31DC2013 Day 25- Inspired by fashion

Shhhhhhhhhhh just go with it.

31DC2013 catch up- 22, 23, and 24

Welp. There's not much I can say about this. My cat and the geek convention and the holiday have really done a number on my ability to keep up with this challenge. I still managed to make nail art for the last three days though! Without much commentary, here they are:

Inspired by a song- Baba Yetu, from the soundtrack of Civilization 4- a computer game that I haven't played, but my god is the soundtrack incredible. Baba Yetu is the first track on the soundtrack. The lyrics themselves are actually the Lord's Prayer translated into Swahili, but the song represents dawn.

These are fun, but they are actually my least favorite of this entry. The next two are some of my favorite art ever, which is more the pity since this is so late, and no one will see them in the inlinkz widget.

Inspired by a movie: Wall-E. My favorite movie of all time! I tried it glossy at first, but it was hard to see the designs through the glare of the lamp light so I tried matteifying it. I like it both ways, so I added photos of both.

Inspired by a book- Fox in Socks. I've been looking for an excuse to use flocking powder for some time, and this was the perfect opening. I have this book practically memorized- I adored listening to the tongue twisters as a child, and at this point I can recite it extremely quickly.

I'm including the Inlinkz for day 24, but be sure to check out others too!

31DC2013 Day 21- Inspired by a color

Oh come on- you must know by now. It's going to be turquoise. What else?

I think I have more turquoise in my stash than any other color. Although I use that term very broadly- it also includes teal and aqua, since basically anything on the blue-to-green spectrum is incredibly appealing to me. For my blog I use the tag "blue-green" as a catch all for the color, but today I think it's fairly turquoise.

I rarely do design skittles, but I'm especially happy with these.I'm absolutely going to do some iteration of this manicure again once the challenge is over!

Tomorrow is the first day that really worries me. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do!

To see who else is participating in today's challenge click the jump:

31DC2013 Day 20- Water Marble

It's funny, most people dread water marble day because it's a fairly advanced technique, but actually, water marbling is what got me into nail art in the first place. Later on down the line I've discovered that it is difficult when compared with other techniques, but there will always be a special place in my heart for marbling.

I actually like water marbling so much that I created my own spin on the technique. I tried to reproduce it here, but it went amazingly badly so I ended up going with a much more traditional marble.

I'm also noticing a bit of a pattern with my using this particular color scheme, so I'll have to try for some more variety on the future!

To see who else participated in today's challenge, click the jump:

31DC2013 Day 19- Galaxies

And now for the second (and much shorter) post for today- galaxy nails! My first attempt at these a few months ago was less than impressive- way too much glitter and way too little anything else. This time I'm much happier with the results:

I could still do with a little more subtlety and precision, but overall I think these look a lot more like galaxies! ...well nebulas. Galaxy is a slight misnomer.

Unfortunately, no Hannah nails today, although I'm sure she'll catch up later- galaxies are irresistible :) Hopefully tomorrow's post will be on time!

To see who else is participating today, click the jump!

31DC2013 Day 18 - Half Moons

Greetings! I'm late, late, late, late! But I have not missed a day of art. So I'm going to post twice in a row now, and again in less than 24 hours, for Water Marble day.

Without further ado, half-moons:

I don't know why, but for some reason I'm not good at half moons in particular. I did them the same way I do tape manis, but with round stickers. Still, I couldn't get the half moons perfectly smooth. I'm still fairly okay with the results, but close up the flaws are pretty obvious.

Hannah is doubling up her black-and-white day with half moons, and she went with something really adorable (and kind of literal)

To see who else participated in today's challenge, click the jump!

31DC2013 Day 17- Glitter

Today I decided to keep it simple. I haven't had a break from nail art in a while, and it's all time-consuming stuff in the next few days, so I wanted a "break". Hannah's glitter nails are much more interesting, so she'll go first today.

This also doubles as her flower day submission.

Here's mine- just because I wanted to keep it simple doesn't mean that it can't be pretty!

I can never pass up an opportunity to show off GlitterBunny polish- this is one coat of You Can Do It, Brucey! over OPI Ink (indigo) and GA-DE Green Garnet (turquoise). This polish is adorable, and it's quite easy to use- mostly opaque in three coats! You can buy any of her lovely polishes at her BigCartel site so give her a visit! All of her polishes are vegan and cruelty free.

