Happy New Years! (Mani and treats)

Hello! 2011 is almost at an end! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! Is it just me or has this year gone by so much faster then years in the past? Damn. Well it's exciting. I always take New Years as a time to reflect on the past year and then take those reflections as lessons on what to do differently for the next year. I have a good feeling that 2012 will be my year. 2011 was pretty good but 2012 will be so much better!

What do you think of when you think of New Years? I think of clocks counting down, fireworks, that midnight kiss, and of course, champagne! Well the design I came up with combines fireworks and champagne. On my thumbs I hand painted bottles and champagne spewing out of the bottle. The rest of my fingers have "fireworks" on them.

What you will need:
Fingers=
Base Coat of your choosing
Base color of your choosing
3 or 4 bright colors of your choosing
BM02

Thumb=
Base coat and color same as nails
Green polish for the bottle
Brown polish for the top of bottle
Champagne color for spewing champagne
Small nail brush
Dotting tool

So first off, I painted on a coat of Essie's Ridge filling base coat. Next, I painted two coats of Essence You Belong to Me. I figured this color was fitting since I feel that 2012 is my year haha. It's a very pretty light mint color. For the fireworks, I went with plate BM 02 and put a dot of three colors; Sally Hansen Blue Me Away and Sun Kissed, and Ulta Plum Perfect. All you need to do is put a small dot of each color on the image of your choice and scrap the colors together. I tried to put at least two "fireworks" on each nail, except my pinky because it is so tiny. For the thumb, I just used the Art Deco bright green that I got and painted a green bottle. Once it dried I painted a brown rectangle on the top of the bottle shape. Then I used Maybelline's Sparkling Champagne to create spewing champagne out of the bottle. I acheived that task by using a dotting tool. I was trying to create a dripping effect. It didn't quite work out the way I wanted but I like the way it came out. Here are some close ups:

Right Hand

Left Hand

Since this blog is called Hand-y Feats and Other Treats, and I have already shared with you my (improving) hand-y feats, let me share with you some treats.  First off, if you are 21 or older and love champagne but don't have a lot of money to buy it, think again. Let me introduce to you Verdi. It comes in three flavors, original, raspberry, and green apple and the best part....it's cheap and delicious. I have never payed over 7 dollars for a bottle. I'm hoping to drink a lot of this stuff this weekend, it is so good.

The second treat I would like to share with you involves my absolute favorite thing in this world...chocolate. It's basically a chocolate covered blueberry. I have been enjoying them while writing this post and figured that I should share the wealth. My best friend gave them to be the other day and they are very delicious. The brand is called Queen Anne, which is the same company that makes cordial cherries and this amazing treat is just that but with blueberries. I highly recommend them if you love chocolate and blueberries. 

I would like to make a shout out to My nail polish online who is my first member! Thank you! Make sure to check out her blog. I really like the way she takes pictures. I hope you have enjoyed my blog for far, I have enjoyed writing it and I look forward to writing more posts! I hope you all have a wonderful New Years. Have fun and be safe.

Until next year,
☮Erin

What I got for Christmas is...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. What did you end up wearing on your nails? This post is going to be a very long one, with many pictures. First off, what a wonderful weekend, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family and to know so many wonderful people. I'm totally on top of the world right now. This Christmas was such a nice one. I spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with my boyfriend's family. Both days were so wonderful. To me, Christmas isn't about the presents. Sure they are nice but really the holiday is about family and friends and the love that you have for them.

To much surprise, my parents were able to get us gifts this year and when I opened mine I nearly cried. Inside a box was a newly purchased camera. My mother has showed little interested in my blog but she still knew it was important to me and decided to get me a new camera. It was such a sweet thing for her to do, thus why I almost cried haha. So this is what it looks like:

It is so pretty! And of course the best part is that I can now take GOOD pictures. I just need practice working this camera though. There are so many features that it may take a bit to get the perfect setting for nail picture taking.And along with the camera, I got nail polish! I got so many, Thank you Ulta for having such a wonderful sale! Here's a picture of all of the polishes that I got:

So I ended up getting some China Glaze, Essence, OPI, Ulta, and a bottle of Art Deco. Oh what fun I am going to have! Everything pictured above came from Ulta, except the Art Deco, which surprisingly came from a dollar store called Dollar Tree. So I advise that if you love L.A. Colors Art Deco and want to pick some up check out your local dollar stores, never know what you might find. Below are some close ups of the polishes, with their names.

