Stamping Sunday: Under The Sea

It's Stamping Sunday again! I'm a part of a group of nail polish stampers and every Sunday we have a challenge theme or color. Today's theme was Under The Sea. I'm brand new to stamping (like Konad stamping) and only have a handful of stamping plates so these challenges are extra challenging for me! I used MASH plate 11 and tried to make seaweed.  As a California girl, I grew up going to the Bay seeing the crazy looking seaweed that has inflated balls on the end to help it float. So, here's some seaweed. I'm glad it photographed so well. It was very subtle. but I think fulfilled my stamping challenge.

Under the Sea(weed)

I was lucky enough earlier in the week to grab a few Insta-Dri's from CVS that were 75% off. I had heard they were good for stamping and sure enough, it did just fine!

Pure Ice Excuse Me, Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, Insta-Dri Grape Going, Mash plate 11

Fun With Dots: Rainbow

This manicure was fast and easy. I LOVE these dotting tools my brother got me for Christmas. THESE are the ones I have.  My husband works all over the place and he happened upon a Sally's beauty supply shop. He called me to ask if I "needed" anything--um, yes! Finger Paints just came out with this amazing Special Effects collection that are flaky bits of pretty in a top coat. Apparently that sneaky husband of mine bought the whole collection for me, but he only gave me Asylum for now.  My birthday is just around the bend so I only have to wait a bit longer! But look how lovely:

Fun with Dots: rainbow

I'm not so crazy with how the yellow and green turned out, but eh. I'll just have to find the time to try again, right? Here's the line up of polishes I used:

Art Deco Pink, Yellow, Green, china glaze Purple Panic (I added this to my thumb nail), Pure Ice Black rage, Finger Paints Asylum, Dotting Tool.

And yes, somehow I didn't get the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away in this photo. that was a lot of polish for one nail "didding"!

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

Inspired By: Holiday Braid white/silver/blue

This braid technique is something totally new to me, but lots of fun! The next time I do it I'll try to stick to nice creme colors so the overlapping won't show. I found a fantastic tutorial over at Rebecca Likes Nails.  All of our holiday decorations are blue and silver so I thought I'd try out these colors:

The holiday Braid.

First I started with a base coat of Pure Ice Super Star (white). Then I carefully used my Pure Ice French Kiss (the blue) which is phenomenal. I also used Wet n Wild Fast Dry Silvivor. Fun fun!

Wet N Wild Fast Dry Silvivor, Pure Ice Super Star, Pure Ice French Kiss

Inspired By: Holiday snowflakes

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I had a few minutes yesterday to did my nails! Here's what I used:

Pure Ice French Kiss, Pure Ice Oh Baby and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

This was actually much easier than I had anticipated. First step was just one coat of the amazing Pure Ice French Kiss (a phenomenal creme nail polish!) and then I got to work with my nail art pen. HERE is a tutorial. After drawing on the snowflakes I did a quick coat of Oh Baby to add a little shimmer.

Pure Ice: French Kiss/Cheatin'/Strapless

From left to right: Pure Ice French Kiss, Cheatin and Strapless

Okay, let's let this party start, already! I'm terribly sorry about it taking so long! I LOVE nail polish and I love blogging--but photography is NOT my strong suit! Feh. Any road, I'll be getting better as we go I'm sure. Bear with me. I actually painted my nails about three days ago, so there are three days of wear on my nails at the moment but I love these colors together! Since I am just now rebuilding my nail polish collection, it contains mainly Pure Ice and Wet and Wild Wild Shine (which both are under $2 a bottle at Walmart or CVS). My goal in this blog is to show some fun techniques and simple (emphasis on the simple!) do it yourself nail art that any one can do with just a few basic, cheap nail polishes.

I totally bought cuticle cream today--time to get that mess cleaned up!

On to how I "did" my nails! I did two layers of Pure Ice French Kiss, which is a beautiful creme blue. I had big plans to use my white nail art pen, but then I remembered my matching Pure Ice Strapless. Strapless totally surprised me! I was ready for spotty-application glitter nail polish--nay nay! It was a nice thick glitter that covered very well! I had a few extra minutes and wanted to add another color, so on went one layer of Pure Ice Cheatin'--a lovely deep purple glitter (MUCH more sparse than Strapless) with hints of blue as well.  One layer of Sally Hansen Ista-dry and I was done! For how hard I am on my hands I'm always happy with Pure Ice's staying power. Hate taking off glitter polish? Soak a cotton ball in Acetone (or just nail polish remover), put the cotton ball on your nail and wrap it in strips of aluminum foil. Let it stay for about 5 minutes and it just comes right off!