Elf-like!

I ended up spending 7 hours doing various church-related things today, so I'm too tired to be terribly clever. Tomorrow morning I'll do the last two manicures, and I'll be done with the challenge. I'm going to miss having the inspiration and fellowship of my challengers. I hope I can join another challenge group soon!

I google imaged a lot of Christmas elf pictures, and the main cohesive theme I saw was their stripey green and white tights, so I did a base of NOPI Lights Kim-era Action, and striped Kleancolor Green Grass. I have craft scissors that are zig-zagged and so I masked off my tips and painted them red with OPI The Spy Who Loved Me (which I love, and should get a full-size of soon, because it's such an interesting red). The zig-zags don't show well - my craft scissors have a wider zig than I really envisioned, and real pinking shears might have worked better. I used my NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat, and I really liked the effect.

Still, I had multiple compliments from total strangers, although not one could guess I was aiming for an elf theme. Ah, well.

Go see what my other challengers did!

Messy snowflakes!

Once again, my vision and the reality of my manicure had, let's call it, creative differences. Still, it turned out okay:

Strangely, I got a lot of compliments from total strangers, even though you have to squint to see the snowflakes underneath my mess of topcoat.

The base is Revlon Royal, and I used my dotting tool in Sally Hansen White On and NOPI Lights Kim-era Action to make snowflakes. I wanted more sparkle, so I decided to break out my new bottle of Color Club Covered In Diamonds, and it was jell-o thick and really clumpy. I put some thinner in after the manicure, so I'll try it again later. And use a very light hand.

Once again, I'm certain the others following the challenge had far prettier results. Go check them out!

Frosty the poorly proportioned snowdude...

For this challenge, I looked for some snowman ideas, and I saw, and really liked, this one:

While I didn't have the exact same colors on hand, I think my version isn't bad...but I made his head too small to be able to fit on decent sized features, and there's no way a scarf will work since his mouth sorta covers his neck-al area.

The turquoise base is Sally Girl Dumped and the nose is Amped. The snowman and ground are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, the black is Sinful Colors Black on Black, the silver is Elle Dancing Queen, and the shimmery white is NOPI Lights, Kim-era, Action.

I got dotting tools (straight from scenic Guangzhou!) and used a bunch of them. Unfortunately, the biggest one fell out of the tool within 10 or so dots. I'm going to try to epoxy it back together. I'm pretty sure the epoxy will cost more than the entire set of tools did, including shipping. I know, I shoulda ordered from bornprettystore or ... not China, but we've been poor lately. Maybe Santa will bring me some cash. And I won't feel obligated to spend it on "bills" or "living indoors".

I can't wait to see what my fellow challengers did! Check it out here!

An homage to the art of the fan brush

I saw the coolest mani, done by Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner that I knew I wanted to replicate. Hers turned out far better, as you can see if you click on her blog name.

So I asked my 11-year-old daughter to find four colors that worked together but weren't too similar. She did a great job, picking Sally Hansen CSM Black Platinum, Sinful Colors' Let's Talk, NOPI Lights, Kim-era, Action!, and Circus by Andrea's Choice Tightrope.

I put on two coats of the NOPI, then took my fan brush, spread the bristles, and dipped it into drops on my palette. I did light horizontal swipes each way, changing between the Circus, Sally Hansen, and Sinful Colors after completing both hands.

It's a cool effect, but the versions done by Kimber and her inspiration were both better executed. I think my fan brush wasn't quite stiff enough, plus I think I had too much paint on the brush.

I'll try again sometime, perhaps with a craft fan brush instead of a (totally never used) make-up fan brush. It's a learning process. :)