31DC-D31 - Your Signature Style

Hey y'all!

OHPRAISEDOT I can't believe I finished a 31-Day Challenge!  I am truly astonished that I managed to keep up with it, ON TIME no less, and managed to get every prompt done in time for a 10 AM posting the following morning, despite not getting that head-start I intended back in December.  Needless to say, the month of January has flown by and here we are on the final prompt, My Signature Style.  I was a bit confuddled by this one as I really don't consider myself to have developed a signature style as of yet, but there were aspects that I knew I would need to incorporate.  With a little inspiration from my kitchen apron, I was able to develop this look.

31DC-D30 - Something You've Never Tried Before

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Ahh... the penultimate day of this month-long challenge, and it's a Friday to boot!  I'm glad to see this week come to a close, and frankly, the month as well.  Today's prompt challenged us to do "Something You've Never Tried Before" and I decided it was a perfect time to try leadlight stamping (as well as clear some jellies out of my untried box).

31DC-D29 - Blue Base

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Well, I finally saw the dentist yesterday, and prognosis: root canal.  Fun!  All I can say is that I'm happy that I'm not in the overwhelming pain that I've suffered the past 5 days waiting for that appointment!  Now we can return to regular broadcasting... whatever that means around here.  Today's prompt for the 31DC is Blue Base, so I decided to play around with another abstract technique to create this look.

31DC-D28 - Non-Glitter Topper

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We're so close to the end of the 31-Day Challenge now that I can almost smell it, but that may have something to do with pain killers for my tooth affecting my ability to sense things properly.  The good news is that the dentist will see me this afternoon, and with a bit of luck I'll have my wits about me enough to finish the month and get ready for the beginning of February, when I'll be launching a new giveaway, so stay tuned for that!  Today's prompt for the challenge is Non-Glitter Toppers, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to play with some new goodies in my stash.

31DC-D27 - Recreate One Of Your Old Manis

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge has us revisiting our archives to recreate a look we've already done.  I had a hard time deciding between remastering a look I flopped the first time around or revamping a look that I got right, and ultimately decided that I had to recreate one that had a request for a tutorial which I never got around to.  I still haven't done the tutorial, mind you, but at least I'm dusting off the original look for another go. 

31DC-D26 - Metallic Fishtail Braid

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Short post today as I'm struggling with a bad tooth that's giving off a lot of temperature sensitivity and it's got me in a bit of pain, so the dentist should be expecting me!  Today's prompt is Fishtail Braid, and I've gone metallic for a soft but chic look accented with square studs.

31DC-D25 - Complement and Contrast

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Happy Sunday!  Today begins the last week of the 31-Day Challenge, and I'm so grateful the end is in sight!  I really could kick myself for not getting a head start on it, because I feel like I've been in rushed catch-up mode for the past three weeks!  I haven't had a chance to cruise through the other challengers' nail art looks other than what's on IG, nor have I been able to read any of my other favorite blogs, or even respond to the comments that have been left for me, and that makes a hugely sad panda.  To that end, let me first apologize for not being quite so "present," and also assure you that I will be playing catch up during the first week of February to get things right.  For now, however, we continue pressing on, and today's prompt is Complement and Contrast.  I had really been wracking my brain trying to be clever with this prompt, and the answer dawned on me as I was looking at the trim of one of my makeup bags!  As I was growing up, I was always taught not to mix brown and black because they don't complement each other.  I think these days that rule has been pretty well tossed, but there are most assuredly some brown/black combos that don't work.  With that in mind, I created my own brown and black modified French tip nail art look that my grandmother would have hated, but I definitely love.

31DC-D24 - Decals

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Decals, and whereas I had intended to do a tutorial for making homemade water slide decals, time got away from me and I seem to have lost my water slide paper anyway, so that's gonna get pushed back, but it IS coming.  Instead I turned to a baggie in the bottom of my nail art kit that contains all the random decals and stickers that I somehow end up with but never use.  I pulled out a set of pretty French Tips and used them to make this look.

31DC-D23 - White Base

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Happy Friday!  I've been a bad blogger.  See, I had built up a couple days' worth of buffer on this challenge and this week I've managed to piss them away, so today's nail art was done hastily last night after two days of shopping and binge watching TOWIE, because apparently I *am* a basic B.  To my defense, I can honestly say that I started watching it because I wanted to nail down the accent, so I'm not sure how many more seasons I'll be able to stomach before I become completely allergic to the orange.  ANYWAY... today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is White Base, so I fell back on a bit of stamping to create this musical manicure.

