The Digital Dozen does Spring - Day 5: Cute Cacti

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You know what's awesome!? Two kittens high fiving on the backs of unicorns. But you know what else is awesome!? Today marks the last of Digital Dozen Spring week! I'm pretty proud to have actually gotten through the week. It's been hard for me lately to get through it all with how busy I've been.

My final look this week is one I've been longing to do for awhile now...I even had the inspiration image as my phone background for a few weeks now! So while I find this pattern adorable and perfect for this time of year, cacti have a special place in my heart. I grew up visiting my great grand-parents home in Borrego Springs, a small desert town at the southern tip of California.

The Digital Dozen does Spring - Day 4: Retro Floral St. Patrick's Day

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Woah, can you guys believe I've been posting so much!? Me either! :D Pretty proud of myself for keeping up with Digital Dozen week so far. Day 4 of Spring week is also St Patrick's Day so I wanted to try and do something that incorporated both!

The Digital Dozen does Spring - Day 3: Lupine

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Day Three of Digital Dozen Spring week is here! Yay! And, that means it's also the middle of the week - double yay! It really is a super short post for today though as I'm quite exhausted and need to crawl into bed as soon as I hit publish on this baby!

The Digital Dozen does Spring - Day 2: Fawn Field

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Hey, everyone! Look at me, posting three days in a row! :D Thanks to Digital Dozen Spring week for giving me lots of inspiring things to dream up and paint!

It's getting late here in California so I'm going to keep this short and sweet...but today's Spring mani is inspired by a quintessential spring event that I would always look forward to growing up. We have gobs and gobs of deer near my parents house and while they're more like abnormally large rodents the majority of the year (ever wonder where the term Deer in Headlights comes from? Yeah I don't...they literally freeze and just STAND there for ages), in the spring time all the babies arrive!

    

The Digital Dozen does Spring - Day 1: Song Birds

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Hiya, all! Today marks the start of another Digital Dozen week and since Spring is just about at our doorstep, we're doing a whole week dedicated to one the season! I'm pretty much WAY excited about it :D

So, while I'm super excited for the theme this month I really don't know where this week will go nail art wise. I'd like to avoid doing flowers every single day, but it's tempting! I started today with a compromise - some floral instead of all floral ;)

The Digital Dozen does Nail Heroes - Day 4: Matte Top Coat

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Okay, Day 4 of Digital Dozen Nail Heroes week is another odd one! Today's hero is a nod to my favorite manicure finisher - MATTE TOP COAT! I'm sure after scrolling through my feed, you might notice I use matte top coat over nail art far more often than I go with a glossy top coat.

Needless to say, I love the look of a matte top coat over nail art. While glossy top coats make the colors pop more than matte, matte really lends itself to showing off the detail work of a design which is why I'm so drawn to it.

The Digital Dozen does Nail Heroes - Day 3: 25_SweetPea

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Hey, all! I know I'm behind in my posting for Digital Dozen week, but I'm trying to catch up now! Continuing with our Nail Heroes week, I'm honoring one of the kindest and most supportive ladies in my "nail world" - Sarah from 25_SweetPea! She's pretty damn talented as well!

For those who may not know of her, you can find her on her Instagram (@25_sweetpea) or on her blog (http://www.25sweetpeas.com). Over the past few years, I've had the honor of her recreating a few of my manis and each time I am blown away by what she paints. Since this week is all about our heroes, I figured now was the time to recreate one of Sarah's looks :)

The Digital Dozen does Nail Heroes - Day 2: Sundance Catalogue

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Day 2 of Digital Dozen week is here and I'm doing something a little different for today. While there are tons of nail artists who inspire me and are my heroes, one of my heroes is actually an inanimate object ha! When I find myself lacking inspiration, I turn to none other than a catalogue I receive in the mail every few weeks...

