Laid-Back 31 Day Challenge: Black & White

Welcome to Day 1 of Crumpet's Nail Tarts Laid Back 31 Day Challenge! I'm super excited about this nail art challenge because it goes through May, so I will have nail art to post regularly - yay! Let's get to it, shall we?

Day 1 of this Challenge is Black & White. I wanted to use my favorite pattern for this - Houndstooth! I love this look so much, it's a real eye-catcher! For this look I used Julep Eileen for the base white used Bundle Monster Plate BM-322 and Konad special black stamping polish.

 

Here's what is coming up this challenge:

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY! It runs through Feb 24th, so get your entries in :)

Til next time!
-Kara

Pretty in Pink

Welcome back everyone! I hadn't done any stamping in a while, so I thought I'd give it a go! Luckily, this is the "Month of Untrieds", so it really helped narrow down my options for me.

For this look I used an unnamed pink Miss Sporty I got from a friend in the UK. This is a very pretty color, but very sheer. This is 4 coats, and there is still very visible nail line. I then used Bundle Monster plate BM-213 and Zoya Lara for the images, and to add a little pizazz, I used my dotting tool to add gems to the accent nail. Everything is topped with a generous coat of Seche Vite.

I love the way this turned out, I just wish the base color was more opaque. Perhaps I'll wear some undies next time :)

Til next time!
-Kara

Pretty Serious Nightopia

Welcome back! I have for you one of my absolute favorite polishes. Ever. Yes, I love it that much!
This is Nightopia by the Australian brand Pretty Serious.

Pretty Serious Nightopia

Look at this delicious shimmery teal duochrome! At this angle it's teal.

And at this angle, it's blue!

 And look! Another pretty angle!

 So pretty! The formula on this polish is fabulous, this is two coats topped with Seche Vite. I wore this all day, and could not stop staring at them. I decided they looked like a peacock, so I decided to make it official

For this I used Essie Good As Gold and Bundle Monster BM-212, I then used Color Club Harp on It to fill in the dots. And viola! Peacock nails!

Hope you enjoyed this mani half as much as I did!
Til next time!
-Kara

Gifts nails

Today's challenge for the Show Me Your Top Coats Holiday Nail Art Challenge is A's favorite part of the holidays - Gifts! I had big lofty plans for gifts, unfortunately, they didn't work out, but I think these turnout out well anyway! I wore these nails for a very special Mommy and A holiday themed outing!

Here they are:

Presents / Gifts Nails

This is Essie Good As Gold as a base. I then layed down striping tape and painted over it all with Zoya Jem - isn't Jem GORGeous? - When it was all dry, I stamped the bows on using Good As Gold and Cheeky plate CH24. Viola! Presents!

Next up is Santa. Gonna have to test out a few ideas for this! Off I go!
-Kara

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Holiday Bells

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone has had a good week, and is ready for the weekend to begin! A is very excited for Saturday because Saturday is our Art Project Day, and she has been looking forward to Christmas crafts all week!

Today is Day 4 of the Holiday Nail Art Challenge, and the Challenge of the Day is Bells, and here they are:

For this mani, I started with 2 coats of Pretty Serious BSOD, a fabulous blue jelly packed with blue glitter. Seriously. Packed. Pictures just don't do this polish justice. I then used Bundle Monster Plate BM-223 and Essie No Place Like Chrome for the bells. I topped this off with Color Club's Berry and Bright, and using a dotting tool added little red bows to the bells to make them a little more festive.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Holiday Nail Art Challenge Entries.

-Kara

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Orly Miss Conduct

Not much going on with me today, so I'm going to just jump right in!

Today's mani is so fun, I didn't think I would love this polish as much as I do! Orly Miss Conduct is a magenta polish with gorgeous scattered holo - so fun! I actaully painted this on my nails last night, and wore it all day today. I got so many complements on it! Then tonight, I decided it needed a little something extra. Check it out!

Orly Miss Conduct

This is 2 coats of Orly Miss Conduct stamped with Konad's special black stamping polish using my Vivid Lacquer stamping plate V001. I cannot tell you how much I love this plate! The full nail images are HUGE, so they actually fit my large nails! Check out my other post featuring the Vivid Lacquer plate here.

Here's a macro so you can see the beautiful scattered holo in Miss Conduct. Gorgeous, isn't it?
B thought so too, she snatched the bottle off of the desk and managed to get it open, and poured half the bottle out all over the carpet. Yay.

