Sketchbook update!

Join me again for a walk through my sketchbooks, looking at the various things that have wandered through my mind and found an exit into the world through my pens.

What can I say, it's crowded in there, and kinda weird. Ok, very weird.

I'm going to start out with my current favorite piece. I started doodling it without intending for it to get bigger, but... well, see for yourself.

This started with lips at the bottom of the page. If you look closely, you can see notes for the blog and a blog shopping list under her hair. I figured this would just be lips, because I doodle a lot of just lips lately. But then I added a nose, and it actually looked passable for once! But the nose needed something on top of it. There was a flower under the sunglasses, so drawing an eye would have been awkward at best.

So then I had a face, with sunglasses and a nose and some seriously-injected-with-lip-fillers lips. The face seemed to need something to balance it, though, so I added a headband slightly off-center for that pseudo-hipster look. My niece had colored the heart for me at the crawfish boil recently, so all I needed to do was add the purple band.

But she clearly needed more... the headband wasn't nearly enough. I started working on bangs, but didn't like them at all. I decided to start with some curls at the top right of the headband. Once I got to a certain point, though, I realized she needed a pompadouresque poof. (Yes, I've been watching a lot of drag queen hair tutorials on youtube lately. Why do you ask?)

As you can see? Her hair kinda exploded, in a gorgeous, taste-the-rainbow kinda way. I'm still not finished with her, and my biggest regret is that she's on lined paper. BOOO! Still, I can always redo her if I get the urge. She'd be fun painted on a canvas!

Ok, since I've got an absolute ton of photos here, I'm gonna tuck them under the cut so you can skip 'em if you want and they don't clog up your feed reader. You can thank me by leaving a comment! ;)

A video tutorial on doing a sponged gradient nail!

I got such a great response to the sponged gradient tutorial I did. Unfortunately, quite a few people posted that they didn't quite follow my steps, so I decided the best thing to do was to do a video tutorial! That way, it's clear what I'm doing and when.

Recording the video didn't take all that long, but holy cow did editing it take a long time! Thankfully it didn't make me want to scream or cry this time. I just need more experience editing, which is a good thing. That means you'll get lots more videos to come!



I'm also working on the followup to this video, where I'll show you how to add the zebra stripes. That's actually a pretty doable process, if I can get the energy and the time to shoot it!

Since I'm doing more videos now, why not leave me a comment to let me know what sort of tutorials you'd like to see? I have several planned, but I'm always looking for more ideas.

Thanks for watching, and if you liked this video why not thumb it up and subscribe? It would totally make my day!

Wheee, I'm finally enjoying making videos!.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

No April Fools Jokes Here.

Just a quick post to say I won't be doing any April Fools jokes here. I'm really not that fond of them, because I don't like trying to make my friends feel foolish. Call me crazy!! :D

That's all... there will be more fun stuff tomorrow though. Later!

No fools here, just love!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

It's Giveaway Time! Sponsored by Verve 360 hair salons in Pittsburgh.

EDIT:  I knew I'd forget something! I added two more ways to enter to the Rafflecopter widget. Also, this giveaway is open til April 10, 2012. Sorry, I'm a goofball.

Life is good! Not only have I had an awesome bump in readers lately, I've also had some really great emails. One email was from Verve 360, a fantastic group of hair salons in Pittsburgh, PA. They'd seen my recent post on making custom nail decals with scrapbook punches and really liked it!

After several emails, we decided that we were going to do a giveaway together! I'm really excited about this one, because the prize is two absolutely gorgeous Zoya polishes. I kind of wish I could enter my own giveaway!

The winner will receive two brand new bottles of Zoya polish from their True spring 2012 collection- Skylar and Lotus. Skylar is described as "a medium steel blue with a softened, dusty look and speckled by visible gold and silver shimmer flecks. A soft blue that's bold without being too dark, bright or flashy." Lotus is described as "A saturated, red-toned grape purple with speckled shimmer that reflects gold, orange and red. Bold and saturated warm color made even more interesting with color-shifting shimmer."

Entering is really simple, too. I've fallen in love with Rafflecopter for my giveaways since it makes things so easy, both for entering and for picking a winner! Unfortunately, this giveaway is only open for the continental US. One of these days, once I'm a bit ahead financially, I plan to do some international giveaways. For now, I'm limited though... I hope you guys understand!

This giveaway is open until April 10, 2012. So, go ahead and enter! :D

This glitterbomb needs a name!

Expand this for full-on
glitter madness!

