Doggy Manicure

My momma dukes came over earlier today and in the midst of playing around with my nail polish collection, we came up with the great idea to make Sassy, our beautiful black lab just a little more beautiful. lol We took a pink chrome color for NYC and quickly painted her little claws. You can tell Sassy loved them because she was prancing around proudly afterwards. haha. Of course she scampered off while I tried to take pictures, but I did manage to get some lol. Here you go ....

KONAD Nail Art | Pink Slanted French Tip Nail Art

These are my current nails at the moment. I wish I had more pics to post, but the lighting was not in my favor that day. In my hand is a bracelet I got from Claires, which I absolutely love.

Base "Light Pink" Color: Sally Hansen "Cotton Candy"

Hot Pink Color: Sinful Colors "Cream Pink"

Nail Stamping Color: Pure Ice "Love"

Image Plate Used: BM 20 (Bundle Monster from Amazon.com)

FYI, sometimes when I am writing a post, my blog will do this really annoying double space thing like above. It makes me feel like I am writing a paper for school since that is the only place I ever used double spacing lol

Bundle Monster Nail Art | Purple Nail Art

Heres the nail design I just took off. I am thinking of a new design for my nails now, so I might post again tomorrow. I have the products I used listed below in the order I used them.

Base Color: Pure Ice "Scandal"

Wheel Image: BM 03

Purple Stamping Color: Pure Ice "Outrageous"

Blue Stamping Color: Pure Ice "Pussy Cat"

Is it just me, or when you get the time to sit down and do your nails, and your looking at all your nail polishes and image plates, you have NO idea what the heck you wanna do with your nails? lol That is what I am going through right now. I am thinking of painting my nails a light pink, with a darker pink to do a slanted french tip, then some design on the darker pink, with a silver stripe seperating the colors. Not sure how much I am going to love it, but I will be posting pics of it very soon. Oh yeah, I was trimming my nails earlier and went to clip my pointer finger to straighten the tips a little, and I accidently just clipped my nail clean off! It looks soo silly since the nails next to it have started to get longer, but oh well, since I got a nice straight cut it should grow back nicely lol.

LuxAddiction Inspired Cell Phone Case *DIY*

I fell in love with the LuxAddiction cases since I first saw them, so I decided to make one myself. When I first started this project, I had so much trouble finding the gems I wanted to use such as the flowers, hello kitty, crown, etc. I searched the internet for a while and found that the gems with the flat back are called "cabochons" so I started doing searches for that. I found 2 sellers on etsy that have a great selection. The first seller I bought from was Misssapporo and I purchased the big flowers, little flowers, heart gemstone, and a few others. I would HIGHLY suggest this seller. The customer service was great and even though they were shipping from Japan, I got my package within a week! =) I am always happy about fast shipping because I am the most impatient person when it comes to waiting for stuff to come in the mail. I also purchased from Mayan who has sooooo many cute cabochons to choose from. In the time I spent looking for cabochons, this seller had the best variety. However, shipping was a painfully long wait, a little over a month. I didn't receive one of my items, but they agreed to reimburse me and it wasn't too much of a big deal to me. Even though I would have liked to receive them sooner, I think it was definately worth the wait. I have a few tips if you want to make your own 3d blinged out cell phone case...

*I used E-6000 glue for this along with a random strong adhesive I found at the house. Any strong clear glue you have should work just fine.

*Pick a cell phone case that has a similar color to your cabochons. I used a hot pink case with light pink cabochons.

*Have a plate with all your gems facing up so they are ready to go as soon as the glue is applied to your cell phone case. The reason is because the glue will dry FAST, like really fast. Sometimes the glue would dry before I got done laying down rhinestones on top of it.

*Take a QTip and cut the cotton part off one end and use this to pick up and place the rhinestones. I would wet the tip of the QTip (the side I cut off) on a damp paper towel to pick up the rhinestones which made placing them on the phone very easy.

*Before you glue anything, lay down your big cabochons on your cell phone case and move them around to get an idea of how you want the final product to look. Take a picture so you can remember the pattern.

*To acheive the 3d effect you will have to layer the cabochons on top of eachother. This was the most difficult part I think of designing the cell phone case. You want to start one cabochon at a time, glue it down, then place rhinestones around it. Take you next cabochon and figure out where you want to layer it, mark the spot with a marker, eye liner brush, or anything you can find to mark the cell phone case with. After that, place rhinestones around (or under which is what I had to do with the crown cabochon since you could see through it) the area. Between placing the rhinestones down, put the big cabochon back on to make sure everything is fitting properly. Once you have the rhinestones down, put some glue on the big cabochon on the spots that will be touching the cell phone case.

