It's been a while since I've done a water marble mani, so I figured I'd give it a go with a sparkly blue I just can't take my eyes off of.  Oh, and I also threw in some dots just for good measure.  Enjoy!

I was very tempted to do another gradient today, but I figured I'd give you all something a little different.  I landed on cherry blossoms.  I realized I had the perfect green and figured, why not!

Man, I seem to have been having the best luck lately finding the perfect combos for gradients!  This is definitely a more girly manicure than I'm used to, but it almost looks holographic.  And when you see it in the sun...oh boy does this mani sparkle and shine!

Tools Used:
Cosmetic sponge

Polishes Used:
#1 Pink - Maybelline Express Finish #250 Berry Boucle
#2 Pink/Orange - Sally Hansen Lustre Shine #006 Lava
#3 Gold - OPI #HLD07 Goldeneye

This is my fabulous new TARDIS that my dad hand-crafted for my birthday and is now home to all my polishes and painting tools!
Even though my birthday isn't until June, I brought this bad-boy home last night and had a blast carefully organizing all my polishes and supplies.  Words cannot express how much I love this and what a FANTASTIC job my dad did building it and my mom did painting it!
Seriously, best birthday present EVER!  Allons-y to the pictures already!

It fits perfectly under my Doctor painting (painted by my amazingly talented friend, Kitty Barks - check out her paintings here).

The first shelf has all my polishes organized in rows by color.

The second shelf holds all my tools.

And the third shelf has my acrylics and other painting miscellanea.

And it's a wonderful night-light too!

Today's schedule:  Go to Sally's and buy 8 bottles of polish.  Check.  Paint my 2 of my friend's nails simultaneously while watching Jurassic Park 2 & 3.  Check!

My best friends, Caitlin & Kim were ever so gracious enough as to come over and be my guinea pigs.  I've never been too comfortable painting people's nails, so I figured now would be a good time to practice up a bit.

Check out the next 3 posts for today's results!

My friend Kim loves the Starry Night painting, and pretty much anything else by Van Gogh.  So today, she gave me creative freedom over her nails, and I decided to put a tribute to her favorite painting on her nails.  I figured it was fitting.  It was a bit tricky o get the tiny brush stroke effect, but I found that using a toothpick and acrylics to create the swirls worked the best.

Side Note:  Please excuse the lack of clean-up around the nails.

Tools Used:
Toothpick
Small detail brush

Polishes Used:
Black - Orly #40484 Liquid Vinyl
Blue - China Glaze #1167 Want My Bawdy
White acrylic
Light blue acrylic
Yellow acrylic
Orange acrylic

I bought China Glaze "Dorothy Who?" today and could not resist using it immediately.  So I came up with this spectacular black to blue glitter gradient.  I used 4 different blues to get this dazzling effect and I applied it with the simple sponging gradient technique.  Seriously, this picture really does not do this manicure justice.  The blues are so bright and perfectly blended with amazing sparkle!  If you can, I urge you to pick up these polishes and do this mani yourself.  You will not be disappointed!

Tools Used:
Make-up sponge

Polishes Used (in order of application bottom to top):
#1 Black - Orly #40484 Liquid Vinyl
#2 Blue - China Glaze #1167 Want My Bawdy
#3 Blue Sparkle - China Glaze #857 Dorothy Who?
#4 Bright Blue Sparkle - Sinful Colors #1165 After Party

These are the happy little clouds I did on Caitlin's nails.  Very simple to do, and such cute results.
Just paint the nail sky blue, paint puffy lil clouds with some white acrylic and seal it off with some Seche.  Voila!

The best word to describe this mani is 'frustrating'.  I haven't been this irritated with a design since the Mario Mushrooms I did with the same green polish.  My downfall was definitely rushing through it so I could get to bed at a reasonable hour.  All in all it took about 3 hours to complete, and really, it should have been more.  Instead of letting the black & silver polishes fully dry when I had the tape on, I almost immediately took the tape off and that peeled the points of the star busts off with it.  I had to go back and touch a lot of it up, and even still, it didn't turn out so great.  I really wanted this design to come out looking pristine because it's just so cute!  But lesson learned - don't rush a cute mani.

Click here for the Star Burst Tutorial.

Side note:  Never use Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes when you are doing a light color on top of it.  The silver looked fine before I put the top coat on, but after the top coat, the silver turned into a greenish-yellow (the same thing happened when I used this polish for the Mario Mushrooms).  It must be the top coat that they include in the polish that discolors anything you put on top of it.

Polishes Used:
Blue - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear #130 Blue Me Away
Green - Sally Hansen Complete Manicure #430 Grass Slipper
Black - Orly #40484 Liquid Vinyl
Silver - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear #220 Celeb City

That's right!  It's the Des Moines, IA Annual Bacon Fest this weekend and I finally get to go!  Behold my delicious bacon nails!

Click here for my Bacon Nail Art Tutorial

Side note: Frak this cold winter and what it has done to my cuticles!

I'm ready to grab me some BACON!