Fifty Shades of Gray or Grey

Do I have any intention of seeing, let alone reading Fifty Shades of Gray?  No, I don't.  It is not really. . . my cup of tea.  If you want to see or read it, more power to you.  What is my "cup of tea," is the plethora of gray manicures that have become popular due to its eminent cinematic release (Now there is 100 dollar phrase if I ever saw one).  I saw one released by OPI (Which I now can't find), and I thought, hey I could take that up a notch.

Since I don't have the original design you can't see how took it up a notch, but trust me I  did.  The original design had all solid colors, but for my design I used Betina B-07 to get the heart design.

I don't own the OPI colors, so I made use of what I had.  The colors are, in no particular oder, Julep Braiden, Sally Hansen Big Smoky Top Coat, Konad Special Black, China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, Elephant Walk, Merry Berry, and Pelican Gray.

Julep Braiden is a matte texture polish, but it doesn't soak up top coat like other texture polishes do, so when I put a top coat on it the cool difference between it and the shiny red heart was no longer apparent, so I used Essise Matte About You to make it matte again and then put top coat only on the heart.

I hope you like my Fifty Shades of Gray manicure.  It is simple, but I love it anyways.

Tootles!
Fitz

Pink, Its Not Even A Question

The second half of the 52 Week Pick and Mix Nail Art Challenge is Pink!  For some reason when I sat down to write this blog the Aerosmith song popped into my head, hence the blog tittle.  It is a bit of a dirty song, but I still love it!

So this is today's creation!  I used Julep Reagen, Sally Hansen Big Smoky Top Coat, Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted, and Konad Special Black.  The stamping was done with BBF Stampin Plate BBF-18.

I hope you all liked this.  Don't forget to check out the other participants!

Tootles!
Fitz

P.S.  Sorry for the lack of blogging, I am a bit knackered.

An InLinkz Link-up

Help Me Make The Music of The Night

This is another one of those sadder posts.  They don't happen too often on this blog, but life is bound to happen and what does art reflect?  Well, on June 24th my mentor and dear friend passed away.  She meant so much to me and helped shape who I am today.  Elizabeth Bossard, or as her friends called her, Boss, is a woman like no other.  She was my voice teacher in college and I am one of thousands she influenced.  She was a loud boisterous woman who's infectious love of life touched those around her.  She helped me find my voice.  I was shy and unsure of my vocal talent and she helped me be confident and know that music is not about singing pretty, but about touching those who you perform for.  I love her dearly and can't wait to hear her sing my name again.

So what does one do when they are unsure of how to honor her, create a manicure for her.  I did this a couple of days after she passed away from a heart attack, is just took me a while to post.

Boss is a classy lady and she loves some sparkle.  I also associate the color red with her so the color scheme was not hard to choose, neither was the stamping plate Konad M73.

So the polishes I used were Konad Special Black, Julep Ruby Slippers and Sally Hansen Big Smoky Top Coat.  I love the concept of BSTC, however it is a bit difficult to work with.  It is hard to get the sheerness level the same on each nail.  I know this is meant to go over polish and I probably should try that, I just love black on black so much.

I hope you like the manicure and I wanted to tell you all to never stop singing.

Tootles!
Fitz

Pleasure to Feel Guilty Over

It is Sunday and you know what that means?  Sunday Stamping with the Facebook group Adventures In Stamping!!

This week the challenge is Guilty Pleasures.  I really wanted to do something, but I couldn't think of anything.  I like many things and I figure if someone else doesn't like it, then more for me!  So I started looking through my plate collection and found a few mustache designs.  I don't feel guilty about liking them, but I do get quite a bit of teasing over it.  What can I say, I like old-timy mustaches.  I have a few things, mostly at work with the motif.  Even my scissors are covered in a mustache pattern.  So this is what I came up with.

Cute right?  I really like the main color I used, Julep Bea.  It is such a creamy yellow.  Then I stamped with Konad Special White and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lively Lilac.  The accent nail is China Glaze United.  The stamping is Bundle Monster BM-423 and BM-402.

Unfortunately it has been threatening to rain so I had no sunshine to really capture the colors and sparkle.  The next morning was all sunshine so I re-took the pictures.  (I am looking into buying a photo box and lights on e-bay, I just need to wait for my paycheck)

I can't forget my thumb!  Isn't he cute!

I really do like the design although I am not overly guilty about my love of mustaches.  I mean honestly, how can you not like them.  Maybe I should change my blog background to mustaches. . .

Tootles!
Fitz

Cool glitter and butterflies

I have to tell you that although I am unsure of how I feel about this manicure I love the glitter I used for the gradient.  I am just not sure I used it the best way I could have. . .

So, today's Sunday Stamping is all about butterflies. . . and dragonflies.  But I don't have a dragonfly stamp, so we will stick with butterflies.

So the butterfly is from Winstonia W112 plate.  I started with China Glaze Kinetic Candy (one of my favorite light blues) and then tried to do a glitter gradient with Sally Hansen Fuzz-Sea.  I think I glopped the glitter too much on the tips, but I love this glitter.  It is so unique and stands out in my collection.  I want to find another manicure for it and I will.

I almost forgot, the polish I stamped the butterflies in is  Nabi Flamingo.  It does a decent stamp, I just with you could see how it sparkles in the photos, but alas they are just photos.  If only we lived in Harry Potter world and the pictures would move a bit. . .

I think I might have to get the other glitters in this collection.  Now where to get the money. . .

Tootles!
Fitz

C is for Caviar dreams

SO I saw another challenge and I thought it sounded fun.  It is only once a week and each manicure is themed with a letter from the alphabet.  I am starting at week C, but I might go back and do A and B later.  Erica's Nails and More is hosting the challenge (her Facebook).

I have never done a Caviar mani, although I have had the beads for a while, so I thought I would give it a try.  The beads are from Finger Paints and called Sweet Tooth.  The polish color is Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Coral Reef (405).

I am not sure I like this.  I know that you are supposed to put a top coat on after the beads, but I glopped it on to make sure they stayed and it doesn't not look good.  I am not sure if that is my fault or the top coat. . .

This will definitely need to be tried again.  I do like the color combination though and CR went on almost as a one coater.  I wonder if it will stamp. . .

Tootles!
Fitz

Let Halloween begin!

My favorite holiday is not Christmas or Easter, but Halloween.  I love all the costumes and the dark and creepy things.  I need a little fun in my life, who doesn't.  Now I know I am jumping the gun, so to speak.  But October starts on Monday and there are so many amazing Halloween-esque manicures out there.  What can I say, I couldn't help myself.  I saw this design on Chalkboard Nails a few weeks ago and have been biding time till I could do it.  I gave in.  The colors I had that were the same I used and substituted those I didn't with ones I already had in my stash.  I started off with this gorgeous color, China Glaze Sugar Plums.  I know it was not hers, but it looks similar and it is amazing!  This picture doesn't do it justice.

Pretty, right?  Chalkboard nails said to use a red jelly for the bloodshot lines, but I don't have one so I mixed Sally Hansen Cardinal with Cover Girl Continuous Color Clear to try and make it more sheer.  I don't think I mixed enough in, but that is okay.

So the other colors I used were China Glaze White on White, Liquid Leather, Sephora by OPI Read My Palm, Essie Mezmerised, and China Glaze Street Chic.

There are a bit off snafus, but I am still really pleased with it.  My biggest issue was that I put the top coat on a little too early on my ring finger and it smeared a bit.  I need to be more patient.

 It does look rather fun though, doesn't it?  Yeah for all things creepy!

Tootles!
Fitz