Watermarking your images...

The internet is fantastic, but unfortunately lots of people blog/reblog images they see without including a link back to where they found them. Watermarking your images is one way to help make sure people can find your stuff, but it can seem intimidating sometimes. After a conversation with xSparkage on twitter tonight, I decided to do a tutorial to help everyone watermark their images. It's easier than it seems!

I've got a series of photos that will walk you through it. Remember, if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave me a comment, or drop me an email. I like helping people! This tutorial is for Adobe Photoshop CS5, but I think it's similar enough to earlier versions that you can figure it out.

Once you've got your action saved, you can play it on any image, and your watermark text layer will appear. Then, you can drag it into place, resize it if you like, change the color or opacity... whatever you want. You can also set the color and size and things when you set up your action. Just make sure the watermark looks basically how you want it when you're recording it, and you can save yourself lots of time and headache in the future!

Hope this helps, and I hope you have a great day.

A Closer Look At KKCenterHK's Water Decals

Whew! I finally get to share my somewhat exciting news! Ok, it's not all that exciting unless you're me, but I'm so pumped I can barely contain myself! It's been a busy weekend...

If you've been a long-time reader here, you know I've been wanting to do videos for a long time. Unfortunately, I kept running into problems- I didn't have a camera, then my camera's video files didn't play nicely with video editors. Once I figured that out, the actual editing of video sent me into near nervous breakdown territory! Finally, once I overcame that obstacle, I found that youtube was chewing up my pretty video and spitting out really icky compressed stuff.

I wasn't happy... but finally after years of longing and working and trying to make sense of things, I have finally figured it out! Well, actually, my husband figured it out, and helped show me what to do, but I had the good sense to marry him, so I'm still claiming this one! So, here's my first almost-awesome video! Let's take a look at how to use these super-awesome water decals from KKCenterHK!



I've got a couple of photos of the nails I did, as well... and again, I got bubbles. I should have used the new topcoat instead of the old thick one, but live and learn. :D

So yay! Now that I've got the how down, hopefully I can start working on video tutorials for fun stuff! I'm so excited that I actually didn't sleep last night... I love what I do!

Some products in this post were provided for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Finally- a successful water marble!

Holy COW I am so excited! I've been wanting to water marble for ... well, ever since before I started this blog. I've tried and tried, and failed and failed... until NOW!

Granted, this is a crappy photo of a not-so-inspiring water marble, but the exciting part is that it worked for me!! I used (gee, wait for it...) the China Glaze Electropop polishes and they spread like a dream!

So, once I remove the manicure I'm wearing (probably tomorrow or the day after) I'm going to try and do a water marble. Maybe a RAINBOW water marble!! I'm so excited I could just pop.

Also, once I saw how cute this was, I wanted to embellish it a bit. So, I added to it just a bit. You know I can't leave anything alone...

I added some dots and a tiny little heart in the corner because apparently valentine's day affected me more than I realized. Either that, or I'm still love-struck by my husband. :D

Ok, it's 5am and I still haven't slept. I've been working on a surprise that I might get to show you tomorrow... so cross your fingers for me!

EEEE! Water marble EEEEEE!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

My husband got me a surprise!

My husband is awesome. We've never been particularly wealthy financially, but I feel like we're beyond rich in love. I know it sounds disgusting, but it's true... and we go out of our way to show it as often as possible.

Take for example a couple of days ago. I'd been home, feeling like I was going to die from the plague (or just feel really really gross for the rest of my probably-short life), so he and our son went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. While they were out, he found in the clearance aisle of the local big box store a packet of folders.

These folders were especially interesting because instead of having pretty colored designs on them, they were black and white- they were designed for you to color in with your own colors, your own designs. He knew I'd seen them multiple times and thought about buying them, only to decide they were too expensive for what they were.

Have I mentioned I'm frugal? Yea. Just a bit...

That night, he came in and told me to close my eyes. Then he pulled out the goodies he'd found one by one, placing them in front of me. His eyes beamed with love as I giggled (and blew my nose, and coughed), and once again I thought just how lucky I am to have married my best friend.

A Cinderella Story

Let me tell you, I feel so relieved being able to post a simple, beautiful look after my previous fails. I find it very frustrating when I can't translate what's in my head to what's on  my nails. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem with this look!

Also, I'm still feeling pretty icky, so I didn't do my usual photoshoppery to fix my poor pathetic cuticles. I apologize in advance, but I feel the look is princessy enough to forgive. I hope you agree!

So- this all started with an email I got from KKcenterhk. I almost missed it, because it somehow wound up in my spam folder! Thankfully, I saw it, because they wanted me to try their water decals. I said sure, and after browsing for what seemed like hours, I finally decided on N.NAIL-WDHHC069-Silver- a set of metallic filigree designs.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to expect. The water decals I've seen and used prior to this point were very thin, and I couldn't imagine a metallic water decal actually working. But I was optimistic, and eagerly awaited the chance to try them.

Click this one to see the detail on these decals!

