Challenge - China Pattern - Lenox Pearl Beads

I should start by saying I am not a person who likes china.  In my house, we use plastic plates made from recycled materials.  They look pretty terrible, honestly.

That said, while searching for the inspiration for this week's challenge I FELL IN LOVE. Lenox's Pearl Beads set is freaking amazing.  It is simple, classic, and understated.  Exactly the kind of china I could actually see myself having!  

The result isn't exactly what I'd hoped for, but I do love it. I tried to capture the dotted swirls but it was way harder than I had thought would be. In fact, you're seeing attempt #2 after a super-duper-mega-failure that I refuse to acknowledge in photo form.  

Overall, this mani feels super-weddingy to me which makes me smile. The quote below is actually a momento from my wedding. Our guests each had a different little vellum quote on their seat for the ceremony that expressed something totally gushy about love, marriage or friendship.  I had a ton left over and have been hanging on to them because, well, that's what packrats do.  

Polishes used:

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
F21 Silver Nail Art Pen
F21 White Nail Art Pen
NYC Matte me Crazy topcoat

Challenge - China Pattern Girl! - Pfalzgraff for my Mom

I love china patterns, and there are so many to choose from it makes it difficult to choose.  I decided to do the pattern my mom chose, and what we used while I was growing up.
It's the Pfalzgraff pattern Blue Village.  I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the background, then painted with acrylic paint.  The acrylic paint was SO much easier to use for this. The polish way is so difficult because it gets thick and stringy, and just so hard to work with. And, the fact that my hands are so shaky surely doesn't help.
So, I dedicate this to my Mommie!

What does a china pattern make you think of? Is there one that you love the most?

Until next time,
Rachel

Jelly Sammich

I recently have been educated on what a "jelly" polish truly was. Then someone spotted a new Revlon line that is completely jellies. How was I to pass this up????
So, to play with my new jelly polishes (yes I said polishES), I tried my hand at a jelly sandwich.
I wanted to do more than just one layer, so I did THREE.  Using Finger Paints 'Owlin at the Moon and Revlon Miss Pixie, I created my sammie.
Miss Pixie comes out to be a really nice royal blue, almost navy.  The pics just don't do it justice in the pigment, or the layering of the glitter. But, I am super happy with how it turned out.

The last two pics are played with to try to get the color and the layering of the glitter.

Have you done any sammies? What was your experience?

Until next time,
Rachel

Challenge - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

Yay plans!

I am a thriller/horror enthusiast, and love how complex and robust Hitchcock's work is. The biggest hurdle this week was which scenes or themes to pull out of his works!

I landed on Psycho because it truly is my favorite of his films. I didn't even realize some of the depth to the imagery until doing my homework as I planned! This challenge made me fall more deeply in love with the unsettling tale of Norman Bates.

My goal was to capture iconic scenes as well as one can with lacquer. Hopefully, I delivered!

Challenge - Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds

I am so happy to do this challenge! There were so many things one can do for this.  I chose The Birds.  After watching a few clips, I wanted to go with a black and white theme, with the only color as red.  I loved the scene where the birds amass on the jungle gym right before they attack the school children.  So ominous!  I tried to do a splatter, but unfortunately didn't have the right kind of straw.  So, instead I did a variation on spun sugar to splatter the red.  I like how it came out. (Note to self, get coffee straws!)

This will be the first time I played with the photos.  I think it helped enhance the stamping and show it better with less glare.

I LOVED doing the feather on my ring finger, and used the sunglasses because Tippy Hendron was so glamorous. I love how the feather hangs over the edge of the nail.

Detail of pinkey with feather stamping and red.

This is for the scene when the birds gather.

I had so much fun doing this.  Tell me what you think!

Rachel

Challenge - Striping - Reverse Gradient

Striping is one of my favorite polish techniques because it is so universal. I popped my head into r/redditlaqueristas for a bit of inspiration and immediately decided the reverse gradient striping needed to happen. I'm shocked at how relatively simple it was!

My collection still needs some work so I ended up using my Magnetic polish for the blue but I love how it looks not magnetized!

All in all, this was a simple and really awesome look!

Challenge - Striping- Saved by the Bell Style!

So for this challenge, I wanted to use some of my neon colors. When I showed a pic to Tey, she said it reminded her of Saved by the Bell. LOL!

I used the scissors in the pic to make the jagged shapes, the freehanded the stripes.

I used some LA Colors Color Craze line that do not have labels, Finger Paints Iconic Orange, The Icing Lime Martini, The Icing Cote D'Azur.

Leibster award!!!!!

