Flip Flop February-Day 7

Happier today, nothing has changed with the car other than my attitude, but this is a perfect example of "Attitude Is Everything."

Today our options are Sugar Spun and Pattern.
I tried Sugar Spun three times and failed.
See?

This was before I followed the link Jilltastic Nail Designs provided, so I didn't know that it was done with semi-dried polish.
I just tried dripping it over the edges of my nails, I used Sally Hanson InstaDris here.

And see?

Here I tried again, knowing that the deadline was coming up soon and I had time to play.
Time, I had.
Patience, I had not.
I never did get it goopy enough to drag thinly across the nail, and the white?
That's Nivea cream, I don't have any Vaseline or Chapstick in the house to protect the skin around what promised to be a messy mani.

So I gave up.
And I am very happy with what I ended up with!
I applied Essie Blue Rhapsody to all but the ring finger which got my new A. England Tristam-yay, it avoided the fires of the Royal Post!-and then stamped with the opposite color using Vivid Lacquer's VL006 plate.
I had originally gone to her plates for the stockinette stitch (double entendre "pattern"), but I really liked the chevrons today.

Here, have another.

You can tell that Anni is a knitter, she has a much better stamp than the other, holey knit stamps!
I love how large the images are, too!

 You can buy Vivid Lacquer polish and plates on Etsy.

I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for today's challenge.
Did anyone have enough patience to do the Sugar Spun?
I hope so, and I hope they give out tips!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 6

In a pretty bad mood right now, I think I need to buy a car and that is NOT exciting.
That would pretty much eliminate any fun money, and a voluntary low/no buy is OK, but a needed one? No.

So what were our options today?
Fan Brush and Glitterbomb!
I don't own a Fan Brush (although I think I will buy one before the Day 25 challenge, I have found a cool You Tube Tutorial that requires one) so I obviously chose Glitterbomb!

This was so much fun, but I have to confess, it was made more fun by the fact that it was removed before it had time to set up.
Yep, just scraped it all off with an orange stick.
No way I wanted to deal with the acetone bath, my VD skipped a workout that day.

This is Butter London's Rosie Lee!
Super duper sparky!
I got Rosie Lee in a three pack that also included Fairy Cake and The Black Knight-which was my number one lemming!
I am very happy with the wear on the BLs (that I have worn longer than it took to take a picture), the only problems I have had are where I have a weakness in my nail-such as my right forefinger.
I have been using Nailtique Formula 2, and that has improved the nail but not eliminated the problem altogether.

Anyway! Sparkly Pink Goodness!
Wonder what the others have put on?

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day Five

Flip/Flop February 28 Day Challenge-Day 5!
Jilltastic Nail Design gave us two fun options today.
I hadn't done either one, but I have seen so many cool manicures with the studs, I just HAD to try that one!
I hope that no one is disappointed that I didn't do any acrylic 3-D roses or duck feet or anything.
This is about as three dimensional as I can handle.
 It certainly was fun to wear at my husband's party.

This was two coats China Glaze VIII, Cina Nail Art Rhinestones (I chose the squares, there were also marquise or circle and raindrop shapes) which were placed on my nails, then topped with Seche Vite, which adheres the rhinestones to the nails.

No one at the party said anything about my nails, thoroughly disappointing me, although I choose to believe that they were just dazzled by them.

Take a look at what the others in this challenge are doing for today, it always surprises me how creative people get!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 4

Whee! We are already to Day Four of Jilltastic Nail Designs' 28 Day Challenge, Flip/Flop February.
Today's options are One Stroke and Ombre.
I haven't done a manicure in either of those, but years ago I had a mighty spectacular failure with One Stroke painting, so I chose to do an Ombre.

Before I "got into" nails, red was the most common color that I wore, although now that has changed.
Black, blue, teal, even green sometimes, but only rarely red.
That hasn't stopped me from buying them, though.
Doing this ombre mani gave me an opportunity to use two untrieds!

