Halloween Part III

   The final installment! These are manikin hands and nail wheels.

   I made a werewolf! Isn't it cool?? There are a couple things I would fix (aren't there always?), but overall I'm satisfied.
   I used my manikin hand to make this one. I applied various shades of brown to the skin to darken it up (it was a very pale hand, completely wrong for a werewolf). I used hair from some curly hair extensions to make the furry hands.
   The nails were made with a cream base and a white crackle layer over top. I thought that gave it a nice bone-like texture. Then I sponged on various shades of brown and a bit of black at the base of the nails and the surrounding skin. One of the girls at school had some fake blood, so to complete the effect, I gave it some bloody nails.

   This is my Halloween-themed nail wheel. Some of them glow in the dark! I wish I had a picture for you... I'll need to bring it home, take one, and update this soon. The cemetery has ghosts that show up in the dark. The glowing forest glows in the dark, as well as the green part of the Evil Queen's poison apple. Oh, and the skull/ghoul faces!
   I think the Snoopys are my favorites though. I've always liked Charlie Brown so I had to try and paint some characters. They'll probably be back for Christmas too....

  That's all of my Halloween designs this year.

   Have a great weekend!

Halloween Part II

   To continue with my belated Halloween designs... (Eventually I will post them on Halloween if not before!)

   Here are a few designs I created at school on fellow students and clients.

   First up: Saw-themed nails. This student was dressing up as Jigsaw for Halloween, complete with the tricycle. I've never seen any of the Saw movies (I like to sleep at night), so I had to do a little research for this one.
  For the accent nails, I used Revlon Colortsay Sure Thing as my base, and red acrylic paint for the hand print and swirl. The other nails were painted with OPI Midnight in Moscow, a neat seemingly black base with a red shimmer when it's in the light.

   Sugar skulls and spider webs! This girl was dressing in a skeleton/sugar skull/Day of the Dead themed costume. To make this set, I started with a white base for the sugar skulls. Then I used a combination of red and black acrylic paint, as well as a green nail art pen. The webs were made with OPI Midnight in Moscow and white acrylic paint. The set was topped off with a matte topcoat.

   I'm a little bit proud of this one... I've always loved calligraphy, so it was really fun to combine my love of letters and my love of polish for this design! I'm not sure what the costume idea was for this one, but I'm just happy I got to paint pretty letters.
   I started with a black base, and then used acrylic paint for the letters. It was topped off with a matte topcoat as well. She had broken a couple of nails, so I sculpted those out. All in all, I think it took about 3 hours, including a quick smoke break for her and a wiggle break for me. :)

   I have one more installment and then I'm done with Halloween and back to trying to catch up.. I think I'm only 1 week behind. Surely I can catch up from that! :D

   Have a fantastic week!

Happy [Belated] Halloween!

  Still behind... Nothing new!

   I hope you all had a great Halloween! We dressed up at school and had kids come in to trick or treat, it was lots of fun!

   I was Dorothy! I'm all about being cheap and using stuff I already have. I had recently bought this dress online and it worked perfectly!

   And of course, I had nails to match.

   I started with a white base, Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. To make the blue plaid nails, I used some thinned out Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away. I made the darker shadowed squares with Revlon Colorstay Indigo Night.

   To paint the poppies, I started with a bit of red, Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet. I used some thinned out OPI Midnight in Moscow to create the darker interior on the poppy petals, and then finished the flower out with some small dots of Revlon Colortay Buttercup.
   The stems and leaves were made with Studio M On the Field.

   And, despite not being able to find cheap red glitter shoes ANYWHERE (they are always in abundance at Walmart the years I don't need them...), I did put red glitter on my right hand. My feet just had to make do with plain, boring, un-glittery, red heels. :)


   I painted some other Halloween-themed desgins, I'll try to get them up soon. I might just have to go out of order for a week so my Halloween designs are posted at least near Halloween...  I really need to get my blogging life together!


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Halloween in... Disney World!

  ...Unfortunately, I'm not the lucky lady who gets to go. Somehow, my parents have neglected to ever take me there... Which I might or might not be slightly upset about. But hey, it's not like I didn't get to go to lots of other really cool places most people don't get to visit. So I guess it evens out.
   Anyways, I had a customer contact me about creating a couple custom sets for her trip to Disney World around Halloween. Super cool, right? It's got to be so much fun to go there on any holiday, but especially Halloween.