Surprisingly all of the colors on the photos resembles the actually colors that I see, except for the Art Deco, which I would say is a bit darker. Did you get any nail polish for the holidays? If so what brands and colors did you get?

Now on to what I wore on Christmas. I went with a simple but cute Gingerbread man (with lollipops) mani. I first applied the Essie ridge filling base coat and two coats of Essence Irreplaceable. Now the bottle for Irreplaceable comes off to be a light beige color but once applied to the nail, the color is more of a gold sheer.  Very pretty just I'm not sure if I like it on me, since I am so light skinned. Then I took the plate BM 222 and China Glaze Street Chic to stamp just the Gingerbread guy onto my nails. I then used BM02 for the lollipops because I felt that something else was needed for this mani, and voila!

I only did lollies on the thumb and middle finger.

Left Hand

Right Hand

Without Flash, this shows the gold hue of the polish.

The pictures have improved but they still need work. I'm still experimenting with the way I want to position my hand in the photos. Trying to angle my hands and take a picture is a bit tricky, any tips? I look forward to designing a New Years mani, which should be in the next few days, preferably tomorrow. I'm thinking fireworks and champagne.

Until next time,
☮Erin

Amazon Haul

Hello! In a previous post I mentioned I traded in some of my old text books to amazon, this is what I got with the credit:

I just love Bundle Monster! One of my plates was missing and another was defective. The company got back to me within the hour and assured me that I would be getting replacements in a few days, how nice! So now I own 46 stamping plates, yay! I also couldn't resist purchasing the bundle monster brushes and dotting tools. It comes in such a nice case and now I will be able to do nail art by hand. I'm very excited. I'll let you know my decision about the Essie ridge filling base coat after I have used it a few times. I was so upset, because the base coat I was using was splitting my nails and staining them yellow, it was gross. The Essie one did have good reviews, so I am hoping that it will work out.

Where do you buy your polishes and nail art supplies?

 Looking forward to showing you all my creations.
Until my next post,

☮Erin

Wrapping Paper Mani

Hello! The other day I received in the mail my order of a Konad special stamping polish, so I decided to try it out.  I just got done painting my nails and they turned out to be more fun than i realized they would! It's a simple design, I painted my nails red using OPI Rudolph Red and then stamped on an image using Konad Princess White special polish and BM plate 213. This pattern, along with the red base color, remind me of wrapping paper for some reason and I just simply love how it came out.

Base color: OPI Rudolph Red
Stamp color: Konad special nail polish, Princess White
Stamping Plate: BM-213
Top Coat: Seche Vite

I love this mani so much! This will probably be what I wear for Christmas. What will you wear on your nails for Christmas? If you don't celebrate Christmas, then what will you wear for your festivities this year? I can't believe that Christmas is this weekend! Oh how time flies! I most likely will not get another post in this week, so I would like to wish you all a HAPPY HOLIDAY!

Until next time,
☮Erin

Oh my gush!

Today's post is dedicated to my online love... Amazon.com. Our relationship has blossomed over the years and recently our love have grown to be very strong. Amazon has never let me down, nor have they cheated me in any way. So let me explain why I love amazon.com so much!

I have been in school the last four years, jobless living off of the leftovers of my loan and scholarship money. This was not simple since school is so costly but I have made due. Now that I have this nail art hobby however, money has been even more tight and I can't always get new polishes or tools. BUT with amazon my polish collection has been able to grow, slowly but surely. Instead of paying $8 for any OPI or Essie polish I've been paying about only half! So for the price of 1, more often than not I am getting two!

 But that's not all. Amazon has this program deal called prime. It allows for free two day shipping on selected items and I have found that items offered under prime do ship faster! It's amazing, though there is a down side. Amazon prime makes you want to spend spend spend, so a lot of self control is needed. Amazon prime does offer many other features, like access to amazon's library of instant play TV shows and movies. Not all are available for free but there is a wide selection. In my opinion it's like you get access to Amazon's version of Netflix.

If you are a college student you can get to try amazon prime for free! You can find information here! This student membership comes in handy, especially when it comes to buying and selling textbooks. Once I discovered amazon student I haven't gotten my textbooks anywhere else. And just the other day I discovered the most amazing thing! Amazon's trade-in program! I have had a couple of textbooks I have been unable to sell back but I was able to trade them in and I got over $73 in amazon credit, which I used to buy some Christmas presents and I did indulge in some nail art items :) I keep discovering awesome features on this site and I am just madly in love.

So readers, I hope you will try Amazon out and fall madly in love like I have. Check them out here! I look forward to showing you guys all the stuff I got with the credit.