Top to bottom we have an unknown OPI (from when I got my nails done at a salon, I had them decant a mini for touch ups, circa 2008), Zoya Blaze (yay, holo!), China Glaze Ruby Pumps, and NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost (I see zero frost in this picture!)
I was pleased with how I was able to pull various eras of polishes together for this mani.
That OPI is among my older and I think I received Blaze in the mail that day!

I am sure that more talented people than I will have works of art on their nails for One Stroke Manis and look forward to seeing the combinations people come up with for Ombre Manis!
Be sure to check them out with the links below.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip/Flop February-Day 3

OK, moving right along, today is day three of Jilltastic Nail Design's 28 day Challenge, Flip Flop February.
Today our options are Watermarble and Dry Marble.
I have done a Watermarble previously and thought I would try a dry marble, sometimes known as needle marbling.
I put down a base of Orly Ma Cherie on my thumb, pinkie and middle finger, and China Glaze White on White on the other two fingers and then let it dry.
Next I painted stripes of those two colors and Rimmel's Black Satin down the length of the nail.
I took a safety pin that I had made unsafe and scratched back and forth, dragging the polish from one color into the others.
This technique seriously reminded me of marbling a cake, so I figure that is where the name came from.

Not the world's most successful needle marbling, but it was a new technique for me.
When I do this again, I will choose colors that are closer to each other.
I think the contrast was too high for this.
But here, have a close up of the thumb, the most successful attempt.

You can see the black dragged into the white and the white dragged into the black.
Maybe next time I will try going the other direction.
This was fun!

I can't wait to see all the marbling done dry or with water!
Check them all out!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip/Flop February-Day 2

w00t!
So much fun seeing all the fun manicures already!

Today's choices are Stained Glass and Accent Nail.
I went with the easy choice again.
Yay for having choices!

So here we have my take on an accent nail.
Yes, I had my usual problem of knowing when to stop.
With a base of Zoya Shelby, I made an accent nail with half of the 2012 OPI Pink of Hearts set, You Glitter Be Good To Me.
Beautiful, trust me.
But there is always a need for MOAR SHINIES!
So I added China Glaze Luxe and Lush, my first flakeys, on the non-accented fingernails.

Not terrible, but I now think that it would have been nicer without, although I can see there is a tone in the colors of  Luxe and Lush and YGBGTM that is similar.

Sign of a true artist is knowing when to stop.
You can see that I have a way to go.
But it is fun!
And that is why we do manicures, right?

Wonder what all the other creative people are going to come up with for Stained Glass or Accent Nails.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip/Flop February-Day 1

So it is finally here!
Flip Flop February!
Yay!
Such a fun idea, to have two choices each day in this challenge!
Supposedly, there is an easy choice and a more difficult choice, but I sometimes couldn't tell which was which.
I guess I just have tried certain techniques and haven't tried others.
And...as you will see later on, I have tried some techniques and now know that I need to improve, to practice.

So, today's choice are either a gradient or a skittle.
Even though I am sure it is on the "easy" side of the equation, I had never actually done a skittle manicure.
I don't know if it is my need for symmetry, my age, my very low level OCD, but the idea of deliberately doing a different color on each nail didn't light my fire.

So of course, I did a Skittle for the first day of the challenge.
It isn't a challenge if you don't stretch yourself.
Also of course, I had to have SOME theme, so I chose to do a skittle with polishes from the same maker.
Kinda.
The underwear for the glitters are from different manufacturers.
But the stars of the show?
All from Vivid Lacquer! Top to bottom, we have Paint Me Patriotic (over Essie Blue Rhapsody), Notebook (over Maybelline Navy Narcissist), Marriage Equality (by itself), and Hurricane Season (over Zoya Charla).

I am so glad that I chose these, it was fun coming up with combinations, and I came up with a new fave-Hurricane Season over Charla!

I can't wait to see everyone else's Gradient and Skittles for today!

Adios!
Lizajane~~