Llama Nails: ABC Challenge! K is for Kirby!

Hello all! I am excited about today's nails. As my readers should have noticed, I am a nerd. A nerd who loves "old" video games. I have done Yoshi nails and Luigi and to add to the collection, for the letter K I would like to present my Kirby nails! Kirby is one of the cutest video game characters of all time and he is my #1 choice for Super Smash Bros. He flies and has the ability to steal other abilities. Anyways here are the nails:

At first I painted my nails two coats of Sally Hansen Coral Reef but it wasn't the right pink, (it was a little too dark), so then I painted over it with Julep Carrie. I used Coral Reef for the cheeks though. I wanted to do several of his cute faces. I just LOVE the way he came out, just sooooo cute!!!

 I just can't stop smiling! These nails are so cute. I now have the urge to play Super smash bros. Might need to convince the boyfriend to play with me. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I will be going out of town and that means that I will probably be M.I.A. for the next few days. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Until next time,
Erin

ABC Challenge: H is for Happy Faces , I is for Icicles , J is for Jalapeno

Hello all! So this is the last post with three different letters. From now on it will be one letter at a time. I finally caught up. I also would like to announce that I am going to start doing Sat-art-day challenges and at some point a holiday challenge. YAY FOR CHALLENGES! Ok so let's get started with H. I had no clue what to do for H and then I realized I had done some smiley faces a week ago and never posted them, so they became happy faces! They are happy so it works.

H is for Happy faces

I used Sally Hansen Lightening for my base color and also for the stamping color on my ring finger. The stamp is BM 304.

I is for Icicles

For I, I wanted to do something fun and since an igloo would have taken so long, I decided to do icicles. I thing they came out pretty but they don't look exactly like icicles haha. For my base color I used Sally Hansen White On. I then used essence Gleam in Blue and mixed it with the white for some of the icicles. To create the look I used a thin tipped nail art brush.  

J is for Jalapenos 

I let Blake choose what I should do for J. He replied with jalapeno...on a stick. For those that don't get the reference, it's from a Jeff Dunam joke. So I had this pepper stamp and decided to do the jalapenos. The base color is L.A. Colors Wave Length. For the stamping I used BM 06 with OPI Jade is the New Black. 

I will be posting K as soon as the inlinkz is posted on the Llama Nails FB page. :)

Until then,

Erin

ABC Challenge: E is for Elephant, F is for Frog, G is for Giraffe

Hello! So I am going to squish in E, F and G in today's post! Up first is E. Something I love that starts with the letter E is elephants. I just think they are amazing creatures, so I created an adorable elephant across my nails.

E is for Elephant

I used Sally Hansen Coral Reef for my base color and for the details on the elephant. The elephant himself was done with black and white acrylic paint. For F I decided to do a frog, not sure if it looks like a frog, but I liked the way it came out.

F is for Frog

For my base color I used Nubar Reclaim. I will never stop loving this polish. Anyways. I also used Piggy Polish Blue-ing Romance for the base color on my ring ringer. I then used OPI Jade is the New Black, along with BM03. I then used BM 19 with NYC Skin Tight Denim. The frog and flies were done with acrylic paint. For G I thought I would keep up with animals, so I immediately thought of giraffes.

G is for Giraffe

The base color is Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow. I then used BM 215 with China Glaze Street Chic. The giraffe was painted with acrylic paint. I've been noticing that I use acrylic paint a lot but it's so much easier to work with and it's pretty cheap too. 

I will be posting H, I, and J within a couple of hours and K will be posted tomorrow along with everyone else! I am almost caught up, yay! 

Until then,

Erin

PS Read more to see the inlinkz collections for each letter! :)

ABC Challenge: C is for Cat, D is for Dog

Hello all! I have more letters for you today, C and D. When I was thinking of doing this challenge, I really wanted to do C is for Cookie BUT I had no time so I am kind of cheating... Way back in October I did a guest post for Ashley from the blog Passion for Polish. I made nails especially for Ashley but I never posted my guest post here on my blog, so since the nails were so cute and they were of a cat, I decided to use it for the C.

C is for Cat

To see what polishes and techniques I used, check out the guest post here.

So then I thought, "Hmm... what should I do for D?" There's nothing better for D than dog, since it goes great with C for Cat.

D is for Dog

This is a pretty simple design. I painted my nails two coats of Sally Hansen White On, then I took black acrylic paint and painted on the spots and face. Voila! 

I'm excited for E, F, and G. I will probably post them when I get off work tonight! 

See you then!

Erin

PS Read more to see the inlinkz collections for each letter :)

Llama Nails: ABC Challenge! A is for Apples, B is for Balloons

Hello all! I know I have been on a little hiatus but I promise I am back! After doing so many challenges, I needed to take a mini break, as did my nails. (Plus a bunch of crazy family stuff has been going on...) Of course now that I am back, I plan to start a couple more challenges! I know, I know... I have an addiction to doing nail art challenges. I have the most fun doing them and though at times it can be frustrating, I really feel like I am improving on my skills! With that said, let me introduce to you the new challenge I am starting today. It's called the ABC Challenge and it's from one of the awesome groups I belong to on Facebook, called Llama Nails. If you are into nail challenges like I am, check out the group page here.