  The first set was a Hocus Pocus themed set. I've never really been a huge fan of that movie (I know, blasphemy!), but it was still really fun to create. She wanted four accents; the black flame candle, Thackery Binx (in cat form), the spell book, and Billy Butcherson.

   To keep it short, the main colors I used were purple with a glitter top coat (OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck and Finger Paints Glitter Top Coat), green (L'Oreal New Money), and a really neat black with a slight red shimmer (OPI Midnight in Moscow).

   The other set she requested was a Mickey Mouse inspired set. For the thumbs, I used a base of CND Vinylux Grommet and my red striper. The black glitter is Nina Ultra Pro Glam Rock. The red glitter is Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home (and one of my favorites!).


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Halloween!

   So I'm a few days late, but you probably expect that by now. Sorry guys! This year for Halloween I painted a cute skeleton design I've had on my Pinterest for a while. Skeletons aren't really my thing, which is why it's been sitting there for a few years, but this one is neat. You might have seen this one about a month ago, I made it into an Etsy set first.

  I started with a black base, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. I used a combination of my white striper to make the skeleton. I outlined and colored in the basic shape, and then used my dotter to make the teeth and nose, and a brush to make the eyes. To make the teeth I made a row of black dots and then made some smaller white dots inside to get the outlined look. Then I finished it out with a matte top coat.

   As I mentioned, this is in my Etsy shop. It's a little out-of-season now, but you can still look at it! You can find it here.

   I have a review coming up next! The Born Pretty Store has sent me some awesome new goodies....

   Have a great week!

Halloween Patches

   I've started early on Halloween designs! I have two I want to paint so I can get the pictures up in my shop (the skeletons and Frankenstein tips), plus one other I've had my eye on for a year or so, which is the one I have on now.

  I've seen several different takes on this design, the most common being a version of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I almost did that, and I probably will for Etsy, but the version I did says 'Halloween' to me more than Sally.

   I started with a green base, L'Oreal New Money. I just painted one thin coat so that the other two colors wouldn't potentially not show as brightly. Next I drew on some lines with my black striper. Just the outlines, the stitches will come later.

   After the lines dried, I filled in the spaces I wanted purple. I used Nina Ultra Pro Plum of the Earth. Next I filled in the triangles I wanted to be green (I had made the first coat thin, so the green needed another round of paint). Then I filled in the remaining spaces with orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed.

   Next I went back over my black outlines, and then added the small black stitches, all with my striper. Then I sealed it with a top coat. I'm still using Seche Vite, despite the smell and the price. It's a really good top coat!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week! I probably won't have anything new for you guys until this weekend. I'm going to be super busy this week at school.

Candy Canes and Skeletons

   I've been busy this past week. Aside from normal school busy-ness, I've also been busy making more Etsy sets! I thought I'd be super on top of things and make two new Christmas set, as well as try and get a new Halloween design out in time. (I've also made 4 others, but for your sake, I'll split them up into two posts so you aren't drowned in nails.)

   As the closest holiday, the Halloween set is up first. I found this one on Pinterest a couple years ago but never painted it (skeletons aren't really my thing). This year though, it hit me, people will bu this for Halloween! I felt kind of dumb for not having thought of it before. In case you can't figure it out (the picture is a little confusing) this design is made so that one hand has the heads and the other hand has the bodies, so that when you put your fingers together the whole skeleton lines up. You can see the original pin here, that would probably help more than my crappy explanation.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   And for Christmas I'm ahead of the game! For now. I thought this one was super cute and Christmas-y without being elaborate. And it's easy to make, so if you like painting your nails instead of buying them, you can easily recreate this! To make the stripes I started with a white base and then used a red striper. Then I used a small brush to make the silver stripe.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   My second Christmas set is a cute simplified sweater design. To make this one I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. For the red I used Revlon Colorstay Velvet Rope and the green is Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   More sets to come! I'm also super excited to show you all my nails. I've painted a cute Fall design....!

Fall is Coming...!

