31 Day Challenge - Day 26 - Pattern

This one is a bit of stretch.... But I knew at some point I would HAVE to do CatDog. So my coorelation is that there is pattern to the entire cartoon. Everything is half and half, like their house is half fish and half bone, the wallpaper will be part cat and part dog themed. And basically all of the plots revolve around the same pattern. Dog is silly and dumb, while cat is the mastermind. So just go with me here....

My cousin was in town visiting and she's been my gracious hand model for previous cartoon manicures. She volunteered again. Am I just delusional? Or do our hands/nails look similar? Even our nail beds are the same shape. I guess it just proves that we are in fact related!

Here I did the sign that is behind them in the intro shots. All done with acrylic paints. 

The base polish is Essie Navigate Her.

Then on the other hand I painted their body stretching across her nails. It made for a really cool french tip on the middle nail. :)

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31 Day Challenge - Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Who better for a tutorial than Dora the Explorer? She is so educational and helpful. She teaches children Spanish all day every day. So today she's teach you how to say "nail polish" in Spanish.

Apparently it is "Esmalte De Unas"

Thumb - China Glaze Dance Baby

Index - Essence The One & Only

Middle - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away

Ring - Revlon Sorbet

Pinky - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy

I love how the thumb turned out. It may be on of my best lettering jobs in nail art. Usually that is what I struggle with the most. 

Dora herself was done with acrylic paint, but the lettering was all done using the nail polish shades listed above.

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31 Day Challenge - Day 29 - Supernatural

Again, I'm going out of order, but just deal with it. I'll cover them all in the end.

A unicorn is supernatural correct? I'm taking it from the definition of  "being seemingly against the laws of nature." This is Buttercup the Unicorn from Toy Story 3.

This is the sweetest supernatural thing I've seen in...... maybe forever. 

I first painted my nails with China Glaze Lemon Fizz, then China Glaze Crackle Lightening Bolt. Then I did a coat of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper for an extra magical quality. I freehanded Buttercup with acrylic paints.

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31 Day Challenge - Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

I realize I'm going out of order, but I haven't had time to execute my idea for "inspired by a pattern" just yet, so rather than sit on these pictures.... I wanted to show them to you and I'll come back to Day 21 when I get done. ;) My blog, my rules. Lol

Artwork.... Cartoons..... Sonoma Nail Art hit the nail on the head when she suggested the Gargoyles from The Hunchback of Notre Dame! Wonderful idea! Thanks again Michelle!

The base polish is Zoya Kristen stamped with Barielle Coco Bar and the bundle monster pebble image. All of the Gargoyle art was done with acrylic paints.

Left is Hugo

Middle is Victor

Right is Lavergne

 So I haven't forgotten about the challenge, I've just been scatter brained.

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31 Day Challenge - Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

What better cartoon fashion than Cinderella's Glass Slipper? I had no choice but to use Sinful Colors Cinderella and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper! 

I used Color Club Starry Temptress Topcoat and China Glaze Fairy Dust for my little glitter swirls on the other nails. 

Here is a gif tutorial of how I painted the thumb nail.

And some pictures of Cinderella before the nail art, just because....Disney Princess Cinderella Night-Light By Idea NuovaDisney Princess Cinderella Night-Light By Idea Nuova

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31 Day Challenge - Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

My mother actually works at the local library in specialized program within the children's department. She told me about this book a while ago, and it's stuck in my memory. My memory was jogged, when a follower suggested any of Mo Willem's books because she's a school teacher and all of her students love his work. She mentioned the characters Gerald and Piggy, but I knew I'd have to focus on the Pigeon!

The book cover is shown below. "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!" basically, the entire book is the Pigeon just begging to drive the bus. Little kids love it because they catch on quickly and like to participate by telling the Pigeon, "No!"

Description from the website:

"When a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place —- a pigeon! But you’ve never met one like this before. As he pleads, wheedles, and begs his way through the book, children will love being able to answer back and decide his fate. In his hilarious picture book debut, popular cartoonist Mo Willems perfectly captures a preschooler’s temper tantrum."   