31DC-D22 - Blobbicure

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Hope you're all feelin footloose and fancy free!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge was to create a Blobbicure, also known as a pebble manicure.  I decided to play with some textures and tones to create this... almost patriotic look.

31DC-D21 - 3 Shades of Green/Yellow

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Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is to use 3 Shades of Green and/or Yellow, which I kind of did a couple of days ago in green and I don't have 3 shades of yellow that are far enough apart to actually make a look with them so I am doing green again.  Isn't that exciting?  Pfft.  Whatever.  I don't need your pity.  I decided to make a double-stamping look into a bamboo forest and throw in a yellow accent nail just for SnGs.

31DC-D20 - Rainbow

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Rainbow, and since I've done a lot of different rainbow looks in
the last year or so, I really wanted to try to come up with something... different.  I started looking around for other nail art designs combining rainbow with animal print, and I found a lot of the standard leopard and tiger and zebra patterns, so I had to start thinking outside the box for something unique.  I certainly think I've accomplished that with this look - rainbow tortoise shell.

31DC-D19 - Fire

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Happy Monday!  For my American readers, I hope you're able to take advantage of today's national holiday (MLK Day) to do something good.  Incidentally, today is also Robert E Lee's birthday, which is kind of ironic but I suppose those two days fall simultaneously every once in a while.  In further unfortunate coincidence, today is also marked as Confederate Heroes day in a couple of states, and on an even more bizarre turn of events, it's also National Gun Appreciation Day.  Seriously?  Does anyone else see the unfolding problem here?  I just... okay, let's just be clear here... on a day of unfortunate convergences of suspiciously differing ideological memorials, a) don't be a racist, b) don't shoot anyone.  With all that said, it seems almost comical to segue into today's nail art prompt, which is... I can't.  I just can't.  It's Fire, people.  We're doing Fire nail art today, so c) don't blow anything up or set anything on fire.  Dot have mercy.

31DC-D18 - Artwork

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Artwork, and whilst I was browsing the internet for inspiration for yesterday's Tranquility look, I came across a painting that I really wanted to recreate as a nail art look.

31DC-D17 - Recreate a mani

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Happy Saturday!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is "Recreate a Mani by your Favorite Blogger."  I actually have far too many "favorite" bloggers to be able to pick just one, but I've had a few manis in my hat for future recreations, so I've just pulled one of those out of the vault.  Jessica at BeHappyAndBuyPolish created this awesome dark blue and neon coral dotticure for her "What You Need to Have (And Keep) Great Nails While At College" composite post, and I loved the color combination so much that I knew I wanted to have a go at recreating it.  Although I didn't have the same colors as Jessica, I approximated them with what I had on hand, and came up with this look.

31DC-D16 - Tranquility

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Ah, Friday is here at last, and this one in particular also would have been my dad's 74th birthday, so I am thinking of him today.  The theme for the 31-Day Challenge today is Tranquility, which is a nice, open prompt that gives lots of wiggle room for technique and interpretation.  Because I liked yesterday's green smoky watercolor effect so much, I wanted to practice with it a bit more, so I give you these blue smoked nails to represent the theme.  They have an aquatic feel that I think translates to tranquility for a lot of people.

31DC-D15 - Green Base

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We're just about halfway through this 31-day challenge, and the fatigue is starting to show on me, but I still feel like I'm accidentally coming up with some cool looking nail art, so on I persevere.  Today's prompt is Green Base, so I grabbed a handful of green polishes in different finishes, and went to work adapting an older technique to suit my purpose.

31DC-D14 - Holo

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Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt in the 31-Day Challenge gives us Holo, short for Holographic.  There are a few different ways to go about achieving a holographic nail art look, but I opted to take the most traditional (and really, most fun) by selecting two indie polishes stacked with holographic glitter and pairing it with a neat stamping image.

31DC-D13 Inspired By Pinterest

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My look today is inspired by this Butter London gold french and half moon look from Fashion Week 2014.  I loved the simplicity and thought it would be an excellent palette cleanser from all the heavy nail art looks I've been doing lately. 

Magical Mondays and 31DC-D12 - Film

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Happy Magical Monday!  Today I'm back with the next installment of the collab series I'm doing with Belle Glamour, celebrating one of our favorite mutual interests, Harry Potter.  It also works out quite nicely that today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Film, so I could kill two birds with one stone!  This month, Cat and I are showcasing our favorite characters from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone.  My personal favorite character is Hagrid, played by Robbie Coltrane in the films.