   Like last year, Fall has taken me over! I'm super excited for it and still convince that it is the best season ever. I feel really sorry for you guys that don't really get this season. You're missing out!
   I haven't really painted any fall designs on my own fingers yet, but I have made up a few sets for my Etsy store!

   This first one is a design you might have seen before; I painted it on my fingers not quite two years ago.

  I bought a new brown a couple weeks ago - Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out - and, despite not liking it at first, it has become one of my favorite bases. For the leaves I drew them out with a white striper first (so the colors would be bright) and then used orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, red, L'Oreal He Red My Mind, and green, L'Oreal New Money. I used a small brush to add in the brown veins, and then topped it with a matte coat.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This next design was inspired by some cute Halloween fabric I found at work (JoAnn Fabrics). You can see it here.

   It didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but I think it's still cute! I'll probably tweak it at some point. I started with a base of Revlon Colorstay Indigo Night. Then I drew on the pumpkin shapes with my white striper and then went over them in yellow, Revlon Colorstay Buttercup, red, L'Oreal He Red My Mind, or orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed. I painted the crows and the designs in the pumpkins with some black polish and a small brush, then I gave the crows their eyes and beaks. I finished this one with a matte topcoat as well.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This last one was inspired by a cute Halloween pin I found.

   It's really simple and easy to make, and has the added bonus of being cute! I started this one with a very thin nail-toned base (the base is optional, I just use it because I like to). I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed to make the orange tip. Then I used my black striper to creating the stitching/Frankenstein look.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   You can find all of my Fall and Halloween designs in this section of my shop!

   That's all for now. Last week was busy so I didn't really paint a design on my fingers. My roommate and I had matching brown glittered fingers. I meant to take a picture for you guys (it was a really pretty brown!), but I forgot to take it before I went home over the weekend, and then I didn't have my camera, and then it started peeling.... But I should have something new soon!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Halloween Part 2! ...that's super late

So, it's official. I'm a terrible blogger. I'd say I'll try to be better, but I might not be consistent again until next year. I've just been swamped with work, and lately, Christmas-ing. I haven't really done much of anything nail wise since the first week of November. You might not believe it, because I actually have a lot to show you all. I made up some new sets for my Etsy before I got swamped. Better late than never, I guess!

Here are my Halloween owls from Halloween week! I really really liked them. It was a lot harder to come up with owl costume ideas than I thought it would be. In the end I decided on a ghost, a pirate, a flapper, a Jedi, a nurse, and Ariel.

   Maybe one day I'll post a tutorial on how  I make my owls. We'll see...
   I made a ton of sets for my Etsy a few weeks ago. I will warn you though, I'm not going to be much of a 'talker' this post. I haven't had my brain about me at all this week...

   I finally made an ombre nail set! Sort of. I never can get the sponging method to work, so I made ombre stripes instead! It actually started before any of my Halloween designs with a cute Fall ombre stripe with scalloped edges. I'd love to show it to you, but I forgot to take pictures! :( It was something like this design from Nailed It. That's what inspired me to make this ombre design.

   As you can guess, I'm offering 4 different color options. I think the blue is my favorite, although they are all pretty nice. I think. You can find them here.
   I also made this set for my Etsy.

   I like this one a lot more than I thought I would. I made it so that there would be a set in my store that was trendy and cute but not too colorful or 'wild'. But I ended up really liking it! And, as I'm sure you can guess, this is another one with a color and design choice.
   I made another set that I thought I would love. I still like it, but not as much as I thought I would. I think it's because I couldn't make it look exactly like I wanted. It really is a bother being an occasional semi-perfectionist....

  Like I said, they're nice, just not what I envisioned. You can find them here!
  This set I actually made a month or so ago, I just never took a picture of them for some reason.... I'm really not sure why.

   These were inspired by some fabric I found at work (JoAnn Fabrics, here). I really liked it! Nice and fallish. Plus cute, somewhat trendy, and not too crazy!
   This next one is another that I ended up liking more than I thought I would. It's pretty simple, actually.

    I don't know which color scheme I like best... I like them both, but I think I might like the darker one slightly better. Maybe. You can find it here.

Halloween!! (Part 1)

   There's still about a week to go and I've already started my Halloween designs... I've decided to do two this year instead of just one. Last year I didn't really know what to choose, so I did a hodge podge of just about everything. Just because I can, I'll show you guys a picture of it! Hooray for nails!