I just love the muted color palette too, it's really nice! 

Lettering is always a problem with me. I barely managed to squeeze on that "S."

And Pigeon! The background color is China Glaze Sunset Sail. I also used acrylic paint in black, white, and yellow. Pigeon's body is China Glaze Sea Spray.

So remember, don't let the pigeon drive the bus! No matter what he says!

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31 Day Challenge - Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

The Emperor's New Groove! 

These were suggested by a follower but you didn't leave your name?! So thanks to whoever you are. You reminded me of this hilarious cartoon that I had forgotten about! Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama and has to learn some important lessons. David Spade and John Goodman are some of the contributing voices. 

 

I mainly used this image as inspiration.

I started to paint the lettering orange, but it didn't show up well enough. I just painted yellow on top.

What do you think? Did you see this movie growing up?

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31 Day Challenge - Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Inspired by the theme song to Sesame Street actually. Every kid knows these lyrics:

Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street
Come and play
Everything's A-OK
Friendly neighbors there
That's where we meet
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street
It's a magic carpet ride
Every door will open wide
To Happy people like you--
Happy people like
What a beautiful
Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet
Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame street...
How to get to Sesame Street
How to get to...

 Thumb is the Sesame Street logo.

Index - Oscar the Grouch

Middle - Cookie Monster

Ring - Big Bird

Pinky - Elmo

It's always tough for me to fit tiny letters and this was no exception! 

Step by step tutorial after the jump if you're interested.

I started with the following base polish colors. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue Away, Lightening, and Rapid Red. Then Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green in on my ring finger.

The I freehanded these other details using acrylic paints and the same polish of Blue Away and Rapid Red.

I kind of dabbed outside of my black outlines on the "fuzzy" characters so that they took on a look of fur.

2 coats of Seche Vite to smooth everything out!

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31 Day Challenge - Day 21 - Inspired by a Color

Inspired by the color green. How about the Jolly Green Giant as nail art?

 I started with my base polish (pictured at the end of this post) and freehanded all of the details with acrylic paints. Simply his face and some leaves across the tips. I always admired his toga outfit made entirely of leaves. ;)

 My base color is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green. Just because it's gorgeous enough to deserve a plain swatch picture.

I haven't forgotten about this challenge, I'm still making my way through I promise! I've just been really busy with buying a house and now packing!

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31 Day Challenge - Day 20 - Water Marble

The Tazmanian Devil! I wanted the marble to represent the chaos tornado that was his method of travel.

This didn't turn out exactly like what I had in mind, but it's the best I could do considering that I'm not well acquainted with water marbling. It's just not my preferred method of nail art. I don't have a lot of practice, and it took me over an hour to just get 3 nails done! My design in the water kept looking like crap.

In the end I seem to have combined every nail art technique known to man in one manicure. 

Water marbling, polka dots, freehand, and rimming the edges.

Here's a GIF of how I painted Taz.

This was my first attempt at this manicure. 

I wanted spiral designs, but it mostly ended up looking like Agate stones. I had finished this late into the night and didn't have time to paint Taz then. And I didn't like the gray patches. So I just removed it and attempted again another night.

This was the next opportunity I had to watermarble. I settled on just trying to get vertical stripes across the nails. The middle nail and thumb were the closest to what I had in mind.

I had seen someone that posted simple polka dots on top of their water marble to hide the bubbles or flaws. So I went with that. Lol. Again, it ended late into the night and had to go to work the next day, so I left it at this stage.

The next night, I freehanded Taz on the index because that was my least favorite marble design.

I had some minor tip wear, but a good deal of shrinkage around the cuticle from a coat of Seche Vite over a long since dry manicure. So to hide that I did some "rimming" or freehanding a border/frame around each nail. I just used a Kiss Nail Art Striper in black. Then another coat of Seche Vite.

I was undecided at first, but I think I like how it turned out!

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