#1 Orioles Fan

Greetings everyone!!!! For the manicure I have to share today, I changed things up a little bit and created a "Skittles" design for you all.

With the summer getting under way, Major League Baseball is in full swing, and my Baltimore Orioles are doing great!  (If you don't already know, I'm obsessed.with them  :). My outfit for the day consisted of jean shorts, an orange cami with white dots, an Orioles v-neck, baseball cap earrings, and a string bracelet in the O's colors. So I of course had to create some nails to match!!! :)

 My idea for this mani was simply to use several different techniques in the Orioles' colors of orange, white, and black. I also wanted a good excuse to break out my black crackle polish. ;)

 This pic shows the water marble that I created on my thumb. I think it turned out pretty well, and only took a couple of minutes!!!! But the results of water marbling are always so neat. :)

 Here's a close-up and front view of my thumb design. For the colors, I used an orange by Ciate, black from Wet n Wild, and Sally Hansen white. All three worked great for the water marbling!!!!

 On my first finger, I made a 3D type of design by dragging slightly dried polish over the orange background. Obviously my middle finger has my black Pure Ice crackle polish that I love so much :). I tried to ombre my ring finger, and it didn't turn out the best, but I think you still get the ombre feel. And then my pinky... Hmmm, not sure what to say other than I ran out of time and ideas and just painted it white. What a cop-out... LOL :)

And another side view, just because I'm sure NONE of you are getting at all tired of my sports obsession ;). Oh well, at least the Orioles are doing well so you don't have to hear me complaining all summer...

Who's your favorite baseball team? And do you like to create sports manicures???

Come back soon, and feel free to leave your thoughts below!!

 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Trendy T  Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

Best of 2012

Well this year has been a great one, considering it's the first year of my blog!!! I think things have gone well so far, and a big thank you to all my followers and new nail buddies!! You guys are great!!

So to commemorate, I've put together a Best of post. There are various "Best _" awards which I have given to different posts. But enough talking, and on with the nails!!!

UPDATE- 1/3/13: I know that the poll has not been working right, but I got it fixed, so please vote!!! (see the bottom of this post)

Best- Toes:

These adorable ladybug toes were definitely my favorite pedicure design of 2012!!!  To get an easy tutorial for these toes (or you could even make it into a manicure for summer!!) check out the post here.

Best- Stamping:

I actually haven't done too much stamping on this blog yet, but these orange nails were one of my best designs yet!! For a stamping tutorial, click here.

Best- New Technique:

Now I must say, while I did LOVE these icy ombre nails, I don't think they were my absolute favorite new technique. However, my first choice is actually my favorite mani for the year, so I decided to honor these (I mean, they were in 2nd place anyway :). Keep reading to see my favorite design of all!! Instructions for creating an ombre manicure can be found here.

Best- Halloween Design:

I REALLY loved these Frankenstein nails!! I just thought they were so cute, and the bright green and black were such a great color combo!! And not to brag, but these were definitely a favorite at my school! :)

Best- Swatch:

Do you recognize these?? LOL :) (And if you don't, just take a look at my previous post). I think this is one of my favorite polishes ever!!! Can you tell I like glitter? This also commemorates a very important moment in Polished history: my 1st GLITTER BOMB!!!! Okay, enough now... :)

Best- Simple Design:

I loved these Chanel nails so much!!! It was so easy to create as well, but it's a really classy and elegant design. The pearl strings were made with a dotting tool, and I freehanded the logo. My mom says that this is one of her favorite designs too. :)

Best- Tape Manicure:

We all know I love tape, but it wasn't hard to pick my favorite design!!!! While these nails remind me a lot of Ancient Greece, they looked great with my Robin Hood Halloween costume!! Check out this link for the tutorial.

Best- 3D Nails:

I thought this design was so pretty, but it's sad as it was created for the terrible tragedy in Newtown, CT. The white is to promote peace and nonviolence. I chose my white, 3D nail art flowers which are so cute and iridescent. I definitely adored this design, although the reason for it was so terrible.

Best- Cute Manicure:

The pastel colors did not show up the greatest in pictures, but I thought these little cupcakes were just too cute!!! My favorite part- the cherries and sprinkles (I used Bedazzled for the sprinkles :)!!!!

