Inspired By: Birthdays: Cupcakes! It's my birthday!

Today is my birthday! Well, not JUST my birthday. I'm a triplet. I have two brothers. We were born in 1981 when triplets were totally a rare thing. My mom carried us for 38 weeks. We were all full term and BIG for triplets (Brother A was born at 9:59 am at 6 pounds 4 oz., Brother B was born at 10:00 am at 5 pounds 9 oz and I was born at 10:01 at 5 pounds 1 oz).  No NICU time for us! We all came home with my mother at 2 days old. Crazy business.  At any rate--it's cupcake day! Hot diggity! I made some super fun Shirley Temple cupcakes to eat AND got my nails did with the same theme!

Happy Birthday to ME!

This was a lot of fun and super easy with a dotting tool! I love it! I kind of wish I hadn't added the flecked topcoat (Sally Hansen Glass Slipper) but who can resist it!?

Pure Ice Love and Super Star!, Revlon Cherries in the Snow, Milani no name, Wet N Wild Everybody Loves redmond and Art Deco Hot Pink. No pictured: Glass Slipper (SH) topcoat.

Half Moon (reverse french) Manicure: red and silver

I decided to do another half moon manicure for Sunday since it's a lot more subdued than most of my manicures. I love the look of the half moon manicure--and if you use the trick of using paper hole enforcers it's super easy! Check out this youtube video if you'd like to see it in action!

The half moon manicure or the reverse french manicure

I LOVE the vintage feel of a "moonicure"!  If you've never tried one, you should!

Wet n' Wild Fast Dry Silvivor and Nicole by OPI Stolen Kisses

Inspired By: converse Shoes

This manicure was a lot of fun and surprisingly easy with nail art pens. It would have been better if my nails had rounder tips, but it's all good.

Inspired by Converse Shoes

Cute, huh? It took a lot of different nail polish but it was fast and easy. Just take it step by step.

Wet N Wild Everybody Loves Redmond, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Crushed, Pure Ice Excuse Me, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, Wet N Wild Wild Shine Eggplant Frost, Pure Ice Super Star, Sally Hansen art pens

Zebra stripes: Gradient: purple and silver

Weee! Another crazy zebra stripe gradient! I started off with two coats of Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost. Next, I sponged (using the edge of a cosmetic sponge) a layer of Wet N Wild Fast Dry in Gray's Anatomy, followed by the tips in Wet N Wild Fast Dry Silvivor. I LOVE Silvivor. After the job was done I used my Art Deco thin tipped brush in black and made some fun free hand zebra stripes.

Zebra stripes gradient

See? Pretty easy and WILD looking! Ha! fun fun!

Wet n Wild Fast Dry Silvivor, Gray's Anatomy, Wild Shine in Eggplant Frost, Art Deco in black

Scotch Tape: Checkered Manicure: black and duo-chrome

Here's another fun one! This is called a checkered manicure. It looks hard, but it's more or less just labor intensive. HERE's a great tutorial for it.

The checkered manicure. Never mind the horrible pain smudge on my pinky

I started with two coats of Pure Ice Black Rage and then I got to taping! Be sure you put the tape on the palm of your hand a few times so it's not too sticky. I used Wet N' Wild Fast Dry in Gray's Anatomy--a beautiful duo-chrome (meaning it's purple, or green depending on how you look at it.). Alone it's pretty sheer, so it use it over something and you can really see the color change. This pretty was only $2 at CVS.

Tape, Wet N Wild Fast Dry in Gray's Anatomy and Pure Ice in Black Rage

Inspired By: Holiday Patchwork

I wasn't thrilled with my first Scotch tape patchwork manicure--but I like this one! It LOOKS complicated, but it's not. There are two tricks to working with tape (I just use a no name brand): 1) Always let your layers dry all the way before taping and 2) always stick the tape on the inside of your hand a few times to get rid of the mega-stickiness.

The Holiday Patchwork Manicure

I did two layers of Wet N' Wild Fast Dry in Everybody Loves Redmond. I love this polish! It goes on so well and not a single brush stroke. Once that was dry I taped off and used the fabulous Super Star white by Pure Ice. Last, I did the bottom of my nails using LA Craze silver glitter. Wet N' Wild Fast Dry can be found at almost any CVS, Dollar General or Walmart for about $2. Pure Ice is $2 at Walmart. LA Craze can be purchased at Family Dollar, Dollar General or even Dollar Tree for $1! Fun!

Wet N Wild Fast Dry in Everybody Loves Redmond, LA Color Craze, Pure Ice Super Star and tape!