Wishing For Summer....

   Well once again it's been 2 weeks since my last post! I really thought I was getting more consistent there for a while. I have 2 designs and one swatch for you guys!

   As my title hints, I am longing for warm weather! We had a warm spell last week that lasted a few days and it was wonderful! ....And then it was cold again. And we're supposed to get more snow. I don't think this impending snow would be as terrible if it hadn't been for that warm spell that got all of our hopes up. Hopefully it will start getting warm again once we're halfway through March.
   In honor of my warm weather blues, I painted a pretty summery hibiscus-like flower on my fingers so I could look at it and think of warmer times.

   This was originally made using the one-stroke technique. But I misplaced my brush for that and I haven't bought a new one, so I improvised. I painted on the white with white acrylic paint, making the ends kind of jagged. then I painted on some orangey-coral color (Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine). I painted a thinner layer to start with, eventually having 3 layers. It's kind of hard to describe, but I painted the first layer up almost to the end of the white. The second layer was painted about halfway up the first layer of the Nina Ultra Pro, and the third layer was painted at the very bottom. I basically was trying to create a gradient of sorts. Here's a close up:

   As for the rest of the design, I painted the bottom half with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed and the top half with CoverGirl Outlast Lemon Drop. I didn't bother with gradating since I was painting the flowers over top. I used the white acrylic paint again for the dots and a green acrylic paint for the leaves.
   Now every time I get to hankering for warm weather I can look at my nails and pretend that I really and at the beach with the warm sun and a warm breeze. (And of course this week my dad gets to go to Florida for work... Mom and I are pretty jealous!)
(P.S. This design is available as an accent set on my Etsy!)

   I really am on a warm weather kick, because this next design is summery too! I made up a new set for Etsy yesterday. You've probably seen something like it floating around on Pinterest.

   I had been wanting to paint these for a while, but I just never got around to it, as usual. I really like it! I'm not completely satisfied with the anchor yet, I'll have to play around with it some. I made the stripes and V with a bunch of tape. After painting a white base, I taped off the V, then taped off the stripes and painted the stripes. Then I painted the blue V. Once everything had dried enough I took off all the tape and painted the yellow V in the empty spot.
    I used Finger Paints Paper Mache as the base, with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red making the other stripe. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Resurrection is the blue and Sinful Colors Professional is the yellow. I made the anchor with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Pumping Iron.


  I think I'm in danger of making this post super long. I've still got a couple swatches to show you all!
   Last week I bought 2 of Orly's new galaxy collection - Milky Way and Starburst.

   I'm a little lazy today and didn't want to take a new picture, so I got this one from my Etsy. In case you couldn't tell, the Orly polishes are the two on the left. :D They were on sale so I figured I might as well splurge and get something frivolous!
   I love how they look! The blue one, Milky Way, is definitely my favorite, but I might or might not be partial to blue...
   Here's Milky Way:

   And here's Starburst:

(Sorry for the terrible picture of Starburst! I was going to retake the picture but I took if off before I remembered.)

   I like the overall effect. They were also fairly easy to paint on. I put on 3 coats each just to give it more 'depth'; two would suffice. However, I did have to put on 2-3 coats of my topcoat. I didn't do that with Starburst and the glitter was catching on everything! That's why I didn't get another picture. It lasted about 4 days before I just got aggravated and took off what was left. Which brings me to my major complaint. THE GLITTER NEVER COMES OFF!! I had to literally scrape the glitter off of my nails, it wouldn't come off with my remover. I'm pretty sure my nails hate me after that.
   Overall though, they look nice. The extra topcoat layer(s) help it to last longer, which is great. And they look cool! The removal is the only thing that gets me.
   I have these in the solid sets that I sell on Etsy, so you could get the cuteness without the hassle of removal! You can find them here if you're interested.

   That's it for now guys!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'm actually off work this weekend for once, so that'll be fun!

Valentine's Day

   Valentine's Day almost snuck up on me this year! I had been thinking about designs, but I thought I had plenty of time to finalize and paint. Well, yesterday I realized that it was already Valentine's week! I've been a little off schedule lately... I painted yesterday before work, so I can have them on for at least a few days before!

   I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do this year. I had already painted a bunch of designs for Etsy and I didn't really want to paint them again. Not yet, anyway! After scrounging around on Pinterest for inspiration, I found this design and fell in love! I combined it with this design from my Etsy sets and ended up with this:

   I think this has become one of my favorite designs! I feel like I've said that a lot lately, but it's true! I really like the last few designs I've made.
   To make this design I used Finger Paints Paper Mache as the base, and Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice as the base for my ring finger. I used Entice for the dashed diagonals as well. (I used a tiny brush to make them.) For the hearts I used Finger Paints Paint Me Happy, with a small dotter and the same small brush. To make the lace heart on my ring finger I painted the half heart shape with white acrylic paint. Then I painted over it (leaving a small outline) with Finger Paints Paint Me Happy. After that I painted on white dots with the dotter, then painted on green dots with Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice.

   That's all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Birds and Stripes

   It's been a while since my last update. I kept my last design on so much longer than usual because I had quite a few orders, and they were all on different days, so I couldn't do it all at once like I usually do! But I eventually got around to it.
   After a very long break, I finally got around to painting my toenails again. I think the last time I painted them was back in October, or something ridiculous like that. Back at Christmastime I painted the ornaments on my fingers. I had been debating back and forth between two designs before I painted them - ornaments and birds. I had kind of forgotten about the birds until earlier this week.

   I got my inspiration from a few different pins, all with the same basic idea, birds in a winter scene of some sort. I used Pure Ice Bikini as the base, and then a mix of acrylic paints and polishes for the birds and evergreen branches. I think it was brown and green acrylic paints for the branches, and Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine, black, grey, and white paints for the bird. White acrylic paint for the snowflakes.

  On my fingers I painted some chevron stripes. I got my inspiration from a knit sweater I saw online.

   I really liked how it turned out! I used acrylic paints instead of polish, so it was a little easier to paint thin lines (in my opinion, anyway). The base was a new polish I got a few days ago, Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice. I got it thinking it would be a close match to a polish that I ran out of (it's no longer made), but it turned out not being as close as I had thought. Oh well, it's still a pretty color! I used one of my new Wistonia brushes to make the stripes.

   That's pretty much all the news I have. I thought I would have some new sets for Etsy to show you guys, but I was majorly distracted this week by some fun new projects. You'll probably hear something about them later, once they're complete.

   I hope you all have a great week! Stay warm, to those of you who are like me and stuck in this freezing snowy weather!