  If I ever redid them, I'd change the background colors. Too much orange. Besides, when do you ever see a completely orange sky? For the time though, they were pretty good! Not that I think they're awful now or anything. I still like them a lot! Isn't that cat just so adorably scruffy?! I might have told you this before, but.... I love cats! I just can't help myself. And it's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but my left thumb was a witch's profile. I was inspired by this pin for Her Witchy-ness. I was inspired by lots of pins, actually. You can probably find most of them in the same board as the witch nails.

   Anyways, on to this year's first Halloween design! You've probably seen them before; I posted a set of fakes like them last week or the week before. I really really liked them (I bet you can guess why in a minute), so I knew I had to paint them on my nails this year!

   And yes, two pictures are a little unnecessary, but I just really liked the lighting and whatnot in the second. And it's more in focus. (The photographer side of me is coming out.) But the other one has my thumb in it so it has to be included you know...
   As you've probably guessed, I like them so much because they're cats! ...And the sponged fog looks cool too. I like this version so much better than my first attempt on the fake nails a few weeks ago. I definitely knew more of what I was doing this time around!
   I only used three colors for this design - white, grey, and black. I painted my nails with a white base coat, then with a makeup sponge I sponged on varying amounts of grey, black, and sometimes white until I got a fog pattern that I liked. Then with a striper I painted on the webs. (I tried to make them a lot thinner and neater than the first time, but my thumb was the only one that really turned out great.) Then I painted on the cat (I used a mix of a dotter and a smaller brush), using the striper again for the tail and eyes. After that I painted on a regular top coat and then a matte one.
   If you like, you can find the fakes for sale here in my Etsy store!

   That's about it for now... Halloween owls for next week!
   Have a great week/weekend guys!

Christmas Listings!

   I've been making a ton if new nail sets for my Etsy store! And I've already sold some! I've had 14 sales since I opened my shop a little over a year ago, but each new sale is just as exciting as the first! Or nearly so, anyway. I guess nothing beats the excitement of your first sale!
   I have mainly been focusing on Christmas nails since I'm a little late for the Halloween rush. ...But I couldn't resist painting two Fall/Halloween sets. They called to me and practically begged to be made! They might've bullied me a little...
  

   I hadn't planned on making this set at all. The others were pretty much all planned. And had been for a while. And been put off. And avoided. And put off again... These were very last minute and inspired by some ribbon my mom bought on a whim. I like the ribbon better, but the nails turned out fine! You can find these here in my store.

   This set is one of my favorites. I'm not convinced that the webs are right, but the cat and the fog (especially the fog) looked so nice I kind of over look them. For now. I did a ton of sponging for the background and it took me forever to be satisfied with the mix of greys, blacks, and whites. I'm so picky! I can't wait to do these on my own nails! My only dilemma is whether I should do these on Halloween week or the week before. I have some Halloween owls that I want to do too. You can find this set here in my store.

   This is the first of three Christmas sets I made up last week. I had done up one nail like this last Christmas in a Christmas montage of sorts. And I apparently used different thread. The thread I used for this one was such a mess! I'll definitely have to find something different if someone orders a set. You can find these here in my Etsy.

   You might have noticed that I have this problem with either loving or not loving every set I make. There usually isn't anything in between. These, I really like. A lot. I will definitely have to paint these on my own nails come winter! I saw two snowflake sets on Pinterest that I liked, but didn't really like on their own. So I combined them to make my own version! (You can see them here and here if you like.) You can find this set here in my store.

   I made these last year too. They are so cute! I love these too! (You can find a picture of my first version here if you want to see them. They don't really look any different.) Don't those penguins just look so cute all bundled up in scarves and muffs?! I'll stop now so I don't gush too much... You can find them here in my Etsy store.


And that's about it for now. I do actually have some more nails to show you guys, but I don't want to make the post too long. Besides, I haven't put my watermark and everything on there either. Because it takes so long to do that... Mostly I'm just tired and lazy!

Have a wonderful week guys! I should have more time to blog and create; at work the corporate people messed up our hours, so we had to have our hours cut a lot so I'll have a ton more free time this week and the next!