Mmm, how I love the smell of giveaways in the morning!

If you love giveaways, then you'll like this post. If not, I'm putting it behind a cut, so you don't have to spend too much time on it. Don't worry, I'll have a new post up soon enough.

Now, follow me for giveaways out the wazoo!!

Fail Nails- or why not every experiment is successful...

The problem with being experimental is that sometimes, despite your best efforts, the experiment is going to turn out AWFUL! Experiments can be great, and lead you to great things, or they can end up being a learning experience. Unfortunately, this experiment was a total failure!

See, I'd found an acrylic paint I was in love with. Still am- this stuff is downright magical. I did a test nail with it that turned out amazingly pretty. The problem is that I didn't actually wear the nail. I left it on its cute little stick and admired it for weeks. Finally, I decided to do a full set like it.

This would be where the problem showed up. I used a different application method for this, and unfortunately it just didn't work. Once I'd built the paint up to an opaque level, it was thicker than I realized. Adding two coats of topcoat to smooth out the surface didn't help, either. I left them up on their sticks for three days to dry, and then took them down, sanded their edges, and dropped them into a small ziplock bag for jewelry. I figured I'd photo them when it was time to put them on Etsy, if I ever did that.

When I pulled them out of the bag much later, I was absolutely horrified. What had gone in smooth as glass came out lumpy and gouged to the bare nail in places. The "polish" wasn't sticky. No, it was worse.

It was stretchy.

I couldn't do anything to save this one. My gorgeous turquoise glitter nails ended up being a giant fail.

My Nail Tips Are On Etsy!

I've spent the last week arguing with myself as to whether I should do this or not, and I finally decided to just go for it. I've put my nail tips on Etsy! Ok, I only have 4 sets up, but I love them, and I hope that someone else will, too! So, this is a quick post to show you what's up, and how to get to it. Just click the pic, and you'll go to that particular listing!

Nail Art Tips - Pink-to-Red Gradient/Holographic Glitter

Nail Art Tips - Holographic Rainbow Pride

Nail Art Tips - Silver Holographic Super Disco Nails

Nail Art Tips - Pride of the Wild Rainbow Zebra Pattern

So, if you're interested, definitely click the links. There are more pictures at the listings. If you don't wanna buy but you like them, click the "heart" link. It'll make my day!

Tomorrow you can see my fail nails. They would have been so beautiful... but I took pics anyway!

Happy Friday, everyone!
<3 Laynie

Making the Most of Your Stamping Plates

I'm going to begin this entry with an apology for the images that accompany it. I had visions of much better pictures being taken, or perhaps of video being taken. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. No, with the crud that's hit my house, I did well to manage to sleep, eat, and visit the restroom when I need to. Still, I managed to attempt to take some photos of what I do differently. In the process, I learned something.

You may be wondering what I learned. It's very simple- it is incredibly difficult to take pictures of your own hands when they're doing something that takes two hands to do. I know, it seems logical, but for some reason I was convinced I'd be able to take photos of my own hands placing the polish and applying it to my own fingertips. I know, I know... there's laughter for those of you who've tried anything like this.

But, pictures were taken, a diagram was made, and tonight, I share my process with you. Please be patient, and forgive my if my diagrams are slightly less awesome than I'd hoped for. So, let's get started, shall we?

Stamping- it's all the rage. Thankfully, my version doesn't use anything crazy. I do have a scraper that came with my set, but I don't like it. It scratches the plates like crazy and I just prefer using a plastic card. This one happens to be a benefits card from a grocery store.

If you  happen to use a card you plan to keep (like your driver's license), be sure to keep the paint away from the magnetic stripe. Nail polish and nail polish remover will eat the magnetic stripe right off your card!

So, what now? Gather your items together.  I find it helps to have a cotton round saturated with nail polish remover next to my plate, so that I can wipe the stamper on it and wipe the plate between stamps. Also, it helps to have a folded paper towel or something similar nearby to wipe off the card onto. Stamping is messy stuff!

Now, this is where things get a bit different. Instead of putting your polish onto the stamping plate, I dabbed a bit of polish onto my scraper card. Try and keep the polish a bit wider than the design you're going to use.  You don't need a huge amount of polish here, just a dollop.

See? This is my actual scraper card with the polish I was using on it. It's not a huge amount of polish, it's just a little blob that's a tiny bit wider than the image I want to use.

Now, putting it onto the image plate is important too. It we scrape this across at 90° angle, the polish isn't really going to get into the grooves of the design very well. I use somewhere around a 45° angle, so that the scraper can push the polish into the grooves as well as scraping away the extra. It takes practice, but you'll get the hang of it.

There- you can see the butterfly image has been flooded with polish, but the rest has been scraped away. All that remains is to pick it up with the stamper and apply it to your nail! As easy as that sounds, I must admit I need more practice. I stamp pretty well, but I'm not so good at lining up where the stamp should go. But hey, that should improve with practice, right?

You can look at the chart on the left to see the difference it's made in admittedly-newbie stamping. But the color richness in the Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff color is just astonishing to me. applying the color to the image plate left me with a very pale, weak stamp. Applying the color to the scraper gave me a rich, true-color stamp that was much prettier to look at.

