June Nail Art Challenge, Day 30: Zoo animals

Last day, woot woot! I have to say it's been totally fun and I'm glad I did it this month. July is going to be completely busy as in the just first few days alone my sister-in-law (who used to live in Ireland until her visa expired but is going back to the UK in the fall for school) and her Irish boyfriend (red hair and full beard, totally awesome!) are visiting for the 4th and then my birthday is on the 6th. On the 8th, I start a very part-time job as a personal assistant/mother's helper. The 3rd weekend of the month is a massive family reunion for my maternal grandfather's family and a Wisconsin polish meet up. Plus TONS of minor things in there. And August is just as busy! Whew! 

So for today's mani, I turned to my trusty friend Google and found an awesome tutorial for super cute elephants from Adventures In Acetone.

The base color is Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl. The elephant is Rimmel Grey Matter. His ears are Zoya Shelby. The rest of the colors are acrylic paint or polishes I custom mixed.

And here's a collage with all this month's designs!

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 28: Destinations

A day late in blogging this, but I was able to get it up on Instagram in time! It's a Instagram challenge, so that's what counts, right?

Anyway, I bought Cheeky Jumbo Plate 3 (European Romance) a while ago because of the beautiful images on it. It's got some great full nail images that I really like. But it's also got some super cute smaller images that I haven't gotten around to using yet. So this challenge theme was a perfect excuse!

I chose to go with Italy as the theme simply because I have spent time there.

I chose the airplane to represent travel in general. The other images are for 3 of the cities in Italy I was able to travel to: Pisa, Rome, and Venice. The little gondola driver is so cute!

The base of this two coats of Milani Fresh Teal which I found at Dollare Tree. Score! I stamped the images using Konad Black.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 25: Nude

How's everyone doing today? My day hasn't been too exciting. Got a good work out in with my husband this morning at the YMCA. Our local Y is really nice and has cheap daycare. It's a total win since it gives T a chance to play with other kids (I'm a stay-at-home mom) too.

The little guy's been a cranky butt though. He hasn't really wanted to nap at all. He did finally take one this afternoon and bedtime is soon!

Anyway onto today's mani. I've been really loving nude manis lately.

For this one, I used a base of Essie Brooch The Subject and China Glaze I'm Not Lion. Then I freehanded the design using Cosmo Wild Thing (a neon pink I won about 2 years ago from Cosmo magazine) and Milani Fresh Teal.

If the mani looks familiar, that's because I was inspired by an awesome blogger! 

@PolishCandies does some great stuff so  be sure to check her out.

My nude day didn't turn out quite how I wanted it. And I'm Not Lion didn't agree with me and it popped off in sheets the day after I did this mani (I did it at night and I noticed one nail already missing that morning!)

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 22: Tropical

How was everyone's weekend? We went to Greek Festival yesterday and ate some yummy food. Also picked up some delicious frozen custard at a place we don't get to very often since it's far away.

Today my husband and I got some time away while my parents watched T. We hit up some sushi :) It was very yum!!

Today's theme is tropical, and I tried to not be super traditional (sunset with palm tree which I've done anyway).

For this mani, I first painted one coat of Wet n Wild French White Creme. You need 2 for it to be opaque, but I just needed a base for my gradient to pop.

Then I sponged on Sinful Colors Dream On and Rise and Shine. Next I added a thin layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Then I stamped a flower from Bundle Monster BM318 using Konad White.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 21: Aboriginal

When I first saw the theme "aboriginal," my mind immediately went to those dotted paintings. As I'm a huge history nerd (one of my majors in college), I needed to Google and find out more.

Aboriginal refers to natives from Australia. The dotted paintings that so many think of are a newer form of art amongst the Aboriginals. They art form is called Papunya after the region of Australia where it started in the 1970s. Yep, it's new!

You can see my inspiration photo (courtesy Google) and resulting mani below.

The base is Sinful Colors Ardoise. The details are Zoya Riley and Wet n Wild French White Creme.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 18: Picnic Day

Super tired tonight so a quickie post.

Base is OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston. It's a jelly so it gives it a nice squishy look which is perfect for watermelon.

If you want to know the other colors, just ask ;)

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 15: Father's Day

Today's challenge was sorta tough for me. I searched Father's Day Nails on google for ideas, but I got a lot of manis featuring ties (something neither my husband or dad wear!) or sports (which neither are super into).

In the end, I decided to use my Cheeky CH49 stamping plate which works because my husband loves pirates! He's dressed as one for Halloween a few times plus on Talk Like A Pirate Day he makes a special themed dinner for his clients at work (he work at a group home) and talks like a pirate.

The base color is Butter London All Hail the Queen. The stamping color is some sparkling brown Sally Hansen that I got on clearance for 10¢ at Kmart who's name I'm too lazy to look for now ;)

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 11: Neon Gradient

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Glam Polish Vegas Baby!

(Sorry for the short post. Baby and I are both sick).

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 6: Fav Movie

This was a tough one for me, not because of the design, but because of the decisions!

I have a bunch of movies that I love, but it's hard to pick a favorite. So I went with one I that I've been dying to rewatch lately: BBC's North and South. It's based upon a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I actually haven't read yet.

Yellow roses play a good part in the movie seen here being held by Richard Armitage who's lately been in The Hobbit trilogy.

For my roses, I went a bit different than how I normally do them.

I was inspired by wondrouslypolished.com. 

I used Nicole by OPI Khloe Had A Lam-Lam for the base (which is reading really dark here, but is actually a brighter dark teal) and acrylic paint. It didnt come out quite how I wanted, but I still love it.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 4: Disney

Gah! Almost forgot to post today so just a quickie. I did these 101 Dalmation nails today for today's Disney theme. They are inspired by @everylittlepolish.

Base coat is Wet n Wild French White Creme, and I used acrylic paint for the rest to make it super fast.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 1: Sky

Over on Instagram, there's a pretty popular monthly nail art challenge.

What's great about this one is that it's spread out so much more easily doable. Plus the hashtag makes linking nail art doers easier than I think than blogging.

I posted mine yesterday on Instagram, but didn't have a chance to blog yet so here is my day 1!

I thought about going literal with clouds, but I've seen lots of daisy-like flowers and tutorials on Instagram that I've been loving so I went with that.

I only use nail polish for this design. Base is Barry M Blueberry. After topping the design with top coat to dry, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You. It does sometimes leave random white dots which can be a pain.