How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze! Welcome Christmas, Come this way!

Hey guys! Here we are at week three. For those of you that do not know, I know that I posted on Facebook and sent some emails out… I came in 2nd place for week one!!! woohoo I cannot believe it. I didn’t win anything, but it was still cool to know that I came in second in my first nail art challenge ever. The voting for the second week (“A Christmas Story” – theme gifts) ends the end of the day Wednesday December 5th so be sure to get your votes in!(link at bottom of page)

This weeks theme is, “Trim the tree, Holiday decorations” I chose How the Grinch stole Christmas. see below for inspiration pics and polishes used etc. Voting for week 3 ends Wednesday, Dec 12th, click here to vote please!! I came in 2nd on the first week and 4th on the second week.

I did the Whoville tree with them singing around the tree on my thumb and pointer finger, inspired by this picture:

Here is my nail art inspired by the picture, I drew the top of the tree with the star on my index finger into my thumb which was the bottom, some snow and some of the who’s around the tree holding hands

Next was Cindy Lou Who

Inspired by this picture:

Lastly, on my ring and pinky I drew this, on the very left of the picture you have the fireplace and the grinch shoving it up the tree, I drew his back at the top of the tree as he is bending over shoving it up fireplace. I drew his hat as he is bent over, his feets under the tree on pinky and one hand gripping it on the ring finger. I already had so much detail and its very hard, (not being a real artist) drawing so small on fingernails with nail polish!

Inspired by this pic:

This weeks challenge for sure took the longest! but I had so much fun doing it! I used a variety of very small brushes, and the following polishes:

“Milani – white”, “China Glaze – Adventure Red-y” , “Sally Hanson – Ruby Sequin”, “Revlon – Coastal Surf”, “OPI – Pompeii Purple”, “Julep – Oscar”, “Urban Decay – Mars”, “Spoiled by Wet N’ Wild – Designated Driver”, “Essie – Aruba Blue”, “Julep – Sophia”, “China Glaze – Liquid Leather”, “Ulta – Cream of the crop” , “Barry M- Bright Red”, “OPI – I think in Pink”, “Ulta – Sweet Nothing”, “OPI -Deutsche you want me baby”, “Julep – Kelly”, “Ulta – Celebutante”, “Color Club – pucci licious”.

Be sure to check out everyones and vote! (hopefully for me)

Don’t forget you still have until the end of the day Wednesday the 5th to vote for my “A Christmas Story nails” for Week 2. click here to vote.

Day 23 Inspired by a Movie – 31Challenge

I would like to start by saying,  Again, that I am in LOVE with Seche Vite’! When I did my Drying Drops articles and posts, many bloggers recommended it, but I just couldn’t see spending the money on a new top coat yet when I had just purchased the drops. Last week, I gave in, they had little minis at the Register of Image Beauty.  When I tell you this top coat dries in SECONDS I mean seconds! I tried it on the neon the other day and thought that maybe it was just because neon dries quickly anyway. After doing these nail arts and anyone that has worked with black polish can tell you how it bleeds or drags when you do top coat, I did not even wait for it to dry, put the top coat and WHAM Dry! wootz!

Anyway, onto the look, here we go 🙂 I am certainly no artist, if you play Draw Something with me you will know I draw stick figures 🙂

Here is a closer look of the nails:

And here is my inspiration:

Movie Images Provided by Google Images Search

The Polishes that I used were, “nail-aid Peeling Nails” as the base for all, Some of the nails were “Revlon – Coastal Surf” as base, one was “Elf – Medium Red” and “Spoiled Wet N Wild – Designated Driver” and “Julep – Kelly” The remaining colors were used for the art including some of the ones already listed “Elf – Light Red” , “Sally Hanson – Purple Pulse” “Julep – Oscar” “Milani – white”, “Essie – Vermillionaire”, “OPI – Planks A lot”, “Zoya – Shawn” , “Sinful Colors – Happy Ending”, “Ulta – Concrete Evidence”, “OPI – Fly”, Sinful Colors – Blackest Black”

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Day 12 Stripes (St Patrick’s day edition) – 31Challenge

I started this look on Thursday night and painted all of my fingers white as a base.  It felt like I waited forever for the base to dry… in reality it was about an hour and a half (which really, really sucked given what happened next…).

With this day of the challenge being stripes, I figured I would continue by cutting scotch tape strips and then paint over them. The very first one I tried to remove ripped the polish right off… so I waited another half  hour & came back to it to remove the other strips. That yielded better results, but after I had done all of my nails I ended up hating about 4 of them. Two of which because the water decals I used got “funky” and “gellish” like once I put top coat on.  Here is a picture of the decal before it got “funky”.

Before bed on Thursday in my frustration I took the polish off three of my fingernails and I agreed I would give it another go on Friday night. That’s precisely what I did (after a day at work with 3 naked nails…). Friday I repainted those nails and added the gold in between the stripes on most nails to give it some flare and represent a pot of gold. 🙂

Here is the final look

The polishes for this look were, “Milani – white” for the base on all nails. The Dark Green shown is “Ulta- Envy”, the light is “Revlon ColorStay – Bonsai” , the gold is “Julep – Oscar”, and the very light, almost just a shimmer of, green  is “OPI – Se ya later Sailor”.