-Kara

Day 4: Delicate Print

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Saturday! I was stuck doing the garage sale again, and it was freezing! It was so nice to come back home to a nice warm fire, but boy, am I exhausted! In other news, B's birthday is tomorrow! So if you haven't entered the giveaway, then please do so now!

Here we are at Challenge Day 4 already! Where is the time going? No matter, today's theme is Delicate Print. When I think delicate print, I think dainty and floral, so that's what I went with.

Avon Suede Soft Violet

For this, I used two coats of my new suede polish, this is Avon Suede Soft Violet, then I used my Konad stamping plate m73 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. No top coat for this one, it's a suede!

I hope you like this mani, I actually love it, and am going to keep it on for B's birthday party tomorrow!

Keep checking back for more challenge days, next up is half moons! That should be fun!
Follow the links below to see what delicate prints the other girls have come up with!

Til next time,
-Kara

Are You Red-y For This?

I had long ago given up on reds, they just looks terrible with my skin tone, so when I was given Head Mistress by Essie, I put it away and promptly for got about it. Then today I was having a conversation about red polish with a dear friend, and she suggested I find a blue-toned red. Wouldn't you know, I had one sitting around un-used and un-loved, so I decided to try it out, and I am so glad that I did!

Essie Head Mistress & Essie Penny Talk

This is two coats of Essie Head Mistress, stamped with Essie Penny Talk using Vivid Lacquer plate V001, all topped off with Seche Vite. Isn't it beautiful?

Here's a photo without so much glare on the accent nails:

Vivid Lacquer V001 Stamping plate

Let me just say, I love this stamping plate! How cute are those little skull & crossbones?

What's your favorite shade of red?

-Kara

Fun with Victoriana

Today was such a hectic day for me, it was an in-service day, so A didn't have preschool and B decided she was not going to take a nap today. At all. So once I finally got everyone into bed, I reached for a favorite polish for a pick me up.

Butter London Victoriana is a beautiful blue-teal packed with silver micro-glitter, and, man, is it gorgeous!

Butter London Victoriana

See what I mean? Gorgeous! Ahhh, I feel better already!

But I couldn't stop there, it's not even midnight, after all, and tomorrow just wouldn't be right if I actually had enough sleep, so...

Konad m64

This is 2 coats of Victoriana, 1 coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy, then I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep with Konad plate m64. Phew, that was quite a mouth full!

I hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I enjoyed making it!

What's your go-to color when you need a pick-me-up?

-Kara

Orly Decoded

I should be doing my homework, but I think I'll write a blog post instead :)
I was up way too late painting my nails last night. B is sick and didn't get to bed until after midnight, which means I was up until 1am painting my nails! Thank goodness for Seche Vite!

Anyway, Orly Decoded has been on my wish list for a while now, and by chance, I found it on the clearance table at Sally! Yay! I love when that happens. So, it's been on my untrieds shelf for a couple of weeks, so I decided to go for it.

Here it is, Orly Decoded:

Orly Decoded

This is a really nice, dark gray, creme polish. I loved the application, easy and smooth. This picture was taken without any cleanup done! It has a few spots that should be cleaned up, but pretty good for 1 am!

I really like this polish, but I felt like it needed a little something more. So this morning, I got out the old Konad and stamped. This is plate M63 and I used Pure Ice Pussy Cat. Here is the finished result:

Konad m63

Much better :)

-Kara

Nail Fail!

Well, I'm not off to a great start today! My youngest is getting sick, and was up really late. I didn't have a lot of time to plan my mani. I knew I wanted to use something from my untried stash, so I grabbed OPI Mod About You, a nice pale pink. I expected this polish to be very sheer and need many coats to achieve opacity, but it was surprisingly opaque after one coat, but I used two just to be sure. I wanted to do something soft and simple, so I pulled out the Konad stamper and plate m63. I couldn't decide between using Nails Inc Bruton Street or China Glaze For Audrey as my accent color, so I did both!

This is where the FAIL comes in. Apparently, while my plate LOOKED clean, it still had traces of black in it, and it messed up the color, that and Bruton Street was a little too sheer for stamping. Anyway, the effect left something to be desired. So, I cleaned up the plate again and brushed on For Audrey, flipped the image and stamped again. No time to start over - bed was calling me!

So, without further ado. The Nail Fail.

OPI Mod About You

Oh well, sometimes you just gotta try, right? Lesson learned. Hopefully next time it'll turn out better.

-Kara