LDTTWC, day 6: They don't make'em like they used to...

Yay, I'm so excited for this day of the Time Warp Challenge that Lindsey created, cause we get to look back on happy childhood memories & the simple joy of playing silly games that kept us entertained for hours. Imagine not having tv, computers, video games or even a bicycle growing up? Well, such was the life of my family of 7 girls growing up in Brasil during the 80's & 90's. If we weren't outside climbing trees, at the beach, or playing soccer, we were indoors playing a variety of indoor games such as; Lego, scrabble, snakes & ladders, pictionary & other board games. But I had to narrow it down & ended up picking 2 favorites to design for you today; Pickup Sticks & Jacks. Can you imagine getting kids nowadays to play pickup sticks, they would look at you like you were crazy, lol!

For the pickup sticks I used various colors as my base in white, blue, green & yellow, any colors would do. I then used acrylic paints in the same colors for my two accent nails. 

For Jacks I used Elf Innocent as my base & then used acrylic paints for the Jacks & ball.

LDTTWC, Day 5: "We can do it!"

For day 5 of the Time Warp Challenge, created by Lindsey, I have chosen Florence Nightingale as my influential woman. I remember watching a movie about her when I was a kid & having to write an essay. It made quite an impression on me & hers was the first name that popped into my head when thinking about who I should pick for today's challenge. 

I used a dark blue for my base, then with acrylic paints I painted her demure dress collar on all my nails except my ring finger. On my ring finger I painted a lamp since she was known as the "Lady with the Lamp".

Inspiration

Result

LDTTWC day 4: Lights, camera, action!

I think I was the most excited about this day, day #4 of the Time Warp Challenge created by Lindsey, cause we get to do a design based on a nostalgic movie, song or literature. Most everybody knows I am a huge movie buff, I love everything from old B&W films to SyFy & Comicbook, romance & chick flicks to action & comedy. I have done several mani's that were movie based; Avengers, Batman, Serenity & one of my all time favorites Little Women. There are just too many fabulous movies to choose from, I almost picked "The Scarlet Pimpernel" for my movie choice or I was going to go with "Secret Garden" for literature, both extremely dear to my heart for various reasons. But I already knew what I wanted to do before even thinking of it...TITANIC! I know by doing this Mani I am risking going up against some other girls in this challenge who will think of this as well, but I really had no choice. I simply love the story, the way it's told, the era, the actors, everything about it just touches me in the most beautiful way & I had to give my interpretation.

Inspiration #1

Inspiration #2

I drew my inspiration from the ship & the lovely blue sapphire necklace, "heart of the ocean", worn by Rose in one of the most intimate & romantic scenes ever filmed. I used Wet n Wild Blue Moon for the three fingers with no art on them. I did a lovely nude, also from Wet n Wild called Private Viewing, which I thought was perfect for Rose's flawless skin & the "private viewing" Jack was having, hmmm. I then used various acrylic paints to do my designs. Here are a few pictures:

I wanted to zoom in really good so you can see the detail, sorry if it looks a little crappy.

This one got a romantic soft tone to it.

LDTTWC day 3: I remember when...

Day 3 is here of the Time Warp Challenge created by Lindsey. The theme is remembering a historic event either personal or well known.

I didn't have much time so I was trying to think of a subtle & elegant design that I could get away with wearing to work & that also would portray an important historic event cause I wasn't going to have time to clean it off & put a more neutral design on for work. My idea was a Cross. Now the cross has many meanings for different people & cultures, but as a Christian the cross is associated with a very big part of history in the death of Jesus. Now even if you are not super religious you have to agree that the historical event of Jesus dying on the cross has touched the lives many worldwide. Whether you are Christian or not, hearing the story of a man willing to give up his life to save others is something to be admired & remembered.

I used a peachy nail polish for my base color, I can't remember the name because I forgot to check before I left the house, but it's really pretty & I just have a tiny little sample bottle that is getting low because I like it so much. Anyways, & I used black acrylic paint for the little crosses on my ring finger & thumb.

Where in the World Challenge: Australia

I've gone & picked up another challenge. I know it seems a bit silly to do more than one challenge, I'm currently in the beginning of the Time Warp Challenge, in addition I have been very busy lately with 2 jobs, a house, hubby & animals to care for. But this second challenge is very low key & can be spaced out extremely well giving us about 2 months for each individual Country listed.


