Saturday, December 31, 2011

Celebration in the Sky

This manicure took a really long time to complete and required quite a few polishes!

I started off with a coat of Pure ICE Electric!, a black with silver shimmer. Then I used Bundle Monster image plate BM02 and put 2-3 different colors over the image that looked fireworkish and stamped it multiple (maybe too many) times! =P 

The firework colors include Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, Lacey Lilac and Blue Me Away!, Kleancolor Neon Pink and Neon Yellow, and L.A. Colors Sea Siren (pictured left to right in the last photo).

I tried this look out a couple of different ways, with lots of fireworks per nail, and with just a few per nail, but I like both ways, I don't know which I like the most! It's just so colorful and fun!!

Friday, December 30, 2011

From the Vault - Crackle Rainbow

I had recently purchased new nail gems and beads and was playing with them, but I still love the neon rainbow with crackle on top all by itself! It was my first time using crackle, and when I looked at it, I immediately thought it would love amazing over a neon rainbow! I just wish I had gotten pics after I cleaned up, of the plain design by itself without all the beads and crap all over! =P

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Glitter Explosion

This was just kind of an in-between, messing around with polish mani that I didn't except much out of. I kind of like how it turned out, but it started getting kind of thick at the tips! =P 

I used Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue as a base, with two coats of Pure ICE Strapless (blue glitter), then sponged L.A. Colors Glistening Purple and Treasure Island.

Inside with flash

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Rubbery Ruffian

Today I have Mod Mauve to show you. This one is very unique to my collection. It has an almost rubbery, semi-matte finish and I actually like it a lot! This was another surprising 1-coater, so for $1, I approve! =D

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Metal Madness

About two weeks ago, I mentioned that I had gotten a set of e.l.f. polishes (and showed you Red Velvet) and Metal Madness was also in the set.

This is a really gorgeous grey almost-metallic shimmer with sparse bits of holo glitter. It was surprisingly opaque in one coat, but took a century to dry, so after 10+ minutes of waiting, I just applied a quick dry top coat. I have no idea how long it would take to dry on its own, but it was still pretty tacky and smooshy after the 10 minutes.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Otros Amores


So... I have this problem. Nail polish? Yes, that is definitely one. But...

There are so many more! =P


Knitting scarves? I make at least one new one every winter for myself and some for friends and family. Knitting blankets? Yep. those too.

Sewing? I have more quilts, pillows, and started but unfinished quilts and pillows than I will ever know what to do with in my lifetime! (Not including the Indian-themed and Elvis-themed ones I have my for my mom).

Painting and sculpting? I have two drawers of imcompletes. I think I have actually only ever finished one sculpture entirely (not including some little magnets here and there) and it was the first one I ever made: a dragon for my mom years ago. He got baked, painted, sealed and all, and took nearly a week to make! =P

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas! 

This one is my favorite Christmas mani for December:

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Treasure Island Doubled

On Thursday, I showed you a franken that I made with L.A. Colors' loose eye shadow called Treasure Island. I never can leave a plain polish alone, so I decided to use L.A. Colors Sea Siren to stamp on top of it (BM 221). Then I did the same stamp, slightly to the side of the first, on top of that in white with NYC French White Tip - it's not too opaque so it gave the stamp a slight two-toned look in some places, which I prefer to a more opaque white in this look - and finished with a free-hand french tip of Sea Siren.

Enjoy:

Friday, December 23, 2011

Furry Friday - Nikki

For my first Furry Friday, this is the "princess" of the house, Nikki (my husband's chocolate lab).

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Treasure Island Franken

I picked up an L.A. Colors loose eye shadow called Treasure Island, and thought it would make a great nail polish color. So I put it in a bottle of top coat, and it didn't turn out too bad! =D

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

*Insert Creative Title Here*

I envisioned this design looking a lot better than how it ended up! =P

The white base is NYC French White Tip, the blue glitter is Strapless by Pure ICE and the blue bottle shown that the snowflake is done in is Sally Hansen Blue me Away!.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Liebster Blog Award


I was awarded the Liebster Award by Taylor from Simply Beauty. Thank you so much!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Watercolor Nails, Take 2

This is my second attempt at watercolor nails. My base is NYC White French Tip with NYC Pink Promenade, Sally Hansen Lightning and Sally Hansen Blue me Away!. The accent nail is done with NYC Classic Coral and a sticker I got off of eBay.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

What do you get your zombie for Christmas?