And now for a surprise guest- my friend Angela! She's not participating in the challenge in general, but she's a glitter addict, so today she couldn't resist:

This is a base of "Peace, Love, & OPI", with a layer of Vivid Laquer's "I Deglaze With Wine", topped off with Essie's matte topcoat. She seriously went to town!

To see other blogs who are participating in today's challenge, click the jump

31DC2013 Day 16- Tribal print

Um... okay. So, today is a little bit of a subversion on my part- I am really uncomfortable with the "tribal" theme. It feels kind of fetish-y... like, why are we using a stereotypical representation of someone else's culture and belief system as a fashion accessory? It just rubs me the wrong way. It's hard to call it "cultural appropriation" since the theme is so generic as to not even indicate a particular culture, but it's still... kinda weird.

The thing is: I do enjoy the aesthetic of stereotypical "tribal" nails. I think a lot of today's submissions are really beautiful. The fact that we are reducing them to simply an aesthetic with no meaning is what bothers me- I am all for celebrating cultural heritage, or even well-researched cultural homage. But I don't feel right just doing it because I like the look.

But I don't want to miss a day of the challenge, so I'm going to make art from the only tribe I don't feel uncomfortable using as decoration- my own tribe. I'm Jewish, and hey- we've got twelve tribes to choose from! No loss. I don't know exactly what tribe my father is, but my mother is a Levite, so I decided to go with that. The colorful dots on the pale gold background represent the High Priest's breastplate, from the elaborate and beautiful priesthood garb worn in the era of the Holy Temple. Each color is as close a match as I can approximate to the actual gem colors on the breastplate, according to historical documents.

Here's a cool note: This is my first attempt at taking a proper blog photo in artificial light! Not too shabby, don'cha think? It's pretty liberating, because it means I don't have to drag my camera to work to catch daylight hours. I'll probably still try to most of the time, but I think this is more than adequate for the days I can't. Or I can't get out at a perfect time to catch the light. No more crazy lady photographing her hands in the parking lot at peak exodus hours!

Hannah, meanwhile, also tapped into her own cultural heritage for her designs. She's Panamanian, so she based her design on a piece of Panamanian artwork from her grandmother:

And here is the artwork it's based on:

To see who else is participating in today's challenge, click the jump.

31DC2013 Day 15- Delicate print

We're now halfway through the challenge! And so far I've posted every single day, although there were a couple of close calls there. Here's to getting through the next 16 days!

So... I'm not sure how broadly we're defining "print" here, but I'll just take it to mean something delicate looking. Let's hope I'm at least in the ballpark!

For this mani I started with a white base and then sponged random arrangements of teal, fuchsia, and indigo over it. Then I added another layer of white and used the saran wrap technique to allow the colors to show through. I think the result is pretty delicate, don't you?

To see who else is participating today, click the jump.

31DC2013 Day 14- Floral print

Today's manicure is very simple and modest, since I made this going into the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. We spend the day in quiet prayer and fast. As such I didn't want to have anything too bold or colorful (it's traditional to wear white). So I went with a simple french manicure and a stamp.

I hope any of my observant Jewish readers had an easy fast and a meaningful day of prayer! I could have scheduled this post like I did before, but I decided that I wasn't inclined to have something even automatically today.

Tomorrow returns to normal, but we're headed into chaos again soon- Sukkot! The convention again! Lots of adventure ahead :)

To see who else participated in the challenge today, click the jump!

31DC2013 Day 13- Animal print

I have a confession to make- I don't like animal print. Not leopard, not zebra, not anything. Hanna, on the other hand, had a field day and ended up doing skittles with a different animal print on each nail, so she goes first!

From left to right: Tree frog, turtle shell, Nemo (her pet dog, and she actually used fur he shed as flocking powder. Hannah is kind of nuts), and peacock feather. All freehanded.

I decided to forgo the traditional style of animal print and made myself calico claws.

I started with an off-white base, and then sponged random combinations of calico-like colors onto my nails, and then I went over it with a paintbrush dipped in acetone to achieve a fur-like look. Topped off with a matte top coat and viola! Calico nails.

These were inspired by my family's calico cats:

This was Chanla- our first cat. Unfortunately she passed away, but she left us with her daughter.

This is Tipsy. Who got her name from being a very cross-eyed and clumsy kitten, even more so than most kittens. She used to trip over her own feet regularly. Now she is a grown up and much more sedate lady, she's about middle-aged by cat lifespans. Still as gorgeous as ever, though!

For links to other blogs participating in today's challenge, click the jump!