Valentine's Day Swirls

Yeah, So an unplanned hiatus happened. It's not really over actually. My net is very limited at the moment, so yeah. Sucks.

But in happier news I won a Give-Away! I've never won one before and am super giddy. The chances of me winning were so slim too. I only got one entry in it because I found out about it so late. I'm without internet and just happened to see it on the last couple days it was active. I didn't have time to do a challenge mani for it, so I only got the one "click here for a free entry" click. After winners were picked they only had 24 hours to email and claim their prizes. About 4 or 5 days after it was over I happened to be at the mall and had an email from the sponsors. I figured no way I was still in the 24 hour period, that maybe the email was old and I got passed over. But no! The first few people didn't respond and I got chosen at the time I happened to be at a wifi spot. Seriously, it was like it was meant to be!

Anyway, back to these nails. I painted them China Glaze "White on White" and then with some foil glue. I had this idea that since the glue dried tacky I could brush loose glitter over it and have it stick. There were... complications. The tiny tub of glitter was stuck shut and as I was prying it open... well... it popped. Like a little glitter volcano all over my bed. (its cold outside so I sit in my bed and paint my nails instead of doing it on the porch like normal in the summer.) So I got glitter on my nail like a planned, but I also got lint and cat hair too. Soldiering on, I stamped with OPI "Time and A-Gwen" and Fab Ur Nails FUN 3 stamping plate, both of which were part of my give-away gift. Despite the cat hair-glitter fiasco, I really like how this turned out.

So I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again. I'll try to at least get pics up, if not text. I'm still here and still painting, but access to net is ugly right now.

4th of July 2014 Skittle

I don't know why I was so excited for 4th of July this year. Usually I just try to catch glimpses of the fireworks going off thru the trees outside my window without ever leaving my own room. This year was different for some reason. My city stopped putting on fireworks displays a few years ago because of cost but for some reason did it this year. Only this time they charged you to get into the park to watch it. Guess they have to pay for the displays somehow. So I spent the night on a bridge just outside the park and still got a great view of the fireworks. Sorry, I'm broke.

I was excited to do 4th nails and decided to do skittles. Well, not actually decided. The fact is I COULDN'T decide what technique I wanted to do...so I did them all. I had a vague idea that maybe I would pick the nail that turned out best and redo the rest to match. That didn't happen so skittles it was! I used the same 3 polishes on all the nails, just the technique changed. Essie "5th Avenue", China Glaze "Snow", and Sinful Colors "Endless Blue".

I'll go the the nails one at a time tho.

Left hand

Thumb: Over "Endless Blue" I simply used Salon Perfect "Speck-tacular"

Index: Messy Mansion stamping plate MM15 and little rhinestones I got at a dollar store.

Middle: Blue and White striping tape I got at WalMart by Salon Perfect

Ring: Watermarble. I really should have painted the nail white first to make the color stronger and hide the bald spots but I was excited and didn't think it thru too well.

Pinkie: Small nail decal by Salon Perfect

Right Hand

Thumb: Salon Perfect "Starred and Striped" and "Grand Finale" over "Endless Blue"

Index: Another Salon Perfect Decal

Middle: Another Watermarble. This time with a white under coat

Ring: I loved the Index on my left hand so much I wanted to do it again on my right. 

Pinkie: This was the first time I had ever used loose glitter before. This is "Endless Blue" that I topcoated with a slow drying topcoat and then brushed some loose glitter over the bottom half of the nail. I added a star rhinestone that I got from a dollar store years ago and topcoated the whole thing.

I wore this polish for longer than I usually do and something odd started to happen. The topcoat started to eat the color off of the metallic striping tape. This is after the first topcoat and you can see between the white stripes that its turning silver. I re-topcoated it again a few days later to keep the edges of the tape from lifting up and the blue almost completely turned a silver brownish color. Very odd and something I need to keep in mind when I use this tape again.