So, Meredith from Polish and Charms did a watercolor nail design, when she guest posted here. I love the technique so much and decided I wanted to try it out, but with Christmas colors...

You start out with a white base and apply a thick layer of top coat on top of that. Then place a couple of dots of your first color. I used NYC Big Apple Red.

Friday, December 16, 2011

From the Vault - Pink Gradient with Daisies

This was my first ever attempt at a gradient. Pre-clean up pics:

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I'm a Bee, I'm a Bee, I'm a Beetle

I first saw this polish on Polish and Charms a while back and really really wanted one of my own! However, I looked through every single Hard Candy bottle and came out empty-handed every time.

But... I found one last night! My very own bottle of Beetle!! =D

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Singing Silent Night with the Palm Trees Blowing

I figured that my love for blue polish (and since this is a polish blog, the color should reflect that) + new CBOTB snowy, Christmasy blue and white snowflake layout items + boredom with my old layout = the new one! =D

What do you think? I haven't able to fix the wonky adjustments on the dashed, vertical, dividing line to get things away from it in the left sidebar, nor the part at the top of the header where the brown border just cuts off in the middle... but it'll do.

Anyway. I have nails to match! =D

Monday, December 12, 2011

Glitter Badge



I received this great tag from Shannara at Nails and Stuff. Thank you so much!! I do love glitter! =P

Here are the "rules":
- Acknowledge receipt of this award:
- Post a swatch of your favorite glitter polish:
To prove you're deserving, of course :)
- Pass this on to 4 more Glitterati.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Nail Polish Tag





Here are the rules
1.  Answer 10 questions
2.  Pass this tag to 5 bloggers
3.  Make sure that the bloggers you tagged know about this.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Top 10 Award

I really don't remember where I got this because it was so long ago and I had just copied and pasted it and saved it to finished at a later date and then kept pushing it off.... Anyway.... Here goes it:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

An Inspired Glitter Design with Claws Up

Today, I would like to welcome Jacquie from Claws Up. She has a Lady Gaga-inspired guest post for us today! Enjoy:


**********


Hey there! My name is Jacquie, LittleMonsterx14 from Claws Up.  I am honored to be a guest poster on Amber’s blog today so I hope everyone enjoys my post!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Prospero año y Felicidad

Inside with flash
So I watched 3 episodes of some show the other night where they showed off ridiculously lit up houses done by Christmas light-enthusiasts in the U.S. and Europe. So I was inspired to do this look.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Gifts for the French

This design was semi-inspired by a Robin Moses design in which she did a sort of french tip of presents with Snoopy and such. I really liked the french of gifts and decided to try it out. You can see her video here.

I used Sally Hansen Diamonds as my base and mixed acrylics for the presents, candy cane, tree, stocking and snowman.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Quick! Chain up Your Limes!

Once again, after my first and second Ruffian manicures, I can't seem to stop...

As with the last one, I free-handed it instead of using french tip guide stickers like I did on the first one. I used one coat of Kleancolor Metallic Aqua as the base and two coats of Sally Hansen Grass Slipper on top of that, then stamped with some dark metal color from L.A. Colors and plate BM12. I later decided to add a line (I was bored and had nothing better to do), dividing the blue and green with a cheapo Nail Star pen from eBay that matched the L.A. Colors grey.

Friday, December 2, 2011

I Took Robin's Egg and She Got Franken Mad

I didn't think I would love this one as much as I do! I definitely like it better on the nail than in the bottle! I picked up Pure ICE Splash, looked at  it and wondered about frankening with it. So I grabbed some blues and had at it. I don't remember what all I used for this other than Splash, but it looks sort of robin's egg blue like the Crayola crayon to me. I don't have a name for it yet, but I love, love, love it! =)

I just searched Google for this image:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Someone Put a Ruffian in My Orange Juice

I love love loved my first Ruffian design so much that I immediately started coming up with other color combinations! The only metallics I have are silver, blue and pink. So I got the idea to franken a purple metallic and used it for this mani, along with Kleancolor Pastel Orange. Although, after I finished these nails, I'm not so sure that the orange was the best choice. =P I had been debating between it and a light green, but it looked better on paper with the purple; the green looked more Springish than I wanted. Oh well.