The Challenge was created by LifeinColor & SuperficiallyColorful. Here's the Banner:

Here are the rules, I've copied & pasted from Superficially Colorful's site:

1. The challenge will start on September 10.
2. You may join us at any time along, but you must keep the original order of countries and without skipping. This is why it is called "A challenge", to differ it from a random one country mani idea.
3. There is NO time frame for each post, as long as it is in order. If you don't have time this week - you may work on your mani next week. No problem. As long as the order is kept.
4. What should your mani look like? You decide. The country is your inspiration. How you represent it - it's up to you. It can be as simple as the polish name (e.g. OPI "Russian Navy" to Represent Russia), the country's flag mani, using a country's colors or even make a complicated artwork to represent a country. Your choice!
5. The list of countries will be set once the challenge takes off. If you would like to add to the list - please let either Me or Gosiaknow, before September 8.
6. Every country will have an inLinkz code so that everyone who participate can have a thumbnail link to their blog post, in every participant's post. If you play along - please email Me or Gosia so we can give you the code to put in your blog post.
   
   Please note: if you add your link to the display but you don't put the code in your blog post to show all other participants, your link will be deleted without warning.

Today is Australia & I have picked the Sydney Opera House as my inspiration. I used Sally Hansen insta-Dri Blue Away as my base to imitate the clear blue sky that I always associate with Australia. I then used some acrylic paints to do my tips in the curved shape of the famous opera house.

The inspiration

The result

LDTTWC Day 2: It's Vintage Darling!

It's the second day of the Time Warp Challenge, created by Lindsey, & on this day we draw our inspiration from a popular look from the past. I chose the corset. Not only is it a popular look from the past, it's also still  extremely popular today. I had been dying to try a corset design for a while now, so this is my first attempt ever. Since there are so many different styles & color choices, it was really hard deciding on just one, but I drew my inspiration from robinmoses who always turns out such beautiful designs & is a true inspiration to me.

Sookie Stackhouse aka: True Blood

Season 5 has just finished & I have been an avid fan since day 1;). While my dear hubby lost interest in season 2, I have been hungrily watching every single episode & loving every minute!

Recently my dear friend Tara, you can see her nails featured here  lol, loaned me her Sookie Stackhouse novels that I just found out the True Blood series was based on. I was very excited to hear this & am happily reading the first of these books & will soon be on the second.

Feeling in the mood to do something "vampirish" I pulled some colors together & went for a bloody ombre look. It turned out kinda cool looking like I had bloody fingertips. The first picture has no editing besides putting a border on it. With the other two I added a couple of cool Picasa apps over them for effect. 

Natural Light

                            

Cinemascope app.

with Cross process app.

LDTTWC Day 1 - I should have been born in...

Today is the first day of yet another brilliant nail art challenge created by neverlandnailblog & sponsored by Nail Polish Canada. I say this about each nail art challenge she has created, but this one I am truly excited about & its just the best challenge ever.

For Day 1 I chose the Victorian Era. Now there are various times I could have chosen, but I have always thought of the Victorian era as being romantic & elegant. When I think of the Victorian era I think of lace, roses & elaborate elegant patterns. One of my favorite movies is set in Victorian time, Little Women, I did a design inspired by that movie here. Queen Victoria was such an iconic part of British history, the dresses worn by the queen, & other ladies of the time, were simply lovely. She was a mother of 9 children & earned the nickname "the grandmother of Europe" she must have been quite an inspiration & brought many years of peace during her reign. I just love how everything from the Victorian era looks so elegant, romantic & lovely.

Portrait of a young Queen Victoria

There were a few designs rolling around in my head, I had done a pretty vintage design a while back that was inspired by Robin Moses & I noticed a couple other ladies did something similar. This would have fit in perfectly with the era that I chose. I also had wanted to do lace nails using real lace, but my attempts failed, either I have the wrong lace, the wrong glue, or just insufficient patience, either way it wasn't happening this week. So then I found a lovely Victorian wallpaper design that I decided to freehand as best I could.

I used one layer of Revlon Gold Get 'em for my base, then used some Blue & Gold acrylic paints for the design. I put a "soft" focus on my pictures to give it that vintage feel, I wanted to take pictures with this lovely antique, sorta Victorian looking pendant I own cause I thought it complimented the design nicely.

Gold Foil wraps:

I had tried my very first nail wraps a few weeks ago, see here, & I actually really liked them. Naturally I wanted to try some more, so I decided I would search eBay for some cool & cost effective designs that might be hard to find & therefore more unique. I bought a few different ones, one of which was a simple gold foil that I thought was pretty neat looking even though it technically isn't a design, it really looks quite impressive when you put it on. I placed the wraps on clean fingernails, no base or top coat, they look really nice & I'll let you know how well they perform. Now the Sally Hansen wraps that I tried lasted about a week, so being that these only cost a tiny percentage of the price I paid for my Sally's I'm not expecting the same performance, but we'll see what happens.