This is the design I came up with. It's very cute and pink, and best of all I think it looks just like a LuxAddiction case.

If you are contemplating making your own cell phone case like this, there are a few things you should consider first. If you have a craft store in your area that has the type of decorations you would like to use, I would suggest buying them there. Since I ordered mine from Hong Kong and Japan, it was a little more expensive than I would have liked since I paid for shipping and all that good stuff. Also, when ordering online, you will have to buy some of the pieces in bulk. For example, the flowers and hello kitties came in a pack of 4. So all in all, if you plan on decorating more than just your phone, this is a good deal. I am using my leftover cabochons for my ipod case and will use whatever I have left over for little things. The cost to make just the cell phone case I would say is about $50, but keep in mind you will need to buy more than what you need for just the cell phone case. If you just want the cell phone case and nothing but, I would suggest just buying one from LuxAddiction or Etsy, which will be around $50-$100. I hope this gave you some inspiration for your designs, if you had any questions feel free to comment.

More Nail Designs

Since I haven't posted in forever, I am going to show you a few pictures I took in between posting. I took ALL of these pictures with my cell phone camera, so please excuse the quality. Also, most of my pictures I took in my car or on the go, in case your wondering about the backgrounds lol.

Orly "Space Cadet"

* 2 coats *

This picture does absolutely no justice for this color. It's like a dark green, purple, goldish, pinkish duochrome foil looking nail polish and I am in love with it. The colors are perfect for fall and the application was flawless.

I wanted to do really girly nails and this is about as girly as it gets. lol It would have been even cuter if I added some rhinestones on the polka dots, but I will the next time I used this design. I have the products I used, in the orders I used them below ..

Base Color: Sinful Colors "Cream Pink"

Glitter Color: Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter"

Polka Dot Image: BM 19 with Konad Special White Polish

Crown Images: BM 08 with Konad Pearl Black Polish

Top Coat: Seche Vite

I believe this was the first nail design I made with my Bundle Monster image plates. This was also before I started using Seche Vite top coat, so my other top coat smudged the hearts a little bit.

Base Color: Sinful Colors "Glass Pink"

Pink Tip Color: Flormar "32"
Nail Tip Design: BM 17 with Konad Pearl Black Special Polish
Heart Design: BM 03 with Konad Pearl Black Special Nail Polish

This is a nail design that I obviously did way back during summer. I used the sponging technique to fade yellow, orange, and pink and used a glitter color on top to help blend the colors.



Base (Yellow) Color: Sinful Colors "Let's Meet"

Orange Color: Sinful Colors "Cloud 9"

Pink Color: Flormar "32"

Glitter Color: Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter"

Bottom Flower Image (2 flowers): M54 with Konad Pearl Black Special Nail Polish

Top Flower Image (1 flower): M57 with Konad Pearl Black Special Nail Polish






I did this nail design in the begining of my nail stamping days. Needless to say, I will have a much more interesting design next 4th of July. But I figured I would post it since it's simple and still might give someone an idea for their nails.



Red Color: Sinful Colors "Under 18"

Blue Color: Pure Ice "All Night Long"

Star Nail Design: M76 with Konad White Special Nail Polish


I have a few more random designs that I will be posting this week. I generally do my nails twice a week, sometimes once a week if I am busy or too lazy to pull all my nail gear out lol. I am going to try to post weekly for now on so keep checking back. AANNNNNDDDD .. i am debating to get a video camera so I can post nail tutorials on YouTube, if and when I do I will be sure to post lots of links. =)

Bundle Monster Image Plates Review

I ordered my bundle monster image plates about a month ago and wanted to wait till I've used them a few times before reviewing. Bundle Monster image plates can be bought on Amazon.com or you can click this link. You will get 21 images plates, with a total of 139 designs 'for only $17.99!! Bundle Monster also has a bunch of other great deals on rhinestones and nail cane sticks. I took detailed pictures of all the image plates so you can really get a good look at them. Please keep in mind that I took the pictures with the protective film still on the image plates, hence the reason some look like they have scratches.