Once they came in, I was absolutely floored. They're absolutely gorgeous, shiny metallic silver and so delicate! The only problem I have with them is that they were too darned hard to photograph- I must have taken 20 pictures and this is the best of them!

They are slightly different than other water decals I've worked with, though. Instead of coming loose after seconds, they take a few minutes to really turn loose from the backing paper. I actually used a pair of plastic tweezers to peel them off once they were saturated, but they're very sturdy and held up beautifully.

However, once I had them in hand I couldn't decide what to pair them with! I wanted something simple... no holos or duochrome to take away from the delicacy of the design. I also knew I wanted to put a stone inside the circle of the design. It just seemed made to be accented!

Finally, I decided on a polish I didn't think I'd like at all- Kinetic Candy by China Glaze. It's a pretty enough polish, it was just too pale, too blue, too  Easter for me. I decided to add a coat of Love My Nails Dazzling over the top, and a tiny blue gem from my Fing'rs Nail and Body Jewels.

I don't know if I've mentioned this lately, but this is probably my favorite set of nail gems. They're tiny and so sparkly, plus there's such a fun variety of shapes! This set was provided by the kind folks at Fing'rs ages ago, and I keep finding new uses for it!

You see the end result here... this blue sparkles like Cinderella's ball gown, and I don't want to hear the clock strike 12! I've had this on for days and don't want to take it off. It's so shimmery and delicate, and I am just in love!

Who knew I could be a pale blue, Easter kind of girl? Certainly not me! I also left the Dazzling off my thumb, just to show the decal a bit more clearly without all those sparkles.  I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Water decals were provided by kkcenterhk.com for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

A teaser post because I am sick.

I wish I could show you what's on my nails at the moment, including the process to achieve said look. Instead, I am producing prodigious amounts of toxic biohazard waste from my nose, which seems like it's kicked into production mode for the world's most disgusting slime factory. I don't know what one would want disgusting nose slime for, but I'm sure there's an evil genius out there plotting the world's doom who could figure a use for it.

Too bad for him I'm keeping it all! Bah, you can't have it, evil genius! You'll have to find your own snot factory! This one is on the side of good!

... yea, I think the cold meds are kicking in. Or the sleep meds. Or maybe the pain meds... I'm on a lot of meds.

So instead of the awesome post I had planned for today, you get a single picture: my thumb. It's a hint of how awesome this manicure is...and it's also the only photo I could finish prepping before I had to lie down and actively germ fight (in other words, sleep). Enjoy it, and hopefully tomorrow there will be glorious descriptions and photos and other nicenesses.

It's a pretty picture, I think. Or maybe I just need sleep... at this point, I can't really tell. I'm going to sleep now, since I'm typoing more than I'm typing, and I'm spending to much time correcting the corrections I already corrected....

Say goodnight, Laynie.

Goodnight Laynie! :D

The room is all spinny. This makes it much harder to type a straight line!.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

11 Questions Tag, as seen on Mocha Mish Mash

I saw this idea on Mocha Mish Mash and thought it looked fun, so I'm doing it too!

 1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? "Oh Lord, I look SCARY when I'm sick!"

 2. What are the top 3 Beauty Products you cannot live without? Lip balm, leave-in conditioner, and nail polish. My lips stay chapped, my hair is so frustrating now that it's curly, and dude, it's NAIL POLISH!

 3. What are your best physical features?  Hmmm... I'd have to go with my eyes. I get compliments on them.

 4. What your favorite form of exercise? Walking and swimming are the most fun for me. I used to do much more, but the fibromyalgia sort of kicked my butt.

 5. Do you play any instruments? Yes! Well, sort of. In high school I played clarinet, flute, saxophone, piccolo and bassoon. (Yea, I was a bit of a multi-tasker!) Since then, I've dabbled a bit with piano and guitar, and I'm planning to get a ukulele soon!

 6. What is your worst pet peeve?  I don't know that I can pick just one! People who willfully spread misinformation infuriate me, so I'd go with that I guess.

 7. Seen anything weird lately?  Honey, my LIFE is one big weird thing!

 8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?  Someplace where the temperature doesn't swing 40 degrees in 24 hours would be nice!

 9. Do you believe in love at first sight?  No, not really. I think you can be drawn to someone, or feel the possibility for love at first sight, but actual love takes time.

10. Do you sing in the shower?  I sing everywhere!

11. What is your best childhood memory? Gosh, that's a hard one- I have a lot to choose from! The first one that comes to mind at the moment would be sitting in my mom's lap when I was 3 years old, watching Elvis on stage. My grandmother had told my mom she was crazy for taking a 3 year old to a concert, but I promised her I'd behave...

So there we were on the floor, and I knew that if I didn't behave myself my mom would leave. (Ok, I didn't know it at the time, but I think she would have stayed, since it was Elvis. But I digress...)  Elvis was on stage, singing and handing out scarves, and I had a FIT! I wanted to badly to go and get a scarf, but my mom said he'd be done by the time we got there. I was so sad, but I wasn't going to throw a fit, because... you know, ELVIS!!

That pretty much sums up my obsession with music!