I had heard of the Liebster award before, and knew it was for new bloggers. But wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do. So, I CHEATED! I looked at Julie's blog Kick Acetone to see what she did. Because I AM LAZY! There... I said it.
So the rules are:

-Write 11 random facts about yourself

-Answer 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you
-Create 11 new questions for your nominees -Nominate 11 bloggers with fewer than 200 followers



Kick Acetone's Questions:

1. How often do you paint your nails?  I try to paint them at least twice a week. It sometimes becomes more than that if they chip, because that then just gives me an excuse to do them again. I mean… Really…

2. Do you collect anything besides polish? I USED to collect Hello Kitty stuff. I try to keep it to a minimum now. Since polish bottles are small, I am good with that. I do have a lot of jewelry making supplies, but hope that turns into a business instead of the collection it is right now!
3. What's the farthest you've traveled from home?  I have travelled from Wisconsin to California. Also, went to Mexico and Puerto Rico. Maybe Puerto Rico is the farthest.
4. Do you have pets?  I have two cats who are my furry sons. All the funny memes out there about the silly and annoying things cats do are TRUE!
5. What's your favorite beverage? I would have to say coffee. I drink it every day. I love it. And recently my Keurig started making a weird noise when the water refills that sounds like it is the Arc killing Nazis… Not sure if that is good or bad. Maybe if there were Nazis I could test this out….?
6. What's is the best beauty tip you've received?  Less is more. Unless it is for nails. Then more is never enough. ROFL!
7. What's your favorite nail care tip? Take care of your cuticles. I’m pretty new at this, but it is the one thing that has made a HUGE difference in how mine turn out. I use cuticle oil and balm all the time.
8. How long can you go with naked nails? Um… An hour? HA! Before I would not paint them at all. Now I can’t deal with naked nails. The really are lonely without polish.
9. Do you paint your toenails as often as your fingernails? I don’t! Sad. But one time a “friend” of mine said I had alien feet, and that forever made me hide my piggies…
10. What's your favorite nail trend?  I love the textured polishes. I want to know how to make the sand texture. That would pretty the best! I am looking to get some flocking powder too.
11. How many polishes do you own? Uh… I gotta count them. Just a sec… WOW! 192! This must be evened out! TO THE STORE!!!!

My 11 random facts:

1. I just started blogging in November, 2012.

2. I GOT ENGAGED!!!!

3. I have a sister 3 years older than me, and a brother 21 years younger.

4. I threatened my mom with bodily harm if she had my brother on my birthday. She said it was not something that could be planned. I beg to differ. 

5. I'm moving to Sacramento, CA.

6. My sister is having a baby in JULY!

7. My favorite color is pink.

8. I watch WAY too much T.V.

9. I'm going to school to get my B.A.

10. I hate ocra. Nasty stuff. Like little snot bombs.

11. I have tolerant friends. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! They humor me with my nail stuff. And one very brave soul has taken on this obsession and called it her own too!

Ok...

MY questions for my nominees!

1. What is your favorite thing about nail polish?

2. What started you down your path of obsession?

3. Do you have a favorite brand of polish?

4. What is the most difficult technique you have tried?

5. If you were to create a polish what would it be and what would you call it?

6. Favorite pastime?

7. Favorite color?

8. How many polishes do you own?

9. Is there such a thing as "Too many nail polishes?"

10. Favorite food?

11. Best tip to new bloggers?

My Nominees:

The Kaos Theory

The Diary of a Dreamer

The Polish Museum

Portugese Doll

Beauty Blog by Ali

Gussied

Nails on the Go by Nicole

Nail Affair

Kayla's Nails

The Mani Cafe

Franken Femme

Have fun!

Rachel

Challenge - Inspired by a book - Memoirs of a Geisha

This is SUUUUUUPER late. Was helping my FIANCE move. SQUEEEEE! So excited! I got a SPARKLY!  Will post pics soon.
Back to the nails.
I read Memoirs of a Geisha a long time ago, and when I learned about the movie being made I was so stoked. Although the movie was a little different, I loved it.  The imagery of it was spectacular.  So, I did stamping with one nail freehand.  Still getting practice in for the stamping and freehand, but it's getting better!

Somehow, no matter how hard I try, I STILL GET CAT HAIR ON MY NAILS! Sigh....

Until next time!
Rachel

Challenge - Book Inspiration - Maus

I was so excited by this challenge! I had initially thought to do something from Alice in Wonderland but when I reached into my box o' polish and found Julep's Eileen I realized I had a perfect base for a comic inspired manicure.  It's such a great white! Not too white-out and not too white-walls-tarnished-by-years-of-smoking.  Basically, it just doesn't look like crap on me.

Once I had my little canvases white washed, I went digging through my comic collection and pulled out one of my favorites: Maus! It's such an amazingly told story with poignant imagery that is somehow so perfect in its simplicity. 

I hope my homage doesn't make light of its intense and tragic meaning. I was affected for days after the first time I read these graphic novels and could not possibly trivialize how deeply they touched me.