Many people complain about the full sized images being too small, and I agree. I took this picture to compare my nail to the full sized image so you can get an idea of their true size. When I used the full images, they fit on all my nails except my thumb. The design had gaps between the edges of my nail on my thumb only.

I have also read in reviews that the sides of these image plates are sharp and cut themselves when using these image plates. I have not had this problem, but if you do, covering the bottom with masking tape or a thin foam should fix the problem.

Pros:

* The price! Your not going to find a deal anywhere else where you can get 17 images plates for $17.99. (if you do let me know. lol)

* Lots of cute designs, and they even have an image for just about every holiday which makes me very happy =)

Cons:

* Full sized images could be bigger.

* Some of the designs could have a little more detail.

Overall, I would definately suggest buying these. This set would be great for beginners or nail junkies that can never have too many nail supplies. I have another picture below of some swatches I've made with the new image plates. If you clicked the link above for where to buy these, you can see the swatches below on amazon under "customer images."

Rugged Warehouse Review

I was planning on updating in just one post, but I am having difficulties formatting the post the way I want. Therefore, I will be posting multiple posts tonight.

So I went to Rugged Warehouse about 2-3 weeks ago and bout a few things. If you do not have a Rugged Warehouse in your area, it is basically a store that buys name brand clothing, accessories, shoes, and bags for women, men, and children that have minor defects or simply did not sell their whole stock while they were in stores. By doing this, Rugged Warehouse is able to offer name brands at a low prices. If you are going to shop at Rugged Warehouse, I have 2 helpful suggestions for your shopping experience. The first is to thoroughly inspect the clothing or product before you buy it. Since RW has irregular or imperfect products, it is a good idea to try to find any defects before you purchase the item. Check the sewing of the seams to ensure they are intact, also make sure the seams are even. Also look for any stains or missing objects such as a button. Sometimes you can obviously point out the imperfection, if you cannot or you can fix the imperfection, than I would suggest buying it. The second piece of advice would be NOT to buy something just because it is cheap. I have lost count of how many shirts I bought from there that I thought were kinda cute just because it was soo cheap. What I thought was a good deal, actually turned out to be a waste of money. Also a general tip that I suggest to any shopper, is a rule I learned from TLC's "What Not to Wear." They calculate the PPW (Price Per Wear) for an article of clothing or accessory. Let's say you really love this $40, but that is a little out of your budget. If you wear that shirt 20 times a year, than you only paid $2 every time you wore it. In contrast, the okay shirt I bought from RW that I never wear, was actually more expensive in the long run because the PPW is the amount I paid for it. So I'll also add my PPW at the end of my pictures to give you an idea of how much the items really cost. Oooh yeah, my digital camera eventually broke a few weeks ago, it was about 5-6 years old lol. I have been taking pics with my phone, so sorry for any that are low quality. Anyway, this is what I bought ...

Price = $6
PPW = 3 times/$2 ... 6 times/$1 ... 12 times/$0.50
Where = Rugged Warehouse

This is just a simple tank top with a black and white floral print. The reason I bought this shirt was because of the colors, the cut and style, but my favorite part were the straps. They are the same lacey/doily material used for the trim, which gives it something a little extra. I am trying to only buy clothing that has something different or unique that you can't always find anytime you want. I hate seeing name brand $80 shirts that look like you could have bought it at any store for less than $20.

Price = $10

PPW = 2 times/$5 ... 5 times/$2 ... 10 times/$1

Where = Rugged Warehouse

I love these shoes!! I wish I could of taken a better picture of them. I really like dark brown leather and I have been looking for cute shoes with a chunky heel. When I saw these I knew I had to get them. They also have a lavender color on the inside which is super cute, even though you can't see it when your wearing them.

Price = $10

PPW = 2 times/$5 ... 5 times/$2 ... 10 times/$1

Where = Rugged Warehouse

Brand = Buckle

This shirt is from Buckle and I believe it was originally about $40. It is allllmost long enough to be a dress, but it is just a little too short. Since it is a shirt, I think it is a smidge too long but I plan on just hemming the bottom. So no biggie, I still think it was a good deal.

Overall, I think Rugged Warehouse does have some good deals. In the times that I have been there it is usually a hit or miss. I will either find a bunch of things, one thing, or nothing. In general, you will almost always find cute purses, jewelry, or lingerie; but finding cute clothes and shoes is not always as consistent.

I also bought this really cute gold necklaces with hearts from Rampage, but I forgot to take the pic. =( I will edit this post though as soon as I get it though. =)