...anyone ever heard of Sundance Catalogue? Sundance was created by Robert Redford and features clothing and jewelry created by artisans who have tremendous talent. I own several pieces of jewelry from the site (which I always drool over in the catalogue), but I especially love browsing all the clothing that they feature. The artists do a great job of creating patterns and often pair them unconventionally with other patterns and I just find browsing the pages of their magazine so inspiring. Over the years I have recreated or been inspired by many a pattern I've spotted in this catalogue so today, my hero is this catalogue and all it's contributors!

The Digital Dozen does Nail Heroes - Day 1: Debbie from The Crumpet

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Hello, all! Another Digital Dozen week is upon us and as always, I'm excited to see what these ladies dream up for this month's theme! In honor of the month of love (February), we're honoring our favorite nail artists/nail polish/nail tools/nail inspiration and doing a week of Nail Heroes!

For Day 1, it only felt fitting to honor the fearless leader of our group, Debbie from The Crumpet! She is, after all, the reason we're all apart of the DD :) If you've been in nail art/blogging in any way, shape, or form over the past 4 years, then you know Debbie and her work. She is not only the brains behind a million different groups and challenges, she is also a talented artist, a great writer, and someone I've looked to for a guidebook on "how it's done" since I started this nail art journey.

The Digital Dozen does New & Improved - Day 3: Mod Floral

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Hi, all! Quick post because I'm exhausted! I'm a day behind where I'd like to be for Digital Dozen week but I'm hoping to squeak in my day 3 mani on day 3!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been recreating past floral manicures for New and Improved week to see how far (or not) I've come. It's been interesting so far because I feel like I've made improvements, but it in no way detracts from the love I feel for the original manis that I did.

The Digital Dozen does New & Improved - Day 2: Water Lilies

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Hello, all! It's day 2 of Digital Dozen New & Improved week and I've decided to recreate the first mani that I ever felt truly proud of completing -  these water lilies. Don't get me wrong, I quite liked many of the manicures that I had done up until this particular manicure, but I had never tackled anything quite as complex or challenging and I was so proud of it actually turning out the way I had hoped.

I have always loved impressionism and I've painted a few manicures in this style since I first painted these water lilies (just search for impressionism in the side bar if you'd like to see others!). But it's been a long time since I've done something like this so I was eager to give this one another go.

The Digital Dozen does New & Improved - Day 1: First Flowers

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Hello, all! It's Digital Dozen week yet again and I'm excited to say I'm actually going to be able to partake this month! We're all joining in on the theme of New & Improved meaning we're all going to be either recreating past work to show how much we've improved or attempt techniques that we've tried and maybe failed at before.

For me, I'm taking the approach of recreating past manicures, past floral manicures in particular. I'm sure you all know by now that I love my floral manicures...but did you know I didn't always feel that way? ;) I actually wrote that I wasn't a "flowers on my nails kind of girl"...oh how much you can change in a moment!

The Digital Dozen does Autumn - Day 3: Fox n' Leaves

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Oh hey, me again! :D

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday (or Monday morning, depending on where you're at in the world!). I spent the day trying to figure out some storage solutions for various hobbies (nail art, planners, hand lettering, painting...the list goes on as my feelings change!) and I've hopefully found something that will work better for me! I will share photos once it's all figured out :)

Anyway! I had a bit of a busy week last week and wasn't able to keep up with my Digital Dozen postings like I wanted so I'm double posting for the next few days to catch up! So, today brings you my day 3 of Autumn! I'm so excited about how this one turned out!

The Digital Dozen does Autumn - Day 2: Lakeside Reflection at Autumn

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Hello, again! It's day two of Digital Dozen does Autumn week and so, as I'm sure you can assume, I've got my day 2 mani to share with you RIGHT NOW :D

For the challenge, I basically just typed Autumn into google images and let inspiration strike where it may. I came across this image in particular and REALLY wanted to try my hand at something like it, but I was scared that it would end up looking nothing like the original. However, I threw caution to the wind and just tried my best to break down each part individually until I had a full picture. So here is my attempt at a lake side reflection at Autumn.

