lighting created on stage and then I added some random white designs. Some were just lines / swirls and some were little roses. Although my nails don't match the backdrop exactly, I think they capture the spirit of it.

What do you think? Do you like this mani? Do you like The Avett Brothers? (I already know one of my fellow NCC girls does so hopefully there are some more of you out there as well!)

An InLinkz Link-up

And don't forget, we are still accepting applications for new Nail Challenge Collaborative members; if you can commit to posting 4 mani's a month that fit the month's theme then we want you!

The Nail Challenge Collaborative Presents - Music/Movies/TV - Week 1

Happy Monday! April is a super busy month for me so if posts are somewhat sporadic, please bear with me.

This month's theme in the Nail Challenge Collaborative is Music/Movies/TV. I like this theme and have a couple ideas in mind. For my first look, I decided to use TV as my inspiration, specifically, a show that I watch every night while going to bed, Frasier.

Polishes Used:
-KB Shimmer - Eclipse
-White Acrylic Paint

This is a simple looking design, although I did have to freehand the Seattle skyline, which was sort of a pain. lol. If you watch Frasier, you know that this image is the last image in the intro before the show actually gets started. I am quite pleased with how this look came out, and even when I showed my husband my nails, he immediately said, "Frasier", without knowing the theme I was participating in. That made me feel good.

So let me know what you think about this mani, I'm Listening.

An InLinkz Link-up

P.S. Don't forget that that Nail Challenge Collaborative is currently accepting new applications for membership. If you can commit to 4 mani's a month that fit within a specific theme and are interested in joining, please shoot me an email with your blog link and your application will be reviewed.

Pittsburgh Pirates Nails!

Today is the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener! I have pretty much been waiting for this day since baseball season ended last year. Last year was an amazing year for the Pirates, they were probably the most notable baseball story of 2013; and I am hoping they have that same kind of season in 2014 as well!

Unfortunately my husband was not able to take off of work today so I am going with one of my girlfriends who also likes baseball, so should be a fun girls day at the game.

Obviously I HAD to do a mani for the game, and I have to say that this is much bolder than I would normally go for a baseball game but it's a special one, the home opener is pretty much a big tailgate all day until the game so I could go a little crazier than normal.

Polishes Used:
-OPI - Alpine Snow
-Zoya - Pippa
-KB Shimmer - Eclipse
-Cover Band Lacquers - Sticks 'n Stones
-Acrylic Paints

This is pretty much the definition of a skittle mani; lol, which is perfect when you can't decide exactly what to do. Obviously I had to do the obligatory "baseball" nail, threw in the team logo and then did misc nails with the team colors black and yellow! My right hand is even skittled up as well. It is exactly the same as this hand with the exception of my middle finger which is black with a white zig-zag on it (no way I was going to be able to freehand the "P" with my non-dominant hand!)

Overall, I think this look is super fun for the home opener and I anticipate to get a handful of comments throughout the day.

Incase you're interested the game will be airing on ESPN and has a 1:05pm EST start time.

P.S. Non-nail related but, here are some pictures from last season

Twinsie Tuesday: Winter to Spring Transition Polish

It's now Spring and the Twinsies are getting into the spirit with today's theme, Winter to Spring Transition Polish. I *think* this prompt was probably originally meant to be shades you can wear in winter and spring, but I put my own twist on it, and did some winter to spring nail art instead!

Polishes Used:
-OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
-OPI - Alpine Snow
-China Glaze - Gothic Lolita
-Wet 'n Wild - On A Trip
-Hard Candy - Matte-ly in Love
-Acrylic Paints - Green, Purple, Yellow, Orange, White

When I think of Winter to Spring I always think of Crocus'. I am always seeing these pretty purple flowers pop up in my yard through the snow and always think, "no, not yet, this is Pittsburgh, it's going to snow again", but they always seem to be OK. lol. I wanted the perfect purple accent color, so I mixed up Gothic Lolita and On A Trip and got the look I wanted (after I mixed them I realized I could have probably used KB Shimmer - The Grape Beyond, although that has the subtle blue shimmer, which I wasn't looking for).

So like I said, probably not what was meant by the theme, but I don't care, I LOVE this look!

Let's see how the other Twinsie's interpreted this look and what their favorite transition polishes are:

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Traci at DrinkCitra