Ok, it's official. I'm over my dislike of bar glitter, at least for this particular application. I've said more than once that I don't really like bar glitter, mainly because it looks like your nails are hairy.

Seriously. Who wants hairy nails??

Then a polish came along to change my mind a bit- OPI's Save Me from the Nicki Minaj collection. I don't know why, but the little strings of holographic glitter worked for me in this one.

I kept seeing it every time I went to the local big box store, because the salon inside it sells OPI. But I'm cheap, and I'm broke. I didn't want to buy it if I didn't have to...

I kept wishing and wanting, and thinking I could do this myself. I won a contest from Viva la Nails and got some holographic bar glitter, thinking it would come in handy to franken my own... and then last night the final piece fell into place.

My husband wanted to stop by the Dollar Tree to grab a couple of things, and as usual my first stop was cosmetics. Sure enough, there was a nice selection of Sally Hansen polishes in the two-for-one blister packs! I picked up a couple, including Twinkle Twinkle in Xtreme Wear. It had the large hex holo glitter as well as the base silver I wanted.

I used a bottle of clear Wet n Wild polish for the base. I added a healthy blob of Twinkle Twinkle as well as some Chin Glaze Techno, then added a lot of the string glitter. Finally, I added some small holo glitter I bought literally 16 years ago for a crazy Mardi Gras. I threw in a couple of balls from TKB trading and shook like I was trying to dance in the 80s...

This is the result.



The only problem is that something this spectacular needs a name. I'm at a loss for words, so why not leave me a comment suggesting something?

Magpie, me? Whatever makes you say that...

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Viva la Nails Order Unboxing!

I love getting nail mail! I recently placed an order with Viva la Nails using the gift certificate I won recently. I spent ages trying to pick out what I wanted to order! I finally narrowed down my choices, though, and I'm so excited to see what I got!

Since I was so excited to open my package, I decided to share the fun with you guys. Watch the vid, and get a sneak peek at some of the goodies I'll be using in upcoming nail art!



Some of the items I bought were on clearance, so I can only link you to the category. The rest, though, I'll link directly to the items so you can get your own if you like!

Neon Green Glitter Dust (clearance)
Water Decal Nail Wraps #29
Green Dazzling Sticker Paper
Blue Striping Tape
Silver (holographic) Super Flitter
Crimson Nail Art Feathers
Purple Dazzling Paper

Thanks, Viva la Nails, for hosting such a fun giveaway!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Jessica- Dazed Dahlia

Wow! You know how sometimes you'll get a positive spike in blog readers, then it'll die down after a couple of days? This totally didn't happen this week!

Instead? OMG, y'all, I've had SO MANY PAGEVIEWS this weekend! Like, 20,000 on Saturday alone! I've been sitting and watching, and expecting the numbers to fall down again, but so far, it's not happening. So, umm...

... Hi, everyone? :D

You may have seen me on Pinterest, or on various blog posts. I love to write, and I love doing nail art. I really enjoy making tutorials, whether with photos or with video. Most of all, though, I really love to be silly. You'll pick up on that if you stick around, which I certainly hope you do! Feel free to make requests of what you'd like to see, too.

So... Back to the polish! After the weekend's revelry, I've been absolutely pooped! Too much dancing, not enough resting, and my spoon supply has been greatly depleted. Still, I can't complain, it was absolutely wonderful spending time with family and friends! Still, I wound up having to go for a simple manicure today... good thing it's a pretty one!

Enter Jessica's Dazed Dahlia, from the Heavy Petal collection. I love that name! It suits me in so many ways... Dazed Dahlia is a gorgeous red-violet creme, deep and saturated and absolutely perfect! Not only is it a beautiful color, not only does it dry nicely, it's a one-coat polish!


That's right... I'm wearing one coat in these photos. I'm in love with this polish, because it's everything I could hope for. Well, it doesn't do my laundry, but then again what polish does?

I'm also happy because I remembered bottle shots for this one! I don't know why I forget those so often, but I do. Ah well... I guess that's not a huge deal. Do you prefer seeing bottle shots in a blog post?

Then there's the stamping. Sadly, it doesn't show up well on black, but that's ok... it's gorgeous on white! I used the Salon Express stamping plates to test it with, and absolutely love the result. I wish they made additional plates!

Now, since it's getting close to midnight and I'd like to sleep eventually, I'll leave you with the rest of the photos I took. You can find Jessica polishes for $7.50 each at a salon near you, or at the Jessica Cosmetics website. With over 200 colors, you're bound to find something you love!

 Til next time!

 

Polish was provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.