The Digital Dozen does Autumn - Day 1: Leaves on Wood

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Hello, all! I've got a short and sweet post to share with you today but I'm still very excited about it as it's the start of yet another wonderful Digital Dozen week! As we're officially into the Fall season here in the northern hemisphere, we're taking on the simple yet effective theme of Autumn!

Fall is without a doubt my favorite time of year. October, November and December are my favorite months and I'm just so thrilled that we're going to be getting cooler days and all the best holidays coming up.

The Digital Dozen does Recreation Week - Day 5: 2015 Ladies

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Wowza! Can you believe that we've made it to the end of the week!? I'm so thrilled to finally be here but I might actually almost miss it now...just kidding ;) This whole week was a ton of work and lots of planning on my part, though I had a blast doing it so I'm really not complaining!

I have the final group of ladies who joined up this year, 2015. Yet another group of skilled nail artists to call our own.

Amanda from Lady Maid Nails
Ashley from Ashley is Polished Addicted
Amber from Nails Like Lace
Serene from Copy Cat Claws

The Digital Dozen does Recreation Week - Day 4: 2014 Ladies

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Oh man, are you guys excited for Day 4 of Digital Dozen Recreations week!? I am ;) I have 3 ladies that joined up with the group in 2014 and made awesome additions to our talented brood.

Sheila from Pointless Cafe
Hannah from The Dalai Lama's Nails
Victoria from Vic and Her Nails

Let's jump right in! :D

The Digital Dozen does Recreation Week - Day 3: 2013 Ladies

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Hello, all! We're continuing right along with the next day of Digital Dozen does Recreations week and I have some manis from the 3 ladies still in the group who joined up in 2013! As the years go on, all of our priorities and interests change so it's only natural that a group like ours will have members coming and going.

Today, I have recreations from 3 talented ladies:

Emily from The Lacquerologist
Laurie from Dressed Up Digits
Shelly from Sassy Shelly

Let's take a look! :)

The Digital Dozen does Recreation Week - Day 2: 2012 Ladies, Part 2

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope your Monday wasn't too tough on you...and hope you enjoyed the first day of Digital Dozen week! I have the next set of manis to share with you today, this time inspired by two other ladies who also joined the group in late 2012:

• Jacki from Adventures in Acetone
• Tammy from Canadian Nail Fanatic

Though they weren't quite founding members, they have been around with the group for as long as I've followed the DD. Because each of them have a massive catalogue of work with the group, I decided to try and keep my picks from DD challenges I've been around for...so let's take a look!  

The Digital Dozen does Recreation Week - Day 1: 2012 Ladies, Part 1

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Hello, all! I know that I have yet again been missing in action this month, but I've been busy getting ready for an epic Digital Dozen week! This month marks the group's 3rd anniversary and to celebrate, the ladies in the group are all recreating manis of our fellow DD members to showcase the talent and creativity of every member. 

Because I'm terrible at making decisions, I got the harebrained idea to try and recreate one mani from every current member of The Digital Dozen...crazy, I know! But I'm such a fan of all these women and I just couldn't help myself! So, for this week, you'll be seeing 17 recreations - one mani from each member! Yay!!...but oh my gosh, so much work! 

To keep things somewhat organized this week, I've decided to post in order of when groups of ladies added their talent to the DD - 2012 (part 1 & 2), 2013, 2014, & 2015. The Digital Dozen started in September of 2012 and while there are only a handful of the original founding members, they're still kicking butt each month:

• Debbie, the fearless leader of our group, from The Crumpet
• Bee, from Bee Polished
• Katee, from A Girl and Her Polish
• Kirsten, from Geeky Owl
• Vic, from Glowstars.net

Because of how much content there is, these will be longer posts, but if you're not up for reading, there will be plenty of picture to stare at as well :)