Until next time,

☮Erin

Penguins!

So my next mani of December is Penguins! Over the last couple of years, my love for penguins has grown and I have noticed that there seems to be an increase in love for penguins in general. Makes sense since they are just so darn cute! I painted each nail with a little penguin, giving each thumb a bow to make my thumbs girl penguins. The thought was having a mama penguin and the rest of my hand being her babies!

This design is very easy. All you will need is a black, white, and orange nail polish of your choosing and dotting tools. I painted all of my nails black using Sinful Colors Black on Black, two coats. After the base dried,I painted a circle around my finger tips white to create a belly, using OPI Alpine snow. I had to do two coats for the belly to make the color more opaque. Next, using my white striper polish by Kiss, I dotted two large white dots. Next I used Sally Hansen's Sun Kissed for both the beak and the feet of each penguin. I then used my black striper polish and created two black dots within the larger white dot from earlier. After that dried I added yet another white dot to the eyes.

Left Hand

Right Hand                

I really liked the way these came out. I'm still a bit messy with the dotting but I'm sure with more practice I'll get better. How would you do a penguin design? I saw a really cute version of a penguin design here! After I finished my mani, I was curious how other people had done penguins and I stumbled onto this site. I really like Rins work, she has really cute ideas. I won't lie, I painted the bows onto my thumbs after finding this page.

I'm thinking my next mani will be either a snowman, snowflakes, or maybe a Grinch inspired design. We will see. What is your favorite design to do for winter/Christmas time? I definitely have a holiday spirit and would love to see yours! Comment and post pictures of your favorite holiday manis, I would love to see them.

Until next time,
☮Erin

Update and Polar Bear Mani.

So...money has been rather tight. Couldn't even afford to pay for internet until now. Not having internet has been down right awful! But now I am back online, so yay! This week's muppet for the OPI contest is Gonzo! However, I don't really have the right colors nor skills to pull off a good Gonzo so my attempts have failed and therefore I have given up. Instead I did a really cute winter mani!

I live in Arizona and it's usually rather warm here...often. Lately though, it's been freezing outside! Rainy too, which of course makes it colder. So finally in Arizona I would consider it to be winter time.

When I think of winter I think of cold weather, snow, the colors blue, white, red, green, silver and gold. Winter is that time of year when family and friends come together to celebrate, so to me winter time is very festive! I was looking at the fimo canes that I have and I found a cute little white bear (well just the head). Instantly I thought of polar bears! So that's what I did, a really cute polar bear mani for winter!

It's really cute and simple! This is what I did: First off, I painted all of my nails Wet n Wild's Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire. (Huh, rather fitting since I would really like to be a millionaire right now haha.) Anyways, it's a very pretty sheer glittery blue. I got it at Walgreens for really cheap and it has become one of my favorite colors. It's just so pretty. It reminds me of cold weather and more specifically jack frost and so it is the perfect color for the base coat. I had to paint four coats though so the white of my nail wouldn't show through, but it looks just lovely. Next, I took the fimo cane of the white bear head and using a razor blade I sliced six very thin slices. Using my top coat I applied two pieces to my thumbs and one to each ring finger nail. After letting it dry, I used my newly bought dotting tools and made a large dot for the bellies and for each bear I made four smaller dots for the hands and feet. Then I blended a dot or two of a red, orange, yellow, green, black and then white colored polish to make a light brown for the paws and belly. It came out so cute, just it was my first time using a dotting tool and my hand was being a little shaky, so it's not perfect. I thought about doing a bear of each nail but I haven't been feeling well so I just did three for each hand. Perhaps in the future I'll do another mani more like cutepolish's panda bears that you can see here! I absolutely love cutepolish! She always has the cutest ideas, She's a big influence so I'm sure I will be sharing more of her videos and her influence is bound to show in my manis. Definitely check her out on youtube.

*Sigh* So here are some pictures of the finished mani. Once again I would like to apologize for my horrible pictures. I would rather post some sort of picture then to leave you with nothing but I am aware that these are just not very good. Some day I will have a really nice camera and then you guys will have nice pictures.

So what are some winter manis you guys have come up with? I think I might make a penguin mani next time. Penguins are just so cute and I have some ideas brewing. Luckily December is just getting started so I have some time before it gets warm again.

And by the way, I am graduating college in a few weeks, EEEEEK! I can't believe it! I'm both excited yet terrified. Wonder what the future will bring. Well until next time,

☮Erin

My apologies...

