Stay Gold, Ponyboy

From the first moment I ever read The Outsiders, I knew I was in love with it. This book also introduced me to my favourite poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. That was the inspiration for this design, as well as the work of Spifster Sutton.

My pinkies and thumbs were Dreamer from Revlon. On my ring fingers and index fingers, I started with a base of Plum Seduction from Revlon, Blazed from Wet 'N' Wild, Mellow Yellow from Sally Hansen and Dreamer. On my ring fingers, I painted drips on using a black striper, then splattered on black acrylic with a toothbrush. Finally, I painted "stay gold" using white acrylic on my left ring finger and "golden" in black acrylic on top of a white acrylic banner on my right ring finger. To finish my index fingers, I used a black striper to paint the jagged lines, then splattered more black acrylic on top. My middle fingers were a custom grey I created using Sure Thing from Revlon and Black Leather from China Glaze. I then used black acrylic to paint the rose and the leaves, and added highlights using white acrylic.

Have any of you read The Outsiders? What did you think? 

Hope you guys enjoy! And remember, stay gold.

Current Mood: No

This design came together because I was in one of those "no" moods. So that made me think of Grumpy Cat, which then inspired this.

My pinkie finger is Blue Away from Sally Hansen. On my ring finger, I started with a base of French Quarter For Your Thoughts from OPI, then painted Grumpy Cat using black, brown and white acrylic. My middle finger was a base of Marshmallow from Essie. I then added the flowers in using Blue Away, and white and black acrylic. I then painted the leaves using French Quarter For Your Thoughts and black acrylic. Finally, I finished off with putting fine silver glitter on my pointer finger.

And a little close up on that "no" action.

Hope you guys enjoy!

This and That

Today's manicure is based on a design I saw somewhere on the internet (with my own twist), but I'm not really sure where... But, credit to whoever came up with this originally! Anyways, the design.

My pinkies and thumbs are a base of Flirt from Revlon. The daisies are white and yellow acrylic, and the smiley face is black and yellow acrylic. My left ring finger and right middle finger are a base of Mint Sorbet from Sally Hansen with gold hearts made of The Man With The Golden Gun 18k gold top coat from OPI. My middle finger (left hand) is a base of White Matter from Formula X. The yin-yang is completed with Black Satin from Rimmel. My left pointer finger and right ring finger are In True Stefani Fashion from OPI. And my right pointer finger is a peacock feather made with Frostbite from China Glaze, Deviantly Daring from China Glaze, Unplugged from China Glaze, and Show Me The Greens from Misa.

Hope you guys enjoy!

A Little Bit Of Everything

I don't really know what to call this manicure. It's kind of got some vintage vibes going, with a lot of different designs going on.

My pinkie fingers are stripes, with a base of White On from Sally Hansen, and the stripes are made with black acrylic and tape. My ring fingers are sort of dandelion blossoms make with a black striper on a base of White On. My middle fingers are just two coats of Mint Sorbet from Sally Hansen. On my pointer finger, I painted a heart with black acrylic on a base of Blazed from Wet 'N' Wild. Finally, my thumb is a base Dreamer from Revlon, with black acrylic polka dots and a gold stud accent. 

Hope you guys enjoy!

Floral Fancy

When I first painted this design, I really wasn't a fan of it. But, the longer it's on my nails, the more I like it. So here it is: some stripes and abstract flowers inspired by a design I saw in Nail It! magazine.

The base colour is White On from Sally Hansen, and the stripes were made with a black striper. Then I started making the flowers. The blue is a mix of White On and Dreamer from Revlon. The pink is St. James Park from Nails Inc., and the darker purple is a mix of Charming, Plum Seduction and Dreamer, all from Revlon. The lighter purple is a mix of Hello Marshmallow from Essence and Plum Seduction. Finally, the leaves are High Line Green from NYC and Sassy from Revlon.

This design is really easy. The stripes don't need to be perfect, and the flowers are pretty much just layering blobs of different coloured nail polish.