All in all I liked the final result, sure it was challenging, but this was my first stripes and scotch tape attempt. i still love my nails and coming up with new ways to “Decorate” them, that will never change : )

And in Honor of St. Patrick’s Day I leave you with this:

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

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Day 9 Rainbow – 31Challenge

For the rainbow day of the Challenge I went with a nail-by-nail rainbow. As you can see I used a Lotttt of nail polish for this look, all nail polish no paints. I went to Michael’s Craft store and picked up about three different sized paint brushes for about $1.50 – $3.00 each to use when I do more art like this. I also used my dotting tools to make the 3 & 4 leaf clovers.

I found a trick on a fellow bloggers website [Check it Out!] for nail art and used it for the pot of gold itself. I drew it on Parchment paper and, when dry (about an hour cuz my black polish sucks!), I slowly scraped it off, adhered it to my nail, did the little 3 and 4 leaf clovers and gold, then did a top coat to hold it on. Thanks Carly for this awesome idea! 🙂  It really helped me to draw it on paper, lord knows I am no artist…

Here is my little pot o’ gold! You can’t have a rainbow without your pot o’ gold, especially with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner!

Here is a sneak peek at the finished pot of gold finger, the night before…

Here it is the next day, just another look…

My left hand the night before (so please ignore the nail polish on my fingers… 🙂 )

When I say day before or night before it’s because I always do my nails at night and then in the morning when my hands are all wet from showering I can just peel or pick the polish off of my fingers.

Originally my plan was to do an actual rainbow on my index finger rather than the different colors on each nail representing the color of the rainbow, but it was just not happening.

Here is a little closer look at one of my cloud fingers. I did my thumb and pinky on the Pot of gold hand. (night before 🙂 )

And… drumroll… Here is the finished product. (Again, night before 🙂 )

This look was sooo fun to do! I was very excited about how it came out.

Hope you enjoyed this look as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Polishes used for this Look:

Red was “Julep – Glenn”, Orange was “Spoiled – Wet N’ Wild – Don’t Be Cheesy”, Yellow “Spoiled Wet N’ Wild – Designated driver”, Green was “Revlon Colorstay – Bonsai”, Blue was “China Glaze – Sexy in the City” I also used that blue under my cloud fingers with “N.Y.C. – white” for the clouds with the paint brush and as a base for the pot of gold finger. For the Indigo I used “Essie – Go overboard” which was the closest thing I had to indigo and It came out darker than I planned, then the glitter made it more green The purple which was “Piggy Polish – Fear less”. For the green shamrocks I also used the green above, from the green finger. For the gold I used “Julep – Oscar” and the pot of gold on the parchment paper was my “Sinful colors- blackest black”. Oh almost forgot, I also used “Essie – Shrine of the Tides” for the little glitter flecks on every nail but the pot of gold nail.

I finished with my “OPI -Base and Top Coat”, and lastly my Drying Drops by OPI. –Which, let me tell ya, in this case was a Life Saver. The polish was so thick and there was so much of it in certain spots, it seemed like it was going to take forever to dry. So I followed the instructions and put the drops on 1 minute after the top coat, but then again for precaution. I did it one more time about 20-30 minutes later, just before bed. The next day… no sheet marks!!!

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My First Julep Box

I first learned about Julep Here from a fellow blogger friend. She posted about getting Julep for $1 and I just could not pass it up, I ordered right away!

My box came and thanks to Natasha, it was only $1 this month! Normally it’s $19.99. This month I got “Oscar” which is the gold shown, that I also used when I did my day 5 challenge (see that post) 🙂 and then the red is called “Glenn” and a “Julep – Essential Cuticle Oil” that strengthens nails and softens rough cuticles.

Here are some of the benefits to Julep. let me know what you think if you try it out!

Julep Maven

Check back I will test out Glenn shortly! 🙂

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Day 5 Blue – 31Challenge

For Day 5 of the Challenge , I used my “OPI Start to Finish Base and Top coat”, My new “China Glaze – Sexy in the City”, my new “Julep – Oscar” and of course my trusty “Nicole by OPI – Drying Drops”

I started off with one coat of the “China Glaze – Sexy in the City” and one Coat of the “Julep – Oscar” on my ring finger

It didn’t need it, but I painted 3 coats of the blue to be sure that when I painted my design over the glitter it would be dark enough. I also ended up with 2 coats of the gold, again not sure that it really needed it.

I had some address labels I just started cutting triangles and funky designs on, i attached them to my finger nail and painted 3 coats over top the gold and peeled off to let dry.. sloowwwwly.

For whatever reason on both of my ring fingers I felt there was a part with too much Gold showing so I just added a couple of dots. 🙂

And here is my finished product for Day 5 of the Nail Challenge, Blue. Hope you enjoyed!

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