Normally the challenge posts will be every Wednesday but since this challenge actually started back in September, I have to catch up a little. I only found out about this group a few weeks ago and by then the challenge was well underway but it's never late to join right? Plus why not start from the beginning.

A is for Apples. When I think of the letter A, I generally think of apples. I don't know why but I do. I just bought a giant bag of Red Delicious apples from the store and thought that the dark red color would be perfect for my apples.

I used Sinful Colors Happy Ending as my base color and Orly's Grave Mistake for my apples. The rest was acrylic paint that I applied with a thin tipped nail art brush. 

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B is for Balloons. I'm not sure why I came up with balloons for B but I just love the way they came out! I am definitely going to do this design again, maybe for a birthday mani!

For my base color I used OPI Skull and Glossbones, then I used a fan brush and applied some white polish. For the balloons I used Sally Hansen Pacific Blue,  SH Mellow Yellow and Ulta Non-stop Red. I created the balloons using a large dotting tool and a small one. I placed the small dots right at the base of the larger ones. I then outlined the dots and drew a small line for the tied part of the balloons.

I hope you enjoyed my post for today. Stay tuned for C and D!

Until next time,
Erin

No H8: Eradicate Hate in the Nail Polish Community

Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay. 

Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color...even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.

Hello! Today is a special post, for me and for many others. As it reads above, I wear purple nails today to show my support against bulling and also to bring awareness to the bullying that goes on in our nail community. Not only that but I feel today is about showing no hate in any aspects of our lives.

I, like many others, was a victim of bullying growing up. It was a daily thing. Kids would tell me I was ugly and make fun of my hair or my glasses. It was a nightmare. It took me a long time to get over it and there were days when I felt like I should end it all. No child, no person should ever feel this way. 

I have been blogging for almost a year now and I have been fortunate enough to only come across kindness and support. I finally feel like I have my own little place on the internet, creating nail art with so many beautiful and kind souls. Unfortunately, there are some not so kind people in this community. I am a firm believer if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. If people have the courage to share their nails with the world, don't cut them down if you don't like them. That is not what the nail community is about. I have learned throughout my year of blogging. that many bloggers are helpful to those starting out. They provide tips and tutorials of all sorts. Bullying someone just because their work isn't perfect just isn't right! We should all support one another. 

Here are my nails for today. Not perfect but that's ok. We are all human and we all make mistakes. We need to show each other support and love, especially for something we are all so passionate about.

Hearts have become a symbol for love and that's the point of my nails today, we should so love toward one another not hate! So if you are new and starting out, don't be discouraged. So what if you manicures aren't perfect? No one is!  Heck I'm not! I share my nails because I love to paint them and I know others would like to see what I come up with. Thank you to all who have shown me nothing but kindness and support, I am very grateful. And much thanks to all the wonderful people participating in today's No H8 post.

If you or someone you know is experiencing bullying, please don't hesitate to reach out to these helpful sites:

Stopbullying.gov

Report Cyber Bullying

National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.273.TALK (8255)

EradicateH8

Halloween Mani! Cheshire Cat Nails and Costume

Hello all! So yesterday was one of my favorite holidays, Halloween! I didn't really get to do anything exciting outside of work but work was a blast! Most of the staff dressed up as Disney characters and I was the Cheshire Cat from the movie Alice in Wonderland. My friend, who told me about the job, dressed as Alice! It was fun because we totally didn't plan it together. She did my face paint, which scared a couple of kids and most of them told me they found it creepy. haha. Oh well most of them could tell who I was suppose to be, which is fun. I'm going to share with you my nails I wore for the occasion and the costume I made!

As for my nails, I decided for each of my thumbs I would do the Cheshire's face. For my right hand I only did the smile because I'm still not that skilled painting with my left hand due to being right handed. For the rest of my nails I did his stripes. I painted the purple first which was a bad idea because it made the fuchsia color much darker than it really is, you can tell my looking at the thumb with his full face. 

I'm pretty happy with the way the nails came out. I started doing this mani with tape but I don't have proper nail tape so I lose patience and start painting the stripes themselves. So that's why they aren't perfect.

I was so surprised that I had proper Cheshire Cat colored polish! I do love my bright colors! 

What I used:

• Base colors: 
• Striped nails: LA Colors Fun in the Sun
• Left thumb: Zoya Charisma
• Right thumb: Sinful Colors Black on Black
• Stripes: Zoya Charisma
• Thumbs: White, black, yellow, red and pink acrylic paint
• Nail art brush and dotting tool

So I made my costume with furry ribbon stuff, safety pins, a sweater and jeans. I also made my ears with a headband, felt and cotton balls (genius idea thought up by Tara). I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

The idea behind my costume was that I was the Cheshire Cat disappearing. In the original Disney movie he says, "Most everyone's mad here. You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself." He says this while he is vanishing. Below is the picture I used for my inspiration. 

I hope you all enjoyed the nails I painted to go along with my costume and my costume itself! What did you guys where on your nails for Halloween? And if you dressed up, what was your costume? I hope everyone had a fun Halloween this year!

Until next time,

Erin