Christmas is Red and Green to Me

The next prompt (Notice I didn't say today's.  I am a bit late. . . I had the nails done, I just haven't had time to blog) for the Challenge Your Nail Art 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge is Red and Green.  This design I just went with simple and elegant.

China Glaze Holly-Day, Merry Berry, and Medallion are nice dark colors and then with the gold glitter it is very festive.

The pictures don't do Medallion justice!  It is so sparkly!  I couldn't stop looking at when it was on my nails.

See you tomorrow.  Don't forget to check out the other participants!

Tootles!
Fitz

An InLinkz Link-up

O Tannenbaum!

Here comes the second challenge day of the Challenge Your Nail Art 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, Christmas trees!!  I saw this design by Love Life Lacquer, which was actually done in the last Christmas challenge I participated in, and really wanted to re-create it.

Using the Julep Plié Wand I painted the trees with Julep Emerald City, Sephora by OPI Read My Palm, and China Glaze Holly-Day.  I then decorated the trees with Julep Karmen and star loose glitter.

I really liked the texture that the three layers of paint created and so forgoed the top coat.

I am really proud of this design!  It totally makes my heart happy.

I hope you don't forget to check out the other participants.

Tootles!
Fitz

An InLinkz Link-up

Go n-ithe an tochas thú

Today's Irish expletive means, "May you be eaten by the itch!"  I can see how that would be down right scary!

I love water marbling.  I mean honestly, the effect is gorgeous!  The only problem is the mess and my lack of skill at getting my finger in just the right spot.  So when I saw this tutorial on how to make water marble decal stickers by Sonal Sagaraya I HAD to give it a try!  And let me say, I am in love!  This was so much easier and less messy!  Also there is a lot less nail polish waste.

I used three colors for this design Julep Courtney, China Glaze Def Defying, and Holly-Day.  I also was able to get all 10 nail done with two stickers.  That really is less polish wasted!

Sorry about all the pictures.  What can I say, I am in love with this technique!  You will most assuredly be seeing more water marbling from me.  I think I may want to try a pattern soon. . .

Tootles!
Fitz

31 Nail Art Challenge Take Two Day 27: Movie

What is your favorite movie?

I hate that question.  I love movies and it is really hard to narrow it down to one.  I have a cluster of favorites and depending on the day determines what that cluster is.  Lately I have been thinking about The Princess Bride.

Do you know this movie?  If you don't, drop what you are doing and go watch it.  It makes me so happy.  It has love, sword fighting, and don't forget comedy.  Plus it is a feast for the eyes!  This movie has it all!  Seriously, why have you not seen it?

So my inspiration was the two main characters.  Princess Buttercup and Westley a.k.a. The Dread Pirate Roberts.  Buttercup is a flower and I decide to see what they look like and I even found someone who did nail art using them.  It looked challenging and I wanted to see if I could do it.  So I used a red background for all my nails it honor of her iconic red dress.  Then on my right hand I used a stamp of swords to represent Westley.

I did a lot of blending on my left hand with the buttercups and grass.  That meant mixing colors, which I haven't done much of.  But I am so thrilled with how it came out!  I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky as the base color for the buttercups and then used various mixing quantities of Chocodisiac for the shading.  For the highlights I used Lemon Fizz mixed with White-on-White.  The Grass base was Gaga for Green and mixed it with either Holly-Day or White-on-White for the shadows and highlights.  The swords were stamped with Cheeky (which I just got!  Eep!) CH49 using Midnight Kiss.  Not to forget, the base color which is Red Satin.

The two different thumbs.  Now you can see the partial giant buttercup.  The reason the coloring is so different is the swords photographed better in the shade.  That does give you a chance to see RS in different lighting and how gorgeous it truly is.  I am not a big red nails gal, but I really like this one.

 One last look.  I am really proud of those buttercups!

Have fun storming the castle!

Tootles!
Fitz

12 Days of Christmas: Tinsel

I had no idea what to do for this design.  I thought about doing the string technique, but I didn't want to deal with the mess.  I Googled tinsel images and when looking at them I realized I had a stamp reminded me of it.  Bundle Monster BM-312 worked rather well!  Oh, and I am sorry the lighting isn't very good, I did this at night.

I used China Glaze Holly-Day, Millennium, and City Siren.  I wanted to stamp an ornament over the top of them with BM-318, but it didn't show up, so I filled it in.  That red blob is supposed to be an ornament. . .

One more day to go till Christmas!  I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Tootles!
 Fitz

12 Days of Christmas: Wreaths

Okay, I am doing it!  I have finished all the challenges before I leave on my cruise!  The only problem is I don't have the inlink links before hand.  I will pre-write my posts and hopefully I may have some time on my cruise with computer access to link them.

I have to say I was a bit unispired by wreaths, plus the trying to knock out four manicures in two days. . . I am not all that happy with this.  I really liked Chalkboard Nails design and I thought some different coloring might be fun, but my dark green didn't work.  You can't really see the bows.

I used China Glaze Sugar Plums (I love any excuse to use this gorgeous color!), Holly-Day, and Millennium.

Cursed green!  Well, I hope you take a look at the other designers, their work is amazing!  I am so totally jealous!

Tootles!
Fitz

12 Days of Christmas: Ornaments

I am exhausted!  There have been so many things I have needed to get ready for my cruise and I am trying to get all my manicures done.  I have one left. . . I really hope I can get it done, but I am not sure.  I am so excited for this vacation!  Okay one to the ornaments!

 This was inspired by the tutorial by TheCoolioNails.  I love this and even left it on for a few days!  I got a lot of compliments on it.

