The Butterfly and I hung out. 
Of COURSE we did our nails…and practiced more stamping! And this stamping thing definitely takes practice.
She chose a really pretty blue: OPI – “What’s With The Cattitude”
Konad plate – m4
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I finally settled on a color to match my dress for the party I attended later that evening. (The Butterfly picked out my shoes).
OPI – “Black Onyx”
Konad plate – m54
And we didn’t even use the butterfly stamps at all?!?!?
~~~~~
I can see this stamping thing getting out of hand very quickly. lol
I am in love with the idea of stamping now. So many choices!! I’ve used my stamping kit twice – TWO TIMES – and I have already started searching for more plates. I’ll have them ordered by the end of next week, I’m sure of it. This will be fun! 
China Glaze – “Concrete Catwalk”
circle: OPI – “So Many Clowns…So Little Time”
Konad Plate – m36 
I dragged my mother into my manicure practice. Surprisingly (PLEASANTLY), she went all the way in…. and even let me practice stamping. YAYYYYY!
OPI – “Bubble Bath”
Konad Plate – m4 & m21 
Okay, Normally I don’t do this… *B2K/R. Kelly remix voice* (yes, that’s a link, lol)
![IMG_3604[1]](https://polish2times.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/img_36041.jpg?w=410&h=308 "IMG_3604[1]")
but Amazon got me!!!! I was looking for nail tapes… which I, in fact, did order, but they haven’t arrived….. I think they are coming from somewhere in Hong Kong. The Konad Stamper kit and plates arrived much more quickly.
OPI – “Gouda Gouda Two Shoes”
I was against doing my own stamping and resisted this purchase…. but all things in time, I suppose. Here I am practicing my first stamping mani. Starting off gently:
I do love it already! The Butterfly and I are going to have a BLAST doing manicures with this!
One day I may graduate to the mind-blowing stamping that heartNAT does. Her creations are works of pure art! For example:
, 
, or 
.
Till then….
~~Happy 4th of July!!!~~
Napkin or tablecloth?… All the way down to the stitching.
Summertime fun.
~~~~~
All these colors (painted in this order) and white acrylic paint (with a size 5/0 precision paint brush) for the “stitches”.
Maybe it’s just a colorful plaid. lol
I had to upgrade my iPhone.
Concomitantly, I had to search for a new phone case. The cases in the store are ALWAYS UGLY! Wait, hideous might be more accurate. And EXPENSIVE! as if the phone didn’t cost enough! I’ve resorted to the deeply discounted and diverse case designs from Amazon.com. And for the price of ONE in the store, I ordered like 7 assorted designs online. (But why do I need 7 of them??! 
)
I saw this one…. and instead of purchasing it, I thought I’d try the design on my nails. LOL.
And once again, I didn’t look at the picture before I started painting my nails. HAHAHA. I don’t know why I do that. I literally just forget about the picture even though in my mind’s eye, I feel like I see the picture clearly. I am going to start printing pics out and create a stack of potential manicure designs that will be right next to me at my manicure “station”.
All that to say, my nails didn’t quite turn out like the phone case…
Sinful Colors – “Black on Black”
… but I like them anyway.
I used a medium sized dotting tool and dipped it in both the white and dark pink acrylic paint at the same time to create my flower petals. Then I used yellow acrylic paint for my flower center, and a fine liner monogram art brush with green acrylic paint for my little leaves.
China Glaze – “For Audrey” 
OPI – “Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh” 
OPI – “Jade Is The New Black” 
So now that I’ve spent wayyyyyyy too much time viewing Love4Nails youtube videos….. [THANKS RENEE!!!]
I went out and purchased a couple new brushes.
When I got home, I realized I already had one of the brushes Love4Nails uses in her nail art…. one I NEVER use. (I have about 21 nail art brushes… and I use dotting tools more than anything. Twenty-one. I probably didn’t need to purchase ANYTHING.)
I also made a few realizations….. I like synthetic brushes better. Liners are better than spotters. Acrylic paint is easier for me to control because the consistency doesn’t seem to change. And I need to practice….. on others.
I wanted some graphic art of my own because I really liked Renee’s:
OPI – “Heart Throb” 
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And I practiced a little on my crazy sister’s nails. Yes, crazy. This crazy girl didn’t even want color on her nails (WHAT?!?!)….. well, with the exception of her thumbs. And she wanted smiley faces with their tongues sticking out on those. She LOVED the one I made a mistake on…. because it looks like a smirk expression instead of a smile. SMH. I love my sister 
.
When Cheryl asked me to be a guest on the blog, I must admit I was extremely flattered! Thanks Cheryl!!!
I have always loved graphic art designs and decided to try my hand at it in a Pedi. Surprisingly, I liked it so much I did a matching mani!
This look was inspired by Love4Nails….it reminds me of Mardi Gras! Don’t ask me why, it just does.
The colors I chose are all by China Glaze…the base color is Style Wars, an outrageous Orange that is nothing less than gorgeous when worn alone. The accent colors are Turned Up Turquoise, a familiar color here on Polish2Times, and Frostbite, an absolutely breath taking blue with just the right amount of shimmer. I then used Yellow, Black and White Stripe Rites to create random stripes and dots.
Had I known I was going to be asked to share on the blog, I would have taken pictures of the process and tried not to be so messy. Next time I’ll be prepared…LOL!
Hope you have as much fun as I did creating some graphic designs. Enjoy!!!
China Glaze – “Hey Sailor” & “II” 
Nails had to be chopped. In all their flourishing beauty, sadly they were actually in the way. Because they were so strong, I had to soak my nails in water to soften them a bit so I could actually cut them. I wanted the process to go as smoothly as possible.
Here today, gone…well, tonight…
I’ve been thinking to test out this “II” color for at least six months. It never seemed the right time. It’s gorgeous. It’s a beautiful nude color with the prettiest gold hologram shimmer. But it’s so sheer, you’d never be able to avoid a visible nail line.
Enter the beauty of having nubby nails.
….and of course, there were dots. lol
This has to be the most subtle tape manicure… BUT it was a total success…. again! Yay!!! *doing a little jig*
Time consuming? yes.
But I have come to a new appreciation of this tape process. The clean lines that can be achieved are just flickin’ amazing! Look:
China Glaze – “Papaya Punch” & “Sun Worshiper”
The “real life” color is probably somewhere between the first picture and the last picture. Sun Worshiper is near neon, and Papaya Punch is pretty deep and muted against it. The color change looks a light reflection as opposed to an actual color change. . .
Polish2Times 