Category Archives: 31 Day Challenge 2014

31 Day Challenge Recap

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I officially survived my first 31 day challenge, and it was just like everyone who has done it before said: fun, time-consuming, mentally draining, and a great opportunity to improve nail art skills.  I posted each day during the challenge,  but I thought it would be good to post all of the pictures in one place, just for easy future reference.   Here we go:

Day 1:  Red Nails

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Day 2: Orange Nails

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Day 3: Yellow Nails

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Day 4: Green Nails

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Day 5: Blue Nails

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Day 6: Violet Nails

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Day 7: Black & White Nails

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Day 8: Metallic Nails

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Day 9: Rainbow Nails

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Day 10: Gradient Nails

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Day 11: Polka Dots

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Day 12: Stripes

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Day 13: Animal Print

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Day 14: Flowers

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Day 15: Delicate Print

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Day 16: Geometric

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Day 17: Glitter

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Day 18: Half Moons

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Day 19: Galaxies

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Day 20: Water Marble

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Day 21: Inspired by a Color

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Day 22: Inspired by a Song

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Day 23: Inspired by Movie

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Day 24: Inspired by Book

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Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

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Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

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Day27: Inspired by Artwork

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Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

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Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

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Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

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Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

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So that’s it!  The heading for each day is a link to my post from that day, if you’d like more info.  Thanks for reading!  Also, please let me know if you’d like to see a tutorial on any of these looks!

Day 31: Honor Nails You Love (31dc2014)

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I MADE IT! I MADE IT!

I’m pretty sure I painted my nails more in the past 31 days than the average woman paints her nails in a year.  For today, I recreated a mani that was originally done by Jaunty Juli.  (She is awesome, so check her out on YouTube.)  I almost did these nails yesterday, but I decided to save these for today so that I don’t have to take them off after one day.  Here they are:

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These nails took a little bit of time, but they really weren’t hard.  Check out Jaunty Juli’s tutorial on her YouTube channel for the details on how to get this look.

So, now that this whole thing is over, I think I’m going back to posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so that I can get my sanity back.  Thanks so much to all of you who have hung in there with me for the past 31 days!

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial (31dc2014)

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Day 30!  Only one more day to go!  I’m gonna make it!

For today’s nails, the idea is to do nails based on a tutorial done by another nails artist.  I opted to try the dry brush technique.  I’ve seen this technique in a lot of tutorials by a lot of different bloggers, so I’m not really sure who to credit with coming up with it first.   Anyway, here are my nails:

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The second picture is in direct sunlight.

These nails were super easy to do and required absolutely no artistic ability and no tools!  I just started by painting my nails with a nude color, then I chose 5 or 6 polishes that I thought were nice fall colors. After the nude polish was mostly dry, I took one of my polishes and wiped pretty much all of the polish off on the neck of the bottle.  then, using the little bit of polish that was still on the brush, I made little streaky patches on each of my nails.  Then I went through the same process with each color.  If you’d like to see a real actual tutorial on this technique, please let me know!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow for the 31st and final day of this challenge!

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural (31dc2014)

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So, today my nails are a bit on the preachy side:

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On my thumb, I have “us” on one side and “God” on the other, separated by a chasm.  My first finger represents Jesus’ blood as he sacrificed himself as payment for our sin.  My middle finger depicts how the cross bridges the gap between us an God.  My ring finger is green to represent then new life we have when we accept this gift from God.  The dove represents the peace God gives us, as well as the Holy Spirit.  My pinky represents the promise of heaven, where the streets are paved with gold.

I’m more than happy to have an open conversation about any of this with any of you!

See you tomorrow with nails inspired by a tutorial.  Only 2 more days to go!  I’m gonna make it!

Day 28: Inspired by a Flag (31dc2014)

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Today was another long day for me, so this is going to be good and short again.  I’m mostly Swiss (with a little bit of German) so I decided to do a little tribute to the Swiss flag:

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And here’s my Cinderella hand, in case you’re curious:

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I’ll see you tomorrow with some supernatural fingers!

Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

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It’s been a long day, and I just got home after being out doing stuff for 13 hours, so this is going to be short and sweet.  I was initially stumped for today, so I did an image search online for “artwork” and found this:

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So I painted my nails to look like this:

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I was super happy with how these turned out!  In case you’re curious, here’s a pic with my thumb:

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And in case you are still curious, here’s my right hand.  It’s my Cinderella hand: the hand that does all of the hard work, but doesn’t get any of the glory.

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It’s time to take these off and get some nails that are inspired by a flag.  I’m pretty sad to take these off 😦

Oh, and to those of you who have given me lots of love over these nails today on instagram, thank you, thank you, thank you!  You all are sweet! See you tomorrow!

Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern (31dc2014)

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Day 26 already!  I’m kind of getting tired of painting my nails every day, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

Earlier this year, we redid our bedroom.  I decided that we should make the process extra difficult and paint our walls with a glossy design over matte paint of the same color.  It took HOURS.  Like, a LOT of hours.  And we painted the design freehand.

Here it is in the middle of the project:

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And here is the end result:

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I figured if I could paint the walls of an entire room with this pattern freehand, surely I could paint my nails with the same pattern.

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Oh, my husband is unintentionally funny sometimes.  When I showed him my nails, he said, “What was today’s theme?  Nails inspired by a room in your house?”  That made me laugh.

See you tomorrow with some nails inspired by artwork.  I’ve got some big plans, so let’s hope it works out!

Day 25: Inspired by Fashion (31dc2014)

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I was initially at a loss for what to do for today.  My plan was to just find some image of  some crazy runway outfit that had a pattern I could copy, but then I decided to check some of the people I follow on Instagram to see if I could find some inspiration.  I found this cute picture of Mindy Kaling to be quite inspiring:

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And here are my nails:

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After I did them, I sort of wished that I had outlined the turquoise with straight gold polish instead of a glitter polish so that the lines would have been cleaner, but it’s not too bad.  It’s not one of my favorite looks from the challenge so far, but hey, they can’t all be winners.  See you tomorrow with some nails that are inspired by a pattern.

Day 24: Inspired by a Book (31dc2014)

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Little Women is one of those books that I read over and over as a kid.  I love the movie version that came out in the 90s, too.  Makes me cry every time, especially when I watch it with my sisters.  One of the best stories ever about sister-love and loyalty and how life changes as you grow up.

So here are my nails:

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I’m pretty proud of the detail on these!  All of the practice from this 31 day challenge is paying off!  On my first finger is Meg’s glove that goes missing but is actually kept and cherished by John Brooke, whom Meg eventually marries.  My middle finger is Jo’s pen and paper, since she is forever writing stories and plays.  The ring finger is Beth’s piano, a gift from Mr Laurence.  And the pinky is Amy’s artist’s palette, since she grows up to be a painter.

What to paint for each of the sisters came to me really quickly except for Meg.  The idea for the glove actually came from my youngest sister (the “Amy” of our family) who actually played the role of Meg in her college’s production of the musical a few years ago.  I just had to put that in here.

Anyway, I’ll be sad to take these nails off! I’ll be back tomorrow with some fashion inspired nails.

Day 23: Inspired by a Movie (31dc2014)

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I already rambled on about my love for The Sound of Music in yesterday’s post, so I’ll spare you today.  Seriously though, it is the best movie ever, so if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it asap.

Here are my nails:

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I’m pretty happy with these!  Some of my music notes are a little wonky, buy I love how my alps turned out!  See you tomorrow with some nails inspired by a book!