Best- Freehanding:

Now this manicure is definitely a close second for my favorite manicure of all!!! This Apollo 11 design was part of the Time Warp Challenge I did earlier in the year; the daily theme was a historical event, so I chose the moon landing. On my nails I painted: "1 small step for man, 1 giant leap for mankind", the Apollo spacecraft, an "11", the earth, and the American flag on the moon. Now I know the last photo doesn't show too much freehanding; it's predominately sponging with some freehanded stars; I just wanted you to get the whole look because I love it so much. :)

FAVORITE Mani of the Year:

Drumroll please...

Yes, I did make this photo extra large on purpose. :) And that's because it's my favorite!! If you hadn't seen this yet, I did this water marble for Labor Day (the post and tutorial can be found here). I just thought that the color combo was perfect, especially for a Patriotic holiday, and it was a major shock to have my first water marble turn out so well (in my opinion, that is :). My pictures turned out nicely as well (which does not always happen), and I love the sidewalk background. In short I LOVE THIS MANICURE!!!!!!

I think that's a wrap of 2012, now bring on the New Year!!!

Thanks so much!!
:) Trendy Tips :)

And finally, I have a poll for you all to see what you'd like me to do more of on this blog in the New Year. Please vote, I plan to listen to the results!!!
Click here to take survey

The Lazy 15- Day 2: Gradient

I'm ba-ack!!! YAY!!! Sorry- again- for the absence, but my life is just too hectic to post as often as I want to. Blogging while having school and homework is hard enough, but then throw in the fact that I entered a nail challenge and am doing NaNoWriMo means that my time is definitely stretched in every direction!

What's NaNoWriMo you ask? Well, for starters, that stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it occurs every November. As you may have already figured out, the purpose of the month is to write a rough draft for a novel of 50,000+ words. This averages out to 1,667 words a day; this may not sound like a lot, but writing creative fiction that you made up is definitely a challenge!!

Anyway, enough talking and on with the nails for day 2 of, "The Lazy 15 Challenge." Oh boy, these nails. I have rather mixed feelings about them, but will let you see for yourself.

 When I was thinking of what polishes to use, I knew that I was definitely going to use this neon pink polish that I hadn't tried out yet. Then I thought, maybe my yellow will look good with it. As I was doing it, I was not happy with the way it was looking. But once it was finished, it started to grow on me some. Now, I just can't decide whether I like it or not. :/

In the pictures, my colors got sooooo distorted!!! My NEON pink polish looks peach, and my yellow is more gold than the light yellow color it really is. :(

Also, since this was done with my non-dominant hand (my right hand) it wasn't the neatest mani I've ever done. The cleanup is pretty horrendous too...

Oh well, there's always next time!!!

And if you'd like to see a gradient (also called ombre) tutorial, check out this post on my blog: Icy Ombre. These, Rock n Ombre nails were another gradient mani that I did on a friend. 

Polishes Used:

• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening (Quick Review: this polish really does dry fast!!! However, I don't like the large brush; it puts way too much polish on my small nails.)
• Funky Fingers in Aloha!

Check out Phoenix Nails for the inlinkz to the other fabulous participants!!!!

Enjoy!!!

~ Trendy Tips ~

EDIT November 5: Hey everyone!!! I also want to let you know about a FABULOUS nail blog known as Nails for the Sake of Sanity. And she's having a giveaway!! YAY!!! You're going to love the prize (mini Christmas polishes from Jindie Nails!!!) So check it out, follow her, and enter the giveaway today!! :) Click here for a link to the giveaway.

If you'd like to join in, please link up so we can keep track of whos joining.

1. Never Mind Suzi	2. Mrs. Priss Porter	3. Amanda, the Nail Polish Enthusiast
4. Pink and Polished Nails	5. Rashini	6. Phoenix Nails
7. Fitzy at Lacquer Lad	8. Nicole @Young Wild and Polished	9. Jazz at Glitter Infatuation
10. SparKyl!e Na!ls	11. Nicole	12. Danielle at Totally Nailed
13. Amanda - Fashion Footing	14. Amanda - Nailsinthemoonlight	15. Impoverished by Polish
16. Nicole gets Nailed	17. Fabby Nailed It	18. Glitter Tips
19. Caroline @ nailsapART	20. Polished	21. Pink and Polished Nails
22. Lydia's Nails	23. Nails4Dummies	24. ManiCabana
25. Tara	26. Cuti-CLUE-les	27. Bethany Peterman
28. Fitzy at Lacquer Lad	29. Linziino	30. Kate@LCF
31. Emma In Polishland	32. MauiMami	33. Wendy's Delights
34. Pink & Polished: Gradient

(Submissions close in 39d 11h 53m)

Link tool by inlinkz.com