So what do you guys think? Abstract flowers: good or bad?

Salt in the Air, Sand in My Hair...

Hey guys. I feel like this is the millionth time I have apologized for my absence this year, but sorry I haven't been posting. I actually had a few manicures to post, and just when I was ready to upload them, my computer died. And I mean died. It wouldn't even turn on anymore. And then it took our family several weeks to buy a new computer tower. To make matters worse, there are several laptops in my house, but none have photoshop, so I was unable to edit photos and apply my watermark. But now I have a computer again. So it's all good. And here is one of my last manicures.

This manicure was inspired by Andy Davis, who is an artist, most likely better known as a designer for Billabong clothing. I'm a huge fan of Billabong clothes, with their beachy and relaxed style. Despite the fact that I'm a Canadian girl through and through, I still adore these clothes, especially since I love being at the beach. I had already seen his work, but I didn't really know who Andy Davis was. It wasn't until I went to Hawaii and bought some Billabong clothes with his designs that I really found out who he was. I pretty much fell in love with his designs right away. I love the simplicity and vibrancy of his illustrations.

So now to the nails. All my nails started with a base of Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii. I then applied two coats of Sheer Nude from Orly to my pointer, ring and pinkie fingers. To those three nails, I also applied two thin coats of white using my Sally Hansen French Tip Pen. All the designs are acrylic and a black striper. On my thumb is a beach scene, my ring finger is Pelly the Pelican (you can get swim shorts and bikinis in this pattern). My middle finger is based of a tank top I bought in Hawaii and my ring finger is the Andy Davis logo. Finally, my pinkie is inspired by the pattern of the surfboard of a surfer girl Davis designed.

I hope you guys enjoy, and for all of you back in school, good luck!

    

31 Day Nail Art Challenge --- Day 14

For the day 14 manicure, I went for my second attempt at one stroke flowers. The base colour is Sweet as Candy from Essence. Then I used different coloured acrylics for the flowers along with my angle brush (shown below). It's definitely an awesome and easy (once you get the hang of it) technique and the designs you can make with one stroke are beautiful!

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Cherry Blossoms

1. Prep your nails. Then paint on at least two coats of a base colour (I used Revlon Pink Lingerie).

2. Next, paint on the tree branches. ** I sponged on and faded out some white on top of the pink. This is optional. You don't have to do this.

3. Paint in the blossoms in a darker pink colour.

4. Finally, shade and highlight the blossoms and add in the centers with black. Clear coat.

May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favour...

I figured that with a Hunger Games collection colour on my nails, I had to "dress it up" Hunger Games style. So I decided to start by painting the capitol seal on my pinkie. On my ring finger of course, is the famous Mockingjay pin. The middle finger shows the designs from the Hunger Games book covers and the pointer finger is the district 12 seal with a flower. The designs were done using acrylic paints.

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sunlight

These Are a Few of My Favourite Things [Photographs]

So, I would have to say, out of all the gazillions of photos I've taken, these are my absolute favourites.

I took this one in my backyard. The rose was floating on my pool.

This one was taken at a campfire. It's light painting with sparklers. Light painting is sooooo much fun, and you don't need a DSLR or SLR to do it (I have a Nikon D3100). For this photo though, I used my compact digital camera (a Canon Elph) on a slow shutter speed. I'll post a light painting tutorial soon, so you can try it yourself.

This one is just of some wild grapes. Nothing exciting, I just really liked the small depth of field and bokeh I ended up getting.

I took this picture in my backyard. We have a blackberry bush, and of course, it being winter in Canada when I took this meant that the blackberries had dried up. Once again, I just really love the short depth of field in it.

Once again, this one is taken in my backyard. It's the blackberry bush again. I just couldn't believe the colour of the leaves! 

I would have to say that this final picture is my absolute favourite of all the pictures I have ever taken. I took it over the Christmas break at the aviary. I thought it was the cutest thing the way the iguana was sleeping with his tongue hanging out. :)