Random Mani Spam-Fest part 2

Here are some more random mani pictures....Life is still incredibly busy, so nothing truly exceptional here....just enough to keep me sane (well...maybe)

They are listed from the top, newest down to the bottom, from at least a week or so ago...

Ultra subtle stamping over 2 coats of A-England Dragon. I used my Konad special stamping polish....I was either screwed with this purchase or got a bad bottle, because it is VERY sheer for color.

It showed up fairly well in the light box but was almost imperceptible on the nail in real life...ah well....

Pure Ice, Oh Baby over Orly Le Chateau...great combo, but too dark for the gorgeous sunny weather, so it only lasted a day, hahahaha!

2 Coats of  Spectraflair franken I made...so stunning in the sun!! I love a good blue polish....

And finally...Yes, I did wear this (below) at the hospital...it was raining for 2 days straight and I NEEDED sunshine!!

2 coats of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow , with Finger Paints Asylum over the top....I love flakies over bright yellow!
Take care and enjoy the spring weather if you have it in your area!

New Franken: Leprechaun Toes

I was playing around with some frankens...feeling sad about TKB's ordering situation, and I came up with 3 frankens...2 were keepers, one was a bit "iffy".

The one for today's mani I think I will call "Leprechaun Toes". I really wanted a sparkly, flashy green for St. Patrick's Day.

3 coats of LT (hehehehe) with not nearly enough topcoat!

 I really like how this one turned out...OK on its own and would also look awesome over black or a dark green or even silver/grey, I think...

 There is actually black hex glitter in this, but none came out on my nails....

So you can probably guess on the one I goofed up, lol.... I miscalculated the amount of shimmer the pigment would add, and over did things just a wee bit.  The far left franken is inspired by Lynderella's Change...I love that polish and don't think Iwill ever be able to get that one, so I made something I could pretend was Change, hehehehe. The middle one is my Leprechaun Toes and the coppery mess on the right may have to go....
OH, and thanks to MK at http://polishandpigments.blogspot.com for her site that has helped me with glitter issues! (And ABOP that pointed me there!!)

On the flip side of things, I am trying to set up an Etsy shop with some of my craft items! This seems to be making my husband happy...wonder if he thinks it will fund my craft addictions?!

Mouhahahaha! As IF!

Just a few not-so-fabulous manis

Hey there...I have made several frankens lately, with some glitter I bought online. Unfortunately, I think the glitter was not solvent-resistant, so they turned into goo. I realized this after I put the frankens on over base colors...
3 coats of pretty polish + 1 coat of crappy, melty goo = ruined mani!

Consequently, my nails have been a mess...here are the second-chance manis...I think I have learned my lesson!

This was 3 coats of a franken inspired by Nerd Lacquer's polishes....This one turned out very nice, but a little plain-the glitter didn't show through the color very nicely...

Please forgive the oiled up cuticles...

Two coats of Orly Bailamos...Very lovely but not as flashy as it looked in the bottle, so I dressed it up (below) with a good franken topcoat...

Much better!

Wet N Wild, Lavender Creme (!?) 2 coats (who the heck named this?!)

(This is what I am wearing now...after my Sinful Colors Last Chance green turned into gooey muck...there might be staining that I missed--ugh!)

2 coats of Icing Sipping On Bubbly. This was a bad move-blegh! I don't know what it is, but this mani bugs the heck out of me and it needs to come OFF!!

And a small happy dance is in order...I did find Sinful Colors Cinderella...YAY!...it is mine and it is so cool!
And finally~
For those of you that follow llarowe.com or her FaceBook site...please take care of your health? Women have very different heart attack symptoms and we should all know them and listen to our bodies. If you do nothing else, visit http://www.goredforwomen.org

Polka Dot Insanity!

I was just telling a co-worker the other day that I would never be able to pull off a polka dot summer dress...BUT a polka dot mani is a whole other can of worms!

Many very talented ladies have done this mani in a stunning fashion. This is just my version of it. Work was hectic and stressful this week, so I needed something fun and carefree.
Two coats of Revlon Silver dollar, with 2 sizes of polka dots. I used my dotting tool for the small dots and the flat end of a bamboo skewer for the large dots. I have been wanting to try this mani for almost 6 months now, hehehhe.

 GAH! look at the smearing! I hate it when I think I did a great mani and pictures show me this kind of stuff...grrrr

Right hand...I don't use this one much for photos....I am right handed and need that for clicking pictures!

Here is what I used:

Speaking of dots....here is a recent mani that was not so successful, but the first time I did a mani with this franken. Meh, ok, but nothing to rave about!

Take care and be safe :0)

Gold Holo Franken

Hey there! I hope everyone had a safe and joyous holiday.

