Feature Friday - Peep Show!

It's Friday! First, welcome new readers!  Only 10 away from an amazing giveaway!  I've been gathering goodies for you...OPI, Orly, Sinful.  Bouncing off the walls excited!  PLEASE help me get there!!!  Oh, and if you didn't notice, I've added a page where I will post other blogger's giveaways as I come across them.  Go check them out!

So, here I have my Easter mani.  You may have come across this before because it was featured on Nouveau Cheap's Easter round-up, which can be found here.  From one G to another G - thank you!!!  Sorry I didn't get "in-progress" pics on this mani.  I was a little pressed for time (what else is new?).

I started with my base of SH Double Duty.  Then I did two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow (despite the fact that she's such a bish to me - we have a very unhealthy love/hate relationship).  I free-handed the peeps using ChG Sweet Hook and Sinful's Unicorn.  I used a dotting tool to add the eyes using Orchid's Truffle Maker.  I topped them all off with Spoiled's Shaken Snow Globe (darn those craptastic brushes!).

After submitting this to Nouveau Cheap, I decided I needed something different on my thumb.  So I attempted an Easter basket.  It didn't come out as I'd hoped, but then, these things rarely do.  Oh, well.  I started with ChG Cha Cha Cha for the grass.  Then I added Orchid Truffle Maker for the basket.  Using my beloved tape, I added CC Antiquated to attempt a woven look (fail!).  Everything was topped with SV.  In the end, I thought it was cute and enjoyed doing it.  I am actually planning a different, more "classical" mani for Easter day.  I'll post that on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!  And if you celebrate Easter...Happy Easter!

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Nails! - Nail Art Contest Entry

This mani is based on an idea I've had in my mani-spiration book for a while now.  The motivation for finally getting around to doing it is Chalkboard Nails' nail art contest found here.  This is my first time entering a contest.  While I don't expect to win (way too much talent out there!), I'm just proud of myself for getting up the courage to enter!  The rules were that you could only use the polish brush and a dotting tool (or something dotting tool-ish).  I don't have an actual dotting tool, so I used this stylus I have from when I used to do ceramics.

And on to the mani! My idea was to have it look as though rain was "filling" my nails with water.  I used SH Double Duty as a base followed by two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow.  The raindrops and last nail are PP It's All About Blue and it's all topped with SV.  My improvised dotting tool's ends are two different sizes, but both are actually quite small. For smaller raindrops, I used the dotting tool alone.  For the fatter raindrops, I ended up having to use the polish brush to drop a dot of polish and then use my tool to pull a tail.  Since I wanted the nails to look as though water was filling up and sloshing around, I just free-handed uneven tips.  What do you think?

My Daughter's First Dotticure!

My daughter wanted me to paint her nails, which is always a huge task since she has the tiniest fingers.  She is 7 years old, but is actually quite small for her age.  So I decided to do a dotticure for her.  I used SH Double Duty as a base.  Then I did two coats of Maybelline's Prompt Petals.  Next, I added small and large dots using OPI's Alpine Snow.  I added purple dots on top of the larger white ones using Rimmel's Climax, except on her accent nail.  For the accent nails, I added a flower nail art to the larger white dot.  I then topped them off with a coat of SV.  She loved them and actually managed to keep them in good shape for a couple of days!  These pics were (obviously) taken before clean-up because she was too excited for me to take pictures of her nails using my "nail picture box."