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?

Funky Fingers "Dia de Muertos"

Happy Spring! It's finally here! Nevermind that it snowed here on the first day of spring :(  I can only suppose Mother Nature was letting Winter have a final hurrah.

Ulta had Dermelect polish in the clearance bin for $.97, so I picked up a few to try. I used Dermelect "Above It" for my base. This looked more like a baby blue in the bottle, but on my nails it looks more periwinkle. Whatever - I like it :)
 I decided to use one of my untrieds, Funky Fingers "Dia de Muertos" on my ring finger and thumb. "Dia" (pictured) is a blue-tinted glitter topper. AND - guess what - it glows! It is nice to realize this ahead of time, so you don't scare yourself like I did. As I was climbing into bed, I saw something glowing out of the corner of my eye, and startled myself for a second before realizing that I am a dumbass and it was just my nails. I'm not really sure what I was thinking during that few seconds of panic, but it definitely got my heart racing.
I stamped my pinky with Kleancolor "Neon Aqua" and Born Pretty stamping plate #BP21. To keep the pink/blue theme going, I added some pink dots with my dotting tool and Ruby Wing "Groupie."
For my middle finger, I used a tip design guide from Kiss as a stencil, and painted over the nail with "Groupie." I really like the tip guides because you can do so much more with them than just french tips. Just be sure to pull off the guide carefully before the polish dries!
The pointer is double stamped with  Bundle Monster plate #BM201 and another Born Pretty plate, #BP10. I am really loving the new Born Pretty plates - not only do they have great designs and quality plates, you can't beat their pricing! You can check out the Born Pretty Store here.

Today's 5Below Haul!

If you don’t have a 5Below store near you, I am very sorry. I LOVE this store. I cannot leave without nail polish. Along with a bunch of bow cabochons and nail sequins, I grabbed up 4 bottles. The Fresh Paint is called “Winning” - it’s a nice earthy green color. I can definitely see using that for nail art. Next up (wer’e going left to right, here!) is Funky Fingers “Dia De Muertos.” This cool blue jelly is chock-full of pink and blue glitter, and it even glows in the dark. Yay! FF “Fireworks” is a polish I have been eyeing. I will definitely use that next 4th of July. Fireworks is a clear polish with red, white and blue glitters, in a variety of sizes. Very cute topper. Last is FF “Varsity Blue.” This is another clear topper with black, blue and white glitter in 2 different sizes. I have oh so many mani ideas for these!