Tuesday Tips

Welcome to Tuesday Tips! I have to say that I'm in LOVE with the new Jamberry material - it's not just on a clear backing that makes sizing the shields to your nails easier, although that's great too.

The new material is thinner and now I'm not even heating them before applying! I just trim the shield in half, place it on my clean and prepped nail, apply a bit of heat from my heater to help smooth it out, trim and file. I am not needing to heat and reheat to smooth out the shields...and it's not like I thought the previous formulation was hard to apply, but these go on smooth as butter. I applied my test shields for this new minimal heat application on my pointer and ring fingers, and they lasted for a week with no lifting or bubbling! They would still be on my fingers only today I attended a Princess Teatime birthday party, so I needed something pink and girlie!

I chose the Pink and White Heart Collage with a Black Polka Accent nail. I know that my shields will last up to two weeks...but I find myself wanting to change them every week just so I can have the fun of changing up the design. I can't believe I'm seriously taking pics of my nails for y'all...but after a few months of Jams my nailbiting is history, and my cuticles are starting to look more smooth instead of chewed up and sad. 

Tomorrow I'll be back to share the birthday card I whipped up for Princess P's Birthday Tea Party!

Tuesday Tips + Retro Sketches Card

Three days in a row, Stampin' Friends - there's just so much goodness to share this month! Today I have a card based on this week's sketch from Retro Sketches. I used the In The Background sneak peek set again, this time inked in Tulip and Saddle inks. I layered a Cricut Art Philosophy shape over the stamped border (from Pear and Partridge...only 16 more days until that's retired and gone...sniff). I stamped that sentiment block using the Whoo's Your Valentine special stamp set and popped it up with 3-D Foam tape. I lined up my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder with the unstamped portion of the card and embossed only the bottom portion of the card. Red Glitter Gems, Bitty Sparkles, and Silver Metallic Pen were used to embellish the floral background stamping. I am gonna make a gob of these!

I'm linking this card to Make It Monday on An Original Belle - shoot over there to check out the cute craftiness!

Since today is Tuesday Tips, here's a shot of my current Jams. Since I'd replaced the pointers with the Grey Polka Dot sample of the new Jamberry thinner, even easier to stick on material, I figured I'd switch out the rest into a silver and gray theme using Diamond Dust Sparkle and Grey Plaid, a little more muted than the snowflakes my four year old kept complaining about...apparently he feels strongly that snowflake nails are only ok in December, lol.

If you need a sample, checkout my Facebook page for details in my post last Thursday on how to get yours. I loved the old Jamberry material, but this new stuff is fabulous! It heats up super fast and bonds to nails with much less smoothing and heat. I've updated my Application tutorial with extra tips now too!

Just a couple more days to enter my drawing for Friday Favorite Things this week - see ya back here soon!

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