The Digit-al Dozen Does Fandom--Elvis----of course!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  Welcome to this week's Digit-al Dozen!  This week is fandom.  Fandom?! What the french is that even a word?? Is that even a thing?  I mean fandom--come on how geeky is that?!

Well it actually IS a thing and even though sometimes it's geeky it doesn't always have to be geeky!

My first thought for fandom week was "what the hell?!   I'm not a Harry Potter person or a Twlight person.  I've never seen Supernatural.  I don't care for the Avengers at all or Thor for that matter so yes that goes double for Loki.  And don't even get me started on the Sherlock stuff for piss sake"  Then I sort of panicked because omg I am not any of those things so what's left?????  What sort of fandom is left for me?

Then I said to myself "Are you freaking kidding me?! You are older than any of those baby fandom things you just named AND you have been a fan of this guy longer than most fandoms in the above mentioned group have been alive! SNAP OUT OF IT!"

Whewwwwwww I got this!

My fandom week starts off with Elvis, The King Of Rock-n-Roll.  I've loved him for 45 years and the flame is not waning.  I can listen to him non stop 24-7 and never tired of his voice.  I could watch movie after movie after movie and never tire of seeing his handsome face.  And I'm pretty sure how I feel about Elvis is how the Supernatural, Avenger's, Twilight, Harry Potter and Sherlock fans all feel about their respective shows/characters so I need to chill LOL!

My mani today is ode to Elvis and his gold lame' suit!  Elvis--forever in my heart

 This suit was going on back in the day!  Here's my mani to match

Look at all that holoey goodness!

Needs a little bit more though don't you think?

Ahhhh there he is the King himself!

You know these poor foils aren't going to last long--I still haven't found anything other than a UV/LED gel topcoat that doesn't ruin the holo effect in foils

Here's how the mani measures up to his pic--what do you think?

You can tell me but "Don't Be Cruel" ahahahah I crack myself up!

So this could be a really exciting week!  Let's check out what everyone else did for their first day of Fandom

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does Patterns On Patterns

Holy cow this is SO late!  First I had my birthday that put me behind then I got sick and didn't feel like doing a thing--ug.  I'm still sick but I really hated not finishing this theme!  I did a major fail in the beginning of the week and actually contemplated posting it but I just couldn't do it.  So I sort of redeemed myself today by doing some stamping over a foil.

Truth be told foils just flat out piss me off!  I have tried every single topcoat I can under the sun and every single one of them wrinkles the foil.  Every.Single.One.  It's annoying.  They look great until you topcoat them.  Without topcoat the fall apart in a matter or hours--glurg it is not a good situation.

So naturally today it hacked me off when after topcoating them before stamping they freaking wrinkled.   It wasn't much of a hardship to stamp over them LOL!

This is one of those from a distance it looks pretty cool mani's!

But up close and you see the imperfections

Oh my gosh sort of like the guy you are dating!!! LOL!  Hahaha that one cracked me up.

The foil I used is called Comet Trail and while it does not appear to be holographic at all once I topcoated it the silver wrinkled--the asshat!
I stamped using one of my new Uber  Chic plates.  I really love both of the Uber Chic sets that I got for my birthday!

So thankfully I finished the week only a couple days behind.  Man it can be brutal sometimes!  This week was hard for me.  I did a couple mani's I really liked--like the first two manis.  I loved my very first one but then I just felt like I fell flat on my face.

Hopefully next month I can come back victorious!

An InLinkz Link-up

Curses! Foiled Again!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I wanted to do another foil mani since the advanced group runs their themes all week instead of just for a day but man oh man oh man foils and topcoat together just plain suck!  I don't know if it's my body's chemical makeup or what but what seems to work for everyone else just does not work for me.

I hauled out my foils and used Dollar Nail Art's Fiber Optics this time which is pretty damn kick ass!

They went on pretty good.  I learned a trick from my friend Kerrie who said she always does 2 layers of foil so that's what I did here instead of trying to paint my nails a matching color.  I was able to apply my Rejuvacote without too much crackling and wrinkling.

So this all looks pretty cool but the challenge is stamping over the foils and that's where the huge fail comes in!

Once I stamped and put Seche Vite on the prismatic colors are just gone.  All Im left with is some silver.  What a bummer!

It's still cool but it's just not the same!