I used a few Bundle Monster stamps for the patterns, BM-317, BM-314, and BM-310.  The colors were China Glaze Millennium, Holly-Day, and Red Satin.

This isn't too hard, but it has a great statement!  It even works well on the right side.  The hanging part on the right isn't the best, but I still love it!

Sorry for the picture spam, but I loved how this turned out!  Check out the other designers too, they are amazing!

Tootles!
Fitz

31 Nail Art Challenge Take Two Day 9: Your Location

I had a really hard time with this prompt.  I took this to mean inspired by the city I live it.  Well, my city isn't very remarkable, plus I really didn't want to say exactly where I live.  My real name in extremely un-common and then to say where I live would make finding me a cinch for any crazies that might be out there.  I am talking about you, yes you!  Anyways. . . like I was saying unremarkable city.  It is a city and is a bit large.  Eventually I turned to its history.  There are a lot of little towns surrounding it and with the history you will understand why.  My city was a hub for farming communities.  People would bring their crops here so they could send them out on train to other places to be sold.  This still is the case to some extent and so our city is littered with trains and their tracks.

The idea of doing trains seemed rather hard and I didn't want to, so I just did the tracks.

I sponged and layered colors to get the green ground and then used a thin brush for the tracks.  I decided to paint them all in different directions to make a little visually interesting.  This really isn't my favorite manicure I've done, but I did it and with every new challenge comes a new set of skills.  I am having a lot of fun with this!

Okay, so the colors were. . . China Glaze Desert Sun, Gaga For Green, Westside Warrior, Holly-Day, Hook and Line, and Chocodisiac.

The other participants are sure to take you away with their designs!

Tootles!
Fitz

31 Nail Art Challenge Take Two Day 8: Polka Dots

I am not going to give a long intro, because this is a pretty straight forward design.  I give you. . . POLKA DOTS!

I feel it is a very festive look.  I am really liking China Glaze Def Defying.  I can't decide if I have Kermit or Elphaba on my nails.  I doesn't help that I want to call the polish Defying Gravity.  It isn't easy being green.  The dots were done in China Glaze Red Satin, Holly-Day, and Glitter All The Way.

These are of my right hand.  I am always happy when that hand turns out, but dots are relatively easy to do.  I like simple manicures that still look like they took tons of time.

Don't forget dot over to the other participants blogs.  (Dot over?  Is that a thing?  Sometimes it is hard to come up with puns. . .)

Tootles!
Fitz

TIHNAC #10

Trick-Or-Treat!!

There is only one more challenge after this and then it is finito!  It has been a fun ride.  I have learned a lot and it has pushed me to keep trying.  I will be sad when it is done.  I kind of want to do one for Christmas, but I am not sure if I will have the time.

So today's prompt was Trick-Or-Treat.  I originally thought about doing something candy related.  Candy is usually the reason everyone goes out with common phrase on their lips.  That really wasn't why I did it.  Yeah, what kid doesn't like candy, but I loved dressing up.  I am a theater person at my core and Halloween and being on stage are the only time society doesn't frown on looking like someone else.  Hence this manicure.

I think this design by I Have A Cupcake looks like little kids dressed for Halloween.  So we have a Mummy, a Witch, Dracula, Frankenstein, and a ghost.

I used a lot of different polishes.  The only ones not by China Glaze is the over the ghost to give him an ethereal shimmer, Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff Maui White Frost and the mummy's eyes, OPI Royal Flush Blush.  The others are White On White, Señorita Bonita, Liquid Leather, Trendsetter, Holly-Day, Sunshine Pop, Gaga For Green, and Stone Cold.

A close up of my thumb.

Some photos in the shadow.

 Well I will have one more Halloween manicure.  I am supposed to choose my favorite, but I have no idea what I am going to do. . .

Tootles!

Fitz

Everyone has to start somewhere

So. . . I have been doing nail art since December of last year.  I did little Santa hats.  I had seen videos and other pictures online and never thought I could do it.  Well, I had the colors and it looked pretty simple and from there the addiction grew.  I have been teaching myself through watching videos and reading tutorials.  I have been inspired by other designers.  I have been posting my pictures on my facebook page and have had friends request me to do their nails.  I am still a beginner and still learning, but I love it and thought maybe it was time to take the next step.  So here I am and posting one of my latest creations.  I just did my nails today, but have yet to take a picture.  After I do that tomorrow I will post those.

My left hand.  The stars came in two sizes and so I played with the large size on my pinkie nail.  I don't like it there.

For now I will show you a night sky with a tree line.  My sister actually came up with the idea and did a design herself.  She then asked me to show her my take on it.  I didn't want to hand draw the stars or stamp them, so I scoured my hometown for small star shaped glitter.  I bought a few of them, but settled on a gold holographic by Artclub.  This was my first experience with placing individual glitter not in a polish.  I used China Glaze Midtown Magic for the night sky.  I didn't want to use a typical black and I didn't have a blue I liked.  I saw this gorgeous purple with gold flecks and thought it was different and cool.  Unfortunatly it photographed more brown, but trust me it is purple.  I then tore a make-up sponge and applied China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint.   I knew I needed a lighter color to make the medium green stand out against the dark purple.  The pale green seemed like a better option than white as it would blend better.  I then sponged China Glaze Gaga For Green over that with a light sponging of China Glaze Holly-Day to give it some texture and depth.  I am really quite proud of this because although the idea was my sister's the execution came from my own brain and looked completely different than hers.

A closer shot of my right hand.  It is not easy photographing your own dominant hand. . . Just sayin'.

My sister's original version.  My addiction hobby is contagious.

Now, how should I close this. . . perhaps. . .

Fitz out!

I don't know if I like that. . . We shall see.