You may try this and find it doesn't work for you. You may try it and find it's amazing. Whatever you do, if you do try it, please come comment and let me know how it worked for you? I would feel so wonderful if I found out I made someone's stamp application more satisfying!

Have a great day/night/afternoon/morning/whatever you're having when you read this!

I have teh deth, so here...have a cookie!

I know, I'm late posting about this method I figured out for getting better stamps from your nail stamping systems. Unfortunately, I tried to photograph it and ended up with some very awkward, unusable photographs. So, I tried to draw some illustrations about the method, and quickly found that it's hard to draw when you're feeling ill, having problems swallowing anything, and am falling asleep at random with no warning. I've come back to the computer several times to find that I've moved files, I've cut bits off the image that I want, etc.
It's just bad.

So, to spare you from the rambles, here- enjoy something from a few days (weeks) back. Instead of stamping, you get decals!! TADAAAAA,,,

 That's exactly what I did here! It's a simple process. I used a tiny ziploc bag, my normal dotters and brushes, and my nail polishes to paint little 5 petal flowers and more intricate roses onto the plastic bags. The roses I picked up from iheartpjab's youtube video called rose nails --updatedz. Everything else was just me playing around. Granted, they could all stand to improve, but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy.

After the roses, I put some little five petal flowers onto another little ziplock bag. I'd picked these bags up when I was making jewelry. I didn't get very far into that because all of a sudden, out of the blue, I was showing signs of carpal tunnel. Hmmph. But that's then, and this is now, and now we're talking about these little flowers!

These were an experiment. I put two colors of polish side by side, a silver and a deep pink. I used a dotting tool to make a dot, then drag the edge to the center. I didn't think much beyond that, and I think it shows. But hey, maybe I could put a little rhinestone on the inside of the flowers? Whatever, they're still cute!

Then I put them into my little Altoids case I'm keeping them all in. I'd planned to keep them on the bag until time to use them, but they weren't going for that. No, they started sliding off the plastic as soon as I started  handling them. So, here's the collection of what I've got so far in homemade nail decals. In the tin already were some skulls and some red glitter bows.

The skulls are mostly WAY too big. I need to work on this size thing, but overall I'm starting to like how they're coming out. This is one of the biggest roses on my thumb, and while it's big, it's not quite too big. I think I kind of like it.

You can pick up one of the decals, place it onto a bot of top coat, and then seal over it with a full coat of clear polish. That way you're good to go!

Also, you could place one of these on the edge of your nail, secure 1/2 the rose onto your nail with polish or glue, then use your nail file to file straight down at the edge of the nail, gently removing what's left. One more coat of top coat so seal it all in and you'd be good to go!

So, what kind of nail decals do you think I should try making next? Do you think you'd try to make nail decals? What do you think about nail decals in general?

Again with the giving away of things? Already?

I'm in the strangest of moods today, so bear with me while I try and get out the fabbo news I have. This post is HUGE, so I'm going to put a jump in it,just to spare your brain, and my looking at it on my front page. But please, keep reading- I've made a heck of a discovery on how to make Konad & Essence stamps come out more nicely, more consistently, and darker than before! All that's after the jump, though.

First off, the uber-wonderful KellieGonzo of Also Known As is having a giveaway! Whee!! She's giving away a sweet little collection of goodies that I think anyone would love to receive. Just look!

Seriously, just look how cute this stuff is! Honestly, I can't imagine people not wanting to get this stuff. It's not like you have to go out to the mall, find a parking place out by the road and then schlep all the way inside the mall where now it's too cold, what with the air conditioning, then have to walk all the way down to the Sephora store just to pick up the items you see here, that is if they're even still in stock!

No, Kellie has saved you the effort of all of this. Instead, all you have to do is fill out her cute pink little form. (And yes, it really is pink, with really cute little paler pink flowers all over the background.) She asks three little questions, and then gives you extra chances to win!!

Now really, could it be any easier than that? I mean, sure, she could just decide out of the blue to send things to your house, hire a private investigator to get your address and then send it to you, so that you answer the door one morning to find your mail delivery person standing there with a package for you!

But that's not going to happen. This giveaway is, though, so go on, go enter! I can wait til you get back to share my news.

*waits patiently for you to return, organizing her polish box. Man, it's messy, I needed this!!*
*ponders organizing by color or by brand. Then again, my collection is so small, I can just organize by polish. "This is a polish. This is not a polish. Ohhh, this goes with the polishes... those don't, those go with the paints..."*

Oh, you're back! That was FAST! I told you! Ok, are you sitting down? This could be exciting for you.

Eclipse Giveaway at Tiana's Place!

Oooh, this looks fun! Are you totally into the Twilight madness? Well, Tiana of Tiana's Place is giving away a sweet collection of goodies- five polishes, four lip glosses, and an eyeliner pencil all branded with the lovely Eclipse logo. I can't lie, the colors look absolutely delicious!

This giveaway is open until July 31, 11:59pm. You've got a bit of time, but I wouldn't waste too much time waiting to join. She's also said that she's adding to the prize package as the time progresses, so this is a giveaway I'm looking forward to! Someone has to win, why couldn't it be you? I'll save you a spot! ;)