Oh my kingdom for a topcoat that works over foils!  I've tried the trick of using the glue over the foil and then top coating and it doesn't work for me.  While it's definitely true a slow drying top coat is better than a fast dry, I still cannot get a perfect top coat with no cracks and no dulling of the foil.

I guess I shouldn't complain to much.  We all know I change my mani everyday so I could go out with a foil without topcoat and just have the thing rub off by the end of the day LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!  Tomorrow kicks off the Digit-al Dozen week and it's going to be EPIC!  EPIC I TELL YOU!  Make sure you stop in to check out what we've all got cooked up!

Fun with foils!

Hi Everyone!  This week in my advanced nail stamping group our theme is foils.  Stamping over foils or decal method with foils.  Foils are gorgeous BUT topcoat just kills them!  It's the saddest thing in the world.  I feel like I have a pretty good method for using them and it's true that a uv gel topcoat doesn't do nearly as much damage with wrinkling and cracking but man getting off soak off gel is a pain in the keester!

I am lucky enough to own a couple foils that are holo though! So win win for the mani today!

I put on my Elven Gold from Dollar Nail Art.  It's a gorgeous green and gold foil with no holo.  Then I stamped over it with an image from Daschica's SdP I plate.  It's a very celtic look!

Isn't it gorgeous?!

The trick I learned with foils is to have the smoothest surface you can.  I do two layers of foils over basecoat and ridge filler and I think it makes a world of difference

I've heard there are water based varnishes you can find in the craft stores that won't wreck a holo foil.  I might be on the hunt for some and see if it works.  This is our theme all week long so I'm sure I'll be doing some more foils again this week.

I'm definitely going to have to haul this one out again for St Patrick's Day too!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Scaley Things!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Monday!  Tonight I've got my Fantasy Football draft so I thought I'd put on some fantasy nails.  Ah if only mermaids were real!  I think it's no secret that mermaid nails one of my favorites to do and all week last week the theme in the advanced nail stamping group was "scales".  I hauled out my foils as I haven't done anything with them in quite awhile AND discovered I actually have the least amount of cracking with my Rejuvacote over them and then did some stamping

I like this look and how the foils make the scales look real!

Foils are fun and I love stamping over them

With some help from a MoYou Sailor plate this mermaid nails look was easy.  Let's just hope tonight's Fantasy Football draft is just as easy!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!

Third time's the charm!

Hi Everyone!  Last night I hauled out my foils for the first time in a long time.  I was prompted to do so after a trip to the grocery store.  All the snow has been melting around here so now we have a lot of puddles.  Naturally, since I didn't have boots on, I parked in a huge puddle when I got there.  As I gingerly stepped out of the car I noticed an oil slick dancing around on top of the water and I said to myself, "hey!!! I have some foils that look just like that"

I don't know how so many people get foils on so flawlessly.  I never do.  I always get bald patchy spots on mine.  And yes I have enough glue on my nail and yes I wait long enough for it to dry.  No matter what I do I just can't get them to go on super smooth.  I didn't get the best pics of it but here's just the foils after I got them on

Yes it looks like oil floating on water but yes it also looks like a hot mess!  So I topcoated it with my gel and UV light and then stamped on it to see if that would help it

It's better but not great.  I do love this image from my new Lily Anna 06 plate though!

I pretty much called a night at this point and sat down on the couch.  I spied my trusty bottle of Hard Candy Matte Top Coat and thought it can't hurt to matte it, right????

ZOOMG this is not amazeballs!  It's SO much better and you can even see the foil colors and designs much better this way!

It's so 70's and retro looking!

Looks great on my keyboard!  Hopefully I'll still get some work done today and not just be staring at my nails!

What do you think?  Do you think matte saved the day?  Do you use foils?  Are you successful with them or do they make you want to scream sometimes?

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy First Day of Spring to you all!

Lead me to the Rock

Hi Everyone!  I hope you all have been enjoying some of the cool mani's in rock week.  I got a little lazy last night with this one as I have not 1, not 2 but 3 new books to read!  I had preordered a couple and then discovered I missed a must read author so I had to go back for more LOL!  I already finished one book.  I read it "cover to cover" on the kindle last night and it was SO good!  Jill Shalvis' 4th installment in her Animal Magnetism series.  The 4th one is called Rumor Has It and just like always Jill gives a great story!  HIGHLY recommend her to any of you who love contemporary romance!