So I have been both under the weather and rather busy due to Thanksgiving being this week/weekend. I had a blast with my family (sans my brother sadly) and with my boyfriend's family, whom I just adore! So I apologize for my complete abandonment of posts.

Starting up this blog was harder than I realized. Of course I didn't think it would easy, just I didn't realize how unequipped I was. Basically my camera is just down right awful so I can't really post pictures like I was planning. A nail polish/ nail art blog really needs good pictures, so as of late I am not really capable of doing this. I have no clue when I will be able to afford a new camera either... Money is so tight. Finding a job was hard enough and now the one I have doesn't give me a lot of hours.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I would like to note how appreciative I am of my new job. I have been working for a couple of weeks now and though the hours are few, I am grateful to have it. I have been looking for months with no luck and by chance I came across the job post. Thank you Rising Star for giving me a job, so I can pay rent and bills and for also allowing me to help kids in need of tutoring. So far I can tell this is a very good program. It just feels good to help kids.

Anyways...rambling...So! I was unable to do week 2 of the OPI contest. I was really sad too since this week's Muppet was Fozzie and I absolutely love him. Oh well. Looking forward to seeing who the new muppet will be. Until next time...

☮Erin

OPI Muppets Mani Madness Contest: Week 1

Hello!

So I decided to go ahead and do the contest. It's a fun learning experience. I doodled up some designs for Miss Piggy during class and came up with a 'Pig Night Out'. The idea was to show Miss Piggy having a big night out on the town; her red gown, pearls, feather boa, and high heels. That was what I was going for anyway haha. I would say that this attempt failed. This was the first time I ever hand painted polish onto my nails and boy is it hard! I didn't doubt that it would be but damn! Practice will definitely be needed. 

So after I finished I went to get my camera. Batteries were completely dead. Of course there is no fully charged batteries to be had, so I go to use my boyfriends camera. The damn thing was against me. No matter how hard I tried I could not get it to stay focused and take a good picture, so with much disgust, I had no choice but to take a picture using my phone. UGH! I seriously need to invest in a new camera. Mine is getting old and I am sick of having to have batteries. So here are some sad pictures of my mani.

I painted my thumb, middle, and pinky fingers the same color: Maybelline Sparkling Champagne. I used Rudolph red for the other two fingers. On the thumb I had Miss Piggy's face, which I did by hand, and I accidently smudged it! I was so sad. My index finger had a string of white pearls. My middle finger was suppose to be representing a feather boa but the picture doesn't really show the feathers to well. Next on my ring finger, I had shoes that I got off the stamping plate BM 213. Finally on my pinky, I had made a "kiss" with the back of a sewing pin dipped into Rudolph Red. 

For a first try, I would say it's not bad, but I have a lot to learn haha. I'm hoping the next Muppet is Animal. I have a really cool idea planned for him! 

Ttfn,

☮Erin

OPI Muppets Mani Madness Contest

Howdy!

So I just read the coolest thing! I was on facebook and I read that OPI is having a nail art contest! Each week we will be given a new Muppet as inspiration for our design and a new entry for the contest! I just adore the Muppets and I absolutely love OPI, so of course I would totally love a chance to win their new Muppets collection of 12 different polishes, along with a bunch of other cool stuff! 

This OPI Muppets Mani Madness Contest sounds like it would be really fun and challenging, especially since this week's Muppet is Miss Piggy. Oy! I have no clue! I am going to have be super duper creative considering my limiting color palette and the fact that Miss Piggy is my least favorite Muppet.  Despite my lack of tools and skills I am seriously thinking about entering…What do I have to lose? And besides this way I will get practice. I will sleep on it and after class tomorrow I will start working on designs. This is going to be fun…

 ☮Erin

My very first post!

Well hello! This here is my first blog post ever! How exciting! Well I'm a tad nervous since I have never done this before but here we go... So first off, welcome everyone! My name is Erin and I plan to blog about nail art and other "treats" such as recipes, hair styles, eye makeup, and more! (Basically whatever awesome comes my way.) Hopefully this blog will be mostly about nail polish and nail art but I am a full time student so my schedule doesn't really permit daily posts of such things. Plus, I think I would be bored of always talking about the same thing, so with that said this is a multi-topic blog just the topics are a little sketchy at the moment haha.

If you are a new comer like me, please leave a comment, I would really like to see how you are starting your blog. And for all those who are pros at this blogging thing, please leave comments with any tips you think are useful. Thanks!

Well I have been neglecting my homework so I must go. Until my next post...

☮Erin