We celebrated Christmas at my daughter's home, the first real Christmas she has had there, since she moved in right before the holiday last December. Good food, card games and plenty of silly string...for those if you that don't know the mess of silly string-think foam string that shoots out of a can at people. My son got me right on the face and then the race was on! A few minutes later...we had to start the clean-up, hehehehe. It was WORTH it!!! I am a rowdy Mom:)
Ok, my mani has my gellac back on...all the crafts made me cut my nails down to almost teeny nubbins from nicks, splits and dents. So I put the gellac/gel nails back on-just 2 coats of clear base coat for strength.
Two coats of Sinful Colors Timbleberry and 2 coats of a Gold Holo franken.

 Below is the franken I made from gold holo fine glitter, and gold holo bar glitter-very pretty topper to any color!

 Also I took a picture of all the finished leather Altoid boxes. The one on the top was my first. There is  a Trillium flower painted on the top. They grow wild here up in the mountains if you are lucky enough to catch their blooming season

And here is a sneaky little devil helping himself to someones water cup while she was napping. I couldn't resist catching Goliath at this, it cracked me up. Yes, I did tell her it was raided by him, hahahaha....I'm not that mean!

Pimp My Mani!! oh, and some gift /craft pics

I topped my last mani with some Franken holo topcoat that I made with spectraflair and suspension base clear polish. So, yea I made it even flashier, lol!
I have a new mani, but I thought I would do the holo re-do first, my new mani and then some gift/craft pictures.

Oooooo, all you holo lovers out there should be drooling right now, lol!! (Neelai, that is you!)
Ok, enough of that, on to tonight's mani!

Orly Ingenue, 2 coats and O My, Blingy!

Wow, I can almost see green, gold, and who knows what other colors flashing in this. I love this polish. It didn't take very long to dry, went on thinly and easily-a bit easy to pool if I put on to much, but easily corrected.
OK, next....
Craft stuff- I took lots of pictures, but I am only posting a few right now, and I will post more after the holiday if anyone is interested in how I did the boxes.

I took an Altoids candy tin and covered it with some upholstery-grade leather I bought off eBay. Remnants like this are fairly cheap, and many pieces were quite large. I glued the leather on with a specific glue that dries flexible and works with leather and metal. I wanted to make these for my girls to put tampons and pads in, because I don't know about other ladies, but I hate having these items floating around and most containers/bags are dead a giveaway when you pull them out of your purse or pocket.

This is one of the finished boxes. I planned on it being "simpler" but I had to hide some of the edges that were bugging me...so it got a bit fancier, hahahaha! The little knot on the lid is to open it.

Here are some nail polish frankens I also have made for presents for my girls...

Ok, enough pictures for tonight. I hope this gave you some ideas or that you at least enjoyed looking at the pictures. Take care and if you celebrate Christmas or similar holiday, enjoy, if you don't, take care anyway and enjoy your week!!

My first Christmas mani

I finally broke down, put away some of my un-Christmas-y polishes... and did something that makes me feel the season a bit.

I got this idea from http://morenailpolish.blogspot.com  when she pulled out her red holo nail polish...her mani was MUCH cooler!!! She reminded me that I had made a red spectraflair franken, so here we go!

Two coats of my super easy Red holo franken (this stuff dries really fast with spectraflair in it) and stamping with Konad m5, using NYC french mani white.

This would definitely look better with a downward slope on my nails, but I have what I have.....funky nails! This is with SV as a topcoat.

I started out stamping with the star on one of the Bundlemonster plates, but the corners of the star would not lift with the stamp...so I switched to my konad plate and I had lift-off! YAY!

I love how this turned out, so glossy and glowy...and I didn't see any smears, so life is good...

Gift/craft stuff.....I have made a few leather-covered altoid boxes for tampon/pad  holders, some big gummi bear soaps, even with cherry scent!

Small leather id holders are next.....

Glitter Blizzard! and some other fun

This mani was totally inspired by Anita at splashofserendipity.blogspot.com. She does some amazing nail work and has gorgeous nails to boot, hahaha! Thank-you for the fabulous idea, Anita!

Started this late at night and needed a simple, quick but pretty mani, since I have a reputation to keep up at work! But first you get to see some nail porn...NAKED NAILS! The staining finally grew out and they look pretty darn good to me...

My nails are translucent in some places, because I had been working in the kitchen, cooking and doing dishes, so afterwards I slathered them with argan oil and let it soak in...
Ok, on to the easy-peasy mani:

On clear gel nails, I sponged NYC french mani white starting at the tips and making a gradient...
Over the top of that, one coat of Wet N Wild Hallucinate. Over the top of that, one coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker. Sorry for the blurry pictures, but I was trying to get the PI polish to show up like it does in real life...

OK, I really like how simple and effective this look is. The green and blue flashes were much more noticeable in person. Gorgeous and a bit flashy without being TOO flashy...I know...not like me right?!
On to some craft/homemade fun!
My compromise to actually giving away my Christmas ideas if the kids look at this post, is...

Experiment number one.......

Hmmm, not dark enough and a bit too soft, back to the drawing board for more Brown Iron Oxide and a bit more beeswax.... E-mail me if you need help or want to know what these are going to be hahaha!