Just because I was lazy though doesn't mean I have a slouch to show you in the mani department!

I hauled out my foils and FINALLY tried them with my Nailuv Gel Lite System.  The results were smashing!  So much so I did not stamp on them!!!

I'm using this lovely foil mani as Ruby!

The foil I used is called Cherry O's and came from Dollar Nail Art

Look at all the holographic glow and sparkle!

I think this is darn close the fiery beauty of a ruby!

I'll report back on how these held up with the gel over them.  They sure look pretty without any wrinkles!

Digit-al Dozen Does It Again--Books!

Hi Everyone!  Oh I had the not so great feeling the other night when I remembered books came before fashion in the re-do!  Here I was all prepared for fashion when I needed to be getting a book mani done! OIY!  You would think this would be an incredibly easy task for someone who reads every single day.

So what happened?  Well what happened is I did a super cool mani and then had to go out and find a book!  Thankfully I had the perfect choice in my arsenal of books!!

The book I chose is Space In His Heart by Roxanne St Claire.  It's the story of Commander Deke Stockard--a mega hunky astronaut (and seriously how perfect is that name for an astronaunt hero??) and Jessica Marlowe the PR gal tasked with making all things Space spun just the right way.

Deke doesn't want to babysit the PR gal but at the same time he can't seem to get away from the totally sexy spell she has over him.  This is a romantic suspense and is there ever suspense in this one.  Watching Deke and Jessica fall in love was a fantastic read.  

So here's my Space In His Heart mani for today!

I haven't used my foils in a long time!  They look darn good!

I used the gold star burst one as stars go great with my space theme!

I also need black in here so I added that and then stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold and PUEEN05--I'm not sure why I felt the little triangle images were spacey but I did LOL!

And I ended up totally loving this mani!!

Here are some shots with the flash, it's harder to see the foil design but look how blingy it is!

So much fun!!

This book has two different covers!  You know they try to suck all of us romance readers in with a guys naked chest most of the time--here's the first cover

Then they decided to entice with eye candy!

naked chest and a little face stubble will suck you in EVERY TIME!

What's everyone else reading in my group???!!

And only a few more days to check out The Spectacular September Giveaway!

If you haven't entered it yet check it out HERE

I got caught foiling around!

Hi Readers!  I've got another really cool foil mani today!  This time I stamped over it as I so love to do that with my foils.  I've showed you my Cherry O's foils before--they are one of my faves

I truly love the holo goodness in a foil but the simple truth is these babies loose some of that when topcoat is added.  I've tried not adding topcoat but it's a major fail as they eventually rub off.  Stamping helps add some more umpf to them after you top coat

I used my Milani Black Swift over these instead of my Kleancolor black so the black isn't as sharp as I had hoped, but still looks super cool!  This is an image I used from my  Cheeky XL B plate.  I have really been loving my Cheeky XL's lately!

Isn't this just totally cool???!!!!!

I'm doing another foil order from Dollar Nail Art and I can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

My I hate splatter mani!

Hi Readers!  Today's theme for the summer challenge is splatter!  And I hate it!  Splatter, that is.  I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to do a splatter mani--I had fabulous intentions of doing a great one--neons over foils Whoo Hoo!  Um no.  My splatter really just looked liked drops blobs.  When you have to get up everyday at 5am to get to work there is no way you can spend a zillion hours trying to perfect this talent either TRUST ME!  So today I'm rebelling against splatter--the asshat! For a simple "fake" mani!

Yep foils!  They are fun, they are easy and this looks a zillion times better than the craptastic splatter mani that ensued earlier!

This one is called Fiber Optics, it's a gorgeous purple with holographic stripes running through out!

For the base beneath it I used my Kleancolor metalllic purple and holy cow Readers I've only used metallic purple to stamp with and I never knew how gorgeous that baby was on it's own!  I'm definitely going to be using him for a basecolor in an upcoming mani I'm sure!

If I'd had the time and if wasn't 2am after 17 bazillion failed hours of attempting splatter I might have stamped over this--but the truth be told I was exhausted lol!  That, and the the fact, foils are instant nail art--nothing needed to them to make them look better.  They are super gorgeous on their own!
Here it is with flash

Holo-ee goodness!


I just know my fellow challengers came up with some fantastic splatters so be sure to check them out!!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!