Deadpool Nails

FINALLY I got to see Deadpool, and it was awesome :)

For these nails, I started with a base coat of Color Club's "Harp on It," which is an amazing holographic polish.
All of the graphics were  done with stamps. For the Deadpool face, I used a peace sign (BM#07), removed the two diagonal lines, and used a reverse stamping method for the rest.
The lightning images on the pinky are from Born Pretty Store plate #BP06.
HeHe plate #008 is where the guns came from.
The letters D and P are brought to you today by plates #m17 and #m18.
And finally, the blood drips are from another Born Pretty plate - #BP29.

Game of Thrones: House Stark

If you haven't seen Game of Thrones yet -- what is wrong with you?!? No, seriously?
I really, really love this show. I am not sure why I am so obsessed, but I am.
Today's mani is based on one of the main families in the series - the Starks. Their sigil is a wolf (direwolf actually, but let's not get to deep) and they are typically getting the crappy end of the stick in life on GoT.

For this mani I used Indigo Bananas "Great Scott!" as my base. This polish is a gorgeous blue glass fleck shimmer that glows in the dark.  Holy Feces I love this polish. I did a circular gradient of sorts, using white to make a fading circle in the middle, and then put another light layer of "Great Scott!" over the white to soften it up.

Stamping: let me start with the pinky. Bundle Monster plate #BM315 was used to create a flying raven. Technically I believe the stamp is supposed to be a parrot, but I wasn't going to let that minor detail stop me - I took off part of the tail and added feet as well as a longer beak, so hopefully it looks a little like a raven. I didn't have any other bird stamps that looked like a raven dammit.

Anyway, next up: the ring finger. I used My Online Shop plate #JRZ for the House Stark sigil. Love this.

You may have looked at the middle finger and thought, WTF is this?! If you don't watch the show, you will have no clue. However, for us nerds, it represents the weirwood trees from GoT - they are white trees with red leaves, and a face carved into the front of the tree. (Click here to see what I am talking about.) To recreate this, I used  Bundle Monster stamp #BM409 for the tree and a dotting tool for the leaves.

The pointer finger is stamped with Born Pretty plate #BP16, and lastly the thumb is stamped with fauxnad plates m17 &m18.

As much as I am enjoying this mani, I am looking forward to doing more designs with the other houses from Game of Thrones. Personally, I am a big fan of the Starks and Targaryens. How about you?

Cold Nails

I created this set of nails to give to a special lady I know. She has been through some major ups and downs in life, but her attitude is always stellar. She is one of those people that make the world a better place.  I wanted to do something just to say thank you for being an inspiration. Her favorite band is Cold – I know she is a hard core fan – so when I began to think of what I could do for her, something from me and from my heart, I decided on making a set of Cold-themed nails. I had to do some research, because I admittedly know nothing about the band. I decided to incorporate their logo and the trademark spider (I didn’t *f* up the L’s in the logo, that is how it’s supposed to be!).

I chose a black, white and silver color scheme, using Essie “Blanc,” Zoya “Imogen,” Wet N Wild “Lights Out” and a no-name silver bottle of Icing polish. The spider stamp is from Shany plate #SH09. The lettering is from fauxnad plates #m17 and #m18, and the lightning print is from Bundle Monster #BM305.  This was my first time using the nail art chains, and it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I used the chain, a small jump ring, and a rhinestone to make (what I think is) a kickass little necklace.  It took about 15 hours to make these – a few of the nails, I scrapped and started over again.

Even if she never wears them, I hope that when she looks at them, she remembers what a blessing she is.

Keep Calm and Chive On

A lot of people, including myself, find nail art inspiration on social media - Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and so on. I was feeling particularly uninspired, so I decided to cruise one of my favorite sites, the Chive, in hopes of finding something that would turn on the light bulb in my head. Then it hit me - why not do Chive nails?! So here we are. The Chive's "color" is green, so I went with a girly shade of green with a hint of glimmer by Emerald & Ash called "Stubble Jumper." This was a limited edition polish that I won in a giveaway, numbered bottle 4 of 5. :) For my fingers I stamped them "KCCO" - which is short for the Chive's Logo, "Keep Calm and Chive On." For my thumbs, I stamped a crown (again, part of the KCCO logo), and a peace sign on the other. 

If you have never heard of the Chive, or you have heard of it but never visited, go now! It is amusing, funny, interesting, and sometimes even educational. 

Stamping plates used:

 Konad's M17, M18 for the lettering and peace sign

Bundle Monster's BM08 for the crown

Keep Calm and Chive On!