Bundle Monster Contest

If you are familiar with the world of nail stamping, you know Bundle Monster.  They manufacture a very popular sets of nail plates.

Well they are doing a contest for nail art made with their products.  The prize is a a set of their up and coming set #3.

Check out the contest and all the entries, some are really stunning!


https://www.facebook.com/bundlemonster/app_330762423652699

Quite a few of my stamping buddies from Adventures in Stamping have entries, I want to wish everyone good luck with the contest.  The public begins voting on the 7th of May.

This is the design I entered in the contest

It's a layered design that turned out SO much better than I ever thought it would!

Base:  KleanColor Jazz Olive
First Stamp:  BM- 215 in KleanColor Espresso (Brown)
Chinese Characters : BM - 203, 206, 221 and 225 in Konad Special Black
Red Accent:  BM-208 in Konad Special Red


I wore this manicure for 3 days I loved it so much!  I got so many compliments, it did take a bit of time to do the entire design but it was totally worth it.  Most people thought it was a nail sticker and not something I threw together.  I got one compliment that said "You missed your calling".  :)

Wish me luck in the contest!!

Thanks for reading and Keep on Painting!

Sally Hansen - Lacy Lilac and Dark Purple

While in Minnesota, I fell in love with a color both my sisters owned - Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac.  It's a beautiful opaque pale purple!  One of my sisters requested my Kleancolor Metallic purple to stamp over the Lacy Lilac.  It turned out beautiful!  I wish I would have taken a picture of what it looked like, so I recreated the tone on tone manicure with a different stamp.

Here is the base coat of SH Lacy Lilac.

I then used KleanColor Metallic Purple and a Cheeky circles plate.  I attempted to do some contrasting with white Nail Art paint (ring finger and pinkie), but wasn't too thrilled with the turn out so I didn't do any other nails.

It turned out beautiful!

Thanks for reading and Keep on Painting!

Major Lemming Found! - Claire's Candy Shop

One of my major polish lemmings has been Deborah Lippmann's Candy shop.  I love the glitter filled pink jelly.  Unfortunately my budget doesn't allow me to splurge on a Lippmann, but I finally got to buy the next best thing.  Claire's Candy Shop!  I haven't been able to find it here in Virginia - well I haven't looked to hard to be honest - I never get to the malls here.  I am just too busy!

So while on vacation I took my girls to the mall I grew up with, Rosedale.  It has changed since the last time I was there, but the interior of the place has remained nearly unchanged.  I knew they had Claire's there, I was unaware there were 2 Clarie's and one Icings!  So we found the map and located the first Claire's and there it was....last one on the shelf.  And they were having a sale - buy one get one 50% off.  So I had to choose another one.....so much to choose from.  But with girls, I let them pick it out - not to be too selfish.  They picked out a glow in the dark pink color, they installed a little LED light in the brush of the polish to light up the bottle.  It is pretty cool if I do say so myself.  I haven't had a chance to use the polish on myself, my 5 year old wore it but only for a day and never stays still long enough for a photo!

But here is the pic of the Clarie's Candy Shop!!

Thanks for reading and Keep Painting!!!

Interesting use of a Cheeky Plate

My daugther's name is Jaycie, and she saw that one of my Cheeky plates was "J" and the J was indented and asked me to stamp it on her nail. 

The base coat is SH Silver sweep with NYC Starry Skies on top.  The "J" is stamped with Konad Special Black.

Here other nails were stamped with the skull from the Bundle Monster series 2 plates.

Thanks for reading and Keep Painting!

Dark Eggs - Ulta Goth Blue

I wish I knew the name of this color - it was from my nieces collection - it is the goth based blue.  It is very hard to see the color in the picture.  I then used the Cheeky plate to stamp wiggly lines over the color - made it look like evil Easter eggs.  :)

I am so impressed with my Cheeky plates they stamp so well and evenly everytime.  I cannot wait to complete my collection of plates and buy the rest of the XL plates.  I only have A, B, D and J right now.

Itsy Bitsy Bikini!

One of the things my sisters and I try to do each time I come into town is a sister sleep over.  This gives all the kids a chance to be with their cousins and my sisters and I get a chance to catch up!

So I brought some of my nail supplies so we can play and experiment with my toys.  Unfortunately I cannot travel with 140 different polishes, so I just brought 14 - the ones I knew they didn't have in their stashes.

I didn't take many pictures unfortunately but I did snap one of my daughers nails - she wanted tiny bikinis on her nails.

The base coat is Silver Sweep and the Bikinis are stamped with Konad Special Red, SH Chrome Red, KleanColor Purple Metallic and KleanColor Green Metallic.  The plate used was Shany SH09.

It was a big hit with her cousins and her aunts!

Thanks for reading!  Keep Painting!

My Vacation

For my two girls spring break we headed back home to see my parents in Minnesota.  I got the unfortunate news the day before I went home that my Dad had been in the hospital and would not be coming home right away.  He needed some more attention and physical therapy to strengthen his body to recover from knee surgery in February.  Well this was a surprise to me, but if my mom felt it was necessary - I support her 100%.

He was placed in a transitional care facility where the girls and I saw him the day we arrived, he was looking rough.  Stiff neck, weak knees and terribly swollen.  It was hard to see him in this fashion, he is my strong and vibrant father - not this man I saw.  Placing him in this care was the best decision my mom made, he made amazing progress in the 10 days he was in their care.  By Easter Sunday he was walking on his own, came to the family celebration and color had returned to his normal color.  They were miracle workers!  He was released to return home the following Friday!  Which was great timing since I was scheduled to return home on Monday and my Mom was just recovering from Gall Bladder surgery!

She was so focused on my father and ensuring he was in the right place and taking care of him, she had neglected herself.  She was in constant pain and couldn't eat anything and barely slept at night.  She lost nearly 10 pounds in a week!  She had an ultrasound the end of March and finally called the doctors for the results - just to find out her Gall Bladder was packed full of stones!  Who knows why they took 2 weeks to tell her this news!  When we got the news, we rushed her to the doctors office- hoping to get her some immediate relief.  The doctor was unable to perform the surgery immediately, but I was there with her and asked if there was something he could do for her pain.  It was agonizing to watch her in so much pain, I know if my father was home he would have had her at the drs earlier than now, but she always put everyone else before herself.  Luckily we were able to get her some pain pills and the surgery scheduled for the day after next.

So I took my mom to the day surgery center and my wonderful brother in law (my oldest sisters husband) took my kids for me so I could be there with my mom.

So needless to say it wasn't a vacation in the standard terms, but I was in the place I needed to be for my parents.  If I would not have been there, I don't know how they would have gotten along.  As my sisters and their husbands all work full time and have families of their own.  I could give them my 100% attention and focus.  And luckily I was able to leave them in such a better place than when I got there. 

I am so happy to say they are both on the mend and doing so much better! 

Thanks for reading, this explains my lack of posts